der of the gang had gone. "No boozing and giving the show away.
You're to be strictly sober for a fortnight, Garstang. And, Carny, if
that girl at The Lucky Digger tries to pump you as to what your lay is,
tell 'er you've come to buy a little property and settle down. She'll
think you mean marrying."

Carnac smiled. "You might be my grandfather, William," he said.

"Personally, _I'm_ a shearer that's havin' a very mild sort of spree and
knockin' down his cheque most careful. You've bin aboard a ship, ain't
you, Garstang?"

"D'you suppose I swam out to this blanky country?" said the
crooked-featured gentleman.

"Then you're a sailor that's bin paid off and taken your discharge."

Carnac had his hand on the latch of the door through which Dolphin had
disappeared.

"No, no; you go out the back way," said William, who conducted the man
in the velvet coat into the back yard, and turned him into a paddock
full of cabbages, whence he might find his way as best he could to the
roadway.

When the youthful William returned, Garstang was smoking; his elbows on
the table, and his ugly head resting in his hands.

"You seem bloomin' comfortable, Garstang."

"I'd be a darn sight more comfortabler for a drop of grog, William."

William took a bottle from beneath his bed.

"Just eleven o'clock," said the younger man, looking at his watch. "This
house closes punctual. You shall have one nip, mister, and then I chuck
you out."

He poured the contents of the bottle into the solitary mug, and added
water from a jug with a broken lip. Then the two rogues drank
alternately.

"What do you intend to do when you've made your pile, Garstang?"

"Me? I'm goin' back to London and set up in a nice little public,
missis, barmaid, and boots, complete, and live a quiet, virtuous life.
That's me. I should prefer somewheres down Woolwich way--I'm very fond
of the military."

"I'm goin' to travel," said William. "I'm anxious for to see things and
improve me mind. First, I'll go to America--I'm awful soft on the Yanks,
and can't help thinkin' that 'Frisco's the place for a chap with talent.
Then I'll work East and see New York, and by-and-by I'll go over to
Europe an' call on the principal Crown Heads--not the little 'uns, you
understand, like Portugal and Belgium, or fry of that sort: they ain't
no class--an' then I'll marry a real fine girl, a reg'lar top-notcher
with whips of dollars, an' go and live at Monte Carlo. How's that for a
p