“Yes, go on—quick!” said Mr Raydon.
“They had been there some time in the night. There was a party of six working together, and I suppose they surprised them.”
“Well?”
“Two of the poor fellows are lying dead, sir, and the other four badly wounded. They have swept the place of everything, and got a good deal of gold.”
As this bad news was told I could not look at Mr Raydon, for fear his eyes should gaze reproachfully into mine. I felt that he did glance at me as if to say—“Your work, Gordon!”
But at that moment the visitor went on speaking—
“I’ve come up, sir, with my mates, as we agreed to help one another. We are peaceable people, and we only ask to be let alone; but after last night’s work it must be war. This can’t go on.”
“No,” said Mr Raydon, firmly.
“We’re right away here from any settlement, and there might be no law at all for any help it can give us, so we must be our own judges and jury.”
“No,” said Mr Raydon, firmly; “not that, but we must be our own soldiers and police.”