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." "Not such a bad boss," remarked Langholm, dryly; and the words set him thinking a moment on his own account.