on a hot, still day,
an' then seem to take a spell, an' then get to work agen stronger than
ever. You might be clost alongside of a horse that has been dead a
fortnight an' smell nothin' particular till you start to walk away, an'
the further you go the worse it stinks. It seems to smell most round in
a circle of a hundred yards or so. But these fish smelt from the centre
right out. Tom Tarrant told us arterwards that them fish started to
smell as soon as he left Mudgee. At first they reckoned it was a dead
horse by the road; but arter a while the passengers commenced squintin'
at each other suspicious like, an' the conversation petered out, an'
Tom thought he felt all their eyes on his back, an' it was very
uncomfortable; an' he sat tight an' tried to make out where the smell
come from; an' it got worse every hundred yards--like as if the
track was lined with dead horses, an' every one dead longer than the
last--till it was like drivin' a funeral. An' Tom never thought of the
fish till he got down to stretch his legs and fetched his nose on a
level with the boot.

Well, we shut down the lid of that box quick an' took it an' throwed it
in the bushes a good way away from the camp, but next mornin', while we
was havin' breakfast, Billy Grimshaw got an idea, an' arter breakfast
he wetted a canvas bag he had an' lit up his pipe, an' went an' got that
there box o' fish, an' put it in the wet bag, an' wrapped it tight round
it an' tied it up tight with string. Billy had a nipper of a nephew with
him, about fourteen, named Tommy, an' he was a sharp kid if ever there
was one. So Billy says, "Look here, Tommy, you take this fish up to Mrs
Hardwick's an' tell her that Dave Regan sent 'em with his compliments,
an' he hopes she'll enjoy 'em. Tell her that Dave fetched 'em from
Mudgee, but he's gone back to look for a pound note that he dropped out
of a hole in his pocket somewheers along the road, an' he asked you to
take the fish up." So Tommy takes the fish an' goes up to the house with
'em. When he come back he says that Mrs Hardwick smiled like a parson
an' give him a shillin'--an' he didn't wait. We watched the house, an'
about half an hour arterwards we seen her run out of the kitchen with
the open box in her hand, an' run a good way away from the house an'
throw the fish inter the bushes, an' then go back quick, holdin' her
nose.

An' jest then, as luck would have it, we seen Dave Regan ridin' up from
the creek towards the