“He must have meant to fool me. I am ashamed to say he did.”
“Couldn’t you have found out whether his boasts were correct?”
“That is just what I tried to do,” answered Fletcher. “I crept to his side early one morning, and began to explore his pockets, but he woke up in an instant and cut up rough. He seized me by the throat, and I thought he would choke me. That made me think all the more that he carried a good deal of money about with him.”
“The boys, too—did you think they were worth plundering?”
“Oh, no, I never was deceived about them,” replied Fletcher promptly. “I concluded that, even if they had money, the Yankee was their guardian, and took care of it. They are all Americans, you know.”
He spoke glibly, and the captain appeared to credit his statements. The boys listened with interest and with a new appreciation of Fletcher’s character. They could easily have disproved one of his statements, for they knew very well that Obed never boasted of his money, nor gave any one a right to suppose that he carried much with him. On this point he was very reticent, and neither of them knew much of his circumstances. However, it would have done no good to contradict Fletcher, for his word with the captain would have outweighed theirs, and he would have found a way to punish them for their interference.
“In future,” said the captain, “I advise you to make sure that the game is worth bagging. As it is, you have led us on a fool’s errand.”
“That may be,” Fletcher admitted, “but it wasn’t so last time. The Scotch merchant bled freely, you must allow.”
“Yes, you did better then.”
As Harry listened he began to understand that Fletcher acted as a decoy, to ingratiate himself with parties leaving Melbourne for the mines, and then giving secret information to the bushrangers with whom he was connected, enabling them to attack and plunder his unsuspecting companions.