That was what I felt; to have his own way, the boss'd ride
roughshod over us both, and he himself only--but that's tellings again.
You must wait a bit, mister! Mr. Minchin hadn't to wait so very long,
because I thought we could make him listen to two of us, so one night I
told him what I knew. You could ha' knocked him down with a feather.
Nobody dreamt of it in New South Wales. No, there wasn't a hand on the
place who would have thought it o' the boss! Well, he was fond of
Minchin, treated him like a son, and perhaps he wasn't such a good son
as he might have been. But when he told the boss what I told him, and
made the suggestion that I thought would come best from a gent like
him--"
"That you should both be taken into partnership on the spot, I suppose?"
interrupted Langholm.
"Well, yes, it came to something like that."
"Go on, Abel. I won't interrupt again. What happened then?"
"Well, he'd got to go, had Mr. Minchin! The boss told him he could tell
who he liked, but go he'd have to; and go he did, with his tail between
his legs, and not another word to anybody. I believe it was the boss who
started him in Western Australia.
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