"I do not."
"To whom, then?"
At this moment a loud uproar was heard half a mile up the river. A crowd had formed, which rapidly increased, and was now approaching the station. In the midst of the multitude two men were bearing a corpse. It was that of the guard, already cold. A poniard-thrust had pierced him to the heart. The assassins had dragged the body some distance from Camden Bridge, doubtless intending by this means to mislead the police in their first investigations. This discovery clearly justified the doubts of the officer. The natives had no hand in the crime.
"Those who struck the blow," said he, "are persons already familiar with the use of these little instruments."
As he spoke he displayed a pair of "darbies," a kind of manacles consisting of a double ring of iron, furnished with a padlock.
"Before long," added he, "I shall have the pleasure of presenting them with these bracelets as a new year's gift."
"Then you suspect——?"
"People who have 'traveled free on Her Majesty's vessels.'"
"What! convicts?" cried Paganel, who recognized the phrase employed in the Australian colonies.
"I thought," observed Glenarvan, "that those who have been transported had no right to stay in the province of Victoria."