re, where they threw down their swags and sat on them, like
men who had tramped a long, wearying journey, and at the end of it
preferred rest to either food or converse.

"Done a record, haven't you?" Gleeson asked, looking round at them.

"Don't know about a record, mate; but it's been a teaser coming up the
ridge," one of the men answered.

"Many more behind?" Peters asked.

The men laughed.

"The whole of Boulder Creek," one answered.

"Don't you want a feed?" Gleeson asked.

"Don't mind if I do," each man answered, as he rose from his swag, and
moved over to the place where the "tucker" was.

They were busily engaged--too busy to talk--in two minutes, and they
kept at it steadily till the billy was empty and the beef and damper
low.

"You can keep the billy going all night, if you're going to ask all them
that's coming up the track if they want a feed," one of the two at
length managed to say.

"That's why we shoved along," observed the other, meditatively, as he
pulled an empty pipe out of his pocket, and pushed a finger in and out
of the bowl.

"Tucker a bit scarce along the creek, eh?" Peters asked.

"Scarce?" the man replied, "Scarce ain't in it. It's as scarce as
gold--or 'baccy;" and he put the stem of his pipe between his lips, and
made a sound through it to indicate its emptiness.

"Do you smoke?" Peters asked innocently.

The man grinned. He would have replied freely and forcibly to the
self-evident attempt to take a rise out of him but for the fact that he
had just had one good meal, and breakfast-time was coming.

"Why don't you give him a fill?" Walker snapped out.

"My mate asks if you want a fill--of his plug," Peters said quietly.

"Oh, tea-leaves is good enough for me, if you ain't going to use them. I
haven't had a smoke of tea-leaves for weeks; stores wouldn't run to it,
and gum-leaves don't smoke cool. Thanks, young fellow, don't mind if I
do," he broke off, as Tony reached out half a plug of tobacco towards
him.

When he had filled his own pipe, he passed the plug to his mate, who
helped himself before passing back to Tony the little that remained.
Meanwhile the others were stowing away the remnants of the meal in the
"tucker-bag," and they and the two new arrivals were only comfortably
settled round the fire with their pipes going when another shout from
beyond the creek announced the arrival of more travellers.

This time a dozen men straggled into the camp, but it was e