CHAPTER XIII. HE IS MY BROTHER !

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1985, 28 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XIII. HE IS MY BROTHER !

Charlie Ellis, the young trooper, rode out of Marranga at a sharp pace, and with an unpleasant look on hid good-looking face. lie was half angry with himself for having spoken to Leonard Prosser as he did about Tady Connor, and wholly angry with Leonard for having taken him ao shaiply up in his servant's behalf. I have told you that young Ellis was a general favorite, but I do not want you to think of him as by any means a perfect or amiable character, for he was a good policeman, and I defy any one to make a good policeman out of a thoroughly amiable man. This being quite understood, I may acknow- j led^e now what Charlie acknowledged to himself aloud as he rode on his .rapid way that morning. " I hate people to be so d — d obstinate in their own opinions ! To hear Prosser fire up you might fancy that an Irishman never committed a crime under the sun. Now, I've no particular down on that Tady, though I know he's a fool, and suspect he's a rogue, but I'd give a month's pay to see him in a scrape, just to change Piosser's tune 1" No one could call that amiable, could they? And yet Charlie Ellis was not by any means a bad fellow, but the best of policemen don't like to have their unenviable profession thrown in their teeth, you see. Fortunately, at this moment Charlie saw the man he was on the look out for waiting at the appointed place, and he had something else to occupy his mind as he joined Ike Lyman. " Well, did you see Mr 3. Brady, Ike ?" " I did ; they are coming on — she and the daughter— as soon as the trap can be got ready. I thought you .would be here long ago." " I had to meet the eearch-party, and tell them I could not go with them." "Did you tell them what you were going for ? " "How the devil could I? I don't know myself. I told Leonard and Pollard that Con Brady was dying and that you had come for me." There was a few moments' silence as the two men rode on side by side, the handsome, slight, yet well-built young trooper in his immaculate cords and shining boots, and the loose, athletic figure with the bronzed, bearded face and the careless attire, and then Ike spoke again. " What do they seem to think of that girl ? do they think they will find her ? Have they any idea that there may have been foul play?" " Foul play I My God no ! What has put tliat m your head ? " " I know the girl is murdered, that is all," was the cool reply, as the American stooped over h»s saddle to arrange the bridle. " You know she is murdered 1 " Charlie could only repeat the word* and stare with horror in his eyes at the determined massive-jawed face of Ike Lyman. " Yea, what else do you think would bring me here? Charity, eh? Not if I know it. It was by accident that I overheaid the man's lightheaded talk, but when I had heard it me and my mates talked it over, and there was only one thing to be done." " What's that ' " Charlie asked in a low voice, for he had not yet recovered himdelf from the shock of Ike's assertion. " Justice 1" said Ike, fiercely, " justice on the murderer 1 I have come to you to give you a chance to see fair, but whether you do or not justice will be done all the same." "I don't understand you, Lyman. Speak plainer, what are you drivicg at ? " " I thought I put it into as plain words as a man could put it. I like plain words and plain deeds too. What more do you want, Mister Constable, a girl has been murdered, and I am taking you to the man that did it." " Conn Brady 1 Do you think that Con Brady murdered the St. Herrick child 1 it is not possible, for Conn was on the claim five minutes before she was missed." "I don't care when he was on the claim, or when he was off it, he saw her dead. Me and Abe heaid him tell of it over and over again in his delirium last night, and if ever a man was in hell before he wag dead Conn Brady >vag. Not possible ? Wait till you hear it for yourself and then say." " I thought he was sensible when you left ? " Charlie said. " Yea. he was, and the doctor said he was booked, but do you think that Ike Lyman's boys'll stand by and see a devil die in his bed? No, by thunder! " Charlie Ellis said no more, for he had a wholesome awe of every member of the Ameiican party of Gall's Flat. He was, when he considered it, quite satisfied in his own mind that Lyman was greatly mistaken in supposing that Conn. Brady had killed the lost child even if she should prove to have been murdered ; but though he remained silent Ike did not. " Tnis lost girl is the daughter of that Colonel St. Herrick that was smothered in his own claim at Marranga, isn't she?" he asked. " Yes, she is." " And this Conn. Brady worked in the claim at the time." "Did he? I didn'c know. You were not here all those years ago Lyman ? " " No, I was not here. Did you ever take an interest in trying to trace that murderer, Dan Lyons." " It was years before my time, but our department did everything that could be done in vain ; Dan Lyons was ne^er heard of since." " Your de-partmenl 1 " — the words were said with such a cold, hard scorn. "Your department is the most inellicient that ever a country was cursed with I Even Dan Lyons is ho disgusted with it that he has to come back to Marranga to make sure that there is a grave there with a murdered man in it, and room in whioh to put a murdered daughter beside him." Charlie Ellis actually glared at Lyman with a sort of awed fear. " You must be mad to fancy such things," he cried ; " you dont — you surely don't think that Conn. Brady is- " " Dan Lyons, just so," Ike said coolly, as the little township of Bendairack came in view, and the roadside hotel at which Conn, Brady lay dying. Around the door of this hotel, and close to it stood a most suggestive group of tall, stern looking, determined men. They were dressed in loose shirts of dark serge, and their pantaloons were firmly buckled around their waists by broad leather belts. High-crowned felt hats of various shades completed eaoh man's attire, and there were nine of them who might have been cousins, bo decidedly had the rough Cahfornian life left its general traces on each dark bearded face. One of these men advanced lo meet the new arrivals, and Ike questioned him as to the condition of the injured man,

" Sinking, but in his senses," was the sharp reply ; "we must let him see his mother I guess Ike 1 " " I am afraid so, but they won't be long Abe" " Doctor says he can't last till night," Abe added, as he turned reluctantly toward Charlie and eyed him scornfully; " what did you bring this chap along for ? " "To sue fair play. Come come Abe, let's do anything straight and square, and in order." " Did he cut the girl's throat straight and square and in order, curse him? I guess he did I If I had my way he should not see five minutes' grace to beg his God for meicy." " What talk is thid?" Charlie inquired, as he dismounted and looked from one face to another of these determined men, " to hear it one would think there was no law in the land. ' "No one thinks that here mate," Abe Lyman returned, with a steady look into the trooper s eyes. "On the contrary, there's more law than was ever here before. Did you ever hear of Lynch law, Mister policeman ? " " Lynch law ! Do you think that I'll stand by and see you commit murder in cold blood ' Theie are Englishmen here that will aid me to keep the law ! " " Where ? " was the sarcastic retoit. •' Show them to us." Charlie Ellis looked around him desperately, and all he saw outside the American party was the landlord and two other men trying to draw back their white faces in evident terror at the door of the bar. "Ah 1 " you see how it is my young friend ! You are at present the only representative of Biitish law on these diggings, and we, I guess, are twelve good and determined men." " But there is no justice in this ! " cried Ellis in despah." "This man may be an innocent man, as innocent as you, vwe innocent if you have hung men in California at your own wild pleasure without trial by Judge or Juiy ! You have taken ie into your head that this dying man is Dan Lyons ; he no more answers to the description of Dan Lyons than I do ! " " Trove that," one deep voice said. " I can easily prove it. I have hoped to see and lay my hand on Dan Lyons ever since I came to Marranga, and I have earned this cutting from the old Police Gazette in which his description was published always about with me." Charlie opened his pocket-book and took a slip of paper from it with trembling hands, and as the men gathered around him with clouded faces and frowning brows, he read as follows :—: — " Daniel Lyons wanted for the murder of Colonel St. Herrick at Marranga on the lOch October, 18 — . Tall, stout built, almost black hair, heavy blaok eyebrows, ~shstp» pointed large teeth, one molar absent from lower jaw, small tattoo mark of anchor on underpart of left forearm. Age about thirty." "Conn. Brady is fair and Bhort, and he is is not more than thirty-two or three, while Dan Lyons must be over forty now — remember it is twelve years ago since that murder was done." " We will go and see," Abe said, after a pause. " What do you say, mates ? " " I say that whoever the man inside is he the murderer of an innocent child, and he shall die for it, even though I had to strangle him with these hands." They were great strong brown hands that the speaker threw out before him, and Charlie Ellis shuddered, for he felt that he was powerless to save Conn. Brady from these terrible men, and their wild justice. " You Ike and you Abe, go in and see about this tatooing," was the decision; "we will wait outside." " Stop I" exclaimed Charlie, " you will not surely doom a man to death without a certainty of his crime ? You have convicted this man from the ravings of his own mouth during the delirium of a fever from his terrible injuries." "We will do nothing without certainty, but we are already certain. Go on, Ike." The two brothers strode to the front and entered the house, Eilis following in a stupefied frame of mind, and feeling perfectly his own helplessness in the hands of these men. Ike led the way to the door of a room at the back of the hotel, opened it quietly, and went in. It was a strange death-bed that Charlie saw as he passed the doorway, a weak man with white bandage 3 round his ghaatly face, lying so helpless looking on the bed, and two rough-looking men, with serge shirts, sitting silent beside him, like the guards they really were. Conn's eyes turned when the door opened, and he recognised Ellis aa soon as he saw his face. " Oh, thank God for the sight of some one I know !" he said, as he put out a weak hand to take Charlie's. " You are Constable Ellis." " Ye 3, Brady. How do you find yourself ? Are you better?" "I am free from pain now ; I was mad all night." " Conn," said Chailie, as he drew a chair to the side of the bed and sat down ; " you have been saying queer things in the night, and it is time for you to explain if you can. Do you know that these men believe you to be Dan Lyons, the murderer ot Colonel St. Herrick twelve years ago." "And of Colonel St. Herricks girl yesterday," added a deep voice from one of the men who stood around the small room in circle." "My Lord, do they think that ! Me ?me ! when the very horror of it has killed me 1" _ " I know you cannot be Dan," said Charlie firmly, " it is not possible ; but your words of last night have aroused the giaveat suspicions that you know something of Dan Lyons and the child lteaignation who is lost. It you do, it is only right that the tiuth should oome to light. You are very ill indeed, and believe me it will relieve us to tell the truth before it is too late." (To be Continued )