It's no use talking--it isn't to be--we had better make up our minds once for all, and then let the matter drop.' Poor old Jim.

He had gone into it innocent from the very first.

He was regular led in because he didn't like to desert his own flesh and blood, even if it was wrong.

Bit by bit he had gone on, not liking or caring for the thing one bit, but following the lead of others, till he reached his present pitch.

How many men, and women too, there are in the world who seem born to follow the lead of others for good or evil! They get drawn in somehow, and end by paying the same penalty as those that meant nothing else from the start.
The finish of the whole thing was this, that we made up our minds to turn out in the bush-ranging line.