ft the colony in the _Sabrina_ for England ten days
ago."

The effect of this announcement on the poor man was tremendous. He
uttered a violent imprecation, stamped furiously on the ground, while he
ground his teeth together. Then he sat down, and covered his face with
his hands in mute despair.

"I fear there has been some foul play," said Mr Oliphant to his nephew.

"Foul play!" cried the unfortunate digger, starting up furiously. "I'll
tell you what it is. Yon rascal's been and robbed me of all as I got by
my hard labour; and now he's got clean off. But I'll follow him, and
have the law of him, if I work my passage home for it."

"I've always had a suspicion that the fellow had not come honestly by
his gains," said Hubert.

"And why didn't you stop him? Why didn't you have him taken up on
suspicion?" exclaimed the other bitterly.

"I had no grounds for doing so," replied Hubert. "He might have come
honestly by his money for anything I knew to the contrary. There was
nothing to show that he had not been successful, as many other diggers
have been."

"Successful!" cried the poor man. "Ay, he's been successful in making a
precious fool of me."

"Tell us how it happened," said Mr Oliphant.

"Why, you see, gentlemen, my mates and me had done very well; and they
was for going to Melbourne with what they'd got, but I was for stopping
to get a little more. Well, I was all alone, and a little fidgetty like
for fear of getting robbed, when one evening I sees a sandy-haired chap
near my tent as didn't look much used to hard work; so I has a bit o'
talk with him. He seemed a greenish sort of piece, and I thought as
p'raps I might just make use of him, and keep him for company's sake.
So he and I agreed to be mates; he was to do the lighter work, and I was
to do the hard digging, and keep the biggest share of what we got. So
we chummed together; and he seemed a mighty pleasant sort of a cove for
a bit. He was always a-talking, and had his mouth full o' big words. I
never said nothing about what I'd got afore, and he never seemed to care
to ask me. But it were all his deepness. One night he pulls out a pack
of cards, and says, `Let's have a game. Only for love,' says he, when
he saw me look a little shyly at him. `I'm not a gambler,' says he; `I
never plays for money.' So we has a game and a pipe together, and he
pulls out a little flask of spirits, and we got very cheerful. But I
was careful not to