CHAPTER VIII.

UNDERGROUND MYSTERIES OF THE SWAMP.


Now that the reader may feel himself upon sure ground as to the facts
of this true story, I may state that Roland likewise learnt from Nancy
that the gang had a rendezvous in a piece of dense wood known as
Brook's Bush, close to the mouth of the Don River. It is also a fact
that when the den at Markham was broken up finally, some of the
surviving desperadoes took up their permanent abode at Brook's Bush,
where they kept an illicit still. Down to fifteen years after the date
of my story the community was every now and again startled by tidings
of robbery, outrage or murder at the Don; and the last notable act of
the gang was the murder of the editor of the _Colonist_, one Hogan, a
member of the legislature. His taking off was done by a woman who
struck him upon the head with a stone which she carried in a stocking.
[Footnote: Scores of persons living in Toronto now remember this
outrage; but anybody can verify the fact by turning to the files of
the newspapers of those days.--THE AUTHOR.] The body was then thrown
into the Don where it was picked up a short time afterwards.

As for the people of Markham, they lived in constant terror of the
miscreants lodged in the bush so near their doors; and they
established an efficient staff of special constables for the
protection of life and property.

Markham township had been settled about forty-five years before,