e had on a
regular town rig--watch and chain, leather valise, round felt hat, like
a chap going to take charge of a store or something. I didn't know him
at first, but directly our eyes met I saw it was old Jim. We didn't
talk--no fear, and my boss asked him to join us, like any other
stranger. Just then in comes the landlady to sharpen up the man at the
bar.

'Haven't you served those drinks yet, Bob?' she sings out. 'Why,
the gentlemen called for them half-an-hour ago. I never saw such a
slow-going crawler as you are. You'd never have done for the Turon
boys.'

We all looked at her--not a bad-looking woman she'd been once, though
you could see she'd come down in the world and been knocked about a bit.
Surely I knew her voice! I'd seen her before--why, of course--

She was quicker than I was.

'Well, Dick!' says she, pouring out all the drinks, taking the note, and
rattling down the change on the counter, all in a minute, same as I'd
often seen her do before, 'this is a rough shop to meet old friends in,
isn't it? So you didn't know me, eh? We're both changed a bit. You look
pretty fresh on it. A woman loses her looks sooner than a man when she
goes to the bad. And Jim too,' she goes on; 'only to fancy poor old
Jim turning up here too! One would think you'd put it up to meet at the
township on some plant of that sort.'

It was Kate, sure enough! How in the world did ever she get here? I knew
she'd left the Turon, and that old Mullockson had dropped a lot of
his money in a big mining company he'd helped to float, and that never
turned out gold enough to pay for the quicksilver in the first crushing.
We'd heard afterwards that he'd died and she'd married again; but I
never expected to see her brought down so low as this--not but what we'd
known many a woman that started on the diggings with silks and satins
and a big house and plate-glass windows brought down to a cotton gown
and a bark shanty before half-a-dozen years were over.

Jim and I both looked queer. The men began to laugh. Any one could see
we were both in a fix. Jim spoke first.

'Are you sure you're not making a mistake, missis?' says he, looking at
her very quiet-like. 'Take care what you say.'

He'd better have held his tongue. I don't know whether she really
intended to give us away. I don't think she did altogether; but with
them kind of women it's a regular toss up whether they'll behave
reasonable or not. When they're once started, 'specially