Walker, a timid villain, was unprepared for the burst of savage exultation from brutus and Black Will that followed this intelligence.  These two, by an instinct quick as lightning, saw the means of gratifying at one blow their cupidity and hate.  Crawley had already told them he had seen Robinson come out of Levi’s tent after a long stay, and their other spies had told them his own tent had been left unguarded for hours.  They put these things together and conjectured at once that the men had now their swag about them in one form or other.

“When do they go?”

“To-morrow at break of day,” he said.

“The bush is very thick!”

“And dark, too!”

“It is just the place for a job.”

“Will two of you be enough?”

“Plenty, the way we shall work.”

“The men are strong and armed.”

“Their strength will be no use to them, and they shan’t get time to use their arms.”

“For Heaven’s sake, shed no blood unnecessarily,” said Crawley, beginning to tremble at the pool of crime to whose brink he had led these men.

“Do you think they will give up their swag while they are alive?” asked brutus, scornfully.

“Then I wash my hands of it all,” cried the little self-deceiving caitiff; and he affected to have nothing to do with it.

Walker was then thanked for his information, and he thought this was a good opportunity for complaining of his wrongs and demanding redress.  This fellow was a thorough egotist, saw everything from his own point of view only.

Jem had dragged him before Judge Robinson; Robinson had played the beak and found him guilty; Levi had furnished the test on which he had been convicted.  All these had therefore cruelly injured and nearly killed him.

Himself was not the cause.  He had not set all these stones rolling by forging upon nature and robbing Jem of thirty pounds.  No! he could not see that, nor did he thank Jem one bit for jumping in and saving his life at risk of his own.  “Why did he ever get him thrown in, the brute?  If he was not quite drowned he was nearly, and Jem the cause.”

His confederates soothed him with promises of vengeance on all their three his enemies, and soon after catching sight of one of them, Levi, they kept their word; they roused up some of the other diggers against Isaac on the plea that he had refused to give evidence against Walker, and so they launched a mob and trusted to mob nature for the rest.  The recoil of this superfluous villainy was, as often happens, a blow to the head scheme.

brutus, who was wanted at peep of day for the dark scheme already hinted at, got terribly battered by George Fielding, and placarded, and, what was worse, chained to a post, by Robinson and Ede.  It became necessary to sound his body and spirit.

One of the gang was sent by Crawley to inquire whether he felt strong enough to go with Black Will on that difficult and dangerous work to-morrow.  The question put in a passing whisper was answered in a whisper.