the first felon I've been on speaking terms with. I borrowed half-a-caser
off a murderer once, when I was in a hole and had no one else to go to;
and the murderer hadn't served his time, neither. I've got nothing
against the Lachlan, except that he's a white man and bears
a faint family resemblance to a certain branch of my tribe."

I rolled out my swag on the boughs, got my pipe, tobacco, and matches handy
in the crown of a spare hat, and lay down.

Mitchell got up, re-lit his pipe at the fire, and mooned round for a while,
with his hands behind him, kicking sticks out of the road, looking out
over the plain, down along the Billabong, and up through the mulga branches
at the stars; then he comforted the pup a bit, shoved the fire together
with his toe, stood the tea-billy on the coals, and came and squatted
on the sand by my head.

"Joe! I'll tell you a yarn."

"All right; fire away! Has it got anything to do with the Lachlan?"

"No. It's got nothing to do with the Lachlan now; but it's about a chap
he knew. Don't you ever breathe a word of this to the Lachlan or anyone,
or he'll get on to me."

"All right. Go ahead."

"You know I've been a good many things in my time. I did
a deal of house-painting at one time; I was a pretty smart brush hand,
and made money at it. Well, I had a run of work at a place called Redclay,
on the Lachlan side. You know the sort of town -- two pubs, a general store,