"But," continued the stranger, "with all their peculiarities, the birds and beasts are satisfied with their get-up, and pleased with their surroundings, although all day long in the forests the cockatoos, and parrots, and piping crows, and lyre-birds do little else but joke and chaff one another because they all look so comical.
"Yes, lad, Australia you will find is a country of contrarieties, and the only wonder to me is that the rivers don't all run up-hill instead of running down; and mind, they are sometimes broader at their sources than they are at their ends."
"There is plenty of gold there?" asked Archie.
"Oh, yes, any amount; but——"
"But what, sir?"
"The real difficulty—in fact, the only difficulty—is the finding of it."
"But that, I suppose, can be got over."
"Come along with me up on deck, and we'll talk matters over. It is hot and stuffy down here; besides, they are going to lay the cloth."
Arrived at the quarter-deck, the stranger took hold of Archie's arm, as if he had known him all his life.
"Now," he said, "my name is Vesey, generally called Captain Vesey, because I never did anything that I know of to merit the title. I've been in an army or two in different parts of the globe as a free lance, you know."