thing, if a rifle vos placed agin your brains,
and a feller threatened to blow 'em hout?"

"Then you mean to say that you have imposed upon us?' I asked, coolly,
seeing that Fred was likely to get into a passion.

"No, I don't say that, 'cos tain't so; and I should but tell a lie if I
spoke in that way. A falsehood is an abomination vich I can't stand, and
I was never guilty of one," answered the fellow, with a grin which
proved how well he liked to stretch the truth.

"Explain your meaning," said Fred, "or I will hang you on a gum tree,
and use you as a scarecrow." "Vell, didn't I tell you I saw the money
buried from a distance? You don't s'pose that I would be very near when
Jim Gulpin was doing secret things, does you?"

I made no answer, and he continued,--

"I took good care to be hoff so far that he couldn't even smell me, 'cos
I knew that if I had but vinked once vithin ten rods he would have seen
me, and then vot would 'ave been the consequence?"

Fred replied that he supposed he would have been kicked in a summary
manner, and he was not sure but he deserved it.

"Had it only been kicking I could 'ave taken it very comfortably and
thought nothing of it--but no, sir, it would have been nothing of the
kind. It would 'ave been after this fashion."

He made an expressive motion with his hand across his throat, and
judging from the habits and antecedents of the illustrious bushranger,
there is but little doubt that he did wisely in placing a great distance
between them.

"Well, point out the spot which you think contains the money," I said.

"Vell, I can do that, although I'm not to be 'bused and deprived of my
supper if I don't happen to hit right."

"You shall be treated according to your merits," cried Smith, who had
listened patiently to his woes, and was amused at his impudence.

"Vell, if I is treated according to my merits it's all I vants, 'cos
I'se certain to get 'nuff to heat and drink without vorking very
hard--and vot can a gemman 'spect more in this vorld?"

We returned no answer to his suggestion, and finding that we were
disposed to be serious, and not likely to stand any more of his
nonsense, he requested permission to occupy the same place where he had
secreted himself when the bushranger buried his gold; and while one of
us walked over the clearing he thought he could tell when we reached the
exact spot. He gave as a reason that he had taken the bearings of the
place by a tree which s