Dick and Peterson reached the Gaol Quarry safely, and sat in doleful
silence waiting for their mates, and wondering if any had been taken. Ted
and Jacker joined them a few minutes later, and Phil Doon came limping up
in the course of a quarter of an hour. He had bad news.
'They've got Gable!' he cried from a distance.
'No. Go on!'
'S'help me. I fell gettin' over the fence an' sneaked into a hollow tree,
an' saw 'em snavel him. 'Here's one of 'em' said one, an' they put him on
a horse an' tied his legs under its belly, an' they've gone into Yarraman
with him.'
'Gee-rusalem! An' what'd he say?' gasped Dick.
'Nothin' 'sept 'Oh, crickey!''
'Well, he won't split on us. He won't know a word about it in the
mornin'. We're all right if none of us blabs. You fellers goin' to stay?'
'I ain't. I'm sick o' bein' a bushranger,' said Jacker, with a reflective
and remorseful rub at his hurt place.
'So'm I,' said Ted.
Phil Doon, it appeared, had pressing reasons for returning home, but
Peterson remembered that he had still an account to settle with his
father, and resolved to share Dick's fortune.
'Right you are,' said Dick. 'You fellers bring some crib to-morrer, an'
if you see Parrot Cann tell him to fetch some too--an', mind, no
blabbin'.'
Reverses of this kind did not depress him; he had experienced many
failures, but the wreck of one enterprise only implied the necessity of
starting another.
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