204 SHORT STALKS 



because tliey were afraid. If a person had not anything 

 we let him go." 



" What was the best catch you ever made ? " 

 He grinned at this, and after thinking a bit, said : " We 

 once stopped the Imperial Post and got £7000. Tlien 

 they sent a large number of soldiers after us. There was 

 another band of brigands — eleven of them. We helped 

 one another, but did not generally act together; but this 

 time we all combined. The soldiers came up, Ijut we were 

 behind rocks. We killed twenty-five of them, and not 

 one of us was touclied. We afterwards killed seven more." 

 For having won this victory he evidently considered that 

 he had deserved well of liis country. " But," I said, " they 

 surely couldn't have tried very hard to get hold of you ! " 

 " Well, perhaps not always. I used to send money to the 

 big officials, but the sergeants and people like that I did 

 not care for. AVlien we ran short of cartridges for the 

 Martinis I sent £50 to a colonel in the army whom I knew, 

 and he sent me a quantity of army cartridges." 



" When the Government found they could not catch us, 

 they offered a free pardon to all who would come in, and I 

 gave myself up and was pardoned. I afterwards helped 

 to hunt down the other brigands. Two of my companions 

 were killed at this time ; others died, and some are still 

 alive. After this another Governor was appointed, and 

 because I would not give him money he put me in prison 

 and charoed me with slittino; a man's nose and other thinos. 

 I was in prison thirteen months, while the Governor was 

 trying to get a case against me. He found a person with- 

 out a nose, but the man would not 2;ive evidence ao-ainst 

 me. He said he did not know how it had been slit, but he 



