Page:In bad company and other stories.djvu/500

 With the leader, 'Captain Blue-cap,' I had a more lengthened interview. Not a bad-looking young fellow, of the stock-rider type, it seemed inexplicable that he should have preferred the life of a hunted outlaw to that of the well-paid, well-fed, easy-going life of a stock-rider. A gentleman's life, so to speak: independent, with change and variety in fair proportion, three or four good horses always at command, and receiving an amount of consideration far above that of any other employé under the rank of overseer; to whose orders, if the proprietor of the station was resident, he did not always hold himself bound to attend. And now—here he was, a fettered captive in the dungeon of the period, awaiting trial, certain of ten years' penal servitude, and not without fear of five years additional, before he walked out a free man again.

We had an amicable conversation, there being 'no animosity' on either side, apparently. It has always struck me as a favourable trait in human nature, that criminals in a general way rarely harbour revengeful feeling against magistrates and others, who are, officially, their natural enemies. Nothing is more common than to hear them say, of the police or higher officials, 'Oh, they're paid for it; it's all in the day's work. I don't blame 'em for doin' their duty.' But the amateur they do hate with an exceeding bitter hatred, as having 'gone out of his way' to do them injury. For which interference with the natural order of affairs they are ready to exact, and have before now exacted, memorable revenge.

However that may be, we chatted away, without the introduction of moral axioms on my side or anarchical references on his. It was a lovely, early summer day, without a solitary cloud in the bright blue sky, and he may, as he watched the sunlight fleck the elm-tree within sight of the barred window of his cell, have had a spasm of regret. For this is what he said, gloomily: 'They call it a short life and a merry one. I didn't see nothen jolly about it.'

'Many a man's found that out, but you're a young man. If you give no trouble in gaol you'll not have to serve all your time. Face it, and look forward to coming out again.'

'God knows!' he said. 'I might be dead before then; but it's the only thing to do, I suppose.'