We shall go mad or drink ourselves to death'--(we'd all been pretty well
'on' the night before)--'if we stick here till we're trapped or smoked
out like a 'guana out of a tree spout. We must make a rise somehow,
and try for blue water again. I've been fighting against the notion the
whole time we've been here, but the devil and your old dad (who's a near
relative, I believe) have been too strong for us. Of course, you know
what it's bound to be?'

'I suppose so. I know when dad was away last week he saw that beggar and
some of his mates. They partly made it up awhile back, but didn't fancy
doing it altogether by themselves. They've been waiting on the chance of
our standing in and your taking command.'

'Of course, the old story,' he says, throwing his cigar away, and giving
a half laugh--such a laugh it was, too. 'Captain Starlight again, I
suppose. The paltry vanity of leadership, and of being in the front of
my fellow-men, has been the ruin of me ever since I could recollect. If
my people had let me go into the army, as I begged and prayed of them to
do, it might have been all the other way. I recollect that day and hour
when my old governor refused my boyish petition, laughed at me--sneered
at me. I took the wrong road then. I swear to you, Dick, I never
had thought of evil till that cursed day which made me reckless and
indifferent to everything. And this is the end--a wasted life, a felon's
doom! Quite melodramatic, isn't it, Richard? Well, we'll play out the
last act with spirit. "Enter first robber," and so on. Good-night.'

He walked away. I never heard him say so much about himself before.
It set me thinking of what luck and chance there seemed to be in this
world. How men were not let do what they knew was best for 'em--often
and often--but something seemed to drive 'em farther and farther along
the wrong road, like a lot of stray wild cattle that wants to make back
to their own run, and a dog here, a fence the other way. A man on foot
or a flock of sheep always keeps frightening 'em farther and farther
from the old beat till they get back into a bit of back country or
mallee scrub and stop there for good. Cattle and horses and men and
women are awful like one another in their ways, and the more you watch
'em the more it strikes you.

Another day or two idling and card-playing, another headache after too
much grog at night, brought us to a regular go in about business, and
then we fixed it for good.

We