g
his solitary eye to bear--he'd take to the Bush and stay out all night.

For half an hour or so after the explosion there were several Bushmen
round behind the stable who crouched, doubled up, against the wall, or
rolled gently on the dust, trying to laugh without shrieking. There
were two white women in hysterics at the house, and a half-caste rushing
aimlessly round with a dipper of cold water. The publican was holding
his wife tight and begging her between her squawks, to 'hold up for my
sake, Mary, or I'll lam the life out of ye.'

Dave decided to apologise later on, 'when things had settled a bit,' and
went back to camp. And the dog that had done it all, 'Tommy', the great,
idiotic mongrel retriever, came slobbering round Dave and lashing his
legs with his tail, and trotted home after him, smiling his broadest,
longest, and reddest smile of amiability, and apparently satisfied for
one afternoon with the fun he'd had.

Andy chained the dog up securely, and cooked some more chops, while Dave
went to help Jim out of the hole.

And most of this is why, for years afterwards, lanky, easy-going
Bushmen, riding lazily past Dave's camp, would cry, in a lazy drawl and
with just a hint of the nasal twang--

''El-lo, Da-a-ve! How's the fishin' getting on, Da-a-ve?'

Poisonous Jimmy Gets Left.

I. Dave Regan's Yarn.

'When we got tired of digging about Mudgee-Budgee, and getting no gold,'
said Dave Regan, Bushman, 'me and my mate, Jim Bently, decided to take a
turn at droving; so we went with Bob Baker, the drover, overland with a
big mob of cattle, way up into Northern Queensland.

'We couldn't get a job on the home track, and we spent most of our
money, like a pair of fools, at a pub. at a town way up over the border,
where they had a flash barmaid from Brisbane. We sold our pack-horses
and pack-saddles, and rode out of that town with our swags on our
riding-horses in front of us. We had another spree at another place, and
by the time we got near New South Wales we were pretty well stumped.

'Just the other side of Mulgatown, near the border, we came on a big mob
of cattle in a paddock, and a party of drovers camped on the creek. They
had brought the cattle down from the north and were going no farther
with them; their boss had ridden on into Mulgatown to get the cheques to
pay them off, and they were waiting for him.

'"And Poisonous Jimmy is waiting for us," said one of them.

'Poisonous Jimmy