through the open door came the sound of voices,
which he recognised as belonging to two or three transport-riders, whose
waggons were outspanned on the flat outside, and who had been lounging
in the store making purchases and chatting just before.

"So I hear they've got two more writs out against Anstey," one voice was
saying.

"So? Who's doing it this time?"

"Oh, Butler and Creighton. They ain't going to allow him any more
tick--not even to the tune of a string of beads. Why, he's dipped three
or four times over. His bills ain't worth the paper they're written
on."

"Going to sell him up, are they?"

"_Ja_. They just are. They've got out two more writs, I tell you.
Shouldn't wonder if they put in an execution to-day."

Gerard, to whom every word was as plainly audible as it was to the
speakers themselves, felt as though petrified. This relative of his,
with his plausible and grandiloquent schemes, stood revealed a bankrupt
swindler of the worst type. All the glowing pictures of wealth and
success which he had drawn now seemed mere pitiful traps to catch him,
Gerard, in his youth and inexperience. Now the motive of Anstey's
change of manner was as clear as daylight. There was nothing further to
be got out of him. And with a dire sinking of the heart Gerard thought
of how he had been induced to invest his little all in this utterly
rotten concern. But no--it could not be. Anstey was his relation. He
could not be such a mean, pitiful rascal as that. But the next words
were not such as to reassure him.

"How they've given him so much law as they have bangs me, I admit," went
on the first speaker. "Why, for the last year past he's never had a
cent he could call his own. This show, and every mortal thing in it,
has been dipped up to the hilt."

"Maybe this young Britisher he's got hold of has helped bolster him up.
Eh!"

"Maybe. So much the worse for the Britisher, for he'll never see a
brass farthing of his money again. But how the mischief even a raw
Britisher could be soft-sawdered by Anstey is a stumper. He's out and
away the most infernal scoundrel in this colony."

All the blood rushed to Gerard's head. He had been duped, swindled. He
had given several months of hard and honest work without receiving any
pay, for his employer had always put him off on some pretext or other--
that it was more convenient, or usual, to settle up half-yearly, or what
not. He had been swindled out of e