'Look here, take in my points.' The native struck another match, and held
it that Done might make an inventory of his perfections. 'Five foot ten
high, strong as a horse, sound in wind and limb, know the country, know
the game, been on three fields, want a mate. Name's Micah Wentworth
Burton--Mike for short. Got all traps, pans, shovels, picks, cradle, tub,
windlass, barrow. Long Aleck--chap that attacked you--was my mate; he's
turning teamster. Take me on, an' here's my hand. We're made for a pair.'

Burton stopped for lack of wind. He jerked his words with a slight nasal
intonation, and his manner and his action indicated a characteristic
impetuosity. Done was astounded at his own seeming good fortune and the
other's rash confidence.

'Come,' he said doubtingly, 'do you mean to say you'll go into
partnership in this desperate way with a man you don't know, but whom you
suspect of being a notorious rogue, and give him all the advantages of
your property and your knowledge?'

'Will I? My oath! Is it a deal? All that about Solo is off. I might 'a'
known he had too much horse-sense to mooch about Melbourne disguised only
in a daily shave. As for the rest, blast it! we're men. I take you on
chance, you take me on spec. We can look after ourselves, I s'pose. Well,
what say?'

'I couldn't ask for anything better. The only objection to the
arrangement is that I take all and give nothing.'

'Done, then! But don't you run away with a wrong idea. There 're heaps o'
decent men an' good miners in Melbourne who'd jump at a mate of your
stamp. Come along to my tent up Canvas Town to-night. There's a spare
bunk. Aleck started on a jamboree that won't mature for a week. We can
talk things into order.'

Jim Done awoke next morning with a fear in his heart that he had made a
fool of himself. His mate was sitting just without the tent, grilling
chops on a piece of hoop-iron twisted into a grid. Jim's head felt new to
him, and ached badly; old doubts, old prejudices, possessed him. Why
should all the regard this stranger expressed have developed in an
acquaintanceship of minutes? Why should Burton be so eager to bestow
benefits upon him? That was not the customary way of men. He got up,
dressed and washed, and took breakfast with his mate, and the sullen
suspicion lingered; but Mike talked volubly, questioning nothing, and as
the morning wore on his obvious sincerity won on Done, and ere they
turned their backs upon Melbourne the Au