My plan of campaign was altered accordingly and
to great advantage. Indeed, to have slain Ben in his house, when I
should have appeared instead of the brother he expected, had been a
maladroit achievement, contrasted with the far more notable feat of
the following night.
Having conveyed the old sailor to the cave, where, on my recent run
up the coast after dropping Brendon, I had already looked in and
lighted the lamp, I landed behind him and, as his foot touched the
shore, the pole-axe fell. He was dead in an instant and five minutes
later his blood ran upon the sand. Next I dug a grave under the
shingle, at a spot destined within half an hour to be covered by the
tide. In less than twenty minutes Bendigo Redmayne reposed beneath
three feet of sand and stone and I was on my way back again to
"Crow's Nest." There I reported to Brendon that the brothers had met
and would expect me again anon. I smoked a cigarette or two,
descended to our little harbour, removed my spade from the launch to
the boathouse, took a sack and so set out again.
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