So I caught up the horse, and away we went. Starting at right angles with the sun, which was nearly overhead, and keeping to the left of him holding such a course, as he got lower, that an hour and half, or thereabouts, before setting he should be in my face, and at sundown a little to the left;--the best direction I can give you for going about due west in November, without a compass--which, by the way, you always ought to have. My companion was foot-sore, so I went slowly; he, however, shambled along bravely when his feet got warm. He was a talkative, lively man, and chattered continually. "You've got a nice place up at the Durnongs, sir," said he; "I stayed in your huts one night. It's the comfortablest bachelor station on this side. You've got a smart few sheep, I expect?" "Twenty-five thousand. Do you know these parts well?" "I knew that country of yours long before any of it was took up." "You've been a long while in the country, then?" "I was sent out when I was eighteen; spared, as the old judge said, on account of my youth: that's eleven years ago." "Spared, eh? It was something serious, then?" "Trifling enough: only for having a rope in my hand." "They wouldn't lag a man for that," said I. "Ay, but," he replied, "there was a horse at the end of the rope. I was brought up in a training stable, and somehow there's something in the smell of a stable is sure to send a man wrong if he don't take care. I got betting and drinking, too, as young chaps will, and lost my place, and got from bad to worse till I shook a nag, and got bowled out and lagged. That's about my history, sir; will you give me a job, now?" and he looked up, laughing. "Ay, why not?" said I. "Because you tried hard to go to the devil when you were young and foolish, it don't follow that you should pursue that line of conduct all your life. You've been in a training stable, eh? If you can break horses, I may find you something to do." "I'll break horses against any man in this country--though that's not saying much, for I ain't seen not what I call a breaker since I've been here; as for riding, I'd ridden seven great winners before I was eighteen; and that's what ne'er a man alive can say. Ah, those were the rosy times! Ah for old Newmarket!" "Are you a Cambridgeshire man, then?" "Me? Oh, no; I'm a Devonshire man. I come near from where Major Buckley lived some years. Did you notice a pale, pretty-looking woman, was with him--Mrs. Hawker?" I grew all attention. "Yes," I said, "I noticed her." "I knew her husband well," he said, "and an awful rascal he was: he was lagged for coining, though he might have been for half-a-dozen things besides." "Indeed!" said I; "and is he in the colony?" "No; he's over the water, I expect." "In Van Diemen's Land, you mean?" "Just so," he said; "he had better not show Bill Lee much of his face, or there'll be mischief." "Lee owes him a grudge, then?"