re a cove could do than I've done? Haven't I
hobeyed all horders that vas given? Have I spent much dust in my vast
researches; and haven't I even had to get drunk to please ye? And now,
ven the vork is completed, I is looked at coldly!"

The hypocrite dug his knuckles into his eyes, and attempted to force a
tear, but the effort was a failure; he knew it, and attempted to cover
his confusion by pretending to sob bitterly.

"Hark you, Mr. Steel Spring," Fred said, "if you can explain why you
left us so suddenly, just as we wanted your services, we shall feel
inclined to overlook your little faults, and reward you."

"Is that all that you've got agin me?" he asked, quite cheerfully. "Vy,
I really began to think that it was something serious--something
calculated to hinjure me in the estimation of good fellows."

"Perhaps leaving us to fight our way out of the room was not a serious
matter in your estimation, but we think differently," I replied.

"Vy, I left on purpose to save ye; and if I hadn't have gone, vere vould
you have been now? Dead as a sheep, and no mistake. It ain't the one vot
fights the most is the bravest, and hany military man vill tell you
that. I knew vot I'd got to do; so before the fuss began I slipped out
by the underground vay, and vent in search of the police fellers, and
didn't I bring 'um up in time? I told 'em how to get in, but I didn't
care about goin' myself, because I knew that Lieutenant Murden would
feel quite aggravated if any thing happened to me; and then the governor
would never have pardoned him in permitting me to leave Melbourne."

"But you might have entered with the police, and found out whether we
were dead or alive," Fred said.

"Didn't I know that you vas veil able to take care of yourselves; and
couldn't I do more good outside, vatching that none escaped? You come to
think of the matter for a minute, and you vill see that I vos right, and
you vos wrong."

We did not care to argue the matter with the fellow, for we knew too
well that he could lie faster than we could think; although, to do Steel
Spring justice, I will state that he sent the police to our assistance,
but it was by accident, and not by design.

When he found that trouble was likely to arise between our party and the
bushrangers, he slipped quietly away from the table, and escaped from
the building by means of the subterraneous passage.

The instant he emerged from under ground he started on a run, with no