I'll tell you first how I came to be in his power.
"It was in the early '60's at the diggings.

I was a young chap then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway robber.

There were six of us, and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings.
Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang.
"One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and we lay in wait for it and attacked it.

There were six troopers and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of their saddles at the first volley.

Three of our boys were killed, however, before we got the swag.