The bushranger appeared to recollect that in a moment of passion he had disclosed more than he should have done, and therefore refused to converse; but at length Mr. Brown led him to talk of the days when he was a prisoner at the hulks, and when the inspector was an overseer or turnkey at the same institution.
"How many years have passed, Bill, since you crossed the water?" inquired the inspector; meaning, in a polite way, to find out the exact time he had been transported.
"It's over six, I think; let me see; it's two years next month since I left my quarters at the hulks and started in search of fortune, and at times a hard one it has been," returned the prisoner.
"I've no doubt of it. Had you but remained faithful and obedient, your time would have nearly expired, now, I think," continued the inspector, in a friendly tone; but I could see that he was only leading the bushranger along for the purpose of extracting information.
"Yes," replied the fellow, bitterly, "my time would have arrived, and I would have been discharged from the accursed hulks, but not by human hands. Death would have claimed me long before this; and death would have been preferable to the life that I led."
"But there were others who were confined with more serious charges against them than yourself, and yet you know that many of them were pardoned, or obtained tickets of leave, and are now doing well."
"Yes, because they became slaves to your will, and played the spy upon those who dared to remonstrate against the food and the treatment which they received. I was one of their victims, and well I paid for my independence."
"You did, indeed," muttered the inspector, but Bill did not hear him.
"I went to the hulks determined to serve out my time like a man; but a few weeks' residence convinced me that, unless I became a slave, and trembled at the officer's nod, I should be broken in body and spirit. Then I laid my plans for an insurrection of the convicts, and had I not trusted to your minion, Ned, you would not have been driving me to certain death at the present time."
"Well, what would you have done?" asked the inspector, quietly.