u see anything now, Dick, you that's so sharp?' says Maddie.

'Bless my soul,' says Starlight, 'of course, it is as clear as your
beautiful eyes. Jim is to shave his beard, talk like a Yankee, and go in
Joe Moreton's place. I see it all. Maddie persuading Joe to consent to
the exchange of duties.'

'But what will his employer say?'

'Oh! he's as bad as bad can be with the sandy blight,' says Maddie,
'wears green goggles, poor old gentleman. He'll never know nothing, and
he'll be able to swear up for Jim if the police pull him anywhere this
side of the Murray.'

We'd told Maddie that money needn't stand in the way, so she was to
promise Joe the full sum that he was to get for his contract would be
paid to him in cash that night--Jim to pay his own expenses as he went,
the same as he was to do himself. Of course she could get the money from
old Jonathan. A word from us then was worth a deal more than that'd come
to. Money wasn't the worst thing we had to care about.

They would have to change clothes, and he'd tell Jim about the horses,
the stages, and how to answer the old cove, and what to do to humour him
as they went along. If he'd had his full eyesight he might have noticed
some difference, but as it was, it was as much as the poor old chap,
she believed, could see there was a driver at all. His eyes was bound up
mostly; he had a big shade over 'em, and was half the night swabbing and
poulticing, and putting lotion into 'em. He'd got sandy blight that bad
it would take months to get right. Once you get a touch like that it's
a terror, I can tell you. I've had it that bad myself I had to be led
about.

After a lot of talking, that Jim was to try his luck as the Rev. Mr.
Watson's coachman, he was mad to get away somehow, and such another
chance might never turn up in a month of Sundays. He would have plenty
of time to shave his beard and make himself look as like as ever he
could to Joe Moreton. Maddie said she'd see after that, and it would
be as good as a play. Lucky for old Jim we'd all taken a fancy at the
Turon, for once in a way, to talk like Arizona Bill and his mates, just
for the fun of the thing. There were so many Americans there at first,
and they were such swells, with their silk sashes, bowie knives, and
broad-leafed 'full-share' hats, that lots of the young native fellows
took a pride in copying them, and could walk and talk and guess and
calculate wonderful well considering. Besides, most of the n