They decided now to place the matter in the hands of the police.  There were at that time (and no doubt still are) retained under the Australian police force a number of native trackers, called the “Black Police.”  These men were a species of human bloodhounds, and could follow a trail by scent or marks indistinguishable by the white man.

On representing the case to the chief of the police, that officer deputed a detective and a couple of constables, with a number of the “Black Police” to accompany Smith and his friend to Jones’s ranch.  They took a circuitous route, arriving as before at the stockyard without giving information to the hutkeeper, but at the same time directing two men to approach the hut unseen and watch it till further directions.

When the party on this occasion approached the stockyard Jones was not occupying his usual seat on the rails.  The black trackers, on being shown the place and their work explained to them, they at once commenced the hunt.  One of them presently picked up a rail which was lying near by on which he pointed out certain marks, calling them “white man’s hair” and “white man’s blood.”  Then after examining the ground around the stockyard they took up the trail leading into the bush at a point where Jones was seen to go.  Working up this for some two hundred yards and pointing out various signs as they proceeded, they arrived at a small slimy lagoon or pond, on the edge of which they picked up something they called “white man’s fat.”  Some of them now dived into the pond, where they discovered the body of Jones, or what remained of it.

The hutkeeper was immediately arrested, but denied any knowledge of the matter.  After consigning the body of the unfortunate rancher to a hurried grave, the prisoner was taken to Melbourne, where he was tried for the murder of his master, and when he was convicted and sentenced, he confessed that he had crept up behind Jones when he sat smoking on the stockyard rail and killed him by a blow on the head with the rail picked up by the black trackers, that he then dragged the body to the bush, and threw it into the lagoon.  I do not recollect whether Butler told us if the real object of the murder transpired, but the murderer turned out to be a ticket-of-leave convict well known to the police.  The peculiarity of the story lay in the fact that the apparition of Jones twice appearing to his friend, and on one occasion to a stranger also, was sworn to in Court during the trial.

I was obliged, owing to business, to leave Mesopotamia in midwinter, and to save a very circuitous journey I decided to travel down the gorge of the Rangitata some twenty-five miles, to the station I referred to once before belonging to Mr. B. Moorehouse.  The route lay partly along the mountain slopes overhanging the river, and then diverged across a pass as I had been carefully instructed, but there was no roadway, only a bridle path now pretty sure to be covered with