CHAPTER X.
FLETCHER TURNS UP AGAIN.
Harry didn't need to be told that bushrangers in Australia correspond tobandits in Italy and highwaymen in other countries. The escaped convictsand desperate characters who are naturally attracted to a new country,readily adopted the wild and lawless life of the bushrangers. Stories oftheir outrages were common enough, and among the dangers apprehended ina journey to or from the mines, that of meeting with a party of thisgentry was perhaps the most dreaded.
Though Obed Stackpole betrayed no emotion, but was outwardly quiet, hisheart sank within him when he saw the bushrangers strung along theroad.
"I guess our trip to the mines must be given up," said he in a low voiceto Harry.
Meanwhile Harry had been scanning the faces of the men who confrontedthem, and made a surprising discovery.
"Look, Obed," he said eagerly, "at that man on the extreme right."
Mr. Stackpole did look.
"Dick Fletcher, as I'm a living sinner!" he ejaculated.
But at this point the leader of the bushrangers broke silence.
"Do you surrender?" he asked in brief, commanding accents.
"I think we shall have to, squire," answered Obed, to whom the demandwas naturally addressed. "But I would like to ask a question or two ifyou don't mind."
"Go on."
"Are we prisoners of war? I didn't know for my part that there was anywar in this country."
"I have no time for foolish discussion," was the stern reply. "You mustgive up what money you have about you."
"It's mighty inconvenient, squire. I'm a good many thousand miles awayfrom home, and----"
"Peace, fool! Produce whatever you have of value."
"I haven't got much. You've tackled the wrong man, squire."
"Fletcher, search that man!" said the captain of the band.
Dick Fletcher dismounted from his horse, and with evident alacrityadvanced to the side of the Yankee.
"I think we've met before," said Obed significantly.
"I think we have," said the outlaw, showing his teeth. "I told you weshould meet again."
"I can't say I'm overjoyed at the meeting. However, I respect you morenow, when you show yourself in your true colors, than when you sneakedup to me at night, and searched my pockets, pretending all the while tobe a friend."
"Take care how you talk!" said Fletcher, frowning. "Yesterday you werethree to one, now you are in my power."
"So you're a highway robber, are you, Fletcher? Well, I can't say I'mvery much surprised. I guess that's what you're most fit for."
"Do you want me to kill you?" said Fletcher, touching his hip pocket."It isn't safe for you to insult me."
"Just so! You have a right to be brave with all them men at your side."
"What are you doing there, Dick Fletcher? Why don't you proceed tobusiness?" demanded the leader impatiently.
"Empty your pockets, Stackpole!" said Fletcher in a peremptory tone.
"All right."
The Yankee plunged his hands into his pockets, and produced insuccession a jackknife, a plug of tobacco, a bunch of keys, and a coupleof buttons.
"Take them, Fletcher," he said, "if you want 'em more than I do."
"What do you mean with this tomfoolery?" demanded Fletcher, perceivingan impatient frown on the face of his chief. "Hand over your money."
"I guess you'll have to search me, Fletcher. You've done it before,"answered Obed imperturbably. "I've mislaid my money, and you may knowwhere it is better than I do."
Fletcher took him at his word, and proceeded to search, using someroughness about it.
"Be careful, Fletcher," said Obed. "I'm a tender plant, and mustn't beroughly handled."
Every pocket was searched, but no money was found. Dick Fletcher lookedpuzzled.
"I can't find anything," he said to the captain.
"Rip open his clothes," said the leader impatiently. "He has some placeof concealment for his gold, but it won't avail. We shall find it."
Fletcher whipped out a knife and was about to obey directions, but Obedanticipated him.
"I'll save you the trouble, Fletcher," he said. "As you're bound to havethe money, I may as well give it up. Just hand over that jack-knife,won't you?"
Fletcher hesitated, not understanding his meaning.
"Oh, I'll give it back to you if you want it, but I need it to get themoney."
Upon this the knife was given back to him.
Obed cut open the lining of his pantaloons, and drew out four five-poundbank-notes. They were creased and soiled, but this did not impair theirvalue.
"I guess that's what you were after," said Obed. "I can't say you'rewelcome to them, but that doesn't make any difference to you, I takeit."
"Is that all you've got?" demanded the chief of the bushrangers, lookingvery much disappointed.
"Every cent, squire."
The leader turned to Fletcher.
"Didn't you tell us this man was well fixed?" he asked.
"I thought so," answered Fletcher, crestfallen.
"I thought you _knew_ it. Why, this is a contemptibly small sum, anddoesn't pay for our trouble."
"You're right, squire," said Obed. "It aint worth carryin' away. You mayas well give it back, Fletcher."
"That's a different matter," continued the captain. "Once more, is thatall the money you have about you?"
"It is, squire."
"Be careful what you say, for if we catch you in a lie, we'll string youup to the nearest tree."
"It's as true as preachin', squire. I never lie. I'm like Washington. Idare say you've heard of him."
A further search was made, but no money was found, luckily for Obed,since there is reason to believe that the outlaw would have carried outhis threat.
"The fellow here fooled you, Fletcher," said the captain sternly. "Takecare how you bring us any more false reports."
"There are the boys," suggested Fletcher, uncomfortable under therebuke.
"Search them also."
This was done, or rather it would have been done, had not Harry andJack, fully realizing the futility of resistance, produced promptly allthe money they had. So much, however, had been spent on the outfit, thatbetween them they could only muster about seven pounds.
"Humph!" said the captain contemptuously, "that's a big haul, upon myword!"
"There are the cattle and supplies," said Fletcher.
"They will be of use. Here, Peter, do you and Hugh drive the team intothe woods, and prepare some dinner for the band. We will be theredirectly."
Two men, unmounted, who seemed to be servants, came forward, andproceeded to obey orders.
"Hold on, squire!" exclaimed Obed in alarm. "You aint goin' to take ourteam, are you?"
"Most certainly I am. If you had had a large sum in money, we would havespared you this. As it is, we must have them."
"But we shall starve, without money or food."
"That is nothing to me."
"Well, boys, come along," said Obed in a despondent tone. "Our prospectsaint over bright, but something may turn up."
Meanwhile there was a quiet conference among the bushrangers.
"Hold!" said the captain, as Harry and Jack were about to leave thescene with their older companion. "_You_ can go," turning to Obed, "butthe boys remain with us."
CHAPTER XI.
TAKEN CAPTIVE.
Harry and Jack exchanged a glance of dismay. To be stripped of all theyhad was a serious misfortune but in addition to be made prisoners by thebushrangers was something of which they had not dreamed. Obed, too, wastaken aback. He had become attached to his young companions, and he wasvery sorry to part with them. He could not forbear a remonstrance.
"Look here, squire," he said familiarly to the captain, "what do youwant to keep the boys for? They won't do you any good, and it'll costconsiderable to keep 'em. They're pretty hearty."
Harry and Jack could not help laughing at this practical argument.
The captain of the bushrangers frowned.
"I am the best judge of that," he said. "You are lucky to be let offyourself. Don't meddle with matters that don't concern you."
"Take me, if you want to," said Obed independently. "I shall be lonesomewithout the boys."
"You had better go while there is a chance," said the captainmenacingly. "If you give me any more trouble, I will have my men tie youto a tree, and leave you here."
Harry was afraid the threat would be carried out, and begged Obed tomake no further intercession.
"I have no doubt we shall meet again," he said. "These gentlemen will nodoubt release us soon."
He was by no means confident of this, but he thought it politic to takethings cheerfully.
"The boy has sense," said the captain approvingly.
"Well, good-by, boys," said Obed, wringing the hands of his two youngfriends. "I shall feel awfully lonely, that's a fact, but as you say, wemay meet again."
"Good-by, Obed," said each boy, trying not to look as sorrowful as hefelt.
Obed Stackpole turned, and walked slowly away. His prospects were by nomeans bright, for he was left without money or provisions in theAustralian wilderness, but at that moment he thought only of losing thecompanionship of the two boys, and was troubled by the thought that theymight come to harm among the bushrangers.
"If I only knew where they were goin' to take 'em," he said to himself,"I'd foller and see if I couldn't help 'em to escape."
To follow at once, however, he felt would be in the highest degreeimprudent, and he continued to move away slowly, but without anydefinite idea of where he intended to go.
When Obed had disappeared, Fletcher came up to the boys, and said with asmile:
"So you miss that Yankee, do you?"
"Yes, I do," answered Harry.
"You like him?"
"Yes."
"Then I don't admire your taste. He's rough and uncouth, and is morefitted for a farm laborer than for society."
"That may be," said Harry, "but he is honest and reliable."
He might perhaps unconsciously have emphasized the word honest. At anyrate, Fletcher so understood him, and took offence at the implication.
"Look here, young whipper-snapper," he said roughly, "you'd better takecare how you talk. You are in my power, and something will happen to youif you are insolent."
"What have I said to offend you?" asked Harry, looking the bushrangercalmly in the face. "I am not speaking of you, but of Mr. Stackpole."
"You meant to insinuate that there was a difference between us."
"That ought not to offend you, as you have so poor an opinion of him."
Harry evidently had the best of it, and Fletcher felt cornered, for hedid not care to court the charge of dishonesty.
"Perhaps you didn't mean anything," he growled. "If so, all is well, butyou had best be careful."
"Follow me, men," said the leader. He turned his horse's head and rodeinto the wood.
The eucalyptus trees are very tall, some attaining a height of hundredsof feet. They begin to branch high up, and there being little if anyunderbrush in the neighborhood, there was nothing to prevent the passageof mounted horsemen. The ground was dry also, and the absence of bogsand marshy ground was felt to be a great relief.
The boys were on foot, and so were two or three of the bushrangers'party. As already intimated, they were of inferior rank and employed asattendants. In general the party was silent, but the boys overheard alittle conversation between the captain and Dick Fletcher, who rodebeside him.
"You haven't distinguished yourself this time, Fletcher," said the chiefin a dissatisfied tone. "You led me think that this party had moneyenough to repay us for our trouble."
"It isn't my fault," said Fletcher in an apologetic tone. "The Yankeecompletely deceived me. He was always boasting of his money."
"He doesn't seem like that kind of a man," said the captainthoughtfully. "What could have been his object?"
"He must have meant to fool me. I am ashamed to say he did."
"Couldn't you have found out whether his boasts were correct?"
"That is just what I tried to do," answered Fletcher. "I crept to hisside early one morning, and began to explore his pockets, but he woke upin an instant and cut up rough. He seized me by the throat, and Ithought he would choke me. That made me think all the more that hecarried a good deal of money about with him."
"The boys, too--did you think they were worth plundering?"
"Oh, no, I never was deceived about them," replied Fletcher promptly. "Iconcluded that, even if they had money, the Yankee was their guardian,and took care of it. They are all Americans, you know."
He spoke glibly, and the captain appeared to credit his statements. Theboys listened with interest, and with a new appreciation of Fletcher'scharacter. They could easily have disproved one of his statements, forthey knew very well that Obed never boasted of his money, nor gaveanyone a right to suppose that he carried much with him. On this pointhe was very reticent, and neither of them knew much of hiscircumstances. However, it would have done no good to contradictFletcher, for his word with the captain would have outweighed theirs,and he would have found a way to punish them for their interference.
"In future," said the captain, "I advise you to make sure that the gameis worth bagging. As it is, you have led us on a fool's errand."
"That may be," Fletcher admitted, "but it wasn't so last time. TheScotch merchant bled freely, you must allow."
"Yes, you did better then."
As Harry listened he began to understand that Fletcher acted as a decoy,to ingratiate himself with parties leaving Melbourne for the mines, andthen giving secret information to the bushrangers with whom he wasconnected, enabling them to attack and plunder his unsuspectingcompanions.
"That's a pretty mean sort of business," he said to Jack, when he had anopportunity to speak to him without being overheard. "I'd rather be arobber right out than lure people into danger."
"So would I," responded Jack. "That Fletcher's worse than a pirate."
Still they went on, so slowly that the boys, though compelled to walk,had little difficulty in keeping up. They were necessarily anxious, buttheir predominant feeling was of curiosity as to their destination, andas to the bushrangers' mode of life.
At length they came out of the woods into more open ground.
CHAPTER XII.
THE HOME OF THE BUSHRANGERS.
On a slight rise stood a collection of huts, covered with sheets of thebark of the gum-tree, held on by ties of bullock hide. For the most partthey contained but one room each. One, however, was large and, the boysafterward learned, was occupied by the captain of the bushrangers.Another served as a stable for the horses of the party.
This Harry judged to be the home of the outlaws, for no sooner had theycome in sight of it than they leaped from their horses and led them upto the stable, relieving them of their saddles. Then the bushrangers satdown on the ground, and lounged at their ease. The attendants forthwithmade preparations for a meal, appropriating the stores which had justbeen taken from Obed and the boys. The captives were not sorry thatthere was a prospect of a meal, for by this time they were hungry. Theyfollowed the example of their companions, and threw themselves down onthe ground. Next to them was a young bushranger, apparently abouttwenty-two years of age, who had a pleasant face, indicative of goodhumor.
"How do you like our home?" he asked, turning to Harry with a smile.
"It is a pleasant place," answered Harry.
"How would you like to live here?"
"I don't think I should like it," Harry replied honestly.
"And why not? Is it not better than to be pent up in a city? Here webreathe the pure air of the woods; we listen to the songs of the birds;we are not chained to the desk or confined from morning till night in aclose office."
"That is true, but are there not some things you do not like about it?"asked Harry significantly.
"Such as what?"<
br />
"Is it not better to earn your living, even if you are chained to adesk, than to get it as you do?"
Harry felt that he was rather bold in asking this question, but he wasreassured by the pleasant face of the young outlaw.
"Well," admitted the latter, "there are some objections to our life."
"It would not do for all to get their living as you do."
"That is true. Some must work, in order that others may relieve them ofa portion of their property."
"Are you not afraid of being interfered with?"
"By the mounted police?"
"Yes."
"We are strong enough to overcome them," said the bushrangercarelessly.
"What is the name of your captain?" asked Harry.
"Stockton. No doubt you heard of him in Melbourne."
Harry shook his head.
The outlaw seemed surprised. "I thought everybody in Australia had heardof Ben Stockton," he said. "He has a great name," he added with evidentpride. "He is as strong as a lion, fears nothing, and his name isassociated with some of the most daring robberies that have ever takenplace in this country."
"And still he is free," said Harry suggestively.
"The authorities are afraid of him. They have offered a reward for hiscapture, but it doesn't trouble him. He only laughs at it."
They were far enough away from the rest of the party to carry on theirconversation unheard--otherwise, neither Harry nor his informant wouldhave ventured to speak with so much freedom. At this eulogium, however,Harry scanned, with some curiosity, the face and figure of the famousbushranger, who was sitting about three rods distant. He was a man oflarge frame, powerfully built, with hair and beard black as night, andkeen, penetrating eyes that seemed to look through those upon whom theywere fixed. He had about him an air of command and conscious authority,so that the merest stranger could not mistake his office. About hismouth there was something which indicated sternness and cruelty. He wasa man to inspire fear, and Harry, after a steady examination, felt nosurprise at the man's reputation.