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Updated: May 22, 2025
"That does not sound encouraging, I confess," remarked Fred; "but I think that we can yet circumvent the devils." "How?" cried Murden, eagerly. "Will you be governed by me, for a few hours?" Fred asked. "Yes, and my men also," answered Murden, heartily. "Then let us commence work, for we have no time to lose.
Murden swallowed his coffee with a dogmatical air, as though his arguments were unanswerable, and shortly took his leave, after making us promise to breakfast with him the next day, and go and draw the money which was awaiting our orders. We studied over the subject for some time after Murden had gone, and hardly knew how to proceed.
Murden was anxious to speak with the inspector and deliver his letters, but he wished to do it in a secret manner, so that no suspicions should be awakened that he was on a government mission, or that government was preparing to strengthen its force at Ballarat.
Presently a few clouds passed over the heavens, and then we smelled smoke, of which they seemed composed. "The bushrangers can't have set fire to the stockman's hut, can they?" asked Murden. "They could not have crossed the prairie so soon, and the distance is too great to allow of such a reflection," was my answer. "Hark, I hear the cracking of bushes," said Fred; "some one is approaching us."
Sir Jeremiah Murden, one of the sheriffs for the time being, was so good as to go down upon this occasion to Newgate.
"The government will make its expenses on this trip," I remarked, as I calculated the worth of the gold. "Do you suppose that government will ever see the color of this dust?" asked Murden, with a laugh. I replied that I expected he would render an account of it to his superior officer. "And let my superior officer retain the whole of that which we have worked hard for.
The men crowded around, wild with excitement, when Murden loosened the string tied around its mouth, and we all gave a shout when particles of gold dust were discovered, and a louder cheer when the lieutenant emptied into a basin about forty pounds of gold of the first quality. "This is a prize worth something," Murden said, overjoyed at his good fortune.
"Ah, I dare say," answered Murden, languidly; "but to tell you the truth, the man always passed for a person of good birth, even at the hulks; and there was some romance connected with his sentence, but what it was, I have forgotten.
"I think that my presence is needed here if you intend to murder that fellow, doctor," Murden said, good naturedly, addressing O'Haraty, who kept his position, looking somewhat foolish at being caught. "The mane scamp," began the doctor, when Murden checked him. "What, is the cause of the gathering, and why do I find an officer of her majesty, lying on the ground wounded and insensible?"
The power of pressing, both for sea and land service, and obliging any person to accept of any office, however mean or unfit for him, was another prerogative totally incompatible with freedom. * Murden, p. 181.
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