ady to listen
to any thing that he had to offer, and then I learned that a doctor that
lived next street wanted us to supply him with subjects, for which we
were to receive two pounds each.

"Well, we used to go out nights with a cart, drive up to some burying
ground, where we had planted a feller the day before, whip him out of
his coffin, and be off in less than fifteen minutes. In that way we used
to make a pretty good thing of it, and we had so much money that we
could keep drunk about two thirds of the time. At length some meddling
old fool suspected us, and one night we were caught by the police, with
a body in our charge. We tried to shake the bloody swabs off, but it was
no go. We were jugged, and the first thing I knowed my companion, who
had put me up to the work, peached, and saved his precious carcass from
being transported."

"How long was you sent for, Day?" asked Mr. Brown.

"Ten years--four of 'em I passed at hard labor, and then I got a ticket
of leave, and came out here as a shepherd. I have been here two years
last February, and should like well enough if I had plenty of 'bacco and
rum. Them 'ere things is hard to get in this part of the world, and I
haven't tasted a drop of rum for two months afore last night, when I got
a sup out of your pack."

Mr. Brown ground his teeth with suppressed emotion.

"How dared you meddle with our property?" demanded my companion.

"'Cos, how did I know it was yourn. I found the pack covered with
bushes, and I 'spose a man is entitled to what he finds in this part of
the country?"

"That depends upon circumstances," replied Mr. Brown, with a cautious
glance at the place where Day had been excavating. "For instance, if you
have found a quantity of gold dust where you have been digging, it would
not belong to you but to the lawful owners, or the agent of the owners,
sent to recover it."

"I don't know about that," cried the red-headed genius, with a cunning
glance from his little eyes, "but I do know that if I find any thing
here I shall hold on to it until somebody stronger than myself comes
along. I 'spose you would do so, and I shall."

"Before we quarrel on that point," I said, "perhaps you will inform us
how you knew we were in search of hidden gold?"

"But I didn't know till I saw you begin to dig. I was lying under a palm
tree when you crossed the Lodden yesterday, and I strongly suspected
from your looks that you were bushrangers in search of a dish o