"No."
Jimmy said he gave it up. But Moseley had an idea.
"Not the other Bendigo, Dent?"
Denis smiled. "From what you've always said," he went on, "it's the better diggings of the two."
"I believe it is," said Moseley, doubtfully.
"Not quite so over-run and overdone, you know."
"No; that is so, I'm sure; but—but, I say, Dent, I don't want to show my face there again, I don't really!" said Moseley, with a manifold anxiety more droll than he supposed. "You may laugh," he went on, smiling himself, "but I didn't commit a crime there, though you might think it. I didn't even tell a lie. But I did pretend that I had done pretty well. I let them think I was on the point of sailing, cock-a-hoop, for England home and beauty!"
"And so you are," said Denis at length. He spoke very quietly, but with a conviction that turned Moseley's blushes to an almost passionate glow. Yet in an instant the loyal creature was fighting his heart's desire.
"I don't want to desert you," he said. "I don't—and won't!"
"Then you keep us here."