I was staying in Sydney for a few weeks, and had put up at the
_Polynesian Club_. There I made the acquaintance of a young colonial
journalist, by name Alison Fellgate, a frank, clever, easy-going
fellow, who had compressed a good deal of life into his forty years.
One evening after dinner we sat smoking under the broad veranda that
ran round three sides of the Club building. Presently, Fellgate took
out his watch and held it in his hand for a few moments. ‘I have an
engagement this evening, but there is plenty of time yet,’ he said.
‘I have several times noticed what a particularly handsome watch that
is of yours, Fellgate,’ I said.
‘Ah, that watch has a story,’ he replied.
‘I have observed some sort of inscription on it. A presentation, I
suppose?’
‘Right. It was a presentation, but of a somewhat unusual sort.’
‘I grow curious. Let us have the story.’
‘Very good. It is a story I have had to tell more than once. You must
know, then, that I began my journalistic life in the colonies as
editor of that able and distinguished organ of public opinion, the
_Burragundi Beacon_. I had been conducting it for some six months, to
the satisfaction, I am always proud to remember, of the proprietors,
when that outbreak of bushranging which was headed by the notorious
Frank Gardiner began to keep the country in a state of continual
excitement and terrorism. I need not tell you that of all the knights
of the bush, Frank Gardiner was in prowess and achievement second to
none. For several years, he and his gang eluded all efforts at capture
on the part of the government, until the country-people began to think
that Frank, like his illustrious forerunner and prototype, Dick Turpin,
bore a charmed life. At last, two thousand pounds was set on his head,
alive or dead.
One morning I received a short letter something like the following,
addressed to the editor of the _Beacon_:
SIR—I observe a statement in the _Sydney Morning Herald_ of
to-day to the effect that myself and my mates last Monday night
attempted an attack upon Lawson’s Station, Woonara. Will you
allow me the use of your widely-read columns to say that this
announcement is entirely erroneous, from the simple fact, that
on that night I and my party were busily engaged elsewhere.—I
am, yours, &c.,