to
the inner cave, and then threw themselves down by the fire. Jim at
once proceeded to unsaddle the horses, and rub them down; keeping
an ear open, all the time, to what was being said by the bush
rangers. Their remarks however were, for a time, confined to
terrible curses as to their luck.

"How did it come about, that's what I want to know?" the leader
said. "This is the second time that accursed police fellow has
turned up, and put a spoke in our wheel. Why, it was not more than
half an hour after the first shot was fired before they was down
upon us; there must have been pretty nigh twenty of them. How could
they have got such a lot of men as that together, if they hadn't
known that we were coming? It beats me altogether."

"So it does me!" was the general exclamation.

"They seemed regularly to jump out of the ground, just when all was
going pleasant. Never knew such a bit of luck--that is, if it was
luck, and not done o' purpose--and yet, I don't see as they could
have known, possible, as we was going there. Why, we didn't know
ourselves till yesterday, not what day it was to be; and except
ourselves, and that black fellow, no one could have known it."

"Well, it's certain none of us blabbed; and I don't see as how he
could have told anyone."

"Not exactly," the leader said, "considering he's been shut up
here, ever since we have been away; besides, I don't believe he
knew anything about it. He don't make out half we say to him and,
when we are talking together, he minds us no more than if he had
been a black monkey; but if he did, it's no odds, he could not have
passed through these walls and back again; and if he could, who was
he to tell it to? The men round here are all our pals, and would
have cut his jaw short with a bullet. But there, it's no use
talking about it, he's not been out, and there's an end of it.

"Still, it beats me altogether. That police fellow seems to know
what we are up to, just as well as we do ourselves. I would give
all my share of the swag we have made, for the last six months, for
a shot at him."

"I don't like it," one of the others said, "I don't; blest if I do;
and I says as the sooner we are out of here, the better. After
what's happened, I sha'n't feel safe till I am well out in the
blacks' country. If he knows what we are going to do, there ain't
any reasons why he shouldn't know where we are."

"Why, Johnson," his leader sneered, "you don't really believe the
fell