“I say, I hear you’ve got the ‘Swing’ on again down your way.”
“Not quite that, I hope. There has been an incendiary fire, but it was the work of one man, not of a gang. I reckon the ‘Swing’ conspiracy was done with in ’30.”
“Don’t be too sure. One fire has a fatal knack o’ kindling others, ’specially if the fellow gets off who did the job.”
“He has escaped,” said Pasco; “but we know pretty well who did the mischief. It was one Roger Redmore. He’d been turned off for imperence[imperence] to his master, and drink, and that’s how he revenged himself. I wish he’d been caught. A fellow who sets fire a-purpose to rick or barn or house, if I had my way, would be hung without mercy. No transportation; that’s too mild. Swing, I say, at a rope’s end, and so put an end to all incendiarism.”
“I reckon you’re about right,” said the farmer. “If there comes another fire, I shall get insured. The fellow is at large.”
“Ay, but he won’t do any further mischief of this sort. It was a bit o’ personal revenge, nothing more; not like them old combinations.”
“Well, but who is safe? If I say a word to one of my men that he doesn’t like, he may serve me as Redmore has served Pooke.”
“That’s true,” said Pepperill. “More’s the reason that Roger should be made an example of. If I see’d him I’d shoot him down as I would a wild beast, or hang him, as I might a lamb-worrying dog, with my own hands--that I would!”
“I know, of those rascals who were sentenced to be hung in ’30, more than half got off with transportation; and of them as was transported, most got let off with six or seven years--more’s the pity.”
“We’re too merciful--that’s our fault,” said Pasco. “Show no pity to the offender,--chief of all, to the incendiary,--and such crimes will soon be put a stop to. We encourage criminals by our over-gentleness.”