fired, I'm inclined to think that some of us would not be alive
now."

"Now, that's wot I wos sure of," remarked Bill Jones. "Wot I says is
this--w'en yer goin' aloft to reef to'sails, don't be in a hurry. It's
o' no manner o' use tryin' to shove on the wind. If ye've got a thing
to do, do it slow--slow an' sure. If ye haven't got a thing to do, in
coorse ye can't do it, but if ye have, don't be in a hurry--I says."

Bill Jones's maxim is undoubtedly a good one. Not a scratch had the
bear received from any one of the party. The bullet of Black Jim had
laid him low. Although hurriedly aimed, it had reached the animal's
heart, and all the time that Captain Bunting was struggling to overcome
his irresistible tendency to sleep, poor bruin was lying a helpless and
lifeless body at the foot of the oak-tree.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

AH-WOW SAVED FROM AN UNTIMELY FATE--LYNCH LAW ENFORCED--NED SINTON
RESOLVES TO RENOUNCE GOLD-DIGGING FOR A TIME, AND TOM COLLINS SECONDS
HIM.

Ah-wow sat on the stump of an oak-tree, looking, to use a familiar,
though incorrect expression, very blue indeed. And no wonder, for
Ah-wow was going to be hanged. Perhaps, courteous reader, you think we
are joking, but we assure you we are not. Ah-wow had just been found
guilty, or pronounced guilty--which, at the diggings, meant the same
thing--of stealing two thousand dollars' worth of gold-dust, and was
about to expiate his crime on the branch of a tree.

There could be no doubt of his guilt; so said the enlightened jury who
tried him; so said the half-tipsy judge who condemned him; and so said
the amiable populace which had assembled to witness his execution. It
cannot be denied that appearances went very much against Ah-wow--so much
so, that Maxton, and even Captain Bunting, entertained suspicions as to
his innocence, though they pleaded hard for his pardon. The gold had
been discovered hid near the Chinaman's tent, and the bag containing it
was recognised and sworn to by at least a dozen of the diggers as that
belonging to the man from whom the gold had been stolen. The only point
that puzzled the jury was the strong assertions of Captain Bunting,
Maxton, and Collins, that, to their certain belief, the poor Celestial
had dug beside them each day, and slept beside them each night for three
weeks past, at a distance of three miles from the spot where the robbery
took place. But the jury were determined to hang somebody, so they shut