Neither The Head Stockman Nor The Little Bushman, However, Had Made Any Offers Of Friendship, Dan Having Gone Out To The Station Immediately After Interviewing The Maluka, While The Little Bushman Spent Most Of His Time Getting Out Of The Way Of The Missus Whenever She Appeared On His Horizon.

"A Tam-o-Shanter fleeing from the furies of a too fertile imagination," the Maluka laughed after a particularly comical dash to cover.

Poor Tam! Those days must live in his memory like a hideous nightmare! I, of course, knew nothing of the edict at the time - for bushmen do not advertise their chivalry - and wandered round the straggling Settlement vaguely surprised at its sobriety, and turning up in such unexpected places that the little bushman was constantly on the verge of apoplexy.

But experience teaches quickly. On the first day, after running into me several times, he learned the wisdom of spying out the land before turning a corner. On the second day, after we had come on him while thus engaged several other times, he learned the foolishness of placing too much confidence in corners, and deciding by the law of averages that the bar was the only safe place in the Settlement, availed himself of its sanctuary in times of danger. On the third day he learned that the law of averages is a weak reed to lean on; for on slipping round a corner, and mistaking a warning signal from the Wag, he whisked into the bar to whisk out again with a clatter of hobnailed boots, for I was in there examining some native curios.

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