"I know them all, and I owe them all a grudge. There is nothing I should like better than to take all they have and leave them penniless."
"I don't like them myself," said Colson, thinking this was the way to curry favor with his new acquaintance.
"You know them also?"
"Yes; they have treated me meanly."
Colson probably referred to their substituting a common rock for the rich nugget, and so subjecting him to mortification and disappointment.
Fletcher asked him a few more questions, and then with the new accessions plunged into the woods, and led his party to the headquarters of the bushrangers.
CHAPTER XXXI. — TAKEN CAPTIVE.
The new recruits, on being introduced to the captain of the bushrangers, were subjected to a searching examination by the chief, a suspicion having arisen in his mind that the two were spies sent out by the government to lure the outlaws into a trap. He was convinced after a while that they were acting in good faith, and a conference was called to decide what should be done in the matter. On this point opinions differed. The nugget, of course, would be a valuable prize, but it would be impossible to dispose of it in Melbourne, as the fact of its discovery would have been published, and any person attempting to sell it would be instantly arrested. This view was held by Captain Ring himself.