did! Ye'll
remember me brother Mick--Mick with the red hair?"

"Yes," said Charlie, slowly and deliberately, "I remember him well; and
you too. And look here, Peggy Donohoe--or Peggy Keogh, whichever you
call yourself--you and Red Mick will have the most uphill fight you ever
fought before you get one sixpence of William Grant's money. Why, your
real husband is here on the coach with us!"

He turned and pulled Considine forward, and once more husband and wife
stood face to face. Considine, alias Keogh, smiled in a sickly way,
tried to meet his wife's eyes, and failed altogether. She regarded him
with a bold, unwinking stare.

"Him!" she said. "Him me husban'! This old crockerdile? I never seen him
before in me life."

A look of hopeless perplexity settled on Considine's features for a
moment, and then a ray of intelligence seemed to break in on him. She
repeated her statement.

"I never seen this man before in me life. Did I? Speak up, now, and say,
did I?"

Considine hesitated for a moment in visible distress. Then, pulling
himself together, and looking boldly from one to the other, he replied--

"Now that you mention it, ma'am, I don't think as ever you did. I must
ha' made some mistake."

He walked rapidly away, leaving Gordon and Peggy face to face.

"There y'are," she said, "what did I tell ye? Husban'? He's no husban'
o' mine. Ye're makin' a mistake, Charlie."

Charlie looked after the retreating bushman, and back at the good lady
who was beaming at him.

"Don't call me Charlie," he said. "That old man has come in for a whole
lot of money in England. His name is Considine, and he pretends he isn't
your husband so that he can get the money and leave you out of it. Don't
you be a fool. It's a lot better for you to stick to him than to try for
William Grant's money. Mr. Carew and I can prove he said you were his
wife."

"Och, look at that now! Said I was his wife! And his name was Considine,
the lyin' old vaggybond. His name's not Considine, and I'm not his wife,
nor never was. Grant was my husban', and I'll prove it in a coort of
law, so I will!" Her voice began to rise like a south-easterly gale, and
Charlie beat a retreat. He went to look for the old man, but could not
find him anywhere.

Talking the matter over with Carew he got no satisfaction from the
wisdom of that Solon. "Deuced awkward thing, don't you know," was his
only comment.

Things were even more awkward when the coach drew up to st