Jim started, recalling the encounter with Long Aleck in the Melbourne bar.
'Was that Solo, do you think?' he asked.
'Dead cert' replied the Californian. 'Them's his playful ways.'
'If you guessed it, why didn't you give a hint?'
'Not knowin', can't say; but it's just pawsible I ain't pushin' myself forward as a target this spring.'
Done found this indisposition to interfere in 'other people's business' very marked amongst the diggers; and their toleration of notorious evildoers was a pronounced feature of their easy-going character, encouraged, no doubt, by their contempt for the law, which appealed to them only as an instrument of oppression.
'This means a gallop for the troopers,' said Mike.
'They'll run him down!' ejaculated Jim at a venture.
'The man occupyin' my socks is bettin' ten ounces agin all the feathers off a wart-hog that they don't,' answered the Californian.
'But look at the weight he carries!'