"When I'm arraigned before my judges, I shall tell them of the blow," muttered the bushranger, wiping the blood from his brow.
"Do so, if you think it will help your case any," answered Murden, indifferently. "When you get before the judges you speak of, let me advise you to keep a civil tongue, however, or the worse for you."
"I shall speak my mind," replied the bushranger, who appeared determined to have the last word.
Orders were now given to get ready for our passage through the woods; but before we started we threw the bodies of the dead robbers into the hut, and then set it on fire. Long before the flames ceased, we were safe out of the woods, and mounted on our horses, heading towards the old convict's hut.
Our travel was slow, as the bushrangers were compelled to walk with their hands tied behind their backs, and it was only by threatening to ride them down, that we could get them to move at any kind of decent pace.
Smith, whose whole ideas were concentrated on his lost cattle, left us to see if he could find one yoke which were unaccounted for. When we entered the woods in search of the gold buried by Jim Gulpin, we had left two yoke hitched to the cart and a tree, and after our severe ordeal of fire, we had found two oxen burned to death, while two more were missing.
Thinking that, they might have wandered to the corral where the remainder of the cattle were confined, Smith galloped across the prairie and was soon out of sight. He did not rejoin us until we reached the hut, where we found that he had regained his oxen, and was paying considerably more attention to the old stockman's daughter than to his own affairs.
There was one thing which he deserved credit for, and it was accorded him with all our hearts. The supper which he provided was capable of making us forget our pains and fatigue; for a roasted lamb was smoking on a table, and three or four gallons of coffee were all ready to be drank, to restore us to new life.
All the articles which we had left at the hut were found in good order, and nothing was missing. It may seem strange that a stockman's hovel, miles away from other habitations, should escape the assaults of bushrangers; but the latter knew their own interests too well to meddle with keepers of sheep and cattle.
Many stockmen are in league with escaped convicts, and give them the earliest information in regard to the pursuit or routes of policemen; and although such a charge could not be brought against my friend, the old convict, yet the bushrangers knew that if he was molested or injured, the owners of the animals under his charge would find it very hard work to fill his place, and be forced in the end to drive their herds to other grazing spots. Hence, the supply of provisions which the bushrangers were in the habit of always considering secure, would have been cut off, and uncertain means resorted to.