Selected Stories Read Online Free

these times; that he was honest once and a fool, and was robbed and starved in consequence by his friends and relations; but now he intended to take all that he could get. He said that you either had to have or be had; that men were driven to be sharps, and there was no help for it.
    Bill said:
    “We’ll have to sharpen our teeth, that’s all, and chew somebody’s lug.”
    “How?” I asked.
    There was a lot of navvies at the pub, and I knew one or two by sight, so Bill says:
    “You know one or two of these mugs. Bite one of their ears.”
    So I took aside a chap that I knowed and bit his ear for ten bob, and gave it to Bill to mind, for I thought it would be safer with him than with me.
    “Hang on to that,” I says, “and don’t lose it for your natural life’s sake, or Stiffner’ll stiffen us.”
    We put up about nine bob’s worth of drinks that night—me and Bill—and Stiffner didn’t squeal: he was too sharp. He shouted once or twice.
    By-and-by I left Bill and turned in, and in the morning when I woke up there was Bill sitting alongside of me, and looking about as lively as the fighting kangaroo in London in fog time. He had a black eye and eighteen-pence. He’d been taking down some of the mugs.
    “Well, what’s to be done now?” I asked. “Stiffner can smash us both with one hand, and if we don’t pay up he’ll pound our swags and cripple us. He’s just the man to do it. He loves a fight even more than he hates being had.”
    “There’s only one thing to be done, Jim,” says Bill, in a tired, disinterested tone that made me mad.
    “Well, what’s that?” I said.
    “Smoke!”
    “Smoke be damned,” I snarled, losing my temper. “You know dashed well that our swags are in the bar, and we can’t smoke without them.”
    “Well, then,” says Bill, “I’ll toss you to see who’s to face the landlord!”
    “Well, I’ll be blessed!” I says. “I’ll see you further first. You have got a front. You mugged that stuff away, and you’ll have to get us out of the mess.”
    It made him wild to be called a mug, and we swore and growled at each other for a while; but we daren’t speak loud enough to have a fight, so at last I agreed to toss up for it, and I lost.
    Bill started to give me some of his points, but I shut him up quick.
    “You’ve had your turn, and made a mess of it,” I said. “For God’s sake give me a show. Now, I’ll go into the bar and ask for the swags, and carry them out on to the verandah, and then go back to settle up. You keep him talking all the time. You dump the two swags together, and smoke like sheol. That’s all you’ve got to do.”
    I went into the bar, got the swags from the missus, carried them out on to the verandah, and then went back.
    Stiffner came in.
    “Good morning!”
    “Good morning, sir,” says Stiffner.
    “It’ll be a nice day, I think?”
    “Yes, I think so. I suppose you are going on?”
    “Yes, we’ll have to make a move to-day.” Then I hooked carelessly on to the counter with one elbow, and looked dreamy-like out across the clearing, and presently I gave a sort of sigh and said: “Ah, well! I think I’ll have a beer.”
    “Right you are! Where’s your mate?”
    “Oh, he’s round at the back. He’ll be round directly; but he ain’t drinking this morning.”
    Stiffner laughed that nasty empty laugh of his. He thought Bill was whipping the cat.
    “What’s yours, boss?” I said.
    “Thankee!…Here’s luck!”
    “Here’s luck!”
    The country was pretty open round here—the nearest timber was better than a mile away, and I wanted to give Bill a good startacross the flat before the go-as-you-can commenced; so I talked for a while, and while we were talking I thought I might as well go the whole hog—I might as well die for a pound as a penny, if I had to die; and if I hadn’t I’d have the pound to the good, anyway, so to speak. Anyhow, the risk would be about the same, or less, for I might have the spirit to run