, when suddenly, as he turned a corner, he came upon two men
walking towards him from Timber Town.

In a moment he had taken cover in the thick underscrub which lined each
side of the track, and quickly passing a little way in the direction
from which he had come, he hid himself behind a dense thicket, and
waited for the wayfarers to pass by.

They came along slowly, being heavy laden.

"I tell yer I seen the bloke on the track, Dolly, just about here," said
the younger man of the two. "One moment he was here, next 'e was gone.
Didn't you see 'm?"

"I must ha' bin lookin' t'other way, up the track," said the other. "I
was thinkin' o' somethin'. I was thinkin' that this place, just here,
was made a-purpose for our business. Now, look at this rock."

He led his companion to the inner edge of the track, where a big rock
abutted upon the acute angle which the path made in circumventing the
forest-clad hill-side. Placing their "swags" on the path the two men
clambered up behind the rock, and Tresco could hear their conversation
as he lay behind the thick scrub opposite them.

"See?" said Dolphin, as he pointed up the track in the direction of
Timber Town. "From here you can command the track for a half-a-mile."

Sweet William looked, and said, "That's so--you can."

"Now, look this way," Dolphin pointed down the track in the direction of
the diggings. "How far can you see, this way?"

"Near a mile," replied William.

"Very good. We plant two men behind this rock, and two over there in the
bush, on the opposite side, and we can bail up a dozen men. Eh?"

"It's the place, the identical spot, Dolly; but I should put the other
two men a little way up the track--we don't want to shoot each other."

"Just so. It would be like this: we have 'em in view, a long while
before they arrive; they're coming up hill, tired, and goin' slow; we're
behind perfect cover."

"I don't see how we can beat it, unless it is to put a tree across the
road, just round the corner on the Timber Town side."

"No, no. That'd give the show away. That'd identify the spot. There're
a hundred reasons against it. A tree across the track might stop the
diggers as well, and the first party that come along would axe it
through, and where would our log be then? It would never do. But let's
get down, and have a drink. Thank Gawd, there's a bottle or two left in
my swag."

Tresco saw them clamber down from the rock, and drink beer by the
wayside. On