may be slightly anticipated — it would seem that Preston must have responded to Butler's (alias Clare's) advertisement, as on October 19, 1896, the two set out together for Glenbrook, Thompson being their accidental fellow-passenger as far as Emu Plains, a point on the railway line about five miles short of the ultimate destination. Three days later, on the night of October 22, Preston and Butler were seen together by one George Campbell, at the head of a gully near "Numantia." From that date poor young Preston disappears from human ken until the afternoon of December 3, when his festering remains were discovered by a search-party aided by a black tracker, which for several days had been patiently, although not very hopefully, investigating the forest recesses in a very rugged line of country, on the chance of being able to rescue the missing youth if in need, or alternatively, of discovering any possible trace of him. In a gully between the Numantia and Linden platforms of the western main line of rail way, and about ten miles higher up the line than Glenbrook, a mound of freshly-turned earth under a rocky ledge attracted atten tion. On this being upturned, the party which included several police officers, came upon what was left on the world's surface of Arthur Preston, with a shot-wound through the skull, from which death, in the language of a professional witness who gave evidence before the coroner, must have been practically instantaneous. Notwithstanding the processes of decay, the features were clearly defined as in life, and the identification of the victim was complete. The murder of Captain Lee Weller is but little more than a repetition of that of Preston. From the laying of the advertising bait until the discovery of the remains, the means used were almost identical; and the short interval between the two events indicated a nefarious activity suggestive of a determination to get through as much work as possible before flying the country. Lee Weller, a well-set
up figure in the prime of his days, was last seen alive and in Butler's company on October 31. His dead body, in a quite horrifying attitude, was found on Sunday, December 6, in a deserted gully a little more than a mile from the Glenbrook rail way station. The grave was about three feet long, and the visual effect of the com pression necessary to ensure concealment in the limited space was such as almost to overwhelm the strong men of the constabu lary upon whom fell the terrible function of exhumation and removal, necessitated as well by the requirements of justice as by considerat'ons of decent re-consignment to earth's bosom. Very possibly Lee Weller was in more or less happy unconsciousness of his transition from life to death. He was shot through the head from behind, and by a rifle and not a pistol bullet. His identifica tion, as in the other instance, left no room for doubt. His friend, Mr. Biggs, of the Pier Hotel, Manly — a coastal watering-place near Sydney — whose evidence was taken at the inquest, was one of several who did not in the least participate in the confidence reposed by him in the man Butler, and who, jointly with Mr. Luckham, a journalist, with whom Weller was also on terms of intimacy, warned him in no doubtful terms against the folly of entering into quasi-partnership with this wholly unknown human quantity. These brutal murders had no ostensible object beyond the capture of what might be found upon the persons of the respective victims; but as Capt. Lee Weller is said to have left Sydney plentifully provided with cash, besides a considerable quantity of jew elry, this part of the speculation may after all not have panned out so badly. A third victim, named Burgess, has been referred to. This one, also in his early man hood, was in reality the first of Butler's known victims, although the latest in the order of discovery. Here the venue is changed. The Black Range, about four hundred miles from Sydney, is the scene of
