Page:ChroniclesofEarlyMelbournevol.1.pdf/233

exuberant spirits, looking over his shoulder, grinning and putting out his tongue, chaffing them as a pack of cripples w h o knew nothing about running or shooting, and offering, if they would only give him a ten yards' start, he would race them again, and let them fire away as m u c h as they liked after him. Smith was afterwards convicted and punished by a long sentence of hard labour on the roads for his original offence. But now I must return to the other fellow (Staunton), left stopping the mouth of the pipe, in m u c h uncertainty as to how it would fare with the mate w h o so skilfully piloted him thus far. With a throbbing heart he listened as Smith ascended ab inferno through the help of the pump, and he soon heard thefirstof thefiring,the alarm, and the shouts of the guard setting forth in pursuit. T h e stone-breaking gang were locked up in the gaol, and as it was never for a m o m e n t imagined that there was a second m a n " piped," no one looked after the enclosure where the metal used to be stored. In a short time a perfect quiet reigned about the region of the reservoir, and then Staunton crawled forth like a huge snail from its shell, and, mounting the p u m p as he had seen Smith do, got into the upper world, and lost no time in making off. Passing through the gateway, he had a safe view of the n o w distant running, and shaped a course different from that taken by Smith. H e m a d e a short circuit towards the side of the Hospital reserve (now the Public library grounds), intending to double back towards Little Lonsdale Street, where some of his thieving confederates were residing, and in any of whose dens he knew he would be welcomed. H e was just on the turn, when the Supreme Court crier, an undersized, podgy, asthmatic individual, named Black, intercepting, pompously challenged him in the Queen's n a m e to surrender. Smith, in reply, bade the intruder go to somewhere commencing with H , and warned him to "stand clear, or he would suffer for it." Black was resolved to do nothing of the kind, and not possessing the olfactory sensitiveness of the Smith hunters, rushed upon Staunton, grappled with him, and clung on like a barnacle to the bottom of a ship. Staunton treated the other to an affectionate embrace that half-stifled him, and the two worthies came down rolling over on the ground. Staunton being the m u c h stronger m a n soon shook off his would-be captor, jumped up, and treated Black to a parting kick in the ribs, which left him for some time senseless. T h e fellow then disappeared by the Ship Lnn corner, down Little Lonsdale Street, where there were some rights-of-way of bad repute, and into one of these back-slums he vanished, and all trace of him was lost. O n Black reviving, as soon as he was capable of moving, he limped off in search of a constable, w h o m he soon found, and all the available police in the city were quickly out in quest ofthe second bolter. They searched for him high and low, up and down, and everywhere without effect, and his escape was m u c h aided by the fact that, being a very recent arrival from V a n Diemen's Land, the detectives and ordinary constables had but small personal knowledge of him. T h e expedition through the pipe was even more than a nine days' wonder in Melbourne. It was deemed a feat of a most extraordinary character, considering the size andfilthystate of the tube through which the fellows passed. M u c h curiosity was also evinced as to h o w Smith and Staunton had become familiarized with the subterranean topography of the conduit; but it was afterwards ascertained that a person named ^Chambers had been received into the gaol under a sentence for bigamy, on the morning of the escape. H e was the Government contractor for nocturnal work of a certain kind and the night before his trial (for he was out on bail) his m e n had emptied the reservoir. H e was therefore well acquainted with the termini, both inside and outside the prison, and he had given Smith and Staunton the bearings and gradients of the tubular contrivance, and such other information as they found useful in transitu. W h e n all this was known, several of the prisoners deeply regretted their ignorance of the valuable secret, and it was believed that Chambers had imparted the private intelligence to none others than the two worthies indicated. In the course of a short time, but " a day after the fair," it was found by the police that on the night of the occurrence, Staunton slipped unperceived out of town, and passing through Collingwood struck into the Sydney Road beyond Brunswick, with the intention of making his way overland to Sydney A person answering his description put up at a public-house at Seymour, where he was heard to declare that he was going to Sydney to murder his wife, w h o had, since his committal for trial, eloped with a m a n with w h o m she was cohabiting there. It was also said that he changed his mind (also his n a m e to Williams), and, turning westward, had travelled circuitously towards Portland, and stayed at the Grange, where he had been employed some years before. Here he feigned illness, and limped about with a large