A COOLQAEDIE PIONEEB. 161 



about a Coolgardie mine in it. I fancy the share- 

 liolders would not have subscribed so freely could 

 they have had a chat with him. I had two interviews 

 with Mr. John Ford, which were published in a Sydney 

 paper. The second of those interviews is, I think, 

 worth alluding to in this chapter, more especially as 

 gold mines in West Austraha are attracting so much 

 attention from speculators and capitalists. 



If you are not rich yourself, the next best thing 

 is to shake hands with a rich man. 



A summons came to my office door in Sydney 

 one day. Sounds ominous, but it was nothing con- 

 nected with the legal profession. It was a knock 

 on the door. A sort of knock that a man at once 

 takes notice of. There are numerous kinds of knocks. 

 I can always tell a hard-up, not-had-a-meal-to-day 

 sort of knock. There is a timidity about it that 

 is unmistakable. The particular knock in question 

 was, however, of a different kind. It was a knock 

 that plainly said, *'I'm coming in whether you 

 answer or not.'' 



'^ Come in,'' I said, in a voice meant to be autho- 

 ritative. A regular office-all-my-own sort of voice. 



The door opened, and in came a gentleman I 

 had the pleasure of interviewing once before in 

 Melbourne, when he was unaware of my designs 

 upon him. The result of that interview appeared 



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