ou tax your mind, that I endeavored to get
Bill to make some revelations concerning a quantity of dust which he
helped rob a guard of many months since."

We remembered the circumstance, and also the furious manner in which
Bill had refused to divulge his knowledge of the transaction.

"I told him then that I should learn in what part of the country he had
buried his share of the treasure, but if I am not mistaken, I was
laughed at and defied."

We confirmed Mr. Brown's words in that respect.

"Well," continued the ex-officer, "poor Bill has taken leave of this
world, and I hope has gone to a better one. He was hardly suited for
this bustling sphere, and I think his cares were too much for him."

"When did he die?" I inquired.

"Last night."

"Did he make a confession? who was with him when he died?" we asked,
eagerly.

"Softly; you would hardly have required me to bother the poor fellow
with questions, when his breath was scant, and his thoughts were on
things not of this earth. I was with him, but he spoke not, excepting to
utter the words,--

"'I am going--remember the _shadow_!'"

"To what did he refer?"

"That is precisely what the watcher, who was with Bill when he breathed
his last, wanted to know."

"He was probably wandering in his mind, and knew not what he said."

"I think that he was sensible of what was going on around him, and
uttered the expression to convince me of his sincerity."

"Make us your confidant, and we will endeavor to think as you do."

"I will, because in the first place I owe my life to your devotion on
that day, and therefore you shall share in all the benefits that are
likely to arise from Bill's death; and in the second place it is
necessary for me to have a companion to prosecute my searches for the
treasure."

"Then the bushranger revealed the secret?" we eagerly asked.

"Listen, and you shall judge. When we had Bill in custody that day, I
thought from his boastful style of talking, that he had money buried
somewhere, and I determined to obtain it if possible, for I reasoned
that gold would do me much more good than the cold earth."

"With this idea I visited Bill frequently while in prison, and each time
gave him some little luxury, that the rules of the institution prevented
his getting, unless money was plenty, and the fellow was destitute. I
put off his trial on one pretext and another, and always gave orders in
his hearing, that he should be treated kindly,