"Escaped?" asked Steel Spring, with an injured look; "I'd scorn such a breach of confidence between gentlemen. No, sir, I did not escape, but was pardoned for the service I've rendered my country."
"And the bushrangers that Murden carried to Melbourne?" Fred asked, with some anxiety.
"Vell, they suffered for their crimes, and are all forgotten by this time," replied the wretch, with a grin.
"Hanged?" I asked.
"Every mother's son of 'em, and served 'em right, too. Property is respected, nowadays, and a miner can travel all the way from Ballarat to Melbourne, and lose nothing if he's got nothing to lose," the grinning scamp replied.
"I've got a friend vid me," Steel Spring said at length, "and perhaps you'd like to see him."
"Who is he?" we asked.
"O, a man you used to know—Murden I believe is his name, and he's in some vay connected with the police force of Melbourne."
The grinning rascal! he had been sent by our friend to notify us of his arrival, and that was the way he performed his duty. But before we had time to administer to him a sound kicking, the lieutenant was with us.
We need not tell the reader that we welcomed him with our whole hearts, and that he appeared as delighted to see us as we were glad to see him.