'No,' he said; 'where's the use?'
'How is it you are free?' asked Jim with surprise. This view had not occurred to him before.
They were standing between the stunted and twisted gums. The Bush here was spare and dwarfed, and the moonlight shone clearly upon Ryder's face.
'I am an escaped convict!' he replied
A bitter curse leapt from Done's tongue. He felt himself bound to this man by a common wrong, a wrong that had clouded with misery the greater part of their two lives.
'You may be retaken,' he said.
'I may, but I do not think it likely.'
At that moment recollection flashed upon Jim. He recalled the adventure with Long Aleck in the Bourke Street bar, and the robbery of Brigalow, the gold-buyer, at Diamond Gully. His hand was upon Ryder again: he gazed at him with a new apprehension.
'Sit,' he said. Ryder seated himself on a stump by the side of the young man, and Jim continued:
'You say Miss Woodrow noticed a strong resemblance between us. Others have remarked it.'