search will be.'

'I don't care,' says Jim, in his old, obstinate way, which he never put
on except very seldom. 'I'll go in a month or two--police or no police.
I'll make for Melbourne if there was an army of soldiers between me and
Jeanie.'

We had to settle where the gold was to be hid. After a lot of talk we
agreed to keep one bag in a hole in the side of the wall of the cave,
and bury the others in the place where we'd found old Mr. Devereux's
box. His treasure had laid many a year safe and sound without anybody
touching it, and we thought ours might do the same. Besides, to find it
they must get into the Hollow first. So we packed it out bag by bag, and
made an ironbark coffin for it, and buried it away there, and put some
couch-grass turfs on it. We knew they'd soon grow up, and nobody could
tell that it hadn't always been covered up the same as the rest of the
old garden.

It felt pretty hard lines to think we shouldn't be able to get away from
this lonely place after the life we'd led the last year; but Starlight
wasn't often wrong, and we came to the same way of thinking ourselves
when we looked at it all round, steady and quiet like.

We'd been a week or ten days all by ourselves, horse-breaking, fishing,
and shooting a bit, thinking how strange it was that we should have more
than 20,000 Pounds in gold and money and not be able to do anything with
it, when dad, sudden like, said he'd go out himself and get some of the
newspapers, and perhaps a letter or two if any came.

Starlight laughed at him a bit for being foolhardy, and said we should
hear of his being caught and committed for trial. 'Why, they'll know
the dog,' says he, 'and make him give evidence in court. I've known that
done before now. Inspector Merlin nailed a chap through his dog.'

Father grinned. 'I know'd that case--a sheep-stealing one. They wanted
to make out Brummy was the man as owned the dorg--a remarkable dorg he
was, too, and had been seen driving the sheep.'

'Well, what did the dog do? Identify the prisoner, didn't he?'

'Well, the dashed fool of a coolie did. Jumps up as soon as he was
brought into court, and whines and scratches at the dock rails and
barks, and goes on tremenjus, trying to get at Brummy.'

'How did his master like it?'

'Oh! Brummy? He looked as black as the ace of spades. He'd have made it
hot for that dorg if he could ha' got at him. But I suppose he forgived
him when he came out.'

'Why should he?'