Twice at holiday times, when he was not restricted at the Drovers' Arms, he had continued his libations until it was necessary for his own good and the peace of the place to tie him down in his bunk and set a guard over him; and on one of these occasions he had created much excitement by rushing through the township at midnight, scantily clad, under the impression that he was being pursued by a tall dark gentleman in a red cloak and possessed of both horns and hoofs.
It was nearly nine o'clock that night when the four conspirators met to carry out their nefarious project.

Dick was carrying a bag--in which was the joey--a bull's-eye lantern, various coloured feathers, and other small necessaries, and the party hastened in the direction of Mr.Ham's humble residence.

Ham was 'a hatter'-- he lived alone in a secluded place on the other side of the quarries.

The house was large for Waddy, and had once been a boarding-house, but was now little better than a ruin.

The schoolmaster had reclaimed one room, furnished it much like a miner's but, with the addition of a long shelf of tattered books, and here he 'batched,' perfectly contented with his lot for all that Waddy could ever discover to the contrary.