thfuls of the undiluted liquor. "If I'd never touched it I should
have been a wealthy man to-day. But I shall be a wealthy man yet. You
understand me?"

"Yes," answered Ned, mechanically. He was looking at the frank, open,
intelligent face and well-made limbs of the half-naked lad opposite and
wondering what he was doing here with this grizzled drunkard. The said
grizzled drunkard being the broken-down swell, whose highly-coloured
face, swollen nose and slobbery eyes told a tale that his slop-made
clothes would have concealed. "How old are you?" he asked the lad, the
drunkard having fallen asleep in the middle of a discourse concerning a
great invention which would bring him millions.

"I'm nineteen."

"You look older," remarked Ned.

"Most people think I'm older," replied the lad proudly.

"You're not a native."

"No. I'm from the west of England."

"Which county?"

"Devon."

"My father's Devon," said Ned, at which the poor lad looked up eagerly,
as though in Ned he recognised an old friend.

"That's strange, isn't it? How you meet people!" he remarked.

"I've never been there, you know," explained Ned. "Fact is I don't think
it would be well for me to go. If all my old dad used to say is true I'd
soon get shipped out."

"How's that?"

"Why, they transport a man for shooting a rabbit or a hare, don't they?
My dad told me a friend of his was sent out for catching salmon and that
his mother was frightened nearly to death when she knew he'd been off
fishing one night. Of course, they don't transport to here any more. We
wouldn't have it. But they do it to somewhere still, I suppose."

"I don't know, I'm sure," answered the lad. "I never heard much about
that. I came out when I was fourteen."

"How was that?"

"Well, there was nothing to do in England that had anything in it and
everybody was saying what a grand country Australia was and how everybody
could get on and so I came out."

"Your folks come?"

"My father was dead. I only had a stepfather."

"And he wanted to get rid of you, eh?" enquired Ned, getting interested.

"I suppose he did, a little," said the lad, colouring.

"You came out to Sydney?"

"No. To Brisbane. That didn't cost anything."

"You hadn't any friends?"

"No. I got into a billet near Stanthorpe, but when I wanted a raise they
sacked me and got another boy. Then I came across to New South Wales. It
wasn't any use staying in Queensland. I wish I'd stayed in England," he