"I do; you have every thing to gain, and nothing to lose."
"My life, I suppose, you call nothing; that is already forfeited, you seem to think; but you shall find that, robber as I am, I know how to keep a secret."
"Then you refuse to divulge?"' asked Murden.
The bushranger regarded him with a scornful air, and remained silent. Murden grew excited, and forgot that he was only an humble instrument of the law, and that life and death were not at his disposal after men had surrendered.
"Throw a tackle over the branch of yonder tree," he said, pointing to a sturdy gum tree which grew near; "we will save the courts of Melbourne the trouble of trying the fellow."
The bushranger did not seem surprised, or appear to be affected at the news.
Not so the policemen; they knew that their officer was exceeding his authority, but their discipline was too good to allow them to cavil at his orders, right or wrong.
They threw a rope over the shrub pointed out, and then making a slip-noose, passed it around the neck of the obstinate robber. Still he wore his scornful look, and did not even ask for mercy, which Murden had evidently anticipated.
"Will you reveal?" demanded the lieutenant.
"No!" he yelled: and with his refusal was a gesture of the most impudent and insulting nature.