“What was you asking for?” stammered Jem.  “Wasn’t it a clew?”

“Yes.”

Robinson got up and came to Jem, who was standing with dilated eyes looking at the ground in the very corner of the tent.  He followed the direction of Jem’s eyes, and was instantly transfixed with curiosity and rising horror.

“Take it up, Jem,” he gasped.

“No, you take it up! it was you who—­”

“No—­yes! there is George’s voice.  I wouldn’t let him see such a thing for the world.  Oh, God! here is another.”

“Another?”

“Yes, in the long grass! and there is George’s voice.”

“Come out, Jem.  Not a word to George for the world.  I want to talk to you.  If it hasn’t turned me sick!  I should make a poor hangman.  But it was in self-defense, thank Heaven for that!”

“Where are you going in such a hurry, Tom?” said George.

“Oh, only a little way with Jem.”

“Don’t be long, it is getting late.”

“No, George!”

“Jem, this is an ugly job!”

“An ugly job, no! ——­ him, I wish it was his head.  Give them me, captain.”

“What, will you take charge of them?”

“That I will, captain, and what is more I’ll find your enemy out by them, and—­when you come back he shall be in custody—­waiting your orders.  Give them me.”

“Yes, take them.  Oh, but I am glad to be rid of them.  What a ghastly look they have.”

“I don’t care for their looks.  I am right glad to see them—­they are a clew and no mistake.  Keep dark to-night.  Don’t tell this to Ede—­he is a good fellow but chatters too much—­let me work it out.  I’ll find the late owner double quick,” said Jem, with a somewhat brutal laugh.

“Your orders about the prisoners, captain?” cried Ede, coming up.

Robinson reflected.

Turn them all loose—­but one.”

“And what shall I do with him?”

“Hum!  Put a post up in your own tent.”

“Yes.”

“Tie him to it in his handcuffs.  Give him food enough.”

“And when shall we loose him?”

“At noon, to-morrow.”

“It shall be done! but you must come and show me which of the four it is.”

Robinson went with Ede and his men.

“Turn this one loose,” said he; it was done on the instant.

“And this.”

“And this.”

“And” (laying his finger on brutus) “keep this one prisoner in your tent, handcuffed and chained, till noon to-morrow.”

At the touch, brutus trembled with hate; at the order, his countenance fell like Cain’s.

Full two hours before sunrise the patrol called Robinson by his own order, and the friends made for the bush, with a day’s provision and their blankets, their picks, and their revolvers.  When they arrived at the edge of the bush, Robinson halted and looked round to see if they were followed.  The night was pretty clear; no one was in sight.  The men struck rapidly into the bush, which at this part had been cut and cleared in places, lying as it did so near a mine.