again! Mox reficit rates, you know; and with Dame Fortune as with her sex, "one refusal no rebuff."'

He spoke quite calmly and confidently, also with something of contemptuous indifference which was rather provoking; and yet this loss of capital, as he truly observed, was to John the loss of ten years of life, perhaps of all that was best worth living for. The fruit for which he thirsted would not surely hang for ever up there on the bough! Over-ripe, might it not fall to the ground? or might not another with longer reach come and pluck it whilst he was making his ladder? And now, half a dozen rounds were broken at once, and he must go to the bottom and begin again. Well, no good ever came yet of complaining! He would set about mending them in silence. But what if the ladder should not be finished till too late? John suffered and bled inwardly, so to speak, and could not always shut out the whispers of the fiend who vexed his ear, and who is so fond of asking, Cui bono?

'Let me help you,' said Gilbert, earnestly. 'I am well off, I have plenty of money. At least I can borrow as much as we want. You and I are old friends, John; don't be proud! Besides, you know, I would do anything for the good Alderman.'

John smoked on in silence, his keen eye resting on his friend. It was quite dark now, save for the fire over which they sat. John's face was habitually impassible as marble. It must have been the flickering of that wood fire which cast such successive shades over its surface.

It was a full minute before he spoke.

'You were always a good fellow, Gilbert,' said he, but you are an altered man of late. Forgive me for speaking so freely. I would rather be under an obligation to you now than ever, if I felt I understood you, but I don't. Never mind. You're improved: that's all right. And as for help, I dare say I should come to you fast enough if I wanted it.'

Also

For all his honesty this was hardly a straightforward speech of Mr. Gordon's. If he wished to find out anything, why did he not ask point-blank, as was his custom? Was he, too, one of those who must needs 'beat about the bush? Was there a sacred grove in any forest on earth round which he hovered and hankered, not daring to enter in? Gilbert leaned his head back against his saddle, looking upward into the starry night. He was indeed an altered man for the nonce, and a happy one. he felt an intense longing to proclaim his happiness, to pour out some of the new fancies which kept thronging his mind. He was so far from her, too: it would be an immense delight to talk about her. He had indeed mentioned her name once or twice in a studiously careless manner, and had been disappointed to find that his part was so well acted as to raise not the slightest suspicion in his comrade's breast, who took no more notice of the magic syllables than if they had spelt the patronymic of his wet-nurse. He had a great mind to unbosom himself then and there, but he remembered Ada's wish that all confidences should be avoided; so he adopted a middle course, and propounded one of those dreamy sentimental questions it is so impossible to answer.

'What do you suppose they are, John' said he, pointing upwards with the stem of the short black pipe; worlds or what? And do you think that people who like each other here will be together hereafter up there?'

It was so unlike a speech of Gilbert's that John stared at his recumbent friend in utter consternation. Once more the fire flickered up and threw a shade as before across his dark face. A dingoe, too, or native wild dog, attracted by the smell of the 'steamer,' had prowled to within a few yards of their bivouac. His shining green eyes were alone visible. John took a blazing log from the fire, and a shower of sparks flying about just behind where the green eyes had been, attested the accuracy of

In effect John's shrill call was answered by a similar sound close at hand; and a wavering mass made its appearance, looming very large and indistinct in the darkness, while a hoarse, cheerful voice shouted out

'Hold on, like good fellows! Don't shoot! there are no bushrangers here-away; and you're Englishmen, I can tell, by the camping of ye!'

His horse gave a sob of contentment, as half the mass dismounted, heavily and wearily, like a man who has had about enough. The next instant brought him out in full relief as he stepped into the red glare of the firelight.

CHAPTER XXVII. 'AN UNBIDDEN GUEST.' There is small ceremony in the Bush. The new-comer accepted a proffered mug containing about a quart of smoking tea, and took a hearty pull at its contents. John Gordon pushed him down into his own seat by the fire, and put the remains of the 'steamer' on to warm up again; whilst Gilbert unsaddled the tired horse, led him to water, and then turned him loose to graze. There are different codes of politeness in different situations, but a welcome everywhere seems to consist in offering a guest meat and drink. It does not take long for a man to settle himself who has ridden a tired horse from sunrise to sunset. A pocket-comb is soon run through the hair and beard; and by the time the new arrival had emptied mug and platter, and filled a short pipe from his own seal-skin pouch, he seemed to feel very sufficiently at home.

Fresh logs were thrown on the fire, which blazed up gloriously, throwing a thousand fantastic shadows on the surrounding trees, and shedding a glare on one of the horses wandering ghost-like about the camp of his masters. The night was very soft and calm, the stars shining with a golden lustre peculiar to the southern hemisphere,

and a light air ever and anon rustling the dense foliage, as if the leaves stirred in their sleep and hushed off again quieter than before. Occasionally the stamp and snort of a horse or the champing of his jaws as he cropped the moistened herbage, broke the surrounding stillness; but even such casual interruptions seemed only to enhance the prevailing silence of the night. For a while the three men smoked on without speaking. Two of them were loth to disturb the soothing influence of the hour the third was in all the physical enjoyment of rest, repletion, and tobacco. At length he puffed forth a volume of smoke with a sigh of extreme satisfaction, and turned towards his entertainers.

6

'Gentlemen both!' said he, putting the mug of tea to his lips and feigning to drink their healths, a good job for me that I came across ye. It's no joke, even in these fine nights, camping out in the dark, without a morsel of prog or a drop to drink, and the 'baccy nearly done besides. It's the right stuff too, is that in the seal-skin; try it. What is life but a vapour? and is not 'baccy the staff thereof?'

There was no disputing such selfevident propositions; and as their guest seemed a free and easy, communicative sort of gentleman, it was natural to inquire of him whether he had come a long distance since sunrise.

:

'No dead reckoning here,' was his reply if you asked my horse he would say yes, for before the sun went down he could hardly wag. Yet he was a thundering good bit of stuff this morning, and now I guess he's as crisp as a biscuit. Well, strangers! it's a long lane that has no turning, but I did think for five minutes afore I saw your fire that it was about U. P.; and I haven't been reared altogether on white-meat and milk diet neither. Some of the lily-handed ones would say I was a roughish customer. What's your opinion, gentlemen?-there's no charge for looking.'

He was a 'roughish customer' in appearance, no doubt; and yet the

man had something of the tone and manner of one who had lived in good society. Nothing could be less sumptuous than his apparel: a red flannel shirt, becoming crimson in hue; a grey frieze jacket, patched and darned; leather trousers that, like the chameleon, had taken the colour of every object with which they came in contact, and boots of undressed hide, afforded what might well be termed an unvarnished exterior. a skin tanned to a rich mahogany and a magnificent brown beard detract from his wild appearance. His whiskers also were of remarkable length, and curled in stiff corkscrew ringlets down to his shoulders. Gilbert fancied he had seen that face before, yet where in civilized life was it possible that he could have met this strange apparition of the bush?

Nor did

Nothing abashed by the scrutiny he had invited, the stranger proceeded

'I'm on my way to Sydney, I am. That's where I'm bound. Where do I hail from ?-that's tellings. Well, you're good chaps both of you, I can see, and born gentlemen, I'll lay a guinea though, you are two-handed, but a man soon learns to be two-handed in the bush. Ay, I know the sort, though I haven't seen a true-bred one for a month of Sundays. It's not so long that I've quite forgotten it, since I'd boot-trees of my own, and wore a go-to-meeting" hat and kid gloves on week-days. I shouldn't lose my way to-morrow if you set me down on the heath at the "Turn-of-theLands" in a fog. You look surprised; but bless ye, things happen every day to take the skin off a man's eyes. Now, where d'ye think this 'baccy-bag came from?

66

He looked humorously from one to the other as each professed his inability to answer the question.

'You've heard of the diggins where the gold grows. Well, it's been "rock the cradle, Lucy," with me before this; and though there may be queerer places than the diggins on earth, it's not been my luck to meet with them as yet. I'd a mate there-a thin chap with

25

a cough. Poor beggar! how that cough of his kept me awake o' nights; and somehow, though he was no great things to work, I liked the chap too. He took an extraordinary fancy to me, and you'll say that's strange, but the reason's stranger still. "Twas all along of my wearing a bit of a gimcrack thing that I didn't seem to care about parting with, and his mother had one like it, so he said, at home. People have queer fancies, d'ye see, up there. Well, we went share and share alike, and whether we made an ounce or a hundredweight that's neither here nor there. But the work he did, light as it was, seemed too much for him; and one day he says to me," Bill," says he (you may call me "Bill," gentlemen, and I shall esteem it a compliment)-'I'm about washed out," says he; "what'll you do for me when I'm gone? e?""Gone be hanged!" says I; "where are you going to?" He was a fanciful lad, and he pointed up into the sky - blazing hot it looked, I thought and, says he, "Up there, I hope, Bill! When my time comes you put me quietly in the ground, and say a prayer over me, there's a good fellow! I wouldn't like to be buried like a dog!" So of course I promised him, and that day I thought he was stronger and worked better than common. I liked the lad, I tell ye, so I did; but it's no use talking about that now.

'Well, gentlemen, there are robberies, as far as I can make out, all over the world. I've seen men robbed in Paris and London, and at Epsom and Newmarket, as well as Ballarat. It don't make much odds whether a fellow empties your pockets with his legs under the same table or his hand on your throat; not but what we'd the cream of society too for the skimming. Next lot to me was a Baronet-not a very spicy one, but a Baronet all the same-and his mate was an Honourable, and a precious bad one he was! There was a lawyer working fourteen hours a day beyond them, and a Methodist parson, who got delirium tremens and so went under. Men of all sorts meet at the diggins; and

though the article's scarce enough in most places, I didn't think you could have gone through so many trades and professions without running against an honest man. My mate was the best of them, poor fellow! and even he took a cullender once that didn't belong to him; to be sure he returned it when he'd done with it, for he had a conscience, you know, and was a scholar, and a poet too, and suchlike. I've seen the tears in a strong chap's eyes to hear him quavering away with his weak voice how

They fitted a grey marble slab to a tomb, And fair Alice lies under the stone.

It's a neat thing enough, gentlemen; I'll sing it you to-morrow.

'We'd a little gold-dust in a bag -it makes no odds how much, but it took us a goodish time to get; and digging isn't such roaring fun that you'd go out of your way to take a longer spell than you can help. So we put it away in a hole, and I slept above it with a revolver pretty handy. My mate knew I could make very fair practice at that game, if necessary.

'Well, the same night after he'd been talking to me so chickenhearted, I woke with a start to hear a scuffling noise in the tent and my own name in a smothered voice, like a man's half-strangled.

'I jumped on my legs pretty smart, I can tell you; and dark as it was, I soon caught hold. There were two or three of them inside who'd come without an invitation, and one made a bolt of it in less than no time. He was no bad judge neither, for I was more than half riled, and less than that makes me feel ugly at close grips. As he dashed out he tore the tent open, and the moonlight streaming in, I saw the muzzle of a pistol pointblank for this child's head, and a glittering eye squinting over it that looked like making sure. Just then my mate broke from the beggar who held him, and sprang

up between us to take the ball in his brisket that was meant for me. The tent was full of smoke and the poor chap fell stone dead at my feet.'

The narrator's voice failed him a little at this stage of his recital, and he complained that the smoke from the fire got in his eyes.

and

He

'What next? he resumed, in answer to a question from Gilbert, who betrayed a flattering interest in the story; 'I passed my hand behind the villain's arms pinioned him as neat as wax. cried for mercy then, the whitelivered slave, when he heard the click of my revolver turning round to the cock! I looked in his eyes and saw by the glare of them that he judged me wolfish, and I guess he wasn't far out. The kitchen was clear by that time; there was only us two, and my mate's dead body in the tent. There was but one left to walk out and cool himself five minutes afterwards, for I shot the beggar through the heart at short notice; and all the plunder he had on him, as I'm a living man and a thirsty one, was this little seal-skin pouch, filled with the best tobacco I ever smoked yet. I judged he'd robbed a poor Spaniard who was found with his throat cut some days before. Howsoever, it's lucky it was in his right breast-pocket, or my ball would have spoiled the bag. There's a screw or so left, gentlemen; fill your pipes again.'

And your mate? said the two listeners in a breath.

'I buried him next morning when the sun rose,' answered the stranger, and I said a prayer over him too, as I promised. It couldn't do him any harm, and I sometimes think I was none the worse for it myself for a day or two. I worked on my own hook after that, and I rather think I paid my expenses; but you've maybe discovered, gentlemen, that gold isn't just as sticky as treacle, and all the moneybags I've seen yet have a small hole at the mouth and a large one at the far end. I kept an hotel at Melbourne once; that's the best business I ever had-breakfasts thirteen shillings a head, and champagne a guinea a pint. I could drive my four horses and play cards every evening, fifty pounds a cut. But somehow they burnt the place to the ground one night with their