Murden left eight of his men to take charge of the prisoners, with
strict orders for two of them to keep guard without rest or sleep. We
were about to mount our horses, when a brawny ruffian we had made
prisoner the night before shouted,--

"Aren't you going to give us something to eat, or are we to be starved
like dogs? You are all cowards, and dare not give us fair play, and an
open fight, but I didn't suppose that you were so frightened as to
refuse to let us have a mouthful."

"Dress a sheep for them, and let them eat their fill," ordered Murden;
"but mind that they escape not, on your lives."

We rode off, followed by the shouts and maledictions of the gang, and
even when we were one hundred rods distant I could hear the ruffians
call after us, bidding us return and learn bravery from them.

"You now know why I feared to leave the prisoners in charge of my men
when a keg of rum was near at hand. The bushrangers, knowing that
hanging is certain, would try and provoke a sudden and easier death. I
do not fear the temper of the men when free from liquor."

Smith, Fred and myself, besides two policemen, composed the party, and
regardless of the heat, which poured down as though it would melt our
brains, we urged our panting horses over the plain, and hardly drew rein
until we reached the edge of the forest, where we halted for
consultation.

It was a bold experiment to venture with a small force to the retreat of
the once formidable outlaw, for there was no telling whether or no a
portion of his gang were living at his haunt. The officer looked up to
us for advice, and we consulted the hound, which had accompanied us, and
now stood by our sides panting and lolling out his great tongue, and
wondering, I suppose, why we did not stop at the river.

"Let us dismount, and shade the animals as well as possible," I advised,
"and then trust to the sagacity of the dog to detect an ambush. My life
on his shrewdness."

The advice was acted on, when leaving one man to take charge of the
animals, we examined our guns and pistols, and made sure that they were
in order; and then, with a few words of encouragement to the hound,
which he appeared to understand, we moved along the path we had
travelled when on our first visit.

With guns on the cock, and examining every thicket of bushes to see if
it concealed an enemy, we made but slow progress. Yet trusting more to
the dog than to ourselves, we at length came in sight of th