Robbery Under Arms
Robbery Under
Arms es un clásico de la literatura australiana de Rolf Boldrewood. Un bandido a punto de
ser colgado recuerda su vida. De sus padres, de sus hermanos, de la vida en la
granja…
My name's Dick
Marston, Sydney-side native. I'm twenty-nine years old, 1, 82 metres in my stocking
soles, and 83 kilograms weight. Pretty strong and active with it, so they say.
I don't want to blow—not here, any road—but it takes a good man to put me on my
back, or stand up to me with the gloves, or the naked cows…
Why do I lie
here, groaning; yes, crying like a child, and beating my head against the stone
floor? I am not mad, though I am shut up in a cell. No. Better for me if I was.
But it's all up now; there's no get away this time; and I, Dick Marston, as
strong as a bullock, as active as a rock-wallaby, chock-full of life and
spirits and health, have been tried for robbing—robbery under arms they call
it—and though the blood runs through my veins like the water in the mountain
creeks, and every bit of bone and sinew is as sound as the day I was born, I
must die on the gallows this day month…
When I came out
of the hospital after curing me of that wound—for I was hit bad by that black
tracker—they gave me some books to read for fear I'd go mad and cheat the
hangman. I was always fond of reading, and many a night I've read to poor old
mother and Aileen before I left the old place…