'I wish I was,' replied Slivers with a chuckle. 'A fine woman, my
good sir! Why, if I was married to her I wouldn't sneak away
whenever I saw her. I'd go up to the Pactolus claim and there I'd
stay.'

'It's easy enough talking,' retorted Villiers crossly, 'but you
don't know what a fiend she is! Why do you hate her?'

'Because I do,' retorted Slivers. 'I hate her; I hate McIntosh; the
whole biling of them; they've got the Pactolus claim, and if they
find the Devil's Lead they'll be millionaires.'

'Well,' said the other, quite unmoved, 'all Ballarat knows that
much.'

'But I might have had it!' shrieked Slivers, getting up in an
excited manner, and stumping up and down the office. 'I knew Curtis,
McIntosh and the rest were making their pile, but I couldn't find
out where; and now they're all dead but McIntosh, and the prize has
slipped through my fingers, devil take them!'

'Devil take them,' echoed the cockatoo, who had climbed up again on
the table, and was looking complacently at his master.

'Why don't you ruin your wife, you fool?' said Slivers, turning
vindictively on Villiers. 'You ain't going to let her have all the
money while you are starving, are you?'

'How the deuce am I to do that?' asked Villiers, sulkily, relighting