Just as we began to walk back home, Tuck came out of his front door and started to bustle around his small garden. We lay still by the hedge careful not to be seen. It was his house for sure. Seeing him strutting around, Orlagh said, ‘He does look like he needs bringing down a peg.’
Even when we had slept off our lunchtime drinking it still seemed like a good idea. ‘Not a word to Doctor Daniel, though,’ I said to Richard. ‘I doubt he’d approve.’
Our friend Rylett in the Navy office had a drinking partner who was one of the guards at the prison. We found out he worked the same watch as Tuck. When we saw him in the Sailor’s Arms, we always asked him how things were with the prison. One evening, when the moon was waning, he let slip he would not be in the pub all the next week because he was working the night watch. Our chance had come.
The night of Tuesday 16th May was pleasantly cool with a warm east wind blowing in across the town. Autumn had arrived in Sydney, but here it was like a lovely spring day back home in Norfolk. It rained a bit more, but it was still mild and rarely cold. We had thought our plan through carefully. Richard and me set off with Orlagh, who had begged us to take her along. We left at nine o’clock in the evening. If we were out too late, we might raise suspicions with the soldiers who patrolled the streets. We carried a heavy saw wrapped in a canvas bag, newly purchased from Simeon Lord’s Commission Warehouse. As we headed over to Tuck’s we double-checked our story.
‘We’ve been having a drink in the Sailor’s Arms with Harry Stokes. He’s a carpenter by trade and he’s just left his saw behind, so we’re returning it to him. Got that?’ said Richard.
‘Where does Harry live again?’ I asked.
‘Close by the windmill and government bakery. That’s right on the western end of the town. Once we’re past there, all we need to do is keep off the roads and head for Tuck’s.’
Sure enough, we were stopped a couple of times by the patrols. They were not unfriendly and merely asked us what we were doing. Our explanation seemed quite reasonable. This all seemed like a great adventure.
We reached Tuck’s around half past nine, and peered through the darkness at his cottage. Not a single light could be seen. ‘He’s out, let’s go!’
We selected a tall tree behind the house. It was a splendid choice. Thin trunk, but wide, spreading boughs and high enough to fall with some force by the time it hit Tuck’s roof.
Richard and I sawed together, slightly alarmed that the noise our blade made gnawing into the wood would travel through the night air. Orlagh kept watch for us but we still stopped at regular intervals to listen, trying to pick up any sound other than the frequent gusts of wind. She whispered for us to stop only once, when two people passed close by with a noisy dog.
Two minutes later we were sawing again, and within ten minutes the trunk was almost sawed through. Richard had a bright idea. ‘Let’s leave it like this. Next time there’s a really fierce wind, it’ll blow right over. And we’ll be gone with a bit of luck.’
‘Yes, but will it blow the right way?’ I said.
‘But we’ve cut it so it can only fall forward!’ He was beginning to sound impatient.
My conscience was bothering me. Now we were so near to completing our prank, I had begun to feel guilty about going through with it. But I didn’t want to look spineless in front of Orlagh.
She could see we were faltering. ‘Do it now,’ she said. ‘No one’s in. If it falls later, it might kill him, and anyone else who might be in the house. Then you’d be up for murder, if they caught you.’
It was practical advice, I suppose. Then I thought of Tuck beating me in front of the crew of the Miranda because I had accidentally spilt tar on the deck.
Richard and I both nodded, stood up and leaned on the trunk. There was barely a half inch left uncut close to the roots and this quickly splintered as the tree began its passage to the ground. It hit the house with a mighty wallop and splintering of roof and walls that must have been heard all over the western side of Sydney.
We all ran like blazes before any of Tuck’s neighbours could get over to investigate.
‘What did you do with the saw?’ said Richard when we stopped in some bushes to get our breath back.
‘What did I do with it?’ I said. ‘I thought you had it.’
Richard looked angry. Orlagh cut him short. ‘Look, he’s hardly going to believe the ants ate the tree trunk is he? He’ll see it’s been cut down with a saw, so it doesn’t really matter whether he finds the one you left.’
We ran off into the dark. The fun had gone out of our escapade. Whenever we heard or spotted patrols in front of us, we hid till they were gone. I felt fear now, rather than excitement. If we were caught and linked to the destruction of Tuck’s house, we would be flogged at the very least, maybe even hanged. By half past eleven we had reached the safety of the Rocks. As ever, the streets were still full of people, and the pub was doing a roaring trade. We slunk quietly back home, trying our best not to wake Doctor Dan.
A few days later I was cooking supper at home for the three of us. Richard and Doctor Dan were sitting outside in the garden, catching the last of the late afternoon sun. I heard Richard say in a low voice, ‘Look out Sam, that bastard Tuck’s coming to see us.’
I came out into the garden to see Lewis Tuck marching purposefully up to our house. He had a face like thunder and was clutching the saw in his right hand.
As he came to our garden path Doctor Dan looked up. ‘Can we help you, sir?’
Tuck ignored him. Richard and I were standing by the door and he came right up to us and snarled in our faces. ‘I know it was you. My neighbour Henry Rickards said he saw two boys and a girl running away as soon as the tree fell. Couldn’t see who in the dark, but I’m sure the two boys were you. And I’ve just been to see the warehouse manager. He says he sold you this saw last Thursday.’ He waved it in our faces. ‘It’s in his ledger.’
‘We had our saw stolen last Saturday,’ said Richard, with brazen ingenuity. ‘We were cutting wood for a picket fence around the garden and I foolishly left it out overnight. Vanished in the morning. That looks exactly like the one we had, so if it’s not yours perhaps you could let us have it back.’
Tuck was seething with rage. I feared at any moment he would grab one of us by the throat.
Doctor Dan intervened. ‘What is the problem here, sir?’
Tuck always did kowtow to his betters, and even though he knew Daniel was a convict he spoke to him as he would an officer.
‘These boys, sir, on Tuesday evening, have maliciously sawed down a tree on my property so that it fell on my house, almost demolishing it.’
‘I’m very sorry to hear about your misfortune, sir. But I can assure you neither Sam nor Richard could have done something so stupid. Both of them spent the entire Tuesday evening here in the house with me.’
Tuck knew he was going to get no further.
Turning to Richard and me he said in a low, mean voice, ‘I’ll see you little buggers swing for this if it’s the last thing I do.’
He stomped off down the street.
Richard and I had a fit of sniggering as soon as he disappeared from view. Doctor Dan said nothing. When he spoke he was really angry. ‘You bloody idiots. What the hell did you think you were doing?’
His voice was shaking and we had never seen him in such a fury. We were both shocked into silence.
Doctor Dan carried on in a voice that was cold with disgust. ‘And who was it with you? One of your ne’er-do-well friends from the pub, I’ll bet. Was she impressed with your prank? You have both been extraordinarily stupid. If he can prove it was you, you’ll be hanged if you’re lucky, and sent to one of the country iron gangs if you’re not. How does that strike you? Seven years chained together, with six other thugs. That’ll wipe the smiles off your stupid faces. And if he does get a court to convict you, I’ll be flogged too, for lying to protect you. How do you feel about that?’
Our mirth had dissolved. My c
hest felt tight and it was all I could do not to cry.
Daniel went on, ‘And if he can’t get a court to convict you, he’ll just murder you in your beds, or on the way back from the pub, or when you’re taking a Sunday stroll around the bay. How d’you like the sound of that?’
His anger spent, he started to sound more concerned. ‘You didn’t think this through, did you?’
‘It’ll blow over,’ said Richard, but his bravado was not convincing.
We barely spoke for the rest of the evening and I went to bed with a heavy heart.
Walking back from work alone, on a chilly Thursday afternoon, I was wrapped up in my troubles. We had seen Tuck around town several times since his visit. He greeted us both with an icy politeness, and his eyes brimmed with malice. I kept thinking of Doctor Dan’s warning: ‘He’ll just murder you in your beds.’
It was now a week since the incident. No soldiers or marines had come to drag us from our home. Whatever clues we left were clearly not enough to convince the authorities. All the more reason for Tuck to take matters into his own hands.
Richard had said, ‘He’s up to something, all right. From now on, I’m sleeping with a knife under my pillow. You too, Sam, if you’ve any sense.’
But I didn’t think Tuck would come for us in our own hut. He’d have to kill Dan too, and then, if he were caught, he’d be hanged. On the Miranda he was known to be a first-class shot with a musket, and I thought he might try to shoot us both from a distance, when there were few people around – perhaps when we took a walk around the town on a Sunday or on our way home from work. I had become tense and nervous, and jumped at any sudden sound. My sleep had become fitful and in my dreams Tuck would loom out of the darkness, like the shark had loomed up from the deep, his teeth sharp and gleaming, a cold, dead look in his eyes.
I could not believe my own stupidity. What was it James Lyons had said about not making enemies? Richard and I had only talked a little about what we had done since. Although we had yet to start blaming the other for the idea, we were sullen and distant with each other, which hurt me. Orlagh, too, had not been back to the pub since we had seen her that night. Perhaps she felt guilty about encouraging us to do something so stupid? In truth, I was glad not to see her. I was afraid she’d start drunkenly boasting about our escapade, and soon the whole town would know what we’d done.
When I walked over the quayside towards the Rocks in the afternoon I looked up to see Lizzie Borrow. I had only glimpsed her from a distance since the day we had met her before. Seeing her now I was struck again by how beautiful she was. Today she wore a plain white cotton dress with a short brown jacket that drew attention to the curve of her back and slight swell of her hips. She looked magnificently sullen, waiting outside a harbour-front shop that sold boating and fishing material.
I didn’t want to talk to her. I needed to feel strong and confident to talk to Lizzie Borrow. Today was not a good day. I put my head down and walked close to the waterside so as to place a distance between us.
‘Oh Sam!’ she called over.
Her bright blue eyes peered from under a bright red bonnet. ‘The Lieutenant is attending to his nautical requirements,’ she said in a delightfully mocking manner, ‘and I’m wishing I’d stayed at home with a good book.’ She looked out of place in this rough world. ‘And Sam, I hear you’re living with Doctor Sadler, as well as that American fellow.’ She had remembered my name and forgotten Richard’s!
Our backs to the shop, shading our eyes from the sun, we fell into easy conversation. I forgot my troubles and could have chatted with Lizzie for hours. I heard the bell of the shop door ping and a rough hand pushed me to one side so hard I fell to the floor.
‘Is this urchin bothering you, Miss Borrow?’ It could only be Lieutenant John Gray.
I caught the expression on Lizzie’s face. She was looking at Gray with utter bewilderment. I was so angry at being humiliated I rushed back on my feet, determined to punch him. He sidestepped my clumsy attack and drew his sword, holding the blade under my chin so hard it broke the skin. I wondered whether he was going to cut my throat then and there. His eyes were full of dull contempt. I could smell spirits on his breath and he seemed unsteady on his feet.
‘Threatening an officer of the Crown –’ he got no further. Richard had been following close behind trying to catch me up, and had seen the whole incident. He grabbed a walking stick from a pile laid out in front of the shop next door, and deftly knocked the sword from Gray’s hand. It clattered to the ground and in the terrible silence that followed, everyone at the quayside turned to look.
How the incident would have played itself out if a squad of soldiers had not been passing by, I do not know. Perhaps Gray would have drawn his dagger or picked up his sword and slain Richard on the spot. Instead, looking to rescue himself from embarrassment, he snarled, ‘Sergeant, arrest these two ragamuffins at once.’
A second later, Richard and I were both staring down the barrels of six muskets. ‘You’re looking at a flogging, if you’re lucky,’ said Gray. We were marched to the guardhouse up the hill from the quay and left to stew in a small cell for the rest of the day. We both felt sick in the pit of our stomach at the thought of a flogging. I wondered how many lashes they’d give two boys and whether we’d be able to stand up to the punishment? I remembered the steward, Hartley, aboard the Miranda, and how he had died after a mere thirty-six lashes. We both knew the cat o’ nine tails here were larger and more wicked implements than the Navy ones.
Doctor Dan came to see us that evening, carrying a couple of pork pies and a flagon of ale. As we ate and drank, he talked to us softly and quickly. He’d obviously been busy. ‘I heard what happened,’ he said, cutting off our attempts to explain. ‘Now I think I can get you off a flogging, but this will mean a sentence to an outlying farm. You’re probably looking at seven years –’
‘But he attacked me!’ I said, trying to hold back my tears. ‘He was going to kill me.’
Dan shook his head. ‘The New South Wales Corps have an inordinate amount of influence here, Sam. Lieutenant Gray is prominent among them. Even the Governor is wary of the Corps, and lives in fear of an army revolt. However, I know the Magistrate – I looked after his wife when she nearly died in childbirth – so he owes me a favour. And if we get your friend the Reverend Graham to put in a good word for you too, I think we can get you off a flogging. But I can’t get you off a further sentence.’
Richard spoke. ‘I’d rather have a flogging than a seven-year sentence.’
Dan shook his head. ‘It’s usually a flogging and a seven-year sentence. And a hundred lashes strapped to a triangle could cripple a couple of lads like you for life.’
An awkward silence descended. What else could we say?
Dan left us with a promise. ‘I’ll see what I can do, but I’m still a convict myself. Let’s look on the bright side. The Navy office can say you’re exemplary workers. Maybe, if the right things get said to the right people, we’ll be able to reduce your sentence by a few years.’
That night we could find few words to say to each other. ‘You didn’t have to get involved Richard,’ I said to him sorrowfully.
‘I wasn’t going to see him stick a sword in your throat,’ he said.
The ale and food had made me drowsy and I was soon asleep. But I woke in the middle of the night. Ahead of us were seven years of hard labour – cutting down trees, hauling ploughs as human beasts of burden, clearing bushland. And we would probably have to work side by side with the most villainous men in the colony.
Richard could tell from my breathing I was awake. ‘I can’t sleep either,’ he said in a matter of fact way. ‘We’ve been in worse scrapes before. Whatever’s in front of us can’t be any worse than going into battle or being brought out to be hanged. We’ll be all right Sam, as long as we stick together.’
We were brought before the court in little more than a week. Our fate was quickly decided. We were to be sent to the farm of a Benjamin P
errion, at Green Hills on the Hawkesbury River, forty miles north of Sydney.
Doctor Dan had done his work. The Magistrate told us we were very lucky to escape a flogging, but due to our youth he would forgo this punishment for attacking an officer of the crown.
Soon after dawn the next day we were shackled with chains on our ankles and placed on a small horse-drawn cart. Two soldiers, unsmiling and silent, sat next to us with bayonets fixed to their muskets.
We headed west away from Sydney and I felt a great pang of helplessness as the town receded with every clop of the horse’s hooves. We were leaving behind our home, our friends, and the good life we were beginning to enjoy, and most of all, the protection of Doctor Dan.
The dirt road was poor and made for a rough ride, but at least there was a road. After midday one of the soldiers stood up and shouted, ‘Savages!’, and fired off a shot into the bush that surrounded us. ‘They’ll eat your liver for breakfast boys, if they ever catch you,’ he said as he swabbed out his musket and loaded another cartridge and shot.
We travelled on with barely a break, and reached the Hawkesbury River at dusk. It was a strangely comforting sight seeing the settlement after an entire day surrounded by a wild landscape. On the slopes running down to the far side of the river was a cluster of buildings with lamps burning in the windows. Some were brick, others mere huts, similar to the one we had lived in on the Rocks. We passed a group of natives huddled around a fire. They seemed hardly aware of us even being there.
As far as I could see in the fading light, the land around the settlement was all cleared and some of the fields were under cultivation. Then I remembered what we had been sent here to do. It would be us doing the clearing – hauling away timber and breaking up the ground. I shuddered again at our misfortune. There would be seven years of this before we would be allowed to return to Sydney.
The cart stopped, we clambered off in our chains, and boarded a small ferry. Quickly transported across the river, we were marched up the steep river bank and taken to a small hut. I thought we were going to be fed, but I was wrong.
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