No sooner said than done. All four were tied to posts in the sun, and black-carded, or, as some spell it, placarded, thus:
COWARD.
Attacked and abused an old man.
>N. B.—Not hanged this time because they
got a licking then and there.
“Let us go and see after Mr. Levi, George.”
“Well, Tom, I had rather not.”
“Why not? he ought to be very much obliged to you.”
“That is it, Tom. The old man is of rather a grateful turn of mind—and it is ten to one if he doesn't go and begin praising me to my face—and then that makes me—I don't know which way to look. Wait till he has cooled upon it a bit.”
“You are a rum one. Well, George, I have got one proposal you won't say no to. First, I must tell you there is really a river of quartz in the country.”
“Didn't I tell you?”
“Yes, and I didn't believe it. But I have spoken to Jacky about it, and he has seen it; it is on the other side of the bush. I am ready to start for it to-morrow, for there is little good to be done here now the weather has broken.”
George assented with joy; but, when Robinson suggested that Jacky would be very useful to pilot them through the bush, his countenance fell.