While the Billy Boils | Page 9

for me in the near future if the spikes of his running-shoes were
inside.
"There, you'll find that better, I fancy," I said, standing the boot on the
bar counter, but keeping my hand on it in an absent-minded kind of
way. Presently I yawned and stretched myself, and said in a careless
way:
"Ah, well! How's the slate?" He scratched the back of his head and
pretended to think.
"Oh, well, we'll call it thirty bob."
Perhaps he thought I'd slap down two quid.
"Well," I says, "and what will you do supposing we don't pay you?"
He looked blank for a moment. Then he fired up and gasped and
choked once or twice; and then he cooled down suddenly and laughed
his nastiest laugh--he was one of those men who always laugh when
they're wild--and said in a nasty, quiet tone:
"You thundering, jumped-up crawlers! If you don't (something) well
part up I'll take your swags and (something) well kick your gory pants
so you won't be able to sit down for a month--or stand up either!"
"Well, the sooner you begin the better," I said; and I chucked the boot
into a corner and bolted.
He jumped the bar counter, got his boot, and came after me. He paused
to slip the boot on--but he only made one step, and then gave a howl
and slung the boot off and rushed back. When I looked round again
he'd got a slipper on, and was coming--and gaining on me, too. I shifted
scenery pretty quick the next five minutes. But I was soon pumped. My
heart began to beat against the ceiling of my head, and my lungs all
choked up in my throat. When I guessed he was getting within kicking
distance I glanced round so's to dodge the kick. He let out; but I shied
just in time. He missed fire, and the slipper went about twenty feet up
in the air and fell in a waterhole.

He was done then, for the ground was stubbly and stony. I seen Bill on
ahead pegging out for the horizon, and I took after him and reached for
the timber for all I was worth, for I'd seen Stiffner's missus coming
with a shovel--to bury the remains, I suppose; and those two were a
good match--Stiffner and his missus, I mean.
Bill looked round once, and melted into the bush pretty soon after that.
When I caught up he was about done; but I grabbed my swag and we
pushed on, for I told Bill that I'd seen Stiffner making for the stables
when I'd last looked round; and Bill thought that we'd better get lost in
the bush as soon as ever we could, and stay lost, too, for Stiffner was a
man that couldn't stand being had.
The first thing that Bill said when we got safe into camp was: "I told
you that we'd pull through all right. You need never be frightened when
you're travelling with me. Just take my advice and leave things to me,
and we'll hang out all right. Now-."
But I shut him up. He made me mad.
"Why, you--! What the sheol did you do?"
"Do?" he says. "I got away with the swags, didn't I? Where'd they be
now if it wasn't for me?"
Then I sat on him pretty hard for his pretensions, and paid him out for
all the patronage he'd worked off on me, and called him a mug straight,
and walked round him, so to speak, and blowed, and told him never to
pretend to me again that he was a battler.
Then, when I thought I'd licked him into form, I cooled down and
soaped him up a bit; but I never thought that he had three climaxes and
a crisis in store for me.
He took it all pretty cool; he let me have my fling, and gave me time to
get breath; then he leaned languidly over on his right side, shoved his
left hand down into his left trouserpocket, and brought up a boot-lace, a
box of matches, and nine-and-six.
As soon as I got the focus of it I gasped:
"Where the deuce did you get that?"
"I had it all along," he said, "but I seen at the pub that you had the show
to chew a lug, so I thought we'd save it--nine-and-sixpences ain't picked
up every day."
Then he leaned over on his left, went down into the other pocket, and
came up with a piece of tobacco and half-a-sovereign.

My eyes bulged out.
"Where the blazes did you get that from?" I yelled.
"That," he said, "was the half-quid you give me last night. Half-quids
ain't to be thrown away these times; and, besides, I had a