"And you expect to succeed?" demanded Fred, ironically.
The bushranger made no reply, and as we had got all the information that we expected, and had other work in view, we gagged him, and had just secured the wretch, when a low growl from the hound attracted our attention.
"If this is the leader," whispered Smith, "you had better let me have a clip at him first, as he is a man of great strength, and a regular dare-devil!"
"You may pin his arms, while Jack looks out for his feet," replied Fred.
"I understand," answered Smith, and we fell back into the darkest shade of the bushes, as Jim came in sight.
He walked with a hasty step towards the spot where his companions were drinking, and we knew that they must be getting drunk quite fast, for more than once had we heard their voices mingled with oaths and execrations.
We stole after him, following on tiptoe to prevent our steps from being audible, and at a given signal, threw ourselves upon his burly form.
Although taken by surprise, he readily shook us off and gained his liberty. Once did he free one of his arms from Smith's embrace, and brought it down upon that unfortunate man's head with a clang that sounded as though he had fractured his skull; the stout-hearted Englishman only clung the closer.
Once the bushranger, by his desperate struggles, freed his neck from Fred's vice-like compression; but instead of using his voice in calling for help, as a more cowardly man would have done, he uttered fierce invectives and expressions of defiance.
We bore him to the earth and closed his mouth, and threatened with steel, but he still defied us; and not until his limbs were securely bound, and a piece of Smith's flannel shirt was thrust into his mouth, and the hound standing over him, expressing, by his deep growls, the most intense desire to taste the robber's flesh, did he become calm and submit to his fate with resignation.