Читать книгу Old Convict Times to Gold Digging Days - William Derricourt - Страница 24

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I still continued my duties as charcoal burner, and about this time an extraordinary incident happened. All kinds of vegetables were grown in abundance at Salt Water River, and I obtained half a bag of potatoes from a man there in exchange for a fig of tobacco. I used to roast these in my kiln, and what with them and my regular rations lived like a fighting cock. One day I was in the bush as usual when I saw a man in the yellow and black clothes which I knew so well. He beckoned to me. I went up to him and asked him why he did not come out from where he was hiding to meet me. He answered, "I daren't, they would see me from the signal staff." He said he was a bolter from Port Arthur, and was dying of hunger. He begged me give him something to eat. I gave him plenty of potatoes, and after he had eaten what he called a "jolly tightener," he said, "I am tired of lying out in the bush, and I can't get away. The look-out for me is too sharp. Everywhere they're on the wait for me, as I was thought about the worst lot at the settlement. Now you're a probationer. The best thing you can do is this: I'll give myself up to you. You take me to the soldiers at the semaphore, and say that you took me—a bolter in the bush. You'll get a lot of credit—a new chum like you capturing an old runaway. You'll have many a favor another wouldn't, and lead an easy life." I gave him some tobacco which he asked for, but told him that I would not for anything do as he proposed, as I had seen too many hardships myself, and, beside, should lead a dog's life among my mates. "Well," he said, "you go to the signal staff and tell the soldiers that if they give you a pound of tobacco, you'll put them on to the lay of a bolter planted in the bush. You can give me half. They'll jump at it, as they know there is £2 for them hanging to it. You'll be always in favor, and they'll fancy you'll always be ready to give notice of the like again. What's more I'll give myself up to take the down off you."

I agreed to this, saying that I would bring him some bread and meat the next day, and would then go to Mount Stuart to the soldiers. This I did. When I reached the soldiers' hut, the men knowing me rushed out saying, "What's up?" I told them I had spotted a bolter in the bush, "a yellow man," and that for a pound of tobacco I would lay them on. They were perfectly delighted, and I very soon had my tobacco, they telling me that I could always secure the same for like services. A soldier was soon armed and ready. On the road he advised caution lest we should be seen by the runaway; but I, knowing how things were, told him the fellow was too much done up to give any trouble, and that, if necessary, we could easily run him down. I then said that we ought to give the poor devil some of the tobacco, but the soldier replied that he had thought of that and had brought four figs for him, which was enough, as any more might excite suspicion. Keeping under the hill we crept on hands and knees until within range, when my companion, springing up and presenting his gun, shouted, "surrender or you're a dead man." The man, having no intention of resisting, quietly surrendered, was handcuffed and marched off to Mount Stuart. While at the soldier's hut the man whom I had guided to make the capture quietly slipped out from his comrades and handed me a four pound piece of pork.

About this time our superintendent was recalled and was replaced by a Mr. Smith. Whilst Mr. Smith was at the mines we also had a clergyman, a truly Christian man, who was very kind to the prisoners, and who, when he was subsequently appointed to Norfolk Island, then ruled by John Price with a rod of iron, did much to bring about the breaking up of that atrocious penal settlement.

To return once more to my charcoal burning. As I have said, I had two men under me as barrow men. At night we brought the barrows home, placing them in the yard where the dreaded triangles stood. One morning, every object distant only a few yards being hidden by a dense fog, an idea of revenge came over me as I was passing the triangles, and I thought my opportunity good. I called one of my barrow men and placed the triangles on his barrow, giving him a fig of tobacco to wheel them away to the kiln. At the kiln we burned the horrid machine, which was the last of its kind in those parts, as after the new system introduced by the latest superintendents the use of such things was abolished.

In a day or two after this, my term of six months for improvement of character having expired, I was forwarded to headquarters at Hobart Town.