Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/123

114 saw us coming, yet allowed us to take the wrong ford. I was in a pretty plight, wet through, and had a couple of thousand pounds in bank notes in the breast of my shirt. These, of course, were wet, and my revolver also. I sent the ferryman to M‘G’s for some dry clothes, and in the meantime took off my wet ones, which I hung round a fire to dry. I could not stand this long. The sandflies soon found me out, so I had to put on my wet clothes till dry ones came. The notes I put round the fire and soon dried; the revolver I took to pieces, dried, and oiled; purchased some brandy (poison) at a shanty kept by an old fellow calling himself Dr. S.S., and went over to M‘G’s, where I stayed for the night.

Some time in December I took a trip to the Greenstone; Walmsley and I went up at the latter end of every week, usually on Saturday (sometimes on Friday), remaining over Sunday, which, as I have before stated, was the business day. On this occasion (a Friday) I was at Teremakau, when Walmsley called en route for Greenstone. I got ready to accompany him, for I made it a rule, if possible, to travel in company; the Teremakau being such a treacherous river it was unsafe for one to travel alone. At this time I had my safe (a little thing which two men could carry) in M‘G’s store, under his bed, which was immediately behind the bar; the tent was a calico one. I had my safe here for two reasons; in the first place, Teremakau was in a central position as regards the then existing diggings, viz., Greenstone, Totara, and Six Mile; and again the police tent occupied by Sergeant Broham and Constable Cooper was erected here, O’Donnell being at the Grey. As soon as Walmsley rode up and said he was going to the Greenstone, I saddled Nobby, took my saddle-bags into the bedroom, unlocked the safe, took out what notes and coins I wanted, strapped up the saddle-bags, put them on the pony, and away. It so happened that I was particularly busy on this trip, both on the Saturday and Sunday; the weather most miserable, raining the whole time. As usual I took up quarters at Tracy’s. On Monday we rode to the Hohuna and found such a fresh in the river that we could not proceed on our journey. We stayed at Everest’s. About an hour after I went to bed, I put my hand in my breeches pocket (for let it be known I always slept with my breeches on, and oftentimes in my boots), and missed the key of my safe. I felt first in one pocket, then in another. I lay for some time trying to remember when I had it last. For the life of me I could not. I remembered going to the safe and locking it up, but nothing more. I got up, struck a light, searched the saddle-bags, but no trace of the key. Next morning I gave a man £1 to go to the Greenstone to see if I had dropped it at Tracy’s. He returned in the afternoon without it. I was in a nice fix; my safe at Teremakau, myself a prisoner at the Hohuna, where I