“While he was driving slowly along with his cart he was overtaken by a man on horseback, who explained that he was in a hurry, as the police were after him for a fight he had been concerned in with another man. His horse was exhausted and he would give the miner ten pounds to exchange horses.
“As the animals were of about equal value, the miner assented and proceeded to unharness his horse. When he took off the collar the other man seized it, put it on his horse and jumped into the saddle, which he had not removed; then he rode away, to the astonishment of the angry miner, waving his hand and saying by way of farewell:—
“‘The collar is all I wanted, friend. I don’t care to make any horse trade now.’
“You are doubtless aware,” said their Ballarat friend, “of the operations of the bushrangers, and how the police used sometimes to torture those that they captured in order to make them reveal the secret of the hiding place of their gold. They tell a story of a fight between a gang of bushrangers and the police in which the leader of the robbers, known as ‘Kangaroo Jack,’ was mortally wounded. He was lying on the ground dying; there could be no mistake about that. The police captain, I will call him Smith, but that wasn’t his name, sat down by his side and said:—
“‘Come, Jack, you are going to die and there is no help for you. Tell me where your gold is.’
“‘I won’t do it,’ replied Jack. ‘I won’t tell you or anybody else!’
“Smith pressed him, but Jack was obstinate. Smith continued to urge and Jack to refuse until death sealed the bandit’s lips.
“Smith was afterward telling the story to one of his fellow-officers, and remarked in conclusion:—
“‘I think it was downright mean of Jack that he wouldn’t tell me where his gold was. I know he had at least fifty thousand dollars’ worth stowed away somewhere. He knew he couldn’t take it with him, and it couldn’t do him any good, and it would have been a very tidy sum for me. He couldn’t have any personal ill-will to me, as I didn’t shoot him myself. I think it was downright mean, don’t you?’
“His friend agreed with him, and no doubt he would have been willing to share the plunder if it could have been found.”