avy
brow added to the repellent expression. Such a face it was that, looking
at it, one understood the man turning with an oath upon those who sought
to aid him in his misery, much as one can understand the fury of an
imprisoned snake which turns back upon itself and plunges its fangs into
its own flesh until it dies, the victim of its own malicious instincts.

As Tony sat watching, the sufferer turned his head from side to side
languidly, and a moan of pain escaped his lips. Tony rose to his feet,
gently, and the man, opening his eyes, looked at him. At once the
expression of pain that was in them as the lids rolled up gave way to a
flash of hate.

"You--damn you!" the man muttered, as he set his teeth.

Tony stepped across to the stretcher and stooped down.

"Don't touch me," the man exclaimed fiercely.

"All right, old chap, I won't hurt you; only I thought I might make you
more comfortable," Tony answered.

"You want to make me comfortable?" the man asked in a scoffing tone.

"Why, yes, if I can," Tony replied.

"Then see here," the man exclaimed. "I've never feared anything yet, and
I don't begin now. I'm close up a dead 'un, but that's nothing. When I'm
dead, I'm gone, and that's all about it. I know, and I don't give a
shearer's curse for it, so don't you fancy I care. It's your maudlin
gospel-millers who get scared at the chance of kicking. You understand?
That's the sort of man I am. I was never afraid and never sorry all my
days, and I'm not going to begin now at the end of them."

His eyes were wild in their gleam and his lips twitched as he spoke.

"Yes; that's all right," Tony said soothingly. "You're as plucky as they
make them, and I like you for it; so go slow and rest, because there
aren't too many like you, and we don't want you to go."

The keen, bright eyes looked steadily for a moment, and then a forced
laugh came from the man's lips.

"_You_ don't want me to go!" he said, with a sneer. "_You!_ Well, see
here, young fellow. There's one thing I'd be sorry for--if I went
without telling you what I've got to say."

"Keep it till the morning," Tony answered.

The man laughed again.

"I shall be fit for planting hours before the morning. You listen while
you may. You'll be interested. Make the fire up, and sit down where you
were. Then I'll talk--and don't interrupt, because I'm pushed for time."

To humour him, Tony threw some logs on the fire, and sat down again in
his old place; and