"If this had been my first experience o' them there diggin's," said Joe
Graddy, as he smoked his pipe that night in the chief gambling and
drinking store of the place, "I would have said our fortin wos made, all
but. Hows'ever, I don't forget that the last pair o' boots I got cost
me four pound, an' the last glass o' brandy two shillin's--not to speak
o' death cuttin' an' carvin' all round, an' the rainy season a-comin'
on, so it's my advice that we 'bout ship for home as soon as may be."

"I agree with you, Joe," said Frank, "and I really don't think I would
exchange the pleasure I have derived from journeying through this land,
and sketching the scenery, for all the gold it contains. Nevertheless I
would not like to be tempted with the offer of such an exchange!--Now,
I'll turn in."

Next morning the rain continued to pour incessantly, and Frank Allfrey
had given the order to get ready for a start, when a loud shouting near
the hut in which they had slept induced them to run out. A band of men
were hurrying toward the tavern with great haste and much gesticulation,
dragging a man in the midst of them, who struggled and protested
violently.

Frank saw at a glance that the prisoner was his former companion
Bradling, and that one of the men who held him was the stranger who had
been so badly wounded by him at the camp-fire, as formerly related.

On reaching the tavern, in front of which grew a large oak-tree--one of
the limbs of which was much chafed as if by the sawing of a rope against
it--the stranger, whose comrades called him Dick, stood up on a stump,
and said--

"I tell you what it is, mates, I'm as sure that he did it as I am of my
own existence. The man met his death at the hands of this murderer
Bradling; ha! he knows his own name, you see! He is an escaped
convict."

"And what are you?" said Bradling, turning on him bitterly.

"That is no man's business, so long as I hurt nobody," cried Dick
passionately. "I tell you," he continued, addressing the crowd, which
had quickly assembled, "I found this fellow skulking in the bush close
to where the body was found, and I know he did it, because he all but
murdered me not many months ago, and there," he continued, with a look
of surprise, pointing straight at our hero, "is a man who can swear to
the truth of what I say!"

All eyes were at once turned on Frank, who stepped forward, and said--

"I can certainly testify to the fact that this man Bradl