“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 stood on a line with the bushranger while digging.

We gratified his humor, but to prevent trickery Fred was despatched to watch his movements and prevent escape.  Steel Spring vowed and protested that he meant honestly by us; but he was too notorious a liar to be believed, and when he found that we would not trust him, he appeared to be highly pleased, and considered it a proof of his sagacity and cunning.

We watched them as they walked to the spot which Steel Spring indicated—­a distance of nearly a quarter of a mile from the clearing; and when the fellow announced that he was ready for the test, I slowly passed over such portions of the ground as I thought contained the money.