shed' was highly prized as an animal of
spirit. Peterson caught his goat, and then Dick, with unnecessary
wariness and great waste of stratagem, 'stuck up' his own home, and
secured a parcel of food carefully left for him on the table near the
unlatched window by a thoughtful mother.

On Saturday the other boys turned up at the appointed time. There were
rules commanding the utmost caution in entering the mine by daylight.
Every care had to be taken to satisfy the shareholders that no stranger
was in sight, and the last boy was compelled to keep a vigilant look-out
while the others were descending, and then to make his way to the opening
by a roundabout route, exercising a vigilance that would have puzzled an
army of black-trackers.

Dick, who before leaving home had rifled his small savings bank, had
provided Jacker Mack with money for supplies, and Jacker brought with him
a pound of candles, some black material for masks, and half a dozen
packets of Chinese crackers. The Chinese crackers represented cartridges
for the pistols of Red Hand's gang. Dick had decided to be known as Red
Hand. The pistols were made by fashioning a piece of soft wood in the
shape of a stock, and securing to this a scrap of hollow bone for a
barrel. Into the barrel a cracker was thrust, the wick was ignited at a
piece of smouldering 'punk '--which could be carried in the pocket in a
tin matchbox--and it only needed the exercise of a little imagination to
satisfy oneself that the resulting explosion spread death and desolation
in the ranks of the enemy.

All preliminaries were arranged during the afternoon: in the evening,
just before night fell, Dick and Peterson, hidden with their trusty
steeds amongst the saplings about three hundred yards beyond the
toll-bar, awaited the coming of their companions in crime. They had not
long to wait; in a few minutes Jacker Mack, Ted, and Phil Doon came
riding up the dusty track on their brave billies. They were accompanied
by a pedestrian, an interloper, who lurked behind and evidently did not
anticipate a friendly reception. It was Gable.

'He saw us comin' an' he would foller,' explained Jacker.

'Yah!' cried Dick in disgust; 'why didn't you boot him?'

'So I did. Fat lot o' good that done. He otl'y bellered like a bullock,
an' kep' on follerin'. We pretended we wasn't goin' nowhere, but he just
hung round an' couldn't be fooled.'

Dick approached the old man threateningly.

'Clear out!' he said