y meaning,
I assure you. I am the last person to laugh at you. I think you are too
modest, though. You are what may be called a 'rough diamond.'"

"I accept your apology, Fletcher," said Obed. "If no offence was meant,
none is taken. I don't know much about diamonds, rough or smooth, but at
any rate I aint a paste one."

"A good hit! Bravo!" laughed Fletcher. "You are a man of great
penetration, Stackpole, and a decided acquisition to our party."

"I'm glad you think so," said Obed dryly. "If I remember right, you
didn't want me to join you."

"At first I did not, but I have changed my mind. I didn't know you
then."

"And I don't know you now," said Obed bluntly. "If you don't mind, s'pose
you tell us what brought you out here."

Fletcher frowned and regarded the Yankee suspiciously, as if seeking his
motive in asking this question, but his suspicions were dissipated by a
glance at that honest face, and he answered lightly, "Really, there
isn't much to tell. My father was a merchant of Manchester, and tried to
make me follow in his steps, but I was inclined to be wild, incurred
some debts, and finally threw up business and came out here."

"Have you prospered as far as you've gone?"

"Yes and no. I've made money and I've spent it, and the accounts are
about even."

"That means you haven't much left."

"Right you are, my friend, but in your steady company I mean to turn
over a new leaf, and go in for money and respectability. Now I've made a
clean breast of it, and you know all about me."

In spite of this statement there was not one of his three companions who
did not feel sure that there was much in Fletcher's history which he had
kept concealed, and possibly for very good reasons.

CHAPTER VI.

A NIGHT INCIDENT.

The path of a gold-seeker in Australia was beset with difficulties. The
country about Melbourne, and far inland, was boggy, the soil being
volcanic, and abounding in mud which appears to have no bottom. The road
to the mines was all the worse for having been ploughed up by bullock
teams, and worked into a slough which proved the discouragement of
mining parties. Some were even months in traversing the comparatively
small distance across the country to the goal they sought. But the
attraction of money, which is said to make the mare go, enabled them to
triumph at last over the obstacles that intervened. It was not long
before our party began to understand the nature of the task they had