"It won't be my fault if I don't," returned M. Vandeloup, gaily;
"and Madame Midas," he added, mentally, "will be an excellent person
to assist me in doing so."




CHAPTER VI

KITTY


Gaston Vandeloup having passed all his life in cities found that his
existence on the Pactolus claim was likely to be very dreary. Day
after day he arose in the morning, did his office work, ate his
meals, and after a talk with Madame Midas in the evening went to bed
at ten o'clock. Such Arcadian simplicity as this was not likely to
suit the highly cultivated tastes he had acquired in his earlier
life. As to the episode of New Caledonia M. Vandeloup dismissed it
completely from his mind, for this young man never permitted his
thoughts to dwell on disagreeable subjects.

His experiences as a convict had been novel but not pleasant, and he
looked upon the time which had elapsed since he left France in the
convict ship to the day he landed on the coast of Queensland in an
open boat as a bad nightmare, and would willingly have tried to
treat it as such, only the constant sight of his dumb companion,
Pierre Lemaire, reminded him only too vividly of the reality of his
trouble. Often and often did he wish that Pierre would break his
neck, or that the mine would fall in and crush him to death; but