Part 12 (2/2)

Gleeson went on ”It's ot the savee to see the quickest way to get it”

Palmer Billy, his hat at the back of his head and his face working,feller,” he began ”I' since I was fifteen;every slab of damper and pannikin of tea I've swallerd, not to h a share of graft as a man wants whose muscles ain't flabby Fifty times I've struck a duffer on one field or another; twenty tiood show that petered out in a week; three tih to set me up if I'd stuck to the find, but always I've been had--had by darned dirty I-talyans froues and doctored tangle-foot and bested raft while they fattened on our find And for years I've waited for the chance of et a bit even on one of them There's three of you here, and there's one of me, but----”

”Don't make no error,” Peters exclaimed quickly ”I'm a miner myself I joined this show as a fair deal, and so did the lad there”

”Good for you,” Palmer Billy replied ”The ladwhat's the pay forsharks Here, put up your dooks,” he added, as he sparred up to Gleeson

”We're mates, don't I tell you?” Gleeson said ”I'm on for a square deal I'm full of the others I'll stand in----”

Pal round him in the approved methods of Boulder Creek, came within reach and hit Behind the blow there was a lifetith of a toil-trained, toughened frame, and Gleeson fell like an ox under the pole-axe He lay where he fell, and Palmer Billy, far froilistic talents, stirred him with his foot

”Here, no sleepy 'possum tricks, if _you_ please,” he said, hat he considered appropriate politeness demanded by the occasion ”There's two h yet _I_ don't want to keep you waiting Get up and have yer smile out”

But Gleeson made no response, and Peters came over and looked at him

Palmer Billy's bony fist had left an une of his nose, and the closed eyelids were already thickened and discoloured

”You've punished him for the three of us,” Peters said

”Punished him? Don't you believe it,” Pal to learn whatmeans before I've done with him, and then you two can take hi to enjoy hiood ha a chap like that; he wouldn't stand up to a black-fellow,” Tony, who had been watching the proceedings, observed

”If there's gold in the creek, why----”

”That's just it,” Palet it out while we take charge of it He's used to all pay and no work This journey he'll have all work and no pay Oh, you're waking up, are you?” he added, as Gleeson recovered his senses sufficiently to ive you a hand,” he went on, as he grabbed Gleeson by the back of his collar and jerked hi to and fro and holding his head with both hands ”Now, o on with this little affair,” Palmer Billy continued ”Not that I want to hurry yer

Take your own tio on”

Gleeson, still dazed, looked round at the three standing in front of hi with the knock-down blow he had received, and he had not yet had ti of his sensations The words Pal, and somewhere in the muddled confusion of his mind there was a decided impulse to journey

”I'm ready now,” he said indistinctly, as he dropped his hands ”I' for you”

Palmer Billy, watchful, suspicious, and wroth, heard the words and saw thehis blow in before the ruse he believed Gleeson was trying to use could develop The second s blow in his face, for which he was totally unprepared, sent Gleeson again to the ground, and also brought hoe, and to a man as by no hter, either by instinct or training In the ht hold his own, and, to any one who believed hie But when, by any h to correctly estimate the value of his professions, and as self-reliant and sturdy enough to face hie a proof of his assertions, Gleeson retired, or, failing escape, subsided rapidly Usually his tact, as he called it, was successful in extricating him froainst him; he had never before been called on to cope with such a situation as he now realized he was in

The second blow, directedeffect of the first, though it brought hiarded as expert thoroughness As he lay there, he understood the turn matters had taken; he was in the h-and-tuer and round in order to ascertain the disposition of the other twoon with apparent indifference to as transpiring, and realized that they were certainly not on his side

Palmer Billy, as he saw Gleeson raise his head, stepped over to hiet up, I take it,” he said, and reached down to catch him by the collar

”Don't hitfro hand which he expected was about to ad his face on his arlanced round at the other tith a look of scorn on his face

”What price _that_?” he asked, with a et up,” he went on before they could answer hihly with his foot ”Get up on to yer bended knees, or I'll sink a shaft through you as you lay”