“I was obliged to leave the firm with whom I was spending my time; and I did it so suddenly that they had no chance to arrest me, or to investigate matters.  I stepped out of the store while the partners were holding a consultation, and in ten minutes time I was on board the ‘Smiling Queen’ steamboat, bound for Sydney, and beyond the reach of the police.

“I didn’t have a recommendation in my pocket, for I didn’t think to ask for one when I left Melbourne; and I have always entertained some doubts as to whether I could have obtained one had I requested it.”

“Ingenuous youth,” muttered the inspector, almost fascinated by his impudence.

“I tried to get a clerkship in Sydney, but didn’t succeed; and then I accepted a situation as marker in a billiard saloon, where I flourished for a time—­but one night a miner, who had been drinking quite freely, lost about a pound of dust, and was fool enough to make a fuss about it.  I was suspected of stealing it; and although I pledged my word that I knew nothing of the matter, yet the gold was found in my pocket, and I was obliged to share with the police in order to get clear.”

Mr. Brown endeavored to hide his chagrin by drinking from his glass, while Steel Spring could hardly contain himself he was so delighted at the expose.

“A precious sot of wermin those police fellers, hey?” cried the scamp, in defiance of all my frowns.

“O, they are the most rapacious set of villains,” Jackson continued, “that ever lived.  A man can’t do an honest day’s work without sharing with them.  I know ’em, thoroughly.”

“Perhaps you do,” Mr. Brown replied, carelessly, and at the same time he gave Steel Spring such a tremendous kick on his thin shin bone that the poor devil was almost bent up double with agony.

“I ax your pardon,” cried Mr. Brown; “I didn’t know that your foot was there.”

“Vell, you’ve found out,” was the reply of the poor devil, as he rubbed his leg.

“After the transaction with the miner, I heard that a man could make a good living, if he was any ways smart, at Ballarat, so I came here and done pretty well, until an unfortunate occurrence took place, which has been the means of making me fight shy for a few weeks past.”

“You see he used a ‘sticker’ rather freely,” cried Steel Spring, in a careless way, as though stabbing was a meritorious act, which Jackson’s modesty was too great for him to disclose.

“I thought I asked you to say nothing of the matter!” exclaimed Jackson, with a pallid cheek, and a frightened expression.

“Veil, so you did, but vat of it?  Ain’t ve all friends; and ain’t it right that ve should know how much pluck a man has got?”

“If the gentleman has done any thing that is gallus, let’s hear it,” grumbled Fred.

“Ah, that’s the talk; out with it at once,” we all exclaimed, although in so low a tone that our neighbors did not hear us.