“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.
“What, are we to run, Tom?”