"Then you know that there is money buried near here?"
"Hof course I does. Didn't I see Jim Gulpin ven he planted it, and didn't I run hoff the next day, and ven I hears that Jim is a goner, and had got into the hands of the beaks, didn't I leave the mines, vere the vork is jolly 'ard, and come 'ere with the intention of raising it, and having a jolly good blow out at Melbourne?"
"Then you have been connected with a gang of bushrangers?" Fred asked.
"Vell, I did use to do the cookin' for 'em, vile they did the robbin'; but then you wouldn't blow on a fellow, would you?"
"What did you make a target of my body for?" I inquired.
"Vell, I vill be plain, and no mistake. I did think that if it killed von of ye, vy the rest vould run, and then I should be left alone to ring the blunt."
"And why did you not continue to fire at us?"
"'Cos I hadn't got any more bullets," was the frank answer; and on examination of his powder pouch, we found such to be the case.
"What have you done with your ammunition?"