The young man who had just returned home had on a flannel shirt, a pair of mole-skin trowsers, and an old straw hat, battered nearly out of all shape.  He had no coat, no waistcoat, no braces, and nothing round his neck.  Round his waist there was a strap or belt, from the front of which hung a small pouch, and, behind, a knife in a case.  And stuck into a loop in the belt, made for the purpose, there was a small brier-wood pipe.  As he dashed his hat off, wiped his brow, and threw himself into a rocking-chair, he certainly was rough to look at, but by all who understood Australian life he would have been taken to be a gentleman.  He was a young squatter, well known west of the Mary River, in Queensland.  Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, who owned 30,000 sheep of his own, was a magistrate in those parts, and able to hold his own among his neighbors, whether rough or gentle; and some neighbors he had, very rough, who made it almost necessary that a man should be able to be rough also, on occasions, if he desired to live among them without injury.  Heathcote of Gangoil could do all that.  Men said of him that he was too imperious, too masterful, too much inclined to think that all things should be made to go as he would have them.  Young as he was, he had been altogether his own master since he was of age—­and not only his own master, but the master also of all with whom he was brought into contact from day to day.  In his life he conversed but seldom with any but those who were dependent on him, nor had he done so for the last three years.  At an age at which young men at home are still subject to pastors and masters, he had sprung at once into patriarchal power, and, being a man determined to thrive, had become laborious and thoughtful beyond his years.

Harry Heathcote had been left an orphan, with a small fortune in money, when he was fourteen.  For two years after that he had consented to remain quietly at school, but at sixteen he declared his purpose of emigrating.  Boys less than himself in stature got above him at school, and he had not liked it.  For a twelvemonth he was opposed by his guardian; but at the end of the year he was fitted forth for the colony.  The guardian was not sorry to be quit of him, but prophesied that he would be home again before a year was over.  The lad had not returned, and it was now a settled conviction among all who knew him that he would make or mar his fortune in the new land that he had chosen.

He was a tall, well-made young fellow, with fair hair and a good-humored smile, but ever carrying in his countenance marks of what his enemies called pig-headedness, his acquaintances obstinacy, and those who loved him firmness.  His acquaintances were, perhaps, right, for he certainly was obstinate.  He would take no man’s advice, he would submit himself to no man, and in the conduct of his own business preferred to trust to his own insight than to the experience of others.  It would sometimes occur that he had