"Good enough, Joe! What d'yer say, Harry? We could hide the barrels an' bag easy enough in the scrub."
"M-yes, perhaps so. Come ter think of it, I'm not so sure. Barrels'd be all right, but 'twon't be the dingoes' fault if they don't root out the dried fish. Tell you what, boys, plant 'em in the caves!"
"Good shot! The very thing the doctor ordered! The caves! yes. 'Twon't take us more'n a mile out of the way; an' 'twill be on the road to Bullaroi on the return trip. We can easily strike in on the west side of the cave ridge, and hide 'em in the stables. Nobody knows of that place but father an' the 'rangers; now poor ole Ben's shot——"
"Maybe it's ha-aunted, bhoys. It's juist th' sphot owld Ben'd hide his sowl in, so as to frighten awa-ay th' p'lice whin they goes rummagin' about f'r booty; loike th' carr-sthle ghosts in th' owld conthry. Bedad, thin, Oi'll be expactin' t' see th' bowld raider comin' on us out iv th' dark, his face shinin' loike th' stuff phwat matches is made ov."
"Brimstone an' treacle you're thinkin' of, ain't you, Denny? But, I say, chaps, it'll be better to hide 'em at the 'ranger's outlet; though it'll be the dickens own job to get the barrels into the cave up that slope. Wouldn't it be better, after all, to hide the stuff in the scrub, slinging the bag into a tree, high enough to be safe from the dingoes?"
So it would, and have saved a most painful experience; but having started the idea of hiding the fish in the caves, it presented an attraction that the others would not surrender. It gave a flavour of romance to the act. Now that he was dead, the bushranger's hiding-place took on a new interest; and so it came to pass that Tom found himself in a minority of one.
They found it a tough piece of work to get the barrels up the precipitous slope to the cave entrance. But, when the fish was at last stored in the forage chamber, as it was now called, and the party had remounted their horses, they could appreciate the advantage gained by relieving the pack-horses of so much dead weight.
They now made more rapid headway, and struck an accommodation house, in the early afternoon, kept by one Jago Smith—an old acquaintance of Harry's.
CHAPTER XXXII
HOW THEY STRUCK GOLD