ents that precedes the tempest. Within the last few days the mining
community has been startled by the discovery of the notorious gang of
bush-rangers, Starlight and the Marstons, domiciled in the very heart
of the diggings, attired as ordinary miners, and--for their own purposes
possibly--leading the laborious lives proper to the avocation. They have
been fairly successful, and as miners, it is said, have shown themselves
to be manly and fair-dealing men. We are not among those who care to
judge their fellow-men harshly. It may be that they had resolved to
forsake the criminal practices which had rendered them so unhappily
celebrated. James Marston had recently married a young person of most
respectable family and prepossessing appearance. As far as may be
inferred from this step and his subsequent conduct, he had cut loose
from his former habitudes. He, with his brother, Richard Marston, worked
an adjoining claim to the Arizona Sluicing Company, with the respected
shareholders of which they were on terms of intimacy. The well-known
Starlight, as Mr. Frank Haughton, became partner and tent-mate with the
Hon. Mr. Clifford and Mr. Hastings, an aristocratic society in which the
manners and bearing of this extraordinary man permitted him to mingle
without suspicion of detection.

'Suddenly information was furnished to the police respecting all three
men. We are not at present aware of the source from which the clue
was obtained. Suffice it to say that Sir Ferdinand Morringer promptly
arranged for the simultaneous action of three parties of police with
the hope of capturing all three outlaws. But in two cases the birds were
flown. Starlight's "ame damnee", a half-caste named Warrigal, had been
observed on the field the day before. By him he was doubtless furnished
with a warning, and the horse upon which he left his abode shortly
before the arrival of Sir Ferdinand. The elder Marston had also eluded
the police. But James Marston, hindered possibly by domestic ties, was
captured at his cottage at Specimen Gully. For him sympathy has been
universally expressed. He is regarded rather as a victim than as an
active agent in the many criminal offences chargeable to the account of
Starlight's gang.

'Since writing the above we have been informed that trooper Walsh, who
with another constable was escorting James Marston to Bargo Gaol, has
been brought in badly wounded. The other trooper reports that he was
shot down and the party