The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 50

Fighting was not to be thought of; for who would think of taking part in a struggle when eighteen or twenty guns were aimed, and ready to be discharged upon the least sign of resistance.

There was one thing which I had the presence of mind to do. I stepped quietly behind the stockman and Smith, and dropped the bag of gold amidst a thicket of bushes, and I inwardly prayed that whatever might be our fate, the robbers would not get sight of the treasure.

"Do you surrender?" asked a voice; and following the bushranger's words, we could hear the ominous clink of the muskets as they were brought to their shoulders.

"What promises do you make us?" replied Fred, undaunted.

"What do you wish us to promise?" continued the bushranger.

"Our lives and arms."

"Our promises are easily broken. Why do you request mercy at the hands of bushrangers?"

"Because, in this case, if we do not obtain your most solemn pledge that our lives shall be spared, we will die with our rifles in our hands. I need not tell you that when we aim, we do so with the intention to kill."

The bushrangers whispered together for a few minutes, and from their eagerness we could see that a large majority of the men were in favor of complying with Fred's request. Once or twice we heard the word "gold"

mentioned, as though that was the chief theme of their discussion.

Presently the whispering ceased, and the man who appeared to be the leader of the band again spoke:--

"I have talked with my men, and they are willing to comply with your desire, provided you will deliver to us the gold which you found buried in this clearing."

"As for the gold," returned Fred, "we dropped it some time ago, and you are welcome to it if it can be found."

"Then lay down your arms and step towards us. We are not to be taken by surprise, having heard of your Yankee tricks."

"We had better trust to darkness and our guns," muttered the old stockman; but his warning was too late, for Fred advanced towards the bushrangers and placed his rifle in their hands, and with a sigh I followed his example.

"Come!" shouted the leader, his voice growing harsher as the disarming proceeded--"there are two more of 'em; hurry up, and don't keep us waiting too long."

"I make the third," said Smith, handing in his double barrelled gun.

"Ha, driver, are you here?" laughed the ruffian, as his eyes fell upon Smith's burly form. "You had better have stuck to the teaming business than digging up dead men's gold--I think you would have found it more profitable and less dangerous."

"There is where we differ in opinion, Sam Nosey," replied Smith, quite coolly. "I work at any kind of business where I think I can make an honest s.h.i.+lling, and don't see but this expedition comes under the head of regular trade. At the edge of the wood you will find my team and two pair of good oxen, with a bottle of brandy such as you have not tasted for many a day."

"You mean that I would have found things as you describe, an hour or two ago; but the fact is, my men were hungry; so two of your cattle were knocked in the head, and a right jolly feed we had, I a.s.sure you."

"I wish they had been so tough that their flesh would have choked you,"

was the unsatisfactory exclamation of the stout-hearted Smith.

"Your wish is unkind, considering the favor which we intend to show you," sneered the bushranger captain.

Smith uttered an oath, and I thought, that in spite of the number around us, he would make a push for freedom; but after glancing around and seeing that his intention was antic.i.p.ated, and that the crowd had enclosed us in a circle, he gave up the idea.

"There is one prisoner missing--where is he?" demanded the chief, abruptly.

"There's no other to be seen," cried half a dozen voices.

"Fools! why do you talk in that way? The old stockman is one of the party, for I saw him not more than five minutes ago. Bring him out of the bushes and let us see if his hair has grown any whiter since the time he shot at me for killing a lamb. I have an account to settle with him."

"He has made his escape, for no one is to be seen," cried the men, after searching for a few minutes.

"It can't be, for only a moment ago I saw him mumbling prayers and hoping that his life would be spared. Fire the pile of brush, call in the scouts, and let me hear their report."

As the chief spoke, a huge pile of brush was fired, which illuminated the open s.p.a.ce and cast a bright glare upon the faces of those present.

Involuntarily, I looked at the person of the man who appeared to hold such despotic sway over his followers, and I shuddered while I gazed, for a more horrible face I never saw, except in my dreams.

His cheeks were seared until the flesh appeared livid and raw, and I expected to see blood trickle from the half-healed wounds. His eyes were large and glaring, being entirely unprotected by eyelashes, and as for eyebrows, they seemed to be eaten away and destroyed. The fellow's nose, however, was the most disgusting part of his face; for the nasal organ was entirely gone, and nothing was to be seen excepting two small holes which led to the chambers of the head.

I understood the reason that he was nicknamed Nosey, without asking a question, but it was not until some days after that I learned how he came to be so badly disfigured.

Charles Bowen, alias Nosey, was sentenced to transportation for twenty-five years for appropriating about ten thousand pounds to his own use by means of a forged will. He was a man of a good education, and withal shrewd and unscrupulous; but sharp as he was, it did not prevent his getting convicted and sentenced--and from the time that he stepped foot on board of the transport he began his career of defying officers and all wholesome discipline.

One day he attacked an a.s.sistant surgeon, who was attached to the vessel, and the doctor repelled him by hurling a bottle of oil of vitriol at his head. Bowen closed his eyes when he saw that the liquid was about to strike his face, and by resolutely keeping them closed until the powerful acid was cleaned from his flesh, managed to save them, and then the surgeons of the s.h.i.+p commenced and arrested the progress of the vitriol, and preserved his life; but not until the fellow's nose was entirely gone, and his eyebrows and cheeks nearly eaten away.

A more hideous-looking wretch, as he stood by the blazing pile of brush, I never saw; and it appeared to me that he gloried in his deformity, for he rolled his glaring eyes at me, and chuckled immensely when he saw that I regarded him rather closely.

"The stockman has given us the go-by," said one of the gang, returning from his pursuit of the old convict.

"Have you examined every bush and tree between this and the prairie?"

asked the chief.

"As well as we can in the darkness," was the answer.

"Return to the woods, and don't allow a s.p.a.ce as large as a man's body to escape inspection. Away with you--our triumph is not complete without the head of the old shepherd."

"I can find nothing of the gold," said a voice that I had heard before, and looking up I saw our treacherous companion, Steel Spring.

The fellow regarded me with a sly grin, and winked his eye as he pointed to the deep hole where he had labored when we discovered the treasure.

A frightful expression came over the robber's face as he heard the report. His staring eyes seemed to become injected with blood, and the scars on his countenance turned to a more livid hue.

"Where have you secreted the gold?" he asked, with a voice trembling with pa.s.sion.

"What gold?" I demanded, indifferently.

"The gold which Jim Gulpin buried here. You know what I mean; and let me tell you that a civil and correct answer will stand your friend, just at this time. You have no police to fall back upon, and if I but give the word, your lives are not worth a farthing."

"It is true, we were after the gold, but what evidence have you that we found it?" I demanded.

"The evidence of the man who has been on your track ever since you entered the forest--saw you remove the sack, and then saw you attempt to escape with your plunder. Come here, Steel Spring."

The long, lank, lying wretch came at the call of his commander, and with a gracious nod towards us, stood ready to answer any questions.

"At what time did you give the signal, Steel Spring?"

"The hinstant that I sees they had got the money. I didn't know vether you had returned from the trip vich you vas to make, but I vas determined to try the signal agreed upon, and to my great joy, I heard you hanswer the first time I calls."

"And you saw them remove the sack?" demanded the chief.