ng of the gold-escort is fully
equal to the traditional suavity of Claude Duval. 'Now, then, all
aboard!' he calls out to the passengers when the contents of the coach
have been removed. 'Get in, gentlemen; our business matters are
concluded for the night. Better luck next time! William, you had better
drive on. Send back from the next stage, and you will find the mail-bags
under that tree. They shall not be injured more than can be helped.'

The bushranger of real life, as known to the pioneer colonist, would
have bagged his booty with much fewer words. That Starlight should have
'treated all women as if they were duchesses,' and have made it a point
of honour to keep his pledged word with them, in however slight a
matter, seems only natural. Not even the women-folk of his enemy are
allowed to want a protector. When Moran and his gang of ruffians take
possession of Darjallook station during the absence of the male members
of the household, Starlight and the Marstons ride twenty miles across
country and rescue the ladies before the worst has been done. Starlight
bows to them 'as if he was just coming into a ball-room,' and, retiring,
raises Miss Falkland's hand to his lips like a knight of old.

These passages are only a few of the many which might be cited to show
how far the author, fired with the spirit and romance of the story,
gave freedom to his imagination in shaping the proportions of his
leading character. Starlight, though he is not, and cannot be, a
portrait of any single colonial outlaw of real life, is sufficiently
natural to consistently represent in both his conduct and adventures
much that was typical of Australian bushranging forty years ago and
later.

Some of his characteristics, and at least one of the concluding episodes
of the story, were suggested by the career of a New South Wales
horse-stealer who became known as 'Captain Moonlight.' So much is
certain. Boldrewood has himself narrated to a contributor of the
Australian _Review of Reviews_ his recollections of Moonlight and his
end: 'Among other horses he stole was a mare called Locket, with a white
patch on her neck. We had all seen her. This was the horse that brought
about his downfall, and he was actually killed on the Queensland border
in the way I have described in _Robbery under Arms_. Before that,
Moonlight had had some encounters with Sergeant Wallings (Goring); and
this day, when Wallings rode straight at him, he said: "Keep back, if