rticles or no Articles, I was determined to spend no more of my
life on board that hateful ship. Accordingly, one day having obtained
shore leave, I purchased a new rig-out, and leaving my sea-going togs
with the Jewish shopman, I made tracks, as the saying goes, into the
Bush with all speed. Happen what might, I was resolved that Captain
Fairweather should not set eyes on George Fairfax again.

From that time onward my career was a strange one. I became a veritable
Jack-of-all-Trades. A station-hand, a roust-about, shearer, assistant to
a travelling hawker, a gold-miner, and at last a trooper in one of the
finest bodies of men in the world, the Queensland Mounted Police. It was
in this curious fashion that I arrived at my real vocation. After a
considerable period spent at headquarters, I was drafted to a station in
the Far West. There was a good deal of horse and sheep-stealing going on
in that particular locality, and a large amount of tact and ingenuity
were necessary to discover the criminals. I soon found that this was a
business at which I was likely to be successful. More than once I had
the good fortune to be able to bring to book men who had carried on
their trade for years, and who had been entirely unsuspected. Eventually
my reputation in this particular line of business became noised abroad,
until it came to the ears of the Commissioner himself. Then news reached
us that a dastardly murder had been committed in the suburbs of
Brisbane, and that the police were unable to obtain any clue as to the
identity of the person accountable for it. Two or three men were
arrested on suspicion, but were immediately discharged on being in a
position to give a satisfactory account of their actions on the night of
the murder. It struck me that I should like to take up the case, and
with the confidence of youth, I applied to the Commissioner for
permission to be allowed to try my hand at unravelling the mystery.
What they thought of my impudence I cannot say, but the fact remains
that my request, after being backed up by my Inspector, was granted. The
case was a particularly complicated one, and at one time I was beginning
to think that I should prove no more successful than the others had
been. Instead of deterring me, however, this only spurred me on to
greater efforts. The mere fact that I had asked to be allowed to take
part in the affair, had aroused the jealousy of the detectives of the
department, and I was aware that