It was all over in a moment: Burgess and his men flung the bodies
down among the tangled bush, and returned to Nelson rejoicing
exceedingly over the simple and easy means by which they had
possessed themselves of several hundred pounds. Of course they
calculated on the usual supine indifference to other people's
affairs, which prevails in busy gold-seeking communities; but in
this instance the public seemed to be suddenly seized by a violent
and inconvenient curiosity to find out what had become of the four
men who were known to have started from Canvas-town two or three
days before. No one ever dreamed of a murder having been committed,
not even when another "swagger" reached Nelson and stated that he
had followed the diggers on the road, only a mile or so behind, had
suddenly lost sight of them at the spot I have mentioned, and had
never been able to overtake them. Instead of leaving the now
excited little town, or keeping quiet, Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and
Sullivan, may truly be said to have become "swaggerers;" for they
loitered about the place, ostentatiously displaying their bags of
gold dust. Unsuspicious as the Nelson people were, they acted upon
a sort of instinct,--that instinct within us which answers so
mysteriously to the cry of blood from the earth,--and arrested these
four men. Still, the matter might have ended there for lack of a
clue, if one of the party, Sullivan, had not suddenly turned
informer, and led the horrified town's-people to the jungle which
concealed the bodies. Here my dreadful story may end; for we need
not follow the course of the trial, which resulted in the complete
conviction of the three other men. I have only dwelt on so horrible
a theme in order to make my readers understand how natural it was
that I should feel nervous, when it became apparent to my
understanding that the custom of the country demanded that you
should ask no questions, but simply tell any travellers who claimed