e I left; and they were
intrusted to me by my master to put into the Bank of Liverpool."

"Ah, that was something like," cried the inspector, rubbing his hands.
"How old Slocum must have been astonished when he found that you was
gone."

"You knew my master, then," cried Jackson, starting up with alarm
depicted upon his countenance.

"Of course I didn't know him; but I can read, can't I? Didn't an
advertisement appear in one of the papers at Melbourne, offering a
reward for the arrest of one Charley Wright. But don't fear us; go on
with your yarn. You've made a good beginning."

"I'm glad that you think so, 'cos I don't know as you'd approve of such
kinds of pickings."

"Approve of 'em?" echoed the inspector. "No matter; you go on, and while
talking I'll order more lush."

"I didn't find so many chances to make a fortune as I expected here,"
Jackson continued, "but I got employment in a store, where I worked
daytimes, and at night I used to do a little on my own account in the
pasteboard line; but I wasn't very successful, and somehow or other I
think I was cheated."

"It's exceedingly probable," cried the inspector, _sotto voce_.

"And when I found that I was cleaned out after a few weeks, I attempted
to retrieve my losses by borrowing from my employers," Jackson
continued.

"Without their consent or knowledge," Mr. Brown remarked.

The young fellow smiled faintly, and nodded his head in token of assent,
and then continued:

"One day I borrowed a hundred pounds, thinking that I could replace it
without its being missed, if I was lucky at cards; but somehow I wasn't,
and my employers began to make a stir in relation to the matter."

"That must have been exceedingly disagreeable to your feelings," the
inspector insinuated.

"Well, it was rather hard, I will own, 'cos I might have been lucky
after a while, and then I could have paid the whole debt without
trouble; but men in business don't seem to have much consideration for
their clerks; and I think that a good deal of crime originates through
their obstinacy and stupidity.

"I was obliged to leave the firm with whom I was spending my time; and I
did it so suddenly that they had no chance to arrest me, or to
investigate matters. I stepped out of the store while the partners were
holding a consultation, and in ten minutes time I was on board the
'Smiling Queen' steamboat, bound for Sydney, and beyond the reach of the
police.

"I didn't have a recommen