We must not be
ungrateful to the bridge that carried us over--eh, my friend?'
The man addressed as Pierre nodded an assent, then pointed towards
the boat; the other looked up and saw that the tide had risen, and
that the boat was drifting slowly away from the land.
'It goes,' he said coolly, 'back again to its proper owner, I
suppose. Well, let it. We have no further need of it, for, like
Caesar, we have now crossed the Rubicon. We are no longer convicts
from a French prison, my friend, but shipwrecked sailors; you
hear?'--with a sudden scintillation from his black eyes--
'shipwrecked sailors; and I will tell the story of the wreck.
Luckily, I can depend on your discretion, as you have not even a
tongue to contradict, which you wouldn't do if you had.'
The dumb man rose slowly to his feet, and pointed to the cliffs
frowning above them. The other answered his thought with a careless
shrug of the shoulders.
'We must climb,' he said lightly, 'and let us hope the top will
prove less inhospitable than this place. Where we are I don't know,
except that this is Australia; there is gold here, my friend, and we
must get our share of it. We will match our Gallic wit against these
English fools, and see who comes off best. You have strength, I have
brains; so we will do great things; but'--laying his hand
impressively on the other's breast--'no quarter, no yielding, you
see!'
The dumb man nodded violently, and rubbed his ungainly hands
together in delight.
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