Amongst the other aboriginals who were in the main Settlement was a notorious thief, named "Micky," who was also a splendidly-built blackfellow. I caught him one day stealing money from a man who was stopping at Colley's hotel. I informed on him, and the magistrate ordered him to be given 50 lashes. In due course he received the flogging, and at every smack, he said, "By G--, G----, I not Guv'ment man!" Once I had a keg of rum, and when I was away from home "Micky" used to break in and steal it; so I vowed at last that I'd get even with him. I had some laudanum on hand, which I used for my eyes, so I got a bottle, put some rum in it, and then added some of the laudanum. This I left in a convenient place for him, and went away as usual to my work. Sure enough the bait was taken, and then he lay asleep on the road for a day and a-half. I was driving a cart at the time, and would have driven over him (for he was a terrible thief) only I was afraid the cart would be tracked, and I'd get into trouble. "Micky" did not come back for any more rum. Perhaps the cleverest piece of work ever done by an aboriginal in the Settlement, was carried out by "Charles Merriman," a well-known blackfellow. On one occasion some prisoners bolted from the gaol, and a black-tracker was wanted. "Merriman" was the chosen tracker, but did not seem to care about the billet. He, however, was forced to accompany two policemen in search of the runaways, and was attired in the usual uniform of a policeman. As they travelled away from the town on horseback, the police noticed that the tracker was going very much against his will. At last when they had gone six or seven miles out, he asked one of the police to hold his horse saying: "I been see it something up in the ferns, there." He ran up into the tall ferns, picked up a stick, took the cap off and placed it on top of the stick, which he stuck in the ground, so that only the cap could be seen above the ferns. He then made a bee-line for the Settlement. Some time elapsed, and the constable rode up to see what he was doing, only to find, much to his disgust, that, snake-like, "Merriman" had shed his coat. CHAPTER XV. A FREE MAN. "I must have liberty Withal, as large a charter as the wind, To blow on whom I please." --SHAKESPEARE.