ld stop and listen attentively, and then proceed with careful and
certain steps.

We waited until he was beyond hearing, and then extricated ourselves
from the thicket and continued our course. For more than two hours we
toiled and worked, until at length we saw an opening through the trees.
With eager but careful steps we moved towards it, thinking that the
worst part of our expedition was over, and I was just about to throw the
gold to the earth and thank God for our escape, when I looked up and saw
that we were at the very point from whence we started--that we were
standing on the edge of the clearing, and that directly in front of us
were twenty or thirty bushrangers, with levelled muskets, evidently
taking our bearing with great familiarity.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CAPTURE OF ALL HANDS, BY THE BUSHRANGERS.

There was no time to retreat, had we been so disposed; and though Fred's
rifle flew to his shoulder with the quickness of thought, he apparently
considered it better policy not to commence hostilities until the
bushrangers showed their disposition.

Fighting was not to be thought of; for who would think of taking part
in a struggle when eighteen or twenty guns were aimed, and ready to be
discharged upon the least sign of resistance.

There was one thing which I had the presence of mind to do. I stepped
quietly behind the stockman and Smith, and dropped the bag of gold
amidst a thicket of bushes, and I inwardly prayed that whatever might be
our fate, the robbers would not get sight of the treasure.

"Do you surrender?" asked a voice; and following the bushranger's words,
we could hear the ominous clink of the muskets as they were brought to
their shoulders.

"What promises do you make us?" replied Fred, undaunted.

"What do you wish us to promise?" continued the bushranger.

"Our lives and arms."

"Our promises are easily broken. Why do you request mercy at the hands
of bushrangers?"

"Because, in this case, if we do not obtain your most solemn pledge that
our lives shall be spared, we will die with our rifles in our hands. I
need not tell you that when we aim, we do so with the intention to
kill."

The bushrangers whispered together for a few minutes, and from their
eagerness we could see that a large majority of the men were in favor of
complying with Fred's request. Once or twice we heard the word "gold"
mentioned, as though that was the chief theme of their discussion.
Presently the whisperi