"We didn't git no farther than Auckland," muttered Slim Jim shamefacedly. "We didn't calc'late on goin' nowheres without the boss, so we has come back."
English Bob smiled. "But how have you managed to arrive at this time?" he asked. "Surely you did not walk from Wangeri."
"We just did," asserted Never Never Dan. "We couldn't wait on the bally old coach, so we came right away last night——"
"Come an' have some tucker, you heavenly twins," roared Ted, relinquishing his shovel, his honest face glowing with pleasure at the return of the prodigals.
When they had departed towards the hut, English Bob looked at me inquiringly. "Could you imagine men like these in any other country than this?" he said. "They are just like children."
Slowly the sun climbed up in the heavens, and we two persevered at our work of excavation. Then gradually I became aware of the rhythmic hoof-beats of many horses sounding faintly in the distance, and soon the dense forest rang out with the unwonted echoes. And now the rushing of the gum-diggers hither and thither came plainly to our ears, and a chorus of warning cries swelled out above the prevailing din—"The troopers are coming."
At once the truth flashed over me that the man whose whare I shared was the object of their search; the inevitable crisis had come at last. As for him, he stood almost defiantly erect, with the blood alternately surging to his cheeks, then leaving them deathly pallid.
I laid my hand on his shoulder. "Why do you try to hide from me that which I already know?" I said gently. "Sometimes it is possible to help——"
"You know?" he gasped.