mith; "but we have joined
our fortunes for a trip to the mines, and I'm not the man to desert you
at the time of need."

"Then you'll go?" we asked.

"Yes; if I get killed it matters not much."

In half an hour we were ready; each man carried a small knapsack,
containing a few cakes of bread and the remains of the kangaroo, while
Smith provided himself with a small bottle, the contents of which he
kept a profound secret.

Not knowing whether we should ever be fortunate enough to return and
claim the few articles of property that belonged to us, Fred and myself
paused for a moment to bid them farewell.

Standing in the doorway of the stockman's hut, we saw the form of his
injured daughter watching us on our tramp. She remained motionless'
until we turned to continue our march, and then she waved a blood-red
handkerchief as though bidding us remember her injuries and avenge them.

Right before us, at a distance of five miles, was a dark line of trees,
extending for many leagues along the horizon. In the depths of that
forest few white men had ever penetrated. Once, a dozen of the police of
Melbourne attempted to break up a gang of bushrangers who sheltered
themselves upon the edge of this wild region. On the alarm being given,
the villains discharged a volley at the officers and then fled. Five of
the police were killed or wounded, but the remainder, nothing daunted,
started in pursuit. They got separated amidst the thickets, and but one
man returned alive to Melbourne. The remainder either got lost and
starved to death, or else were killed by the bushrangers. After that,
government was content to offer large rewards for the apprehension of
the escaped convicts, but the police did not care to venture a second
time into their dread abode.

I have mentioned these circumstances to show that the undertaking upon
which we had embarked was one of no ordinary kind; that there was much
peril and little honor to be gained in an encounter with half a dozen
desperate men, who knew that their lives depended upon the stout
resistance which they should offer, and of course would fight to the
death.

If we did look sharply to the loading of our rifles, and felt the long
bowie knives that we carried at our waist to find whether the blades
worked easily in their sheaths, it was because we expected to use them,
and knew that our only hope to return alive was by a prompt employment
of the deadly weapons when an encounter took plac