After making up our minds in regard to the course which we intended to pursue, we entered into the spirit of the undertaking with our whole hearts. We prepared lint and bandages, and bound up the wounds of the bushrangers, and placed them beneath the roof of the hut which they had endeavored to storm the night before. After we had accomplished this painful duty, we selected a place for the burial of those killed.
Beneath the branches of a cedar tree we scooped out the earth with a broken shovel, and then were about to place the bodies of the bushrangers in the grave, when the glistening of a ring on the middle finger of the right hand of one of the dead men attracted my attention. I stooped down and removed the ring, and attentively examined it.
To my surprise, I found that it bore the emblems of the masonic fraternity--a square and compass upon a broad disk, while on each side were small flakes of gold in their native state, placed layer upon layer, like the scales of a fish. The ring I judged to weigh near an ounce, and was a massive hoop of gold, and made by some artist of rare talent.
I knew that the ruffian could not be a mason, and I was lost in conjecture, for a few moments, as to the probable fate of the owner. There was no doubt that the robber had taken a fancy to it, and to obtain possession, had undoubtedly committed murder. While it was passed from hand to hand, Smith suddenly exclaimed,--
"I knew the owner of this ring. It was I that freighted him and his goods to the mines. He was an American, and had had the ring manufactured in California expressly to order. I am certain that I am correct, for when we passed this very stream, the owner requested me to wear it while he bathed."
"I only heard him called Edward by his companions; but I know that he was an American, and he said he belonged in New York, or New England city, I don't know which."
I could but smile at Smith's geography, although the scene before me was not well calculated to provoke mirth. I sighed over the unhappy fate of Edward, and handed the jewel to Murden, when he returned it, saying,--
"Keep it, my friend, and may you at some future day be enabled to trace the family of the owner, and tell them of the sad fate which their relative probably met."