Yes,  these  and  a  hundred  things  besides  we  would
miss  were  we  re-exiled  from  this  the  land  of  our  exile,
where  everything  has  been  so  real,  leaving  the  old
world  of  five-and -twenty  years  ago  "  a  wraith,  a  film,
a  memory."


294


THE  END   OF   MORGAN


NOTE  TO   CHAPTER  XXXIX

After  the  above  was  in  type,  a  strange  meeting  came  under  the
notice  of  the  writer.  In  an  Australian  country  hospital  during  May
of  this  year  lay  an  old  man,  disabled  by  a  broken  leg.  Into  the
bed  next  to  him  in  the  ward  another  old  man  was  one  day  put,  and
the  two,  as  bushmen  will,  began  to  compare  notes — to  "pitch,"
as  they  themselves  would  call  it.  The  following  day,  as  the  doctor
went  his  rounds,  he  remained  for  a  time  talking  with  the  two  men,
and  the  conversation  turned  on  bushranging.  "  This  was  Morgan's
mate  the  morning  he  was  shot,  doctor,"  said  the  one,  indicating  the
other.  It  appeared  that  the  two  had  quite  accidentally  met  in  the
Peachelba  paddocks  the  afternoon  prior  to  Morgan's  death,  had
been  by  him  seen  and  "  bailed  up,"  were  compelled  to  go  with  him
to  the  house,  where,  with  the  MacPherson  household,  they  were
Morgan's  unwilling  companions  during  the  night.  In  the  morning,
perforce  they  accompanied  the  bushranger  to  the  horse  yard.
Both  noticed  a  man  resting  his  gun  on  the  rail  of  the  fence  as  he
aimed  at  Morgan.  The  bushranger,  they  say,  also  noticed  him,
and,  too  late,  snatched  for  his  revolver.  From  that  day,  until  they
occupied  adjoining  beds  in  the  little  country  hospital,  for  two-and-
forty  years  these  old  men  had  never  met  or  heard  of  each  other.
