One day he attacked an assistant surgeon, who was attached to the vessel, and the doctor repelled him by hurling a bottle of oil of vitriol at his head.  Bowen closed his eyes when he saw that the liquid was about to strike his face, and by resolutely keeping them closed until the powerful acid was cleaned from his flesh, managed to save them, and then the surgeons of the ship commenced and arrested the progress of the vitriol, and preserved his life; but not until the fellow’s nose was entirely gone, and his eyebrows and cheeks nearly eaten away.

A more hideous-looking wretch, as he stood by the blazing pile of brush, I never saw; and it appeared to me that he gloried in his deformity, for he rolled his glaring eyes at me, and chuckled immensely when he saw that I regarded him rather closely.

“The stockman has given us the go-by,” said one of the gang, returning from his pursuit of the old convict.

“Have you examined every bush and tree between this and the prairie?” asked the chief.

“As well as we can in the darkness,” was the answer.

“Return to the woods, and don’t allow a space as large as a man’s body to escape inspection.  Away with you—­our triumph is not complete without the head of the old shepherd.”

“I can find nothing of the gold,” said a voice that I had heard before, and looking up I saw our treacherous companion, Steel Spring.

The fellow regarded me with a sly grin, and winked his eye as he pointed to the deep hole where he had labored when we discovered the treasure.

A frightful expression came over the robber’s face as he heard the report.  His staring eyes seemed to become injected with blood, and the scars on his countenance turned to a more livid hue.

“Where have you secreted the gold?” he asked, with a voice trembling with passion.

“What gold?” I demanded, indifferently.

“The gold which Jim Gulpin buried here.  You know what I mean; and let me tell you that a civil and correct answer will stand your friend, just at this time.  You have no police to fall back upon, and if I but give the word, your lives are not worth a farthing.”

“It is true, we were after the gold, but what evidence have you that we found it?” I demanded.

“The evidence of the man who has been on your track ever since you entered the forest—­saw you remove the sack, and then saw you attempt to escape with your plunder.  Come here, Steel Spring.”

The long, lank, lying wretch came at the call of his commander, and with a gracious nod towards us, stood ready to answer any questions.

“At what time did you give the signal, Steel Spring?”

“The hinstant that I sees they had got the money.  I didn’t know vether you had returned from the trip vich you vas to make, but I vas determined to try the signal agreed upon, and to my great joy, I heard you hanswer the first time I calls.”