ouch drink for a week; but if Jack once started,
he was a lost man for days, for weeks, for, months--as long as his cash
or credit lasted. I felt a cold coming on me this morning, and wanted a
whisky, so I had a drink with Thomas. Then, of course, I shouted in my
turn, keeping an eye out in case Jack should come in. I went into the
kitchen and steamed with Jack for a while in front of a big log
fire, taking care to keep my breath away from him. Then we went in to
breakfast. Those two drinks were all I meant to have, and we were going
right on after breakfast.

It was a good breakfast, ham and eggs, and we enjoyed it. The two
whiskies had got to work. I hadn't touched drink for a long time. I
shouldn't like to say that Thomas put anything in the drink he gave me.
Before we started breakfast he put a glass down in front of me and said:

"There's a good ginger-ale, it will warm you up."

I tasted it; it was rum, hot. I said nothing. What could I say?

There was some joke about Jack being married and settled and steadied
down, and me, his old mate, still on the wallaby; and Mrs Thomas said
that I ought to follow Jack's example. And just then I felt a touch
of that loneliness that some men feel when an old drinking mate turns
teetotaller.

Jack started coughing again, like an old cow with the pleuro.

"That cough will kill you, Jack," said Thomas. "Let's put a drop of
brandy in your coffee, that won't start you, anyhow; it's real `Three
Star.'" And he reached a bottle from the side-table.

I should have stood up then, for my manhood, for my mate, and for little
Clara, but I half rose from my chair, and Jack laughed and said, "Sit
down, Joe, you old fool, you're tanked. I know all about your seeing
about the horses and your ginger-ales. It's all right, old man. Do you
think I'm going on the booze? Why, I'll have to hold you on the horse
all day."

"Here's luck, Joe!" said Jack, laughing, and lifting up his cup of
coffee with the brandy in it. "Here's luck, Joe."

Then suddenly, and as clearly as I ever heard it, came Clara's voice to
my ear: "Promise me, whatever you do, that you will never have a drink
with Jack." And I felt cold and sick to the stomach.

I got up and went out. They thought that the drink had made me sick, but
if I'd stayed there another minute I would have tackled Thomas; and I
knew that I needed a clear head to tackle a bullock like him. I walked
about a bit, and when I came in again Jack and Th