"There was gold there."

"Make tucker, eh?" the Prospector laughed. "Well this'll be good enough for us. We'll put in our pegs above yours. But how you dropped on this field just gits over me. You couldn't have come straighter, not if I'd shown you the way myself."

"Instinct," replied Moonlight. "Instinct and the natural attraction of the magnet." He desired to take no credit for his own astuteness in prospecting.

Scarlett had so far said nothing, but he now invited the newcomers to eat, before they pitched their tent.

"No, no," said the Prospector, "you must be on pretty short commons--you must ha' bin out a fortnight and more. Me an' my mate'll provide the tucker."

"We _are_ a bit short, and that's the truth," said Moonlight, "but we reckon on holding out till we've finished this wash-up, and then one of us'll have to fetch stores."

While Benjamin and his mate were unpacking their swags and Scarlett was lighting the fire, Moonlight transferred the rest of the gold from the dish to the leather bag.

When the four men sat down to their frugal meal of "billy" tea, boiled bacon, and "damper," they chatted and laughed like schoolboys.

"Ah!" exclaimed Tresco, as red flames of the fire shot toward the stars and illumined the gigantic trunks of the surrounding trees, "this is freedom and the charm of Nature. No blooming bills to meet, no bother about the orders of worrying customers, no everlasting bowing and sc.r.a.ping; all the charm of society, good-fellowship, confidence, and conversation, with none of the frills of so-called civilization. But that is not all. Added to this is the prospect of making a fortune in the morning. Now, that is what I call living."

CHAPTER XIX.

A Den of Thieves.

Down a by-lane in the outskirts of Timber Town stood a dilapidated wooden cottage. Its windows lacked many panes, its walls were bare of paint, the shingles of its roof were rotten and scanty; it seemed uninhabitable and empty, and yet, as night fell, within it there burned a light. Moreover, there were other signs of life within its crazy walls, for when all without was quiet and dark, the door opened and a bare-headed man emerged.

"Carny!" he called.

A whistle sounded down the lane, and soon a figure advanced from the shadow of a hedge and stood in the light of the open door.

"We've only waited near an hour for you," said the first man. "If you've orders to be on time, be on time. D'you expect the whole push to dance attendance on you?"

"Now, Dolphin, draw it mild. That blame pretty girl at The Lucky Digger kept me, an' wouldn't let me go, though I told her I had a most important engagement."

"Petticoats an' _our_ business don't go together," gruffly responded Dolphin. "Best give 'em a wide berth till we've finished our work here and got away."

The two men entered the house, and the door was shut.

At a bare, white-pine table sat two other men, the sour-faced Garstang and the young fellow who answered to the name of Sweet William.

"Come in, come in," said the latter, "and stop barrackin' like two old washerwomen. Keep yer breath to discuss the biz."

Dolphin and Carnac drew chairs to the table, on which stood a guttering candle, glued to the wood with its own grease.

"Charming residence," remarked Carnac, elegant in a black velvet coat, as he glanced round the bare and battered room.

"Sweet William Villa," said the young man. "I pay no rent; and mighty comfortable it is too, when you have a umberella to keep out the rain."

"Our business," said the pugnacious-looking Dolphin, "is to square up, which hasn't been done since we cleaned out the digger that William hocussed."

He drew a handful of notes and gold from his pocket, and placed it on the table.

"Gently," said Sweet William, who took Carnac's hat, and placed it over the money. "Wait till I fix my blind." s.n.a.t.c.hing a blanket from a bed made upon the bare floor, he hung it on two nails above the window, so as to effectually bar the inquisitive gaze of chance wayfarers. "Damme, a bloke would think you wanted to advertise the firm and publish our balance-sheet." Stepping down to the floor, he replaced Carnac's hat upon its owner's head, and said "Fire away."

Each man placed his money in front of him, and rendered his account.

Then Dolphin took all the money, counted it, and divided it into four equal heaps, three of which he distributed, and one of which he retained.

"Fifty-seven quid," said Sweet William, when he had counted his money.

"A very nice dividend for the week. I think I'll give up batching here, and live at The Lucky Digger and have a spree."

"Not much, William," broke in Dolphin. "Keep yourself in hand, my son.

Wait till we've made our real haul and got away with the loot: then you can go on the burst till all's blue. Each man wants his wits about him, for the present."

"You mean the bank," said Carnac.

The leader of the gang nodded.

"I've fossicked around the premises," continued the gentleman in the velvet coat, "and I must confess that they're the most trifling push _I_ ever saw. There's the manager, a feeble rat of a man; another fellow that's short-sighted and wears specs.; a boy, and the teller, a swell who wears gloves on his boots and looks as if he laced himself up in stays."

"I reckon there's a rusty old revolver hanging on a nail somewheres,"

remarked Garstang.

"Most likely," said Dolphin, "but our plan is to walk in comfortable and easy just before closing-time. I'll present a faked-up cheque which'll cause a consultation between the teller and the short-sighted party. In the meantime, Carnac will interview the manager about sending a draft to his wife in England. You, Garstang, will stand ready to bar the front door, and William will attend to the office-boy and the door at the back. Just as the clerks are talking about the cheque, I'll whip out my weapon and bail 'em up, and then the scheme will go like clock-work."

"But suppose there's a mob of customers in the place?" asked Garstang.

"A lot of harmless sheep!" replied Dolphin. "It'll be your duty to bail them up. There's a big strong-room at the back, well-ventilated, commodious, and dry. We'll hustle everybody into that, and you and William will stand guard over them. Then Carnac will bring the manager from his room, and with the persuasion of two pistols at his head the little old gentleman will no doubt do the civil in showing us where he stows his dollars. There'll be plenty of time: the bank will be closed just as in the ordinary course of things. We'll do the job thoroughly, and when we've cleaned the place out, we'll lock all the parties up in the strong-room, and quit by the back door as soon as it's dusk."

"Sounds O.K.," remarked Sweet William, "but there'll be a picnic before morning. I reckon we'll need to get away pretty sudden."

"That can be arranged in two ways," said Dolphin. "First, we can choose a day when a steamer is leaving port early in the evening, say, eight o'clock; or we can take to the bush, and make our way across country.

I've turned over both plans in my mind, and I rather prefer the latter.

But that is a point I leave to you--I'll fall in with the opinion of the majority."

"Yes," said Garstang, "it looks as if it must succeed: it looks as if it can't go wrong. Our leader Dolphin, the brains of the gang, has apparently fixed up everything; the details are all thought out; the men are ready and available, but----"

"But what?" asked Dolphin gruffly. "Are you going to back down?

Frightened of getting a bit of lead from a rusty old revolver, eh?"

"It ain't that," replied the ugliest member of the gang, "but supposin'

there's no money in the bloomin' bank, what then?"

A roar of laughter greeted his surmise.

"What d'you suppose the bank's for," asked Carnac, "if not to store up money?"

"Whips and whips of money," observed Sweet William, the stem of his lighted pipe between his teeth. "You go with a legitimate cheque for, say, 550, and you'd get it cashed all right."