to know which was the worst
man of the two? I'll say another thing--I have mostly found that when I
have took my hat off to a gentleman he took his off to me; and I wonder
if his friends laughed at him. But I suppose some of you are great nobs
yourselves, and know all about what nobs do."

Having thus delivered himself, Sam, giving a contemptuous glance at his
opponents, slowly mounted the box by the side of the coachman. The
gentleman, who had walked on with his daughter, bowed to the Gilpins as
they passed.

"I am afraid that, from taking us to be ploughboys, he now believes we
are young noblemen in disguise," observed Arthur. "This is a very
different style to that in which we could have expected to have entered
Sydney half an hour ago."

"Perhaps he thinks more of the service we have rendered him than we
should," answered his brother; "however, it's a curious adventure,
certainly."

"Well, muster, there be rum jokes in this town o' yours," observed Sam
to the coachman, after keeping silence for some time.

"There be, young man," was the laconic answer; "and rum things done."

In this Sam agreed, informing Mr Sykes--for this, he ascertained, was
the coachman's name--how he had lost his property.

"Be thou the young man who stopped the 'osses?" inquired Sykes.

"The young squires did it, and I helped 'em," said Sam.

"And saved my bacon," observed Sykes.

"I say, Muster Sykes, what's the gen'l'man's name?" asked Sam,
discovering, perhaps, by the tone of the coachman's voice, rather than
by any perceptible change in his mask-like features, that he was not ill
disposed towards him, and preparing therefore to be confidential.

Sykes informed him that his master's name was Prentiss, that he was a
large squatter, that there were other brothers all well off, and an old
father; and that, take him all in all as masters went, he was not a bad
one. Sam, in return, told him all about himself, and all he knew about
the Gilpins, by which time the carriage had reached the door of Mr
Prentiss's residence, in one of the best parts of Sydney. It was a
handsome house; and a respectable-looking servant-woman, after a few
words from the coachman, showed the Gilpins into a well-furnished
dining-room, their luggage being placed in the hall.

"You'll go with me, young man," observed Mr Sykes to Sam; "you'll be
more comfortable than with the gentry."

To this Sam agreed; and drove round to the back of the house, where he