mewhat prolonged, the interest taken in the game by the audience
was less discriminating than in the earlier ones, while the applause was
more promiscuous, due to the fact that many of the onlookers had not
quite such a clear grasp of passing events as usual. Only at the finish,
when Tony was beaten by a single point, did the audience realize that
the situation was serious; and then, lest the danger should cause them
anxiety and the result of the return match leave them stranded, they
made the most of the opportunity and the resources of the Rest.

The township "hung-up" the following morning to watch the great match,
for with the morning came the realization of the fact that Tony had
already lost two out of three games with Gleeson, and that on the result
of the fourth the prosperity of Birralong, and of the visitors within
its gates, speaking figuratively, for at least a twelvemonth actually
depended. The men gathered round the Rest, the shaky indistinctness
inevitable from the previous evening's hilarity adding to the expression
of gravity which was upon every face. What conversation there was they
carried on in subdued tones, and, except in the case of a few, the
anxiety they felt even kept them away from the bar.

The room in which was the billiard-table was densely packed by the time
the game began, the men standing three deep round the walls, grim,
silent, sombre. The morning was intensely hot, and every door, window,
and fanlight was as wide open as it could be. The men were too engrossed
to notice that Gleeson turned up without his two mates, while the
recollections of the condition of the constable when he was conveyed to
his own cottage the night before prevented any one from wondering why he
did not attend.

From the moment the game began there was dead silence in the room--a
silence so oppressive that the click of the balls sounded sharp and
clear, and the whizzing hum of the grasshoppers, moving in swarms, came
in rolling crescendoes and quavering diminuendoes from the parched and
barren paddocks all around, as distinctly as if the table had been set
out in the open bush. From the start it was evident both players were
doing their best to win, and while the local confidence was not shaken
in Tony, it was noticed with more than anxiety that he never got far
ahead, and often dropped behind. As the finish drew near, the men
composing the audience scarcely breathed as Tony played his strokes,
until their ner