He had hardly finished speaking, when a stout, burly fellow slid down in front of us, and as he did so, he got a glimpse of our forms.

He was about to utter an exclamation, when my hands were around his throat, compressing his windpipe with a strength that seemed marvellous to me.  There was a slight struggle, unseen from the top of the bank, owing to the friendly shelf, and then I saw Fred make a motion with his arm, and almost immediately I felt that I held a corpse in my hands.

I let the body fall to the ground, and as I did so, Fred tore the slouched hat from the wretch’s head, placed it upon his own, and then thrusting his head out so that those upon the bank could see the hat, but not my friend’s face, and assuming, as nearly as possible, the voice of the dead, shouted:—­

“Ah, Bill, come down here and see what we’ve got.”

“Hullo!” cried Bill, “what’s up? can’t you tell?  D——­ me if I don’t believe they have found a gold mine, down there.  Let’s go and see, boys.”

“Now is our time,” cried Fred, quietly removing the pistols which the dead men carried in their belts.  “When they have descended half way, we must take them.”

We listened attentively, and when we thought that our time had arrived, we stepped out from our place of concealment, and before the bushrangers could overcome their surprise at our sudden appearance, we gave the two nearest the contents of our revolvers.

They relaxed their hold upon the bushes that grew sparsely upon the hill side, and rolling over and over, fell into the ravine, badly wounded.

“Surrender, villains,” yelled Fred, in a voice of thunder, pointing his empty pistol at the two remaining robbers—­an example that I was not slow to follow.  “Make but an attempt to use your weapons, and we’ll blow you through and through.  Throw down your pistols and knives, and then yield peaceably, or it will be worse for you.”

For a moment the villains gazed at us in sullen silence, and then reluctantly complied with our demand.  With an imprecation that would sound fearfully in print, the bushrangers commenced their descent, and while they were doing so, we quickly exchanged our empty revolvers for the loaded pistols, and then prepared to receive them with proper attention.

CHAPTER XLIII.

TRIUMPHANT ENTRY INTO BALLARAT, WITH THE BUSHRANGERS.

We did not allow our attention to be drawn from the bushrangers, even for a second, while they were descending, and the scamps knew it, for they cowered, as though expecting to be shot every moment, and one of them muttered something about his being honest, and never engaged in a robbery; while one of the wounded ruffians, who was groaning piteously in the ravine, prayed that his life might be saved, as he had many important revelations to make, which the police would like to hear.

We had taken the precaution to disarm the wounded men, before they fairly recovered from their surprise, so that they were powerless to inflict harm; and after the two bushrangers who were uninjured stood before us, obedient to our will, we began to ask ourselves what we should take to secure them with.