tell you, she's stone,' and with a dismal nod he slouched away.

'Stone, is she?' cried the old man, pounding furiously on the floor
with his wooden leg, 'then I'd smash her; I'd crush her; I'd grind
her into little bits, damn her,' and overcome by his rage, Slivers
shook Billy off his shoulder and took a long drink.

Meanwhile Mr Villiers, dreading lest his courage should give way,
went to the nearest hotel and drank pretty freely so that he might
bring himself into an abnormal condition of bravery. Thus primed, he
went to the railway station, took the train to the Pactolus claim,
and on arriving at the end of his journey had one final glass of
whisky to steady his nerves.

The last straw, however, breaks the camel's back, and this last
drink reduced Mr Villiers to that mixed state which is known in
colonial phrase as half-cocked. He lurched out of the hotel, and
went in the direction of the Pactolus claim. His only difficulty was
that, as a matter of fact, the solitary mound of white earth which
marked the entrance to the mine, suddenly appeared before his eyes
in a double condition, and he beheld two Pactolus claims, which
curious optical delusion rather confused him, inasmuch as he was
undecided to which he should go.

'Itsh the drinksh,' he said at length, stopping in the middle of the
white dusty road, and looking preternaturally solemn; 'it maksh me
see double: if I see my wife, I'll see two of her, then'--with a
drunken giggle--'I'll be a bigamist.'

This idea so tickled him, that he commenced to laugh, and, finding