Hoo! Will you, though?' cried Jacker.

Dick nodded and made an affirmative noise between his closed lips.

'Fork Lightnin',' said Jacker, trying the name. 'Sounds well, don't it?
What sorter feller will I be? Brave, eh?'

'Frightened o' neither man nor devil, but awful cruel, 'cause you was
crossed in love.'

Jacker was delighted. He was naturally a combative youth, with a fine
contempt for rules that would deny him the advantages to be derived from
his ability as a swift and vigorous kicker; so a bloodthirsty and
rebellious character was quite to his taste.

'Not crossed in love, though,' he complained. 'That seems measley, don't
it? S'pose I shot a man once, an' the p'lice won't let me have no peace.'

'Good enough!' said Dick.

'Then I'm in. When do we start?'

'To-morrer night. We want one more. Twitter will come. That'll be five.
Five is a fine gang; sides, we don't want fellers what ain't got billies.
Bushrangers ain't no account on foot. My men must be all mounted. So I
propose we meet on the toll-bar road just when it's gettin' dark, all
riding our billy-goats an' armed to the teeth; an' we'll stick up all the
Cow Flat people goin' home from Yarraman.'

'My word!' cried Phil ecstatically. 'We owe it to that lot.'

'Couldn't we start now?' said Peterson, who had been sitting with wide
eyes and open mouth, and was consumed with impatience.

'Oh, no,' said Dick; 'we gotter prepare our arms an' ammunition an'
things. An' Saturdee night's best, 'cause the Cow Flats what have been to
Yarraman buyin' things come up to the Drovers' Arms on the coach, an'
walk home from there.'

It was agreed that Peterson should stay with Dick in the mine that night.
The boys had no longer any fear of the black hole discovered at the end
of the main drive. An exploring party had made its way through the
opening and into the workings beyond, and had found itself in a drive
communicating with the Red Hand shaft. Dick, who once in an emergency had
served as tool-boy in the Silver Stream for a fortnight, knew that at a
lower level there was another and a much longer Red Hand drive by which
access to the Silver Stream No. 1 workings was possible; but he kept this
knowledge to himself.

Shortly after midnight Dick and Billy ventured to return to Waddy, with
the idea of securing Billy's goat, Hector, a sturdy black brute much
admired as the most inveterate 'rusher' in the country. With the boys of
Waddy a goat that butted or 'ru