“The worst of it is,” said Obed to Harry, who was walking alongside of him, “that them skunks have got the best of it. It’s their time to crow now.”
“That’s the way I feel,” said Harry soberly. “I believe I would rather have lost twice as much to anybody else.”
“We haven’t lost all, that’s a comfort. They will take the money we have with us, but if ever we escape to Melbourne, there is the nugget money waiting for us.”
Just then Colson stepped up with a smile on his face.
“It strikes me I’ve got about even with you, friend Stackpole,” he said.
“Don’t call me friend, Colson; I don’t own any man as a friend who acts like you. So you’re a bushranger, are you?”
“Certainly not,” answered Colson, amazed.
“It looks like it,” remarked Obed significantly.
“I am merely in the company of the bushrangers just at present.”
“Aiding and abetting them in their scheming. That’s so, isn’t it?”