bear on him.

"She was a beauty, and no mistake; she was far too good for me--I
often wondered how she came to have a chap like me."

He paused again, and the others thought over it--and wondered too,
perhaps.

The joker opened his lips to speak, but altered his mind about it.

"Well, I travelled up into Queensland, and worked back into Victoria
'n' South Australia, an' I wrote home pretty reg'lar and sent what
money I could. Last I got down on to the south-western coast of South
Australia--an' there I got mixed up with another woman--you know what
that means, boys?"

Sympathetic silence.

"Well, this went on for two years, and then the other woman drove me
to drink. You know what a woman can do when the devil's in her?"

Sound between a sigh and a groan from Lally Thompson. "My oath," he
said, sadly.

"You should have made it _three_ years, Jack," interposed the
joker; "you said two years before." But he was suppressed.

"Well, I got free of them both, at last--drink and the woman, I mean;
but it took another--it took a couple of years to pull myself
straight--"