Part 64 (2/2)

Toby, with his bare feet and brown, good-humoured face, was the only person visible on the station premises as I rode up

”Gosh, I didn't know you till I seen you side-on, when you was shuttin'

the Red Gate,” he remarked (The Red Gate was about a ht you was soomery, he's buzznackin' roun' the run as usual,” he continued, helping ht in both eyes

All the other fellers is out Mrs Bodysark”--and his grin deepened-- ”she 's all right Moriarty, of course, he 's loafin' in the store; lis'n hiosh foolishness I'll shove your horses in the paddick I say!

ain't they fell-aful?”

”Yes; the season's telling on theood chap? Here's his chain I want to keep hiht I don't wish you no harm, Collins; but I would n't ”

I went across to the store, and looked in Moriarty's laughing suddenly ceased, as his eye fell on me; and he respectfully rose to his feet

”Wherefore that crackling of thorns under a pot? ” I asked sternly, as I removed my belltopper and placed it on the counter ”Don't you see the spirits of the wise sitting in the clouds andyou?”

”Well, I'll be dashed!” he exclai out in blossom Now you only want the upper half of your head shaved, and you could start a Loan and Discount bank, with a capital of half a nity ”But, talking of finance, I trust you have n't forgotten the trifle that there is between us, and the teret Take that chair I've got such fun here”

He had sliced some corks into flat discs; into the centre of each disc he had stuck a slender piece of pine, about two inches in height, and spatulated at the upper end, like a paddle Then to the flat part of each upright he had attached a blow-fly, by urasp of each fly a piece of pine an inch long, cut into the shape of a rifle The walking motion of the fly's feet twirled and balanced the stick in rather droll burlesque of musketry drill; and a dozen of these insects-at-ar to the young fool's ars,” he laughed ”Not a smile on them Solemn as Presbyterians 'Tention! Present! Recover! Not a lazy bone in their bodies I say, Collins: a person could make a perpetual motion, with a fly on a sort of a treadmill? Ah! but then it would n't pass muster unless it went of its own accord--would it? Perpetualmy attention to lately You remember you adviseda clock so as to wind itself up as it went on That 's one idea Another is a littlea pump that throws a stream into the race that feeds the water-wheel, so that you use the saain, and the whole concern's self-acting

The idea ca you in confidence, for there 's a thousand notes hanging on to it”

”Moriarty,” said I sadly; ”you 're worse than ever Try so else

You're not a born mechanician”

”If I' fellow hotly ”Possibly, your own self? Was n't est machine-shops in Victoria, in his day? I knohat 's the matter with you Jealousy”

”It must be so Plato, thou reasonest well,” said I hopelessly

”But supposing you are a born mechanician, you have neither the theoretical nor the practical training Do you know for instance, the use of the brass slide you often see on a carpenter's rule?”

”Of course I do! Why I could calculate with that slide before I was ten years old”

One to Moriarty I should have remembered that his abnormal breadth across the temples qualified him to do a sum in his head, in ten seconds, that I could n't do on a slate in ten hours, nor for that matter, in ten years

No accounts in Riverina were better kept than those of Runnymede

”Good, so far,” I replied benevolently ”But how arithmental ordinates, or the cycloidal calculus; or even of adiabatic expansion, or torsional resistance, or the hydrostatic paradox, or the coefficient of friction? Now, these things are the very A B C of mechanics, as you'll find to your utter confusion”

Moriarty's countenance fell; but happening to glance at the perforhed hiars,” hehis eyes

”Business first,” said I ”How about rand!” replied Moriarty, beaestions to the letter First, I took Mooney and Nelson into ed toafter dusk, under thatbeside her bed-rooainst the weatherboard wall, and talked about”----

”Day, chaps,” said a stranger, appearing at the door of the store

”Got any pickles in stock, Moriarty?”

”Lots Half-a-crown a bottle”