One day a man wearing a blue jumper and an old hat came down the road, stepped on to the verandah of the inn, and threw down his swag.  Nosey was there, holding forth to Bill the Butcher, Dick Smalley, Frank Barton, Bob Atkins, Charley Goodall, and George Brown the Liar.  A dispute occurred, in which the presumptuous stranger joined, and Nosey promptly knocked him off the verandah into the gutter.  A valid claim to satisfaction was thus established, and the swagman showed a disposition to enforce it.  He did not attempt to regain his position on the boards, but took his stand on the broad stone of honour in the middle of the road.  He threw up his hat into the air, and began walking rapidly to and fro, clenched his fists, stiffened his sinews, and at every turn in his walk said: 

“You’ll find me as good a man as ever you met in your life.”

This man’s action promised real sport, and true Britons as we all were we were delighted to see him.  Nosey stood on the verandah for a minute or two, watching the motions of the swagman; he did not seem to recollect all at once what the code of honour required, until Bill the Butcher remarked, “He wants you, Nosey,” then Nosey went.

The two men met in the middle of the road, and put up their hands.  They appeared well-matched in size and weight.  The swagman said: 

“You’ll find me as good a man as ever you met in your life.”

Nosey began the battle by striking out with his right and left, but his blows did not seem to reach home, or to have much effect.

The swagman dodged and parried, and soon put in a swinging blow on the left temple.  Nosey fell to the ground, and the stranger resumed his walk as before, uttering his war cry: 

“You’ll find me as good a man as ever you met in your life.”

There were no seconds, but the rules of chivalry were strictly observed; the stranger was a true gentleman, and did not use his boots.

In the second round Nosey showed more caution, but the result was the same, and it was brought about by another hard blow on the temple.  The third round finished the fight.  Nosey lay on the ground so long that Bill, the Butcher, went over to look at him, and then he threw up the sponge—­metaphorically—­as there was no sponge, nor any need of one.

The defeated Nosey staggered towards his hut, and his temper was afterwards so bad that Julia declined to stay with him any longer; she loosed the marriage bonds without recourse to law, and disappeared.  Her husband went away westward, but he did not stay long.  He returned to Nyalong and lived awhile alone in his hut there, but he was restless and dissatisfied.  Everybody looked at him so curiously.  Even the women and children stood still as he passed by them, and began whispering to one another, and he guessed well enough why they were looking at him and what they were saying—­“That’s Nosey the murderer; he killed Baldy and hid him away somewhere; his wife said he ought to be hanged, and she has run away and left him.”