ht for two or three
hours, and then returned and reported all well.

They stayed on for several days. After breakfast and when the men were
going to work Steelman and Smith would go out along the line with the
black bag and poke round amongst the "layers and stratas" in sight of
the works for a while, as an evidence of good faith; then they'd drift
off casually into the bush, camp in a retired and sheltered spot, and
light a fire when the weather was cold, and Steelman would lie on
the grass and read and smoke and lay plans for the future and improve
Smith's mind until they reckoned it was about dinner-time. And in the
evening they would come home with the black bag full of stones and bits
of rock, and Steelman would lecture on those minerals after tea.

On about the fourth morning Steelman had a yarn with one of the men
going to work. He was a lanky young fellow with a sandy complexion, and
seemingly harmless grin. In Australia he might have been regarded as a
"cove" rather than a "chap," but there was nothing of the "bloke" about
him. Presently the cove said:

"What do you think of the boss, Mr Stoneleigh? He seems to have taken a
great fancy for you, and he's fair gone on geology."

"I think he is a very decent fellow indeed, a very intelligent young
man. He seems very well read and well informed."

"You wouldn't think he was a University man," said the cove.

"No, indeed! Is he?"

"Yes. I thought you knew!"

Steelman knitted his brows. He seemed slightly disturbed for the moment.
He walked on a few paces in silence and thought hard.

"What might have been his special line?" he asked the cove.

"Why, something the same as yours. I thought you knew. He was reckoned
the best--what do you call it?--the best minrologist in the country. He
had a first-class billet in the Mines Department, but he lost it--you
know--the booze."

"I think we will be making a move, Smith," said Steelman, later on, when
they were private. "There's a little too much intellect in this camp to
suit me. But we haven't done so bad, anyway. We've had three days' good
board and lodging with entertainments and refreshments thrown in." Then
he said to himself: "We'll stay for another day anyway. If those beggars
are having a lark with us, we're getting the worth of it anyway, and I'm
not thin-skinned. They're the mugs and not us, anyhow it goes, and I can
take them down before I leave."

But on the way home he had a talk with another ma