, and, going to the door, thrust it in the crack,
giving the handle a violent tug to see whether the door stood the test.
'There now, mate,' he said with a grin--a grin that seemed to suggest
something my tipsy brain could not grasp, 'I have just shut us in snug
and secure so that we can chat away without fear of interruption. Let us
drink to a comfortable night's sleep. You will sleep sound enough here,
I can tell you!' He handed me a glass as he spoke. 'Drink!' he said with
a leer. 'You are not half an Australian if you cannot hold that! See!'
and pouring himself out a tumbler of spirits and water he was about to
gulp it down, when I uttered an ejaculation of horror. The light from
the single gas jet over his head, falling on his face as he lifted it up
to drink the whisky, revealed in his wide open, protruding pupils, the
reflection of a cat--I can swear it was a cat. Instantly my intoxication
evaporated and I scented danger. How was it I had not noticed before
that the man was a typical ruffian--a regular street-corner loiterer,
waiting, hawklike, to pounce upon and fleece the first well-to-do
looking stranger he saw. Of course I saw it all now like a flash of
lightning: he had seen me about the town during the earlier part of the
day, had found out I was there on business, that I was an Australian,
and one or two other things--it is surprising how soon one's affairs get
mooted in a small town,--and guessing I had the receipts of my sales on
my person, had decided to rob me. Accordingly, with this end in view, he
had followed me into the theatre, and, securing the seat next me, had
broken the ice by pretending he was an Australian. He had then plied me
with drink and brought me, already more than half drunk, to this
cut-throat den. And I owed the discovery to a cat! My first thought was
to feel for my revolver. I did, and found it was--gone. My hopes sank to
zero; for though I might have been more than a match for the wiry framed
stranger had we both been unarmed, I had not the slightest chance with
him were he armed, as he undoubtedly was, with my revolver as well as
his own. Though it takes some time to explain this, it all passed
through my mind in a few seconds--before he had finished drinking. 'Now,
mate!' he said, putting down his glass, the first WHOLE glass even of
whisky and water he had taken that night, 'that's my share, now for
yours.'

"'Wait a bit!' I stammered, pretending to hiccough, 'wait a bit. I do