suggested that a small fire should be made, so that its light would
enable us to work to more purpose, to my surprise he urged the advantage
of the scheme, and was clamorous for the privilege of tending it.

The project was dismissed as soon as formed, for I recollected that the
light of a fire would attract visitors that we were not anxious to see.

As a last resort, however, we resolved to go over the whole ground, and
endeavor to detect the spot, by discovering if the earth had been
recently removed.

We no longer placed confidence in the story of Steel Spring, yet we
thought it better to keep him at work in the hole, which was now even
with his neck, than permit him to mingle with us in the dark, for
somehow, we began to have strange suspicions that he was not dealing
fairly by us.

Luckily, the sky was cloudless, and the stars shone with uncommon
brilliancy, as though the constellations wished to afford us every
facility for carrying our designs into effect.

The clearing was sufficiently large to enable the light to penetrate the
open space, and with no other guide, we commenced striking our shovels
and picks into the earth, in hopes of reaching the right spot.

I still clung to the idea that the money was buried under the ashes of
the burned bushrangers, and with this impression, carefully scraped them
aside, and felt with the point of my shovel, until I touched earth which
I considered had been disturbed.

I said nothing to my companions, but worked diligently for a few
minutes, until I became convinced that the ground had been moved at no
distant day.

Wishing to be convinced that I was on a track which corresponded with
the last words of Gulpin, I set the compass, and by the light of a
match, noted its bearing.

The place where I had been at work bore in a south-west direction, and
on pacing off the distance where the hut stood, I found it to be exactly
ten paces.

"Hurrah, boys!" I shouted, commencing work with renewed energy, "I think
that I have discovered the spot!"

My comrades hurried to my side, and all of us concentrated our energies
upon that particular spot, and none worked harder than the aged convict,
who appeared, since his recovery from the effects of too intense an
application to my flask, to be desirous of making amends for his
weakness.

"You are not vorking in the right place!" shouted Steel Spring, from his
excavation, stopping his labors to watch our movements; "you will fi