nt.

That night, when the camp was silent in repose, and the revellers were
either steeped in oblivion or wandering in golden dreams, Tom Brixton
sauntered slowly down to the river at a point where it spread out into a
lakelet, in which the moon was brightly reflected. The overhanging
cliffs, fringed with underwood and crowned with trees, shot reflections
of ebony blackness here and there down into the water, while beyond,
through several openings, could be seen a varied and beautiful
landscape, backed and capped by the snow-peaks of the great backbone of
America.

It was a scene fitted to solemnise and soften, but it had no such
influence on Tom Brixton, who did not give it even a passing thought
though he stood with folded arms and contracted brows, gazing at it long
and earnestly. After a time he began to mutter to himself in broken
sentences.

"Fred is mistaken--_must_ be mistaken. There is no law here. Law must
be taken into one's own hands. It cannot be wrong to rob a robber. It
is not robbery to take back one's own. Foul means are admissible when
fair--yet it _is_ a sneaking thing to do! Ha! who said it was
sneaking?" (He started and thrust his hands through his hair.) "Bah!
Lantry, your grog is too fiery. It was the grog that spoke, not
conscience. Pooh! I don't believe in conscience. Come, Tom, don't be
a fool, but go and--Mother! What has _she_ got to do with it? Lantry's
fire-water didn't bring _her_ to my mind. No, it _is_ Fred, confound
him! He's always suggesting what she would say in circumstances which
she has never been in and could not possibly understand. And he worries
me on the plea that he promised her to stick by me through evil report
and good report. I suppose that means through thick and thin. Well,
he's a good fellow is Fred, but weak. Yes, I've made up my mind to do
it and I _will_ do it."

He turned hastily as he spoke, and was soon lost in the little belt of
woodland that lay between the lake and the miner's camp.

It pleased Gashford to keep his gold in a huge leathern bag, which he
hid in a hole in the ground within his tent during the day, and placed
under his pillow during the night. It pleased him also to dwell and
work alone, partly because he was of an unsociable disposition, and
partly to prevent men becoming acquainted with his secrets.

There did not seem to be much fear of the big miner's secrets being
discovered, for Lynch law prevailed in the camp a