I don't rightly remember what happened just at that moment. The furniture and me seemed to get kind of mixed, and there was cursing, and smashing, and some one shouting for his gold, and a general stamp round. When I got steadied a bit, I found somebody's hand in my mouth. From what I gathered afterwards, I conclude that it belonged to that same little man with the vicious way of talking. He got some of it out again, but that was because the others were choking me. A poor chap can get no fair-play in this world when once he is down--still I think he will remember me till the day of his death--longer, I hope. They dragged me out into the poop and held a damned court-martial--on _me_, mind you; _me_, that had thrown over my pals in order to serve them. What were they to do with me? Some said this, some said that; but it ended by the captain deciding to send me ashore. The ship stopped, they lowered a boat, and I was hoisted in, the whole gang of them hooting at me from over the bulwarks. I saw the man I spoke of tying up his hand though, and I felt that things might be worse. I changed my opinion before we got to the land. I had reckoned on the shore being deserted, and that I might make my way inland; but the ship had stopped too near the Heads, and a dozen beach-combers and such like had come down to the water's edge, and were staring at us, wondering what the boat was after. When we got to the edge of the surf the coxswain hailed them, and after singing out who I was, he and his men threw me into the water. You may well look surprised--neck and crop into ten feet of water, with shark as thick as green parrots in the bush, and I heard them laughing as I floundered to the shore. I soon saw it was a worse job than ever. As I came scrambling out through the weeds, I was collared by a big chap with a velveteen coat, and half-a-dozen others got round me and held me fast. Most of them looked simple fellows enough, and I was not afraid of them; but there was one in a cabbage-tree hat that had a very nasty expression on his face, and the big man seemed to be chummy with him. They dragged me up the beach, and then they let go their hold of me and stood round in a circle. "Well, mate," says the man with the hat, "we've been looking out for you some time in these parts." "And very good of you too," I answers. "None of your jaw," says he. "Come, boys, what shall it be--hanging, drowning, or shooting? Look sharp!" This looked a bit too like business. "No you don't!" I said. "I've got Government protection, and it'll be murder." "That's what they call it," answered the one in the velveteen coat as cheery as a piping crow. "And you're going to murder me for being a ranger?" "Ranger be damned!" said the man. "We're going to hang you for peaching against your pals; and that's an end of the palaver."