serve out my time like a man; but a
few weeks' residence convinced me that, unless I became a slave, and
trembled at the officer's nod, I should be broken in body and spirit.
Then I laid my plans for an insurrection of the convicts, and had I not
trusted to your minion, Ned, you would not have been driving me to
certain death at the present time."

"Well, what would you have done?" asked the inspector, quietly.

"There were eight hundred of us, all desperate men, and reckless of
life. We should have murdered our officers, and then, before an alarm
could have reached the soldiers, we should have attacked their quarters,
and those who would not have joined us must have perished without mercy.
Afterwards we intended to sack Melbourne, collect all the gold that we
could, and seek for asylums upon some of the islands in the broad
Pacific. Such was our programme, and it would not have failed, I am
convinced; but your spies destroyed our hopes, and brought me to
punishment and shame."

The bushranger strode on as though he was at the head of an army, and
his dark features were lighted up at the thought of the carnage which he
and his companions intended to inflict.

"Your plot could not have succeeded," the inspector said, after a
moment's pause, "because every citizen in Melbourne would have armed
himself, and hunted you to the death. But we will not discuss the
subject. You failed in your design, and were punished as you deserved to
be. Were I in the same position that I then held, and should another
attempt be made to revolt, I should recommend, not the lash, but death
to all who were engaged."

"Better death a hundred times, than a hundred lashes," cried the
bushranger, with a fearful oath. "But I have revenged myself for the,
flogging, and for every lash I have made some one pay dear."

"Bah! that is all talk!" cried the inspector, in a careless way; but I
saw that he was trembling with anxiety to learn a correct history of the
prisoner's outrages.

"Is it all talk?" repeated Bill, with a sneer. "It was talk, I suppose,
when we robbed the escort of thirty thousand pounds. It was talk, I
suppose, when we picked off six of the soldiers, and drove the rest,
like frightened curs, from the treasure. It is talk, when I tell you
that we have been in the vicinity of Ballarat for two months past, and
have watched for you night and day, and never got a chance to strike
until to-day. Talk, is it? Well, we have talked to som