Murden left eight of his men to take charge of the prisoners, with strict orders for two of them to keep guard without rest or sleep. We were about to mount our horses, when a brawny ruffian we had made prisoner the night before shouted,—
"Aren't you going to give us something to eat, or are we to be starved like dogs? You are all cowards, and dare not give us fair play, and an open fight, but I didn't suppose that you were so frightened as to refuse to let us have a mouthful."
"Dress a sheep for them, and let them eat their fill," ordered Murden; "but mind that they escape not, on your lives."
We rode off, followed by the shouts and maledictions of the gang, and even when we were one hundred rods distant I could hear the ruffians call after us, bidding us return and learn bravery from them.
"You now know why I feared to leave the prisoners in charge of my men when a keg of rum was near at hand. The bushrangers, knowing that hanging is certain, would try and provoke a sudden and easier death. I do not fear the temper of the men when free from liquor."
Smith, Fred and myself, besides two policemen, composed the party, and regardless of the heat, which poured down as though it would melt our brains, we urged our panting horses over the plain, and hardly drew rein until we reached the edge of the forest, where we halted for consultation.
It was a bold experiment to venture with a small force to the retreat of the once formidable outlaw, for there was no telling whether or no a portion of his gang were living at his haunt. The officer looked up to us for advice, and we consulted the hound, which had accompanied us, and now stood by our sides panting and lolling out his great tongue, and wondering, I suppose, why we did not stop at the river.
"Let us dismount, and shade the animals as well as possible," I advised, "and then trust to the sagacity of the dog to detect an ambush. My life on his shrewdness."
The advice was acted on, when leaving one man to take charge of the animals, we examined our guns and pistols, and made sure that they were in order; and then, with a few words of encouragement to the hound, which he appeared to understand, we moved along the path we had travelled when on our first visit.