‘Not feelin’ too bright, old man?’ asked Mike

‘Nonsense, Mike; I’m all right.’

‘Thought p’r’aps those rib-benders o’ Quigley’s were pullin’ you up.’

‘Not a bit of it.  I haven’t a thought to spare for Quigley.’

Burton understood better later in the evening, when he saw Jim and Aurora sitting together at Kyley’s in the dim corner furthest from the wide fireplace, and the Geordie touched him on the arm and jerked his thumb in their direction.

‘She was down to your tent to see after her champion this mornin’,’ he said.

‘Spoils to the victor!’ said the Prodigal.

Mike’s eyes drifted towards Jim and Aurora several times during the evening, and he thumbed his chin in a troubled way.  He had been thinking it was almost time to try fresh fields; but it was not going to be so easy a matter to shift as he had imagined.

A few nights later, seizing the opportunity when he was alone in the tent, Jim cut the stitches that secured the locket containing Lucy Woodrow’s portrait in the breast pocket of his jumper, convenient to his heart; and drawing from under his pillow the tin box that held his mother’s brooch and picture, and the few papers and heirlooms he cherished, he placed Lucy’s gift somewhat reverently amongst his treasures, and hastily stowed the box away again.  He had formulated no definite reason for doing this, and experienced some contrition in performing the act, and a sense of relief when it was done.

The young man’s complete victory over Quigley made his reputation throughout Diamond Gully.  Pete Quigley had two or three hard-won battles to his credit, and it was thought there was no man on the field so hard to handle, with the exception of Ben Kyley, whose showing against a professional of Bendigo’s calibre set him on a plane above the mere amateur.  Pete confessed himself beaten without equivocation.

‘I ain’t got any patience with this blanky new fangled style o’ fightin’,’ he said.  ‘A man ought to toe the scratch an’ take his gruel like a man.  With those Johnnie-jump-ups it’s all cut an’ run, an’ I admit it licks me.  I ain’t neither a foot-racer nor a acrobat, an’ Done gave me as much as I cared about.’

Indeed, Quigley looked it.  The fact was patent on the face of him, and he would not be in a condition to dispute the thoroughness of his trouncing for three weeks at least.

Jim was regarded as a celebrity.  Strangers even went to him, and gravely asked to be permitted to shake hands with him as such.  He was pointed out to newcomers, and observed on all hands with a serious respect that had all the comedy of piquant burlesque.

‘’Pon my soul, Mike!’ said Jim, ’if your republic comes while my popularity lasts, I shall be first President.’

‘Well,’ answered Mike soberly, ’if you could talk as well as you fight, I’d like your chances.’