The Washington herald., 1913-10-18

simply for the fun of outwitting the
gamekeepers; he took farmers horses
from the stables and rode them away
that he might enjoy the hue and cry
raised over horse thieves; he disguised
himself and stopped travellers on the
highway and gave the newspapers and
the tavern loungers something to talk
about. In one way and another, before
he was twenty years old, he had cost
his father q thousand pounds and made
himself notorious, though no one be-
lieved him vicious. One night when
poaching. he accidentally wounded q
gamekeeper, and for this he was SEN
tenced to twenty years Of penal serYi.
tude. This was In the days when Eng
land sent her felons TO Australia
How long the innkeeper's son remained
with the convicts do not remember. mol
can recall the particulars OF his escape.
When first met him-and. In fact, Yher
/ first heard his story-I was heFdinS
sheep on the Began River, in the Prov.
incp OF New South Wales, 800 miles tc
the northwest Of Sydney.
One, evening. after my herd had beer
rounded up and was cooking my supper,
a lone bushranger walked In on me. He
had such youthful face that at FIRST
took him for some stockmans son, but a.
he shared nay meal he told me his story.
He was young Thorpe. the innkeeper's
son, and he had then been in the bush
several months. He had no complaints
TO make about his sentence or how he
had been used at the. penal colony. He
was in good health. full of good nature,
and his convict life had not hardened
his heart At that time he was alone,
though he had splendid horse and q
good outfit of firearms. He made not the
slightest hesitation in telling me his
history and his future plans.
Young Thorpe had no sooner taken TO
the bush than he was given the title Of
Captain Charlie" For the first seven
or eight months he had no companions.
During this time all his work was on the
highway. He held up several stages and
half hundred lone travellers, and three
occasions shot men from their saddles
He had the reputation OF being brave to
recklessness, and of being a square
man." He would not rob a poor man.
nor would he shoot unless fired upon
first II he stopped a stage and there
were women passengers he treated them
with the utmost courtesy. He would take
nothing from a settler without paying
for It, and now and then he gave them
warning that the natives were out on a
raid. and gave them time 70 prepare for
defense.
As a mater Of fact, Captain Charlie, Z"
though an escaped convict. with a re-
ward on his head, and a bushranger and
an outlaw, with additional rewards Of
fered for his capture or death-was looked
upon with such favor by herders and
settlers that the mounted police hunted
for him in vain. He would probably have
continued to work alone had il not been
for an escaped convict named Treat. This
man was thoroughly vicious and had not
one redeeming trait In escaping from
the penal settlement he killed two OF the
guards, and he was no sooner in the
bush than he gathered around him five
or six other hard cases and began \
merciIess war on all outsiders.
In three months they killed eight trav-
elers, settlers and herders, and. not con-
tent with highway robbery, they looted
stores, taverns and farm houses, and
applied the torch In sheer wantonness.
Looking upon Captain Charlie" as a
namby-pamby fellow. who was unworthy
Of being called a brshranger, they sought
to hunt him down. In self-defense he
organized a band OF his own. number
ing five, and though they were pretty
and would permit no violence when II
could be avoided. The first meeting be-
tween the two bands took place on my
range.
Treat had somehow heard that I was
friendly to Capt. Charlie" He made q
night ride OF thirty-fiye miles with his
band to kill me and destroy the herd.
The captain heard Of his intentions and