m
full in the eyes, with the half-savage glare passing out of his own to
give place to an air of profound melancholy. "No, I wouldn't do you any
harm, sir. You're a brave lad."

"No, I'm not," said Nic, letting himself sink back on the sunny herbage,
for he felt sick and giddy. "It was horrible: it made me turn faint.
Why did you do that?"

He spoke now in indignant anger.

"Because I was a brute," said the man hoarsely. "They've made me a
brute. I thought I would try you and see what was in you. There, go
back home and tell them," he cried, with his voice growing intensely
bitter; "and you can have the pleasure of seeing me flogged."

"What!" cried Nic, forgetting his own feelings in seeing the way the man
was moved. "You--flogged--for playing that foolish trick!"

"Yes; foolish trick, my lad. But there, now you've come home, keep away
from me. You've a deal to learn yet."

"Well, you own it was foolish," said Nic, for want of something better
to say.

"Yes, a piece of madness, my lad. You said you begged my pardon a bit
ago. I beg yours now."

"Of course. There, it's all right," cried Nic. "But don't you think I
should go and tell tales. My father would, of course, be put out,--but
flog you! He doesn't look the sort of man to flog his people, does he?"

The man looked at him curiously. Then, drawing back sharply, his manner
changed, and he began to look sullen, as he said in a morose voice:

"Didn't your father say anything to you about me?"

"No."

"Didn't he tell you what I was, sir?"

"No," said Nic, with's suspicion now dawning on his mind. "You are his
stock man, are you not?"

"Stock man? No: Brookes is his stock man. There--keep away from me, my
lad."

"Why?" said Nic.

"Because I'm only a sort of two-legged animal, a machine to do your
father's work. I thought you knew."

"That you are--"

Nic stopped short.

"Yes, my lad--a convict, sent out of my country for my country's good."

"I know now," cried Nic eagerly. "I've heard--I was told on board. You
are sent up the country for good behaviour. Then you are my father's
assigned servant?"

The man stood looking down at him for a moment or two with his face full
of wrinkles. Then he turned quickly and walked hurriedly away, never
once looking back as Nic watched him till he was out of sight.

Then the boy shuddered.

"How horrible!" he thought. "He might have thrown me down. No, it was
only a mad trick. B