The Last Chance by Rolf Boldrewood — Read

An unusually large ‘clean up' was expected for the Christmas month; bets had been made that no yield in Australia would rival it. It was to go down by private escort, that is, by the waggonette belonging to the lease, which would be driven by one of the men employed in the mine, who was a relation of the chief shareholder, and had turned up a few months since. He had been out of luck lately, but being a remarkably good all-round man, a noted bushman, and ‘as hard as nails,' preferred work as an ordinary hand on the mine to doing nothing, and was earning his £3 or £4 a week by manual labour. Among his accomplishments-and he had many-were the arts of riding and driving. Everything belonging to the use and education of ‘the noble animal' had been familiar to him since childhood. It was therefore arranged that he should take charge of a four-in-hand team with the precious cargo from Pilot Mount to the nearest railway station; and, with Newstead, who would embrace that opportunity of ‘going home,' be responsible for the gold until delivered to the Master of the Mint. All necessary arrangements were made-the solid, iron-clamped boxes, heavy to lift, mysterious and secret of appearance, were duly weighed, counted, and placed ready to go into the body of the strong though light-running vehicle.

In the early days of the vast goldfields, where now a city stands, with ten thousand inhabitants, having shops and buildings, water supply, electric power and light, the value of each consignment of gold to the ‘port' was accurately known. There were people who considered this to be imprudent, inasmuch as the fact of there being from thirty to fifty thousand pounds' worth of gold on any given vehicle, with only four or six men as a defence force, would operate as a powerful temptation to a class of criminals well represented on any rich goldfield. But nothing in the way of violent spoliation had taken place so far. The waterless character of the country had been against highway robbery, rendering such enterprises less difficult to interrupt or follow up. Still, experienced police officers held the opinion that it might not always be so. Miners and companies had grown careless, by reason of the offences at present being confined to trifling sums and localities in the city. It was well known that criminals of the class of ‘Long Jack,' ‘The Nugget,' and ‘The Gipsy' were on the field-daring, not to say desperate men-with a long list of convictions behind them; ready to stick at nothing when a robbery of the first class, such as they would term ‘a big touch,' might be brought off. A clever disguise, with a ticket for the mail steamer, would land the actors far away from all chance of arrest. There were good police and sharp detectives around Pilot Mount, but up to this stage of the field their energies had been comparatively wasted.