the door
of a shilling dancing saloon afforded it unmitigated delight.

"'Ere's two toffs got done in all right," said one.

"What O! Won't she darnce with you?" said another; and somebody from the
back threw banana peel at them.

Charlie recovered his wits first. The Englishman was fairly berserk with
rage, and glared round on the bystanders as if he contemplated a rush
among them. The cabman put an end to the performance. He was tranquil
and unemotional, and he soothed them down and coaxed them into the cab.
The band in the room above resumed the dreamy waltz music of "Bid me
Good-bye and go!" and they went.

Carew subsided into the corner, breathing hard and feeling his eye.
Charlie leant forward and peered out into the darkness. They were nearly
at the club before they spoke. Then he said, "Well, I'm blessed! We made
a nice mess of that, didn't we?"

"I'd like to have got one fair crack at some of 'em," said the
Englishman, with heartfelt earnestness. "Couldn't we go back now?"

"No what's the good? We'd never get in. Let the thing alone. We needn't
say anything about it. If once it gets known that we were chucked out,
we'll never hear the last of it. Are you marked at all?"

"Got an awful swipe in the eye," replied the other briefly.

"I've got a cut lip, and my head nearly screwed off. You did that. I'll
know the place again. Some day we'll get a few of the right sort to come
with us, and we'll just go there quietly, as if we didn't mean anything,
and then, all of a sudden, we'll turn in and break the whole place up!
Come and have a drink now."

They had a silent drink in the deserted club. The mind of each was
filled with a sickening sense of defeat, and without much conversation
they retired to bed. They thanked heaven that the Bo'sun, Pinnock, and
Gillespie had disappeared.

Even then Fate hadn't quite finished with the bushman. A newly-joined
member of the club, he had lived a life in which he had to shift for
himself, and the ways of luxury were new to him. Consequently, when he
awoke next morning and saw a man moving with cat-like tread about his
room, absolutely taking the money out of his clothes before his very
eyes, he sprang out of bed with a bound and half-throttled the robber.
Then, of course, it turned out that it was only the bedroom waiter, who
was taking his clothes away to brush them. This contretemps, on top of
the overnight mishap, made him determined to get away from town with
all