Part 17 (2/2)

”Oh, I aued Tap rejoined ”You must have worked hard; and in the hot weather too”

The lass, and set it doith a bang on the table as he fixed his eyes on Tap's face, and fro observations Tap realized that his syall in the ed bluntness of a wild, free life, took the ence The stor hi the burly lass up to the bar in order to have it replenished--and also charged against the score of the burly roups, always reaching one as the order was being given, and et round to his turn, until he had learned conclusively that every one of the old somewhere in his possession, and felt satisfied that he had imbibed as much as he could conveniently carry at their expense

Slipping out of the room quietly and unostentatiously, he went round to the paddock where his horse was, saddled it, and rode away The sounds of uproarious mirth came to him from the direction of the Rest, and he sht into our hands,” he said to hi in the direction of the Three-mile

He followed the track, diloom, with the certainty of one who traverses a well-known route The red flicker of firelight showed through the simpleas he approached the hut, and he went up to the door, after turning his horse loose in the paddock, and pushed it open Inside, the firelight shoo h-made stools in front of the fireplace, while a third lay on a stretcher at the far end of the room

One of the two men turned round quickly

”Hullo, Barber, I didn't know you were back,” Tap said in a subdued voice ”But I'lad, because----”

”Shut the door,” the ht,” Tap answered, as he turned and did the

”Walker hasn't turned up, but there's a lot of theold,” he went on, as he ca on the stretcher half raised hiht fell on his face

”Oh, you're there,” Tap said, as he saw and recognized Gleeson ”I was going to say----”

Barber turned round again and fixed his eyes on Tap's face

”What about Gleeson's men?” he asked

”I didn't hear if they were there or not, but Gleeson can go in hiht they're having”

”If Walker's not there he's waiting for theh for you to get in and start the ga, ”And ue after the last experience you had And you too, Tap, d'ye hear? I'et it”

The twoin front of the fire and looking into the red mass with eyes that were dazed and lustreless, wondered what all the cos and muttered conversation, which had so inexplicably supplanted the still solitude of the Three-mile, had to do with him and his selection

CHAPTER XI

BILLIARDS MADE EASY

There was a lurid aters held high revel at the Rest The sun blazed down pitilessly on the land, stricken sore by the drought; for it was the season of the year when the rain should have come in copious downfalls to moisten the parched soil, and when thunderstor, should have come to cool and clear the air But no rain came; not even a cloud obscured the blue of the sky for athe hours of darkness Only the lightning ca, and flashi+ng round the horizon and high overhead; disturbing the darkness as the patter of a tattoo disturbs silence; punctuating the night into periods of so white fury, thatmoments of dark, and the ears shrink and tre thunder-crash which never came And alas the air hot and dry, and the wind, when it bleas as a breath frorass, withered and brown, fell away into dust; the leaves hung limp and flaccid on the trees; the cultivation areas of the selections were parched and dismal; and to add to the tribulation of the selectors, swar down in clouds, reen or bore the se on until only the bare earth and the stripped tree branches were left

It was such a season when so at the Rest, and the advent of the diggers, with money to spend and a desire to entertain everybody who caave any excuse needed, not only to the selectors, but also to theto be done as soon as the period of festivity was over, and the miners returned to the field and settled down steadily onceselector, who reht of throwing in his lot with the ully-rakers, when he saw the lavish expenditure, not only at the Rest, but at Marold they had won Nor were the establish There would be a great deain, and Cullen had orders for picks by the ton; while the possibility of reefs being discovered, and tunnels and shafts being necessary to work them, filled Smart with enthusiasm at the amount of sawn ti year It was evidently a period of boom in the history of the town, and to pass the time until the festive season was over, ested

A race ers for the fun of the thing, the selectors with an eye to business, for the diggers had no horses, and as they ht like to run their own, sales were not iested a euchre tournament and a billiard handicap, and, in a day, what attention every one of the miners could spare from the other attractions of the Rest, was absorbed in the double struggle In a couple of days, as far as they were able to understand clearly, the old they had brought in; but no one seemed to have won it Tap, who had returned to the Rest, usually had a hand in the galed with the crowd as a stranger to the other, also joined in the fun, though mostly on the billiard-table They were the only tho never lost