sh they brought away, they'd have had worse.
Now the coast is clear, they're coming back by ones and twos, and next
week we shall be ready for business. I'm going to be head man this
bout, because I know the country better than any; and the most noble
Michael has consented, for this time only, to act as lieutenant. We
haven't decided on any plans yet, but some think of beginning from the
coast, because that part will be clearest of traps, they having
satisfied themselves that we ain't there. In fact, the wiseacres have
fully determined that we are all drowned. There's one devil of a
foreign doctor knows I'm round though: he saw me the night before you
came ashore, and I am nigh sure he knew me. I have been watching him,
and I could have knocked him over last week as clean as a whistle,
only, thinks I, it'll make a stir before the time. Never mind, I'll
have him yet. This Lee is a black sheep, lad. I'm glad you are here;
you must watch him, and if you see him flinch, put a knife in him. He
raised the country on me once before. I tell you, Jerry, that I'd be
hung, and willing, to-morrow, to have that chap's life, and I'd have
had it before now, only I had to keep still for the sake of the others.
That man served me the meanest, dirtiest trick, twenty years ago, in
the old country, that ever you or any other man heard of, and if he
catches sight of me the game's up. Mind, if you see cause, you deal
with him, or else,----" (with an awful oath) "you answer to the others."

"If he's got to go, he'll go," replied the other, doggedly. "Don't you
fear me; Moody the cannibal ain't a man to flinch."

"What, is that tale true then?" asked Hawker, looking at his companion
with a new sort of interest.

"Why, in course it is," replied Moody; "I thought no one doubted that.
That Van Diemen's Land bush would starve a bandicoot, and Shiner and I
walked two days before we knocked the boy on the head; the lad was
getting beat, and couldn't a' gone much further. After three days more
we began to watch one another, and neither one durst walk first, or go
to sleep. Well, Shiner gave in first; he couldn't keep his eyes open
any longer. And then, you know, of course my own life was dearer than
his'n."

"My God! That's worse than ever I did!" said Hawker.

"But not worse than you may do, if you persevere. You promise well,"
said Moody, with a grin.

Hawker bent and whispered in his ear; the other listened for a time,
and then said,--

"