lthy man,
went smash for a huge amount, which ruined hundreds of people, and
then shot himself; so poor Knowles left the Navy and took a billet
as house-master at a boys' college. Six months after, his uncle, Lord
Accrington, died, and left Knowles twenty thousand pounds. Of that
twenty thousand pounds he kept only five hundred pounds; every penny of
the rest he gave to his dead father's creditors."

"How noble of him," said Kate. "It was indeed, 'but you see,' he said
to me, 'I didn't want the money. My mother had died years before, and I
have no brothers or sisters, and it would have been a disgraceful thing
for me to have kept the money after what had occurred. Lord Accrington
was my mother's brother, and I was always a favourite of his (he did not
like my father, and had not spoken to him for years). I never expected
he would leave me a cent, and so it was no sacrifice on my part' And
then he said that ten years ago he had saved enough money to buy a small
sheep station in the Riverina District, and then came the drought of '72
which broke him."

"Poor fellow!" said Kate, "I shall like him now more than ever."

Gerrard nodded. "One doesn't often come across such men. And, as I was
saying, I have no reason to make a song over my affairs when so many
other fellows have had worse luck than me."

Douglas Fraser, who for the past few days had been depressed in spirits,
said, as he rose from his seat:

"True, Gerrard. It is of no use any one girding at his misfortunes,
if they are not caused by himself. Sometimes a man thinks in mining
parlance that he has 'struck it rich,' and straightway begins building
his Chateaux en Espagne. Then he finds he has bottomed on a rank duffer,
and wants to swear, as I do now." He smiled and spread out his chest,
"Kate, I'm going up to the claim to see Sam Young."

"And Mr Gerrard and I are going to the creek to catch some fish for
supper."

"Very well! I shall come back that way and join you," and the big man
strode off to the claim--half a mile away.

"Your father is not in his usual spirits, I think, Miss Fraser," said
Gerrard, as he and Kate walked down to the fishing pool through the
ever-sighing she-oaks which lined the banks of the creek.

"He is not; the reef has been gradually thinning out, and Sam Young
told him yesterday that he is afraid it will pinch out altogether. Last
Saturday's cleaning up at the battery only yielded ten ounces of melted
gold--worth about forty