many, and it is some consolation to me now. Tell me, gentlemen, were your preconceived notions of me correct?"
"I fear," said Slinger, "you are the victim of a heartless and cruel system."
"My lads!" he said, again grasping their hands, "you two are the first whites who have spoken a kind and friendly word to me for years. I thank you for it from my soul." He stood his gun against the tree, and seated himself by the fire. There was no suspicion about him now: he had eased his mind of a heavy burthen, and felt once again that he was with those of his own species, who looked upon and treated him as a man, though one stained with crime. He buried his face in his hands and was silent for some time. He roused himself up at last, and said, "It is possible you have heard some of my bad deeds rendered ten times worse than reality. Let me tell you of others of a different character, which you will probably never hear from any other lips, but they are not the less true. At the time I first took to the bush, and when the hue and cry was strong after me, I went into Sydney in disguise to save a man I had once known, who was condemned to death. I obtained entrance to the jail at the risk of my own life, and supplied him with a file—the next day he was to have been executed:—that night he escaped. On another occasion, my men had taken two magistrates of the colony and clamoured for their death. I induced them to leave the matter unsettled until the morning, when, as they were notoriously cruel to their convicts, their fate would assuredly have been sealed. That night, after exacting a promise that they would spare their convict servants for the future, I cut the ropes which bound them, and they escaped. If I have killed one man accidentally to save my life, I have spared twenty, even at the hazard of it. But the sun is getting high, and it is time for me to go."
