‘I should say if anything happened to _that_,’ said Ernest, looking over the sheer drop of a couple of hundred feet which overhung the rugged boulders below, ‘the insured passengers would have a chance of realising on their policies, as a Yankee would say.’ ‘Things went something in that line one night, when I was aboard,’ answered Jack, a little thoughtfully. ‘I never want to see another start like it. Once is enough of that kind of fun.’ ‘What was that?’ ‘Well, sir,’ commenced Jack, settling himself on the watchful, untamed animal, who thereupon promptly assumed an attitude of armed vigilance, which caused Mr. Windsor to dig the spurs into him and adjure him to do his worst, ’it was this way— ‘It was a dark, wet, stormy night, the roads fearful; we were that heavy loaded that it took all Sacramento Ned could do (he was a Californian, and the best whip _I_ ever saw that’s seen a few, and that before King Cobb was heard of on the Sydney side) to keep from going over in some of the waggon tracks. I was on the box with him, and we’d made friends like, as he could see I was a bit in the horse line. ‘He was a great tall, powerful chap, with a big fair beard, and the way he could rattle five horses and a loaded coach in and out of the creeks and winding bush tracks, was a sight to see. Well, he’d been very downhearted all day about something, and at last he says to me, “Jack, old man, I can’t tell what in thunder’s come over me this trip; it’s my last one on this line, for I’ve saved up a fairish pile and I’m going back to my people, to turn farmer in the old state for the rest of my days; I suppose it’s the infernal weather. Well, here we are; look alive there, you chaps. Hold the reins for a minute, Jack, while I look at the brake.” ‘Well, the fresh team was waiting by the door; they’re desperate punctual those American chaps, and the time was none too much as they had allowed them then. ‘I could hear him sing out for the blacksmith, whose forge was nigh the inn—he contracted for their work. When he came, he swore at him in a way _that_ man hadn’t been used to; by George, he _could_ swear when he tackled it, though he was a quiet chap as didn’t talk much generally. ‘Well, he made him put in another bolt, and said he should report him to the road manager; then he took hold of the reins the three leaders was hitched to, and away we went.’ ‘He wasn’t intoxicated, I suppose?’ inquired Ernest. ‘As sober as we are now, sir. For when he got up, he says, “I’d have been all the better for a nip, Jack, but just because of the place being risky, and the night extra bad, I wouldn’t have one.” We had the five lamps, of course—two on each side, two higher up, and one atop of all. Ned lit a cigar, pulled on his gloves, and off we went.