roll up to the Prospectors'
Arms. We'd got used to sitting at the little table, drinking our beer or
what not, smoking our pipes and listening to all the fun that was going
on. Not that we always sat in the big hall. There was a snug little
parlour beside the bar that we found more comfortable, and Kate used to
run in herself when business was slack enough to leave the barmaid; then
she'd sit down and have a good solid yarn with us.

She made a regular old friend of me, and, as she was a handsome woman,
always well dressed, with lots to say and plenty of admirers, I wasn't
above being singled out and made much of. It was partly policy, of
course. She knew our secret, and it wouldn't have done to have let her
let it out or be bad friends, so that we should be always going in
dread of it. So Jim and I were always mighty civil to her, and I really
thought she'd improved a lot lately and turned out a much nicer woman
than I thought she could be.

We used to talk away about old times, regular confidential, and though
she'd great spirits generally, she used to change quite sudden sometimes
and say she was a miserable woman, and wished she hadn't been in such
a hurry and married as she had. Then she'd crack up Jeanie, and say
how true and constant she'd been, and how she was rewarded for it by
marrying the only man she ever loved. She used to blame her temper;
she'd always had it, she said, and couldn't get rid of it; but she
really believed, if things had turned out different, she'd have been a
different woman, and any man she really loved would never have had no
call to complain. Of course I knew what all this meant, but thought I
could steer clear of coming to grief over it.

That was where I made the mistake. But I didn't think so then, or how
much hung upon careless words and looks.

Well, somehow or other she wormed it out of me that we were off
somewhere at Christmas. Then she never rested till she'd found out that
we were going to Melbourne. After that she seemed as if she'd changed
right away into somebody else. She was that fair and soft-speaking and
humble-minded that Jeanie couldn't have been more gentle in her ways;
and she used to look at me from time to time as if her heart was
breaking. I didn't believe that, for I didn't think she'd any heart to
break.

One night, after we'd left about twelve o'clock, just as the house shut
up, Arizona Bill says to me--

'Say, pard, have yer fixed it up to take that you