"Go on, Terence, have another try," said Reg.
"No, no, but you know the joke. I know you did it, and ye did it well, too."
"If you will tell us what it was, we shall be able to judge," said Hal, quietly, which sobered Terence.
"I'll tell you, then. It was a couple of days after you'd left for Tasmania, when Dick comes up to me and Joe Gardiner—that's another cabby. He comes up smiling, in fact regular grinning, and flashes a letter in front of us. 'See here, chaps,' says he, 'this is the sort of game that pays. Darn your shilling fares, says I; this is my style.' The letter was from some toff, 'cause it come from Menzie's Hotel. It asked Dick to meet him at St. Kilda. 'See what it is to have a connection. This 'ere chap was recommended to call on me, and I knows his game. I've just got to get a good turn-out and drive down to the beach, call at the pub and get a letter which will give me instructions where to meet him. Then I picks up a flash gent with a little, innercent girl, and they'll get into the cab. 'Straight home, cabby,' he'll cry, 'we've missed the train.' That'll mean that I'm to go in the opposite direction where there ain't no houses, and if I hear screamin' I never listens. Then I get home about three; there's a big row, but I get a tenner for the job.' 'Well, Dick,' says Joe, who is a good-hearted sort of chap, 'if I thought anything of that kind was going on in my cab, a hundred wouldn't buy me, but I'd take the horse-whip to him.' 'Shure,' says I, 'I would put the blackguard in the sea, and drown him just.' 'Ha, ha,' laughs Dick, 'it wouldn't do for us all to be so soft, else half of us would starve. Now I'll just tell you chaps how I serve my customers. I just go round to Wallace's and get the best turn-out he has, and I guess we'll cut a dash.' Then he got in his cab and drove away. Neither me nor Joe envied him his tenner. Next day Dick came up to the stand looking terrible black. He cussed and swore, and looked as if he'd had a big drop too much. 'Have a good time last night,' says I to him, civil like. 'No, blast yer; go to—' he says. I never spoke no more, but after a bit he comes up to me and says—'Terry, those beggars had me last night; it was a put-up job.' 'Go on,' says I, 'the infernal scoundrels, how did they do it?' He swore a terrible lot, and 'twixt his swears I made out that he had hired a turn-out that cost him thirty bob, and drove quietly to St. Kilda, smiling all the way. He waits till nearly eleven, and refused two good fares, then goes to the Pier Hotel, and asks if there is a letter for him. The barman hands him one, and he was so pleased he called for drinks all round and spent about three bob that way. Then he says good-night, goes to a lamp-post to read his letter, which said something about swindlers being swindled, and policy being the greatest honesty, or something like that. He was out till nearly three, and never earned a bob. Joe had come up behind, and heard the yarn, and we both let out a yell. Dick he swore awful, and jumped on his cab and drove away. He got fined for being drunk on his cab that night. And now it's all the joke on the ranks. 'Going St. Kilda, Dick'—'Any more ten-pound jobs, Dick,' and he does get blooming wild." Here Terence roared again, and this time the boys joined in.
"Have another drink, Terence. You told that well," said Reg.
"But it was your honours that did it, I know."
"Yes, we did it, Terence," answered Hal, "Dick had us and we returned the compliment, and here's a tenner for your trouble. Now you had better go back to Melbourne by to-day's express and keep your eye on Dick. Our address will be Brisbane."
"Right, your honours. I'm off."
"I have been looking through the "Herald," said Reg, when they were alone, "and I find there are two companies trading between here and Brisbane, the Howard Smith line and the A.U.S.N. Company; one has a boat leaving to-day at twelve, the other at two."
"That's good. We will have a look at the boats and see which we like best, and as there is no time to be lost, let us start at once."