Page 172 - In A New World

"A Yankee and two boys."

"What was the Yankee's name?" asked Fletcher eagerly.

"Stackpole--Obed Stackpole."

Fletcher whistled.

"I know the man," he said. "The boys are about sixteen--one a sailor?"

"Yes."

"I know them all, and I owe them all a grudge. There is nothing I should
like better than to take all they have and leave them penniless."

"I don't like them myself," said Colson, thinking this was the way to curry
favor with his new acquaintance.

"You know them also?"

"Yes; they have treated me meanly."

Colson probably referred to their substituting a common rock for the rich
nugget, and so subjecting him to mortification and disappointment.

Fletcher asked him a few more questions, and then with the new accessions
plunged into the woods, and led his party to the headquarters of the

bushrangers.