EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

West Coast Times, Issue 613, 11 September 1867, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

(ekom the hobart town mercuet, a.vg. 20.)

Intelligence was brought to the police office on Sunday evening, to the effect thit two men were supposed to be missing from Adventure* Bay. On Thursday night four men named respectively Edward Hailes (son of Hailes, the waterman), a. youth of about eighteen years of age ; Roger Davis, landlord of the Lord Raglan Inn ; John Bait, and a man who is known by the name of " Mick," left town in a boat for Adventure Bay for the purpose of cutting samples of stone for a contract they had in hand for Melbourne. Nothing was heard of the party until Sunday, when Hailes and Mick returned to town, and the story told by them is as follows : — The party had a fine run to Adventure Bay, where they arrived about ten o'clock on Friday morning. They hauled the boat up on the beach, when Bait and Davis proceeded to the quarry to cut some stone, returning about four o'clock with four pieces ready dressed. These were put into the boat, and Davis and Mick fot on board, Hailes and Bait pushing er off the beach, with a view to launch her. Ihey got her well in the water, when a swell rolled in, and breaking over the boat filled her to her gunwales ; two other seas broke over her, and Mick threw out the stones on to the beach. Finding that this failed to lighten her, the two men jumped out, being up to their necks in water. They succeeded, however, with the help of the other two, to get the boat again on the beach, when they found that she was stove in the garboard streak. Two of the men then proceeded to save the tools, clothing, &c, and the other two went to try and make a fire, as they had. j fortunately left three matches upon a stump. How the afternoon was spent we have no account, but Mick says that Bait went away for a short time, and proceeded about 300 or 400 yards up a creek. As he did not return, Davis cooeyed, and Bait, on coming back said, " He was glad Davis had cooeyed, or he would never have found his way out of the bush." The men then had something to eat, aud and at eight o'clock Hailes sat down by the fire, and, being much exhausted, tried to go to sleep. He said Davis recom1 mended him not to go to sleep in his wet clothes, as it was dangerous ; but he was too exhausted to heed him, and fell asleep. When he awoke at nine or. ten o'clock, Davis and Bait were gone. The boat was there, however, and he and Hailes remained until daylight to search for the missing men. They traced the beach for a distance of five miles as far as a hut formerly kept by a man named Bennett, but now uninhabited, and also the gullies, but saw no tracks or footprints, and they then returned to the boat, Here they tore up a pair of trousers, and making up a paste out of some bread, they plugged the leak and launched the boat to start for town. On their way they fell in with a fishing smack, to the man on board of which they related their story. The man's name they believed to be Buggy, and his reply to them was " not to bring him into it, as he had once got into trouble for less than that." After passing the fishing-boat they made for the pilot- station, where they arrived at twelve o'clock on Saturday night. They saw pilot Bleach, and reported the case to him. They remained with him until Sunday morning, when they returned to town. Hailes states that the last time he saw Davis he was trembling very much, and said "he felt exhausted, and could not hoJd out much longer." On reporting the circumstance to the police, it was suggested that a boat should go down to Adventure Bay at once, to search for the missiug men, aud Mick at once volunteered to accompany the party, but afterwards refused, and only consented to go upon being threatened. Accordingly a boat was hired, and she left town yesterday morning with the following party : — Messrs Charles Dillon, Jacobs, Aird, Bennett, and the man " Mick."

tDillon's boat started earl}' on Monday morning, and landed the missing men at the wharf yesterday morning, between eleven and twelve o'clock, to the no small gratification of their friends. The substance of Mr Davis's statement is as follows :—": — " As Mr Bait and myself wished to go to Adventure Bay for some samples of stone from the quarry there, I engaged with Dear and Ware, watermen, to take us down. In the course of Thursday evening Dear came to my house, complained of being unwell an I unable to go, but he said he had secured two firstclass men, Hailes and Mick Lacy, whom he introduced to me, and we left the wharf. We got Adventure Bay at ten o'clock on Friday morning, when we ran the boat on to the beach, and disembarked. After getting out the stone, the men helped us to ship it, and we re-embarked at about four o'clock in the afternoon, having had a fire lighted aud partaken of refreshments. There was some difficulty about getting the boat down to the water and our re-embarkment, and through the bungling of the two boatman, we could not clear the surf, and the boat got nearly water-logged. I got out of the boat on to the rocks, and Mr Bait followed my good example. Being all wet, we determined to have a fire lighted that we might dry ourselves, and a sail was brought on shore with which a small tent was made. Prom that time I consider the behaviour of the boatmen to have been suspicious and mysterious. They both appeared anxious that Mr Bait and myself should lie down, and go to sleep, they themselves appearing to go to sleep, but we thought they were only pretending. Mr Rait communicated to me certain sotto vo« obiarvfttioui of tho men which

awakened our fear that mischief was intended ; something was said about a knife, and, while debating between ourselves what we should do, I being at the time very wet, and somewhat, exhausted, we walked towards where the boat was, and noticed at that time two large pickaxes were in the boat. Passing on, we made up our minds to test the inten<xJWiS of the boatmen, by the fact of whether the pickaxes were left in the boat or not, for we really believed that violence wis intended. Some time afterwards, Mr Rait and myself again approached the boat and to our consternation, found that the pickaxes had been removed. This decided the question whether we should stay with the men, it being night, although moonlight, and we determined to leave them. We wended our way over a prominence and through a scub in the direction of an adjacent beach, when in confirmation of our fears we espied the boatmen on a neighboring eminence watching our movements, and they then made their way across to circumvent us in our progress. As a matter of precaution, we diverted our course, and went in another direction as fast as we could. We finally lost sight of the men, Saturday morning being considerably advanced, and wandering about, coming back to the same place several times, after travelling some miles, as people often do in the bush. We got an occasional rest, and had the good fortune to find water, but we bad no food from tlieaftemoon of Friday until Sunday night when we reached the residence of Mr Staples, Great Bay, Bruni. On Monday we heard of the arrival of Dillon's boat, and we started off at seven this (Tuesday) morning, and reached Hobart Town before noon.' We stated the case to Constable Dorsett, who requested Hailes and Mick to accompany him to the office of Mr Propsting, superintendent of police, where they made their statement, and were allowed to depart. I may say that none of us were drunk, except, perhaps, Mick, who sipped more than the others at some rum we took with us from town." We have thus recorded Mr Davis 's version of the affair, as well as that of Mick Lacy, and the public must judge. It is certainly a singular and somewhat mysterious affair, and if it could be made the subject of a judicial inquiry, it might be more satisfactory to the public.