ough he knew that she took gifts of
quaintly-shaped nuggets from the other men with the indifference of a
queen accepting tribute.

Mrs. Ben Kyley greeted the mates with noisy joviality when they met, and
Ben took his pipe from his mouth, and said he was 'right down blarsted
glad,' which amounted to quite a demonstration, coming from him. Within
two days the tents were up, and Mrs. Kyley's business was resumed, and
was carried on as at Diamond Gully, and with much the same success. But
here for some time Ben's services as 'chucker-out' were more in
requisition, spirits being more unruly on Jim Crow. One night he even had
to fight a five-round battle with a riotous young Cousin Jack, in which
engagement Done seconded him by special request. Ben triumphed, but came
out of the contest with a black eye and an inflamed nose of a
preposterous size, at which Mary was virtuously indignant.

'You, a professional, fighting for diversion like any fool of a
gentleman!' she said scornfully.

'Man mus' keep his hand in,' replied Ben.

'If you can't attend to your duties without making such a mess of
yourself, you'd better have a month's notice. What was the good of me
taking on a pugilist if I'm to have fighting about the place
continually?'

'Come, come, Mrs. Ben,' said Jim; 'if you treat him like this when he
wins, what would you do if he lost?'

'Divorce him and take up with the Cornishman!' replied the raffish
washerwoman, exploding into Gargantuan laughter.

Done had often thought of Ryder since the night of the troopers' raid on
Mrs. Kyley's grog-store, but had seen nothing of him in the meantime.
Mike recalled him to his mind again as they were lying out in the
moonlight on a Sunday night about two weeks later.

'Remember the chap that tried to throttle Stony that night in the Black
Forest?' he said. 'Saw him on the lead to-day.'

'You did? Ryder was hunting Stony on Diamond Gully.'

'He's gettin' pretty warm, then. Stony's here too. That's his tent above
the bend to the left. He's a hatter, an' works a lone hand in the shallow
ground.'

'Then trouble's brewing for Mr. Stony.'

'You seemed to feel for him. Better drop him the word, hadn't you?'

'No. My sympathies are with the other man, and as he means something
short of manslaughter, Stony can take his chances.'

It was not long after this that Jim encountered Stony in Mary Kyley's
tent. He was drinking alone, and drinking with the feverish haste of a
man w