“Well, it does look like luck,” says the other man. “I was beginning to think the confounded place was getting farther off every day. Can you show us our rooms, if you please? I suppose we couldn’t have a bath?”

“Oh yes, you can,” said Maddie; “there’s the creek at the bottom of the garden, only there’s snakes now and then at night. I’ll get you towels.”

“In that case I think I shall prefer to wait till the morning,” says the tall man. “It will be something to look forward to.”

We were afraid the strangers would have spoiled our fun for the evening, but they didn’t; we made out afterwards that the tall one was a lord. They were just like anybody else, and when we got the piano to work after tea they made themselves pleasant enough, and Starlight sang a song or two—he could sing, and no mistake, when he liked—and then one of them played a waltz, and the girls danced together, and Starlight had some champagne in, said it was his birthday, and he’d just thought of it, and they got quite friendly and jolly before we turned in.

Next day we made a start, promising the girls a nugget each for a ring out of the first gold we got, and they promised to write to us and tell us if they heard any news. They knew what to say, and we shouldn’t be caught simple if they could help it. Jim took care, though, to keep well off the road, and take all the short cuts he knew. We weren’t quite safe till we was in the thick of the mining crowd. That’s the best place for a man, or woman either, to hide that wants to drop out of sight and never be seen again. Many a time I’ve known a man, called Jack or Tom among the diggers, and never thought of as anything else, working like them, drinking and taking his pleasure and dressing like them, till he made his pile or died, or something and then it turned out he was the Honourable Mr. So-and-So, Captain This, or Major That; perhaps the Reverend Somebody—though that didn’t happen often.