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KANGAROO

"Oh, that was just a special occasion. But he's a funny sort of Saviour, isn't he? Not much crown of thorns about him. Why, he'd look funny on a cross, what?"

"He's no intention of being put on one, I think," said Somers stiffly.

"Oh, I don't know. If the wrong party got hold of him. There's many mites in a pound of cheese, they say."

"Then I'll toast my cheese."

"Ha-ha! Oh yes, I like a bit of toasted cheese myself—or a Welsh rabbit, as well as any man."

"But you don't think they'd ever let him down, do you?-these Australians?"

"No-o," said William James. "I doubt if they'd ever let him down. But if he happened to fall down, you know, they'd soon forget him."

"You don't sound a very warm follower yourself."

"Oh, warm isn't my way, in anything. I like to see what I'm about. I can see that Kangaroo's a wonder. Oh yes, he's a world wonder. And I'd rather be in with him than anybody, if it was only for the sake of the spree, you know. Bound to be a spree some time—and before long, I should say, things going as they are. I wouldn't like to be left out of the fun."

"But you don't feel any strong devotion to your leader?"

"Why, no; I won't say it's exactly strong devotion. But I think he's a world wonder. He's not quite the shape of a man that I should throw away my eyes for, that's all I mean." Again William James looked at Somers with that long, perhaps mocking little smile in his grey eyes.

"I thought even his shape beautiful, when he talked to me."

"Oh yes, it's wonderful what a spell he can cast over you. But I'm a stuggy fellow myself, maybe that's how it is I can't ever quite see him in the same light as the thin chaps do. But that's just the looks of the thing. I can see there isn't another man in the world like him, and I'd cross the seas to join in with him, if only for the fun of the thing."

"But what about the end of the fun?" asked Somers.