, once
in a while; and when you do it's a sign that you or someone are going
too far, and had better pull up, for it's a red light on the line, old
as he is.

"Now, Jimmy Nowlett was a nuggety little fellow, hard as cast iron,
good-hearted, but very excitable; and when the bashed Redmond was
being carted off (poor Uncle Bob was always pretty high-strung, and was
sitting on a log sobbing like a great child from the reaction), Duigan
made some sneering remark that only Jimmy Nowlett caught, and in an
instant he was up and at Duigan.

"Perhaps Duigan was demoralised by his mate's defeat, or by the
suddenness of the attack; but, at all events, he got a hiding, too.
Uncle Bob used to say that it was the funniest thing he ever saw in his
life. Jimmy kept yelling: 'Let me get at him! By the Lord, let me get at
him!' And nobody was attempting to stop him, he WAS getting at him all
the time--and properly, too; and, when he'd knocked Duigan down, he'd
dance round him and call on him to get up; and every time he jumped or
bounced, he'd squeak like an india-rubber ball, Uncle Bob said, and he
would nearly burst his boiler trying to lug the big man on to his feet
so's he could knock him down again. It took two of Jimmy's mates all
their time to lam him down into a comparatively reasonable state of mind
after the fight was over.

"The Oracle left for Sydney next day, and Uncle Bob went with him. He
stayed at Uncle Bob's place for some time. He got very quiet, they said,
and gentle; he used to play with the children, and they got mighty fond
of him. The old folks thought his heart was broken, but it went through
a deeper sorrow still after that and it ain't broken yet. It takes a lot
to break the heart of a man."

"And his wife," asked Mitchell--"what became of her?"

"I don't think he ever saw her again. She dropped down pretty low after
he left her--I've heard she's living somewhere quietly. The Oracle's
been sending someone money ever since I knew him, and I know it's a
woman. I suppose it's she. He isn't the sort of a man to see a woman
starve--especially a woman he had ever had anything to do with."

"And the Gippsland girl?" asked Mitchell.

"That's the worst part of it all, I think. The Oracle went up North
somewhere. In the course of a year or two his affair got over Gippsland
way through a mate of his who lived over there, and at last the story
got to the ears of this girl, Bertha Bredt. She must have written a
dozen