178 FOR THE FLAG

formed of those men, the scum of the European and
American populations, who had been attracted to New
South Wales by the discovery of gold. Among these
gold-seekers were Captain Spade and Serko the engineer,
two ne’er-do-weels whom a certain community of ee
and character soon made intimate.

These two, well-informed and reeoluten men, would cer-
tainly have succeeded in any career, if only by their intelli-
gence. But with neither conscience nor scruples, determined
to acquire riches by no matter what means, seeking from
speculation and gambling what they might have gained
by patient and regular work, they rushed into the most
foolhardy adventures ; were rich one day, ruined the next,
like the majority of the vagabond crowd who had gone to
seek their fortune at the goldfields.

There was then in the mining districts of New South
Wales a man of incomparable ‘pluck, one of those dare-
devils who shrink from nothing—not even from crime—
cand whose influence over violent and evil natures is irre-
sistible.

This man called himself Ker Karraje.

What was the origin and nationality of the nite had
never been discovered, though every inquity was made on
the subject. But while he succeeded in evading all pursuit,
his name—at least the name he had given himself—
‘became known throughout the’ world. . It was breathed
with horror and terror like that of a aes Pane
invisible, intangible.

I now have reason: to believe ‘that Ker’ Katraje: is. “of