t to
account for it. He sacks all the good men and raises the wages of the
loafers, and then comes back to Sydney quite pleased; it's a little
holiday to him. You come along with me, Carew, and let old Bully alone.
What did you come out for? Colonial experience?"

An Englishman hates talking about himself, and Carew rather hesitated.
Then he came out with it awkwardly, like a man repeating a lesson.

"Did you ever meet a man named Considine out here?" he said.

"Lots of them," said Gordon promptly--"lots of them. Why, I had a man
named Considine working for me, and he thought he got bitten by a snake,
so his mates ran him twenty miles into Bourke between two horses to
keep him from going to sleep, giving him a nip of whisky every twenty
minutes; and when he got to Bourke he wasn't bitten at all, but he died
of alcoholic poisoning. What about this Considine, anyhow? What do you
want him for?"

The Englishman felt like dropping the subject altogether, not feeling
quite sure that he was not being laughed at. However, he decided to go
through with it.

"It's rather a long story, but it boils down to this," he said. "I'm
looking for a Patrick Henry Considine, but I don't know what he's like.
I don't know whether there is such a chap, in fact, but if there is,
I've got to find him. A great-uncle of mine died out here a long while
ago, and we believe he left a son; and if there is such a son, it turns
out that he would be entitled to a heap of money. It has been heaping up
for years in Chancery, and all that sort of thing, you know," he
added, vaguely. "My people thought I might meet him out here, don't you
know--and he could go home and get all the cash, you see. They've been
advertising for him."

"And what good will it do you," drawled Gordon, "supposing you do find
him? Where do you come in?"

"Oh, it doesn't do me much good, except that if there is such a Johnny,
and he dies without making a will, then the money would all come to
my people. But if there isn't, it all goes to another branch of the
family."

Gordon thought the matter over for a while. "What you want," he said,
"is to find this man, and to find him dead. If we come across him away
in the back country, we'll soon arrange his death for you, if you make
it worth while. Nasty gun accident, or something like that, you know."

"I wouldn't like anyone to shoot him," said the Englishman.

"Well, you come with me, and we'll find him," said Gordon.

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