Part 66 (1/2)

Frightenedbreath

”Well?” said I, hazily; wondering whether this piteous wreckage of plot ing to soy, or to bad lieutenantry in the working out

”So I had to make a clean breast of it,” continued the plenipotentiary, in a reluctant and apologetic tone ”No use talking It was io taken by surprise It was dragged from me by a sort of hypodermic influence; and all the fun seemed to have died out of it, till it sounded mean and small and unmanly Yes; I had to tell hiiven er

Well, you know, Montgo, once or twice; and before I had done, he wheeled round and stood looking out of the door, as if I was n't worth listening to Then he went away, coughing fit to break his neck”

”Itree'd, in the first place; and he knows it,”

I remarked, with a sourness which appears pardonable even at this distance of tiot to do with it?” asked Moriarty

”How the te at the hut

”Best sound since breakfast-ti ”Come on to lunch”

As we left the store, half-a-dozen representatives of the lower classes were stringing-in from different directions toward the hut, to attend to the most ancient and eminent of human institutions--the institution which predicates and affirms the brotherhood of our race as positively, and, to the philosophic nised and reets his own personal dirt-origin and dirt-destination; by the woets the insulting language he used to you when he was under the influence; and by the boy who forgets his catechisnal is the real Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame; the Greek invocation which calls fools into a circle as surely as wise ainst its spell

Just then, tagmen on foot came into the yard, and approached Moriarty and me I fixed my belltopper, adjusted my specs, and assumed my stately pipe, whilstHere was the true key to the Wilcannia shower; here was the under-side of ainst ophthalmia; here was the hidden purpose of that repetitional picking and sorting of the hawker's stock which had left Jack the Shellback his Hobson's choice in coats; here was a Wesleyan converging of the whole vast order of the universe toward the happiest issue For here was To at last; and I stood prepared to force a teinal amount--of the bill, drawn by me on the Royal Inevitable, and now about to be presented by the legitimate holder

”Is the bose at ha first to Moriarty and then toto the ground, and extended his hand--”Mony 's the thocht A had o' ye,An' hoo're ye farin' syne?”

”Excellent, i' faith--of the cha politeness, and a hearty hand-grip, though I felt like aa rifle bullet ”I have a wretched memory for faces, yet yours seems familiar; and I 'm certain I've heard your voice before

Pardon ,” replied my creditor, in an altered tone

”Nohere have we ? I know several of the name in Riverina, and several in Victoria Wait a moment--Did we o, past? No! Well, perhaps--yes--didn't we have a drink together, at Ivanhoe, three or four o?”

”Od sink 't,” muttered the honest fellow, in vexation; ”A thocht ye was yin Tam M'Callum, frae Selkirksheer”

”I'ently

”Butup; ”and Collins sounds so like M'Callum”

”Ye 'se no be the mon A thocht ye was,” replied Ta of his words sank intotae dae wi' Rinnymede?”

”No; I 'm only a caller, like yourself Moriarty, here, is the storekeeper”

”D' ye want ony han's?” continued Ta Moriarty

”I think we do,” replied the young fellow,there was a few burrs that would have to be looked after at once Call again in the evening, and see him”

”Yon wad fit mysen like auld breeks,” persisted Tam; ”bit A'm takkin' thocht o' Andraw here Puir body's sicht's nae fit fir sic wark; an' A mauna pairt wi' hiang fairther ava”

He resun, perceptible only to Moriarty, and the latter hesitated a moment