“I felt mean at once, but I said: ‘Well, you see, we didn’t know you, boss.’
“‘So it seems. Well, I didn’t think of that. Anyway, call up your mate and come and have a drink; we’ll talk over it afterwards.’ So I called Tom. ‘Come on,’ I shouted. ‘It’s all right.’
“And the boss kept us a couple of days, and then gave us as much tucker as we could carry, and a drop of stuff and a few bob to go on the track again with.”
“Well, he was white, any road.”
“Yes. I knew him well after that, and only heard one man say a word against him.”
“And did you stoush him?”
“No; I was going to, but Tom wouldn’t let me. He said he was frightened I might make a mess of it, and he did it himself.”
“Did what? Make a mess of it?”
“He made a mess of the other man that slandered that publican. I’d be funny if I was you. Where’s the matches?”
“And could Tom fight?”