Page 438 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

CHAPTER XVI. KICKING

AGAINST THE PRICKS.

he morning after this, the Rev. Mr. North departed in
Tthe schooner for Hobart Town. Between the officious
chaplain and the Commandant the events of the previous
day had fixed a great gulf. Burgess knew that North meant
to report the death of Kirkland, and guessed that he would
not be backward in relating the story to such persons in Ho-
bart Town as would most readily repeat it. ‘Blank awkward
the fellow’s dying,’ he confessed to himself. ‘If he hadn’t
died, nobody would have bothered about him.’ A sinister
truth. North, on the other hand, comforted himself with
the belief that the fact of the convict’s death under the lash
would cause indignation and subsequent inquiry. ‘The truth
must come out if they only ask,’ thought he. Self-deceiving
North! Four years a Government chaplain, and not yet at-
tained to a knowledge of a Government’s method of ‘asking’
about such matters! Kirkland’s mangled flesh would have
fed the worms before the ink on the last ‘minute’ from de-
liberating Authority was dry.
Burgess, however, touched with selfish regrets, deter-
mined to baulk the parson at the outset. He would send
down an official ‘return’ of the unfortunate occurrence by
the same vessel that carried his enemy, and thus get the ear