hey were
beat, which put Goring in a rage and made the inspector, Sir Ferdinand
Morringer, blow them all up for a lot of duffers and old women.
Altogether they had a bad time of it, not that it made any difference to
me.

After the holidays a magistrate was fished up somehow, and I was brought
before him and the apprehending constable's evidence taken. Then I was
remanded to the Bench at Nomah, where Mr. Hood and some of the other
witnesses were to appear. So away we started for another journey. Goring
and a trooper went with me, and all sorts of care was taken that I
didn't give them the slip on the road. Goring used to put one of my
handcuffs on his own wrist at night, so there wasn't much chance of
moving without waking him. I had an old horse to ride that couldn't go
much faster than I could run, for fear of accident. It was even betting
that he'd fall and kill me on the road. If I'd had a laugh in me, I
should have had a joke against the Police Department for not keeping
safer horses for their prisoners to ride. They keep them till they
haven't a leg to stand upon, and long after they can't go a hundred
yards without trying to walk on their heads they're thought good enough
to carry packs and prisoners.

'Some day,' Goring said, 'one of those old screws will be the death of
a prisoner before he's committed for trial, and then there'll be a row
over it, I suppose.'

We hadn't a bad journey of it on the whole. The troopers were civil
enough, and gave me a glass of grog now and then when they had one
themselves. They'd done their duty in catching me, and that was all they
thought about. What came afterwards wasn't their look-out. I've no call
to have any bad feeling against the police, and I don't think most men
of my sort have. They've got their work to do, like other people, and as
long as they do what they're paid for, and don't go out of their way
to harass men for spite, we don't bear them any malice. If one's hit
in fair fight it's the fortune of war. What our side don't like is men
going in for police duty that's not in their line. That's interfering,
according to our notions, and if they fall into a trap or are met
with when they don't expect it they get it pretty hot. They've only
themselves to thank for it.

Goring, I could see by his ways, had been a swell, something like
Starlight. A good many young fellows that don't drop into fortunes when
they come out here take to the police in Australia, and very