g and sleeping,
drunk or sober, always having one object in front of you that you want
to reach and kill? Do you? Then you know what I've felt for years and
years, day and night; what I've lived for, longed for, worked for."

The eyes that had gleamed before were blazing as though some of the
glowing embers had been taken from the fire and placed in the man's
head, and the face glistened with sweat as the muscles worked and
quivered under the paroxysm of fury that held him.

"That's enough," Tony exclaimed, jumping up.

The man held up his hand.

"You've got to hear it, all of it, and then find her out and tell
her--from me who's dying. If you don't take a dying man's message to
your own mother----"

He stopped and looked at Tony, his face growing calmer the while.

"If you get excited like that----" Tony began.

"Don't you be afraid," the man answered quickly. "I'll finish the yarn
or there won't be time. One of the two men married the woman, and one of
the two men swore for vengeance, either on the man, or the woman, or
both. And he had it. How? That's what I'll tell you. The yarn don't
amuse you, sonny? You want waking up again? Well, one thing he did was
to steal the kid."

He stopped again, watching Tony's face closely.

"Yes; go on," Tony said quietly.

"It near broke the mother's heart when she found it out," he continued,
speaking maliciously--"near broke her heart. But she never found it, for
it was put right out of sight; it was left at a humpy at a place called
Taylor's Flat."

He watched Tony narrowly as he spoke, and laughed harshly as he saw him
swing round and leap to his feet.

"Now you're interested," he said.

Tony stood looking at him, unable for the moment to find words to
express what he felt. Was the coincidence of a delirium-stricken mind
still the explanation of the man's striking at the tenderest spot in his
heart? If so, it was as nothing; but if not----

"Who are you that you should know this?" Tony cried, moving towards the
man where he lay with his eyes, bright as stars and cruel as a snake's,
fixed upon him.

"You listen to my yarn. That's your contract," he said derisively.
"You'll live till to-morrow; I shan't. Are you going to cheat a dying
man? Let me talk. You can fill in the rest about the kid to suit your
own taste, and I'll----"

"You were the man who stole the child; you were the mean----"

"Was I?" interrupted the man. "You wait and hear. The man who stole th