of fierce revolt, then, recognising my helplessness, I brought cunning into play, and practised dissimulation night and day.  This saved me in some measure, but the ghastly life continued year after year, and I was thirty-eight before a reasonable chance of escape presented itself.  My plans had been perfected, and when the opportunity came I seized it, with the resolution of a man for whom there was only one alternative to liberty—­death.’

Jim never took his eyes from Ryder’s; he sat as if fascinated by the ivory-pale face of his companion.

’I had one friend in Hobart Town, a freed convict named Wainewright.  He provided me with the clothes of a gentleman.  The beard I wore, and which has since served me as a disguise in my many enterprises, was given to me in the first place by Wainewright.  To perfect that beard and destroy every semblance of artificiality, I had worked at it for three years in the cunning, patient way old prisoners toil at such a task.  Wainewright helped me to get to the mainland, and I was safe, with a forged ticket-of-leave in my pocket in case the marks of the chains should be discovered by prying official eyes.’

‘Did you make any effort to live honestly?’ asked Jim.

’Almost my first action on reaching the neighbour hood of Melbourne was to bail-up a prominent resident, whom I robbed.  That act afforded me absolute joy.  He was a decent, orderly citizen, a pillar of the State, a powerful upholder of the law.  No robbery I have since committed has given me quite the same delight.  I stole then because I needed money.  I rob now because I am a keen sportsman, and that is the particular sport I affect.  Possibly you would not appreciate the pleasure of the game; you have not had the humbug of the world eaten out of your heart with live flame.  Having wilfully exposed itself to me, and translated my respect for it into a magnificent hatred, society cannot reasonably expect to find me docile.  I prey upon society.’

‘It will avenge itself.’

’True, it may.  Robbery under arms is a hanging matter, but I have graduated in a marvellous school for cunning, and have perfect confidence.’

’Yet you place yourself in my hands.  What can the ties of blood count for between us two?  For as long as I can remember I’ve thought of you only as something evil hovering over the door, silencing the home, darkening life.’

’I counted on finding in you a mind not wholly at variance with my own.  What those two women told me gave me some insight into your character.  I perceived that at least the flame had scorched the bloom from your soul.’

’Here I am a new man.  I have known happiness, I have tasted love, and made friends with good men.  Here I can live!’

Ryder looked at him closely.  ‘You must tell me of your life,’ he said—­’ the life in Chisley after my supposed hanging.  No, no; not now.  Go to your tent and sleep.’

‘Sleep!  I shall not sleep.’