The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 54

"That's blow number one," cried Murden. "Go on, Maurice."

"Stop--for G.o.d's sake, stop," he yelled. "I vill tell all that I know, and more too, if you will let me go."

"Who killed and robbed those two miners on their way to Melbourne this spring?" asked the officer, motioning the policeman to suspend his punishment.

"Do you mean the two men near the muddy brook, or on the Ballarat Road?"

inquired Steel Spring.

"The two last," replied Murden.

"Vell, don't strike, 'cos it hurts like thunder, and I don't mind telling you all about it. You see Nosey heard that they'd got the dust vid 'em; so I was sent to talk vid 'em and find out how much they had, and get 'em to stop in a convenient place; and then Nosey and two others comes up and pretends to be going our vay, and ven a good chance occurred the miners vere knocked in their heads, and Nosey took the dust and divided it around, but I didn't get any."

"Give him another cut, Maurice, for telling the last lie," cried Murden, coolly.

"Don't do that," shouted the long-legged wretch, as the blow fell with awful distinctness upon his back. "Darn it all, you hurt."

"I intended that the blow should," replied Maurice, making preparations to repeat it.

"Don't strike, for G.o.d's sake don't. I'll tell the truth this time," he yelled.

"How much money did the men have, and what was your share?" repeated Murden.

"I don't know how much they had, but I does know that I got a hundred pounds for my share in the affair. But I didn't kill the men. 'Pon honor I didn't"

"I believe you on that point. Wait a moment, Maurice; I have another question or two."

"I vish that you'd let me hanser 'em vithout bein' tied up," groaned the wretch.

"What became of that young girl who was on her way with a party of friends to join her father at Ballarat, and who was carried off by a gang of bushrangers?" questioned the lieutenant.

"She's dead," replied Steel Spring, dropping his voice and looking around anxiously, as though fearful he should see her ghost in the darkness.

"Who claimed her as a prize?"

"Nosey took charge of her, and threatened to kill any one vot spoke to her; but I believe that she got a knife and stabbed herself, sooner than submit to his vishes."

"This is horrid," I said, hardly knowing whether to believe all that I heard, or consider it the effect of imagination.

"Nevertheless, it is true. You have never heard all the cruelties that the gangs commit; if you had you would be ready to exclaim, Give them no quarter, for they deserve none!"

"Now that I've hanswered all you vant to know, you von't vip me any more, vill you?"

Murden was about to speak, but just then a new subject engrossed his attention, and he had no longer an opportunity to inflict chastis.e.m.e.nt upon the begging wretch.

CHAPTER XXIX.

REVENGE OF THE BUSHRANGERS.--FIRING OF THE FOREST.

The punishment of Steel Spring was suspended, and the stout sword belt remained in the hands of Maurice, inactive, while all eyes were directed towards the heavens, from whence a bright light proceeded, which illuminated the open s.p.a.ce where we stood, so that even the ghastly faces of the dead and dying could be observed with awful distinctness.

For a few minutes' time, even the busy tongue of Steel Spring ceased to wag and each turned to the other, and asked the reason of such a bright light at that time and place.

"I think it's the moon just rising," one of the men ventured to say.

"There's no moon to-night," was the brief rejoinder.

"Then what is the meaning of the light?" was the inquiry; but no one seemed to fathom it.

Presently a few clouds pa.s.sed over the heavens, and then we smelled smoke, of which they seemed composed.

"The bushrangers can't have set fire to the stockman's hut, can they?"

asked Murden.

"They could not have crossed the prairie so soon, and the distance is too great to allow of such a reflection," was my answer.

"Hark, I hear the cracking of bushes," said Fred; "some one is approaching us."

"Look to your guns, men," called out Murden; "we do not know but this may be a device of the robbers to get a glimpse of us."

The policemen c.o.c.ked their carbines, and sheltered their forms from the bright light behind trees and bushes.

We heard the quick panting of a person who appeared to make his way through the bushes with difficulty, and the next moment the old convict sprang into the clearing, trembling with fatigue and agitation.

"You are all lost," he shouted, sinking upon the ground, wringing his aged hands, and rocking his body to and fro.

"What do you mean, man?" demanded the lieutenant, sternly.

"I mean that there is no chance to escape--_the bushrangers have fired the forest!_"

I felt the blood at my heart grow cold, for too well did I know the import of those dreadful words.

"How do you know this?" asked Murden, calmly.

"I followed the bushrangers when they fled, and mixed with them and talked with them, without being discovered. They discussed a plan for being revenged upon you and your men. They did not dare attack you, openly, after you caused the fire to be extinguished; so that Satan upon earth, Nosey, suggested that the forest should be fired at three different places, and that you would seek to escape from the flames by going in an opposite direction."

"And what will prevent us?" asked Murden, glancing his eyes over his men, who were listening in silence to the revelation.

"All of the best marksmen are going in ambush to the left of us, waiting for your force to attempt to escape that way. They now guard the pa.s.ses, and not one of us could get out alive," groaned the stockman.

"But we can make our way through that portion of the forest which is not burning," Fred said.

"Impossible," muttered the stockman; "the flames are spreading with the speed of a horse, and even now a huge wall of fire bars us from the prairie."

"Why did you not give us notice before?" I asked.