Alice the shock. And now I will make the thing clear to you; it has
been a long time in the acting, but will not take me long to tell.
You didn t know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil incarnate. I
tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of such a man as he.
His grip has been upon me these twenty years, and he has blasted my
life. I ll tell you first how I came to be in his power.
It was in the early 60 s at the diggings. I was a young chap then,
hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; I got
among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to
the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway
robber. There were six of us, and we had a wild, free life of it,
sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the
road to the diggings. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under,
and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang.
One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and we lay
in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers and six of us,
so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of their saddles at the
first volley. Three of our boys were killed, however, before we got the
swag. I put my pistol to the head of the wagon-driver, who was this
very man McCarthy. I wish to the Lord that I had shot him then, but I
spared him, though I saw his wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as
though to remember every feature. We got away with the gold, became
wealthy men, and made our way over to England without being suspected.
There I parted from my old pals and determined to settle down to a
quiet and respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be
in the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to
make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, and
though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. Even when
she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down the right path
as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned over a new leaf and
did my best to make up for the past. All was going well when McCarthy
laid his grip upon me.
I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in Regent
Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his foot.
Here we are, Jack, says he, touching me on the arm; we ll be as
97