up before me, 'it
becomes my duty to inform you that, owing to representations made in
your favour by the Hon. Mr. Falkland, the Hon. Mr. Storefield, and other
gentlemen who have interested themselves in your case, setting forth
the facts that, although mixed up with criminals and known to be present
when the escort and various other cases of robbery under arms have taken
place, wherein life has been taken, there is no distinct evidence
of your having personally taken life. On the other hand, in several
instances, yourself, with the late James Marston and the deceased person
known as Starlight, have aided in the protection of life and property.
The Governor and the Executive Council have therefore graciously been
pleased to commute your sentence of death to that of fifteen years'
imprisonment.'

. . . . .

When I came to I was lying on my blankets in a different cell, as I
could see by the shape of it. The irons didn't rattle when I moved. I
was surprised when I looked and saw they were took off. Bit by bit it
all came back to me. I was not to be hanged. My life was saved, if it
was worth saving, by the two or three good things we'd done in our time,
and almost, I thought, more for poor old Jim's sake than my own.

Was I glad or sorry now it was all over? I hardly knew. For a week or
two I felt as if they'd better have finished me off when I was ready and
ha' done with me, but after a while I began to feel different. Then the
gaoler talked to me a bit. He never said much to prisoners, and what he
said he meant.

'Prisoner Marston,' says he, 'you'd better think over your situation
and don't mope. Make up your mind like a man. You may have friends that
you'd like to live for. Pull yourself together and face your sentence
like a man. You're a young man now, and you won't be an old one when
you're let out. If your conduct is uniformly good you'll be out in
twelve years. Settle yourself to serve that--and you're a lucky man to
have no more--and you may have some comfort in your life yet.'

Then he went out. He didn't wait to see what effect it had on me. If
I wasn't a fool, he thought to himself, I must take it in; if I was,
nothing would do me any good.

I took his advice, and settled myself down to think it over. It was a
good while--a weary lot of years to wait, year by year--but, still, if I
got out in twelve years I should not be so out and out broke down after
all--not much over forty, and there's a