From Squire to Squatter: A Tale of the Old Land and the New
Page 29
Bob, reining his horse up to adead stop, that Archie might hear him all the easier.
"I'll tell you what keeps him back now, before you see him. I mustn'ttalk loud, for the very birds might go and tell the fellow, and hedoesn't like to be 'minded about it. He drinks!"
"But he can't get drink in the Bush."
"Not so easily, though he has been known before now to ride thirty milesto visit a hotel."
"A shanty, you mean."
"Well, they call 'em all hotels over here, you must remember."
"And would he just take a drink and come back?"
Bob laughed.
"Heaven help him, no. It isn't one drink, nor ten, nor fifty he takes,for he makes a week or two of it."
"I hope he won't take any such long rides while he is with us."
"No. Winslow says we are sure of him for six months, anyhow. Thenhe'll go to town and knock his cheque down. But come on, Craig and hislads will be waiting for us."
At the most southerly and easterly end of the selection they metGentleman Craig himself.
He rode forward to meet them, lifting his broad hat, and reining up whennear enough. He did this in a beautifully urbane fashion, that showedhe had quite as much respect for himself as for his employers. He wasindeed a handsome fellow, and his rough Garibaldian costume fitted him,and set him out as if he had been some great actor.
"This is an awkward business," he began, with an easy smile; "but Ithink we'll soon catch the runaways up."
"I hope so," Bob said.
"Oh, it was all my fault, because I'm boss of my gang, you know. Iought to have known better, but a small mob of stray beasts got amongours, and by-and-by there was a stampede. It was dirty-dark last night,and looked like a storm, so there wouldn't have been an ounce of use infollowing them up."
He flicked his long whip half saucily, half angrily, as he spoke.
"Well, never mind," Bob replied, "we'll have better luck next, I've nodoubt."
Away they went now at a swinging trot, and on crossing the creek theymet Craig's fellows.
They laid their horses harder at it now, Bob and Archie keeping a bit inthe rear, though the latter declared that Tell was pulling like a youngsteam-engine.
"Why," cried Archie at last, "this beast means to pull my arms out atthe shoulders. I always thought I knew how to hold the reins till now."
"They have a queer way with them, those bush-ranging horses," said Bob;"but I reckon you'll get up to them at last."
"If I were to give Tell his head, he would soon be in the van."
"In the van? Oh, I see, in the front!"
"Yes; and then I'd be lost. Why these chaps appear to know every inchof the ground. To me it is simply marvellous."
"Well, the trees are blazed."
"I've seen no blazed trees. Have you?"
"Never a one. I say, Craig."
"Hullo!" cried the head stockman, glancing over his shoulder.
"Are you steering by blazed trees?"
"No," he laughed; "by tracks. Cattle don't mind blazed trees much."
Perhaps Bob felt green now, for he said no more. Archie looked abouthim, but never a trail nor track could he decipher.
Yet on they rode, helter-skelter apparently, but cautiously enough forall that. Tell was full of fire and fun; for, like Verdant Green'shorse, when put at a tiny tree trunk in his way, he took a leap thatwould have carried him over a five-bar-gate.
There was many a storm-felled tree in the way also and many a deadtrunk, half buried in ferns; there were steep stone-clad hills,difficult to climb, but worse to descend, and many a little rivulet tocross; but nothing could interfere with the progress of these hardyhorses.
Although the sun was blazing hot, no one seemed to feel it much. Thelandscape was very wild, and very beautiful; but Archie got weary atlast of its very loveliness, and was not one whit sorry when theafternoon halt was called under the pleasant shade of trees, and closeby the banks of a rippling stream.
The horses were glad to drink as well as the men, then they werehobbled, and allowed to browse while all hands sat down to eat.
Only damper and beef, washed down by a billyful of the clear water,which, strange to say, was wonderfully cool.
When the sun was sinking low on the forest-clad horizon, there was ajoyful but half-suppressed shout from Craig and his men. Part of theherd was in sight, quietly browsing up a creek.
Gentleman Craig pointed them out to Archie; but he had to gaze aconsiderable time before he could really distinguish anything that hadthe faintest resemblance to cattle.
"Your eye is young yet to the Bush," said Craig, laughing, but not inany unmannerly way.
"And now," he continued, "we must go cautiously or we spoil all."
The horsemen made a wide detour, and got between the bush and the mob;and the ground being favourable, here it was determined to camp for thenight. The object of the stockmen was not to alarm the herd, but toprevent them from getting any farther off till morning, when the marchhomewards would commence. With this intent, log fires were built hereand there around the herd; and once these were well alight the mob wasconsidered pretty safe. All, however, had been done very quietly; andduring the livelong night, until grey dawn broke over the hills, thefellows would have to keep those fires burning.
Supper was a more pleasing meal, for there was the addition of tea;after which, with their feet to the log fire--Bob and Craig enjoying awhiff of tobacco--they lay as much at their ease, and feeling every whitas comfortable, as if at home by the "ingleside." Gentleman Craig hadmany stories and anecdotes to relate of the wild life he had had, thatboth Archie and Bob listened to with delight.
"I'll take one more walk around," said Craig, "then stretch myself on mydowny bed. Will you come with me, Mr Broadbent?"
"With pleasure," said Archie.
"Mind how you step then. Keep your whip in your hand, but on no accountcrack it. We have to use our intellect _versus_ brute force. If thebrute force became alarmed and combined, then our intellect would go tothe wall, there would be another stampede, and another long rideto-morrow."
Up and down in the starlight, or by the fitful gleams of the log fires,they could see the men moving like uneasy ghosts. Craig spoke a word ortwo kindly and quietly as he passed, and having made his inspection, andsatisfied himself that all was comparatively safe, he returned withArchie to the fire.
Bob was already fast asleep, rolled snugly in his blanket, with his headin the hollow of his upturned saddle; and Archie and Craig made speed tofollow his example.
As for Craig, he was soon in the land of Nod. He was a true Bushman,and could go off sound as a bell the moment he stretched himself on his"downy bed," as he called it.
But Archie felt the situation far too new to permit of slumber all atonce. He had never lain out thus before; and the experience was sodelightful to him that he felt justified in lying awake a bit, andlooking at the stars. The distant dingoes began to howl, and more thanonce some great dark bird flew over the camp, high overhead, but onsilent wings.
His thoughts wandered away over the thousands and thousands of milesthat intervened between him and home, and he began to wonder what theywere all doing at Burley; for it would be broad daylight there, and verylikely his father was trudging over the moors, or through the stubbles.But dreams came and mingled with his waking thoughts at last, and werejust usurping them all when he became conscious of the approach ofstealthy footsteps.
He lay perfectly still, though his hand sought his ready revolver; forstories of black fellows stealing on out-sleeping travellers began tocrowd through his mind, and being young to the Bush, he could notprevent that heart of his from throbbing uneasily and painfully againsthis ribs.
How did they brain people, he was wondering, with a boomerang or nullah?or was it not more common to spear them?
But, greatly to his relief, the figure immediately afterwards revealeditself in the person of one of the men, silently placing an armful ofwood on the
half-dying embers. Then he silently glided away again, andnext minute Archie was wrapt in the elysium of forgetfulness.
The dews lay all about, glittering in the first beams of the sun, whenhe awoke, feeling somewhat cold and considerably stiff; but warm tea anda breakfast of wondrous solidity soon put him all to rights again.
Two nights after this the new stock was safe in the yards; and everyevening before sundown, for many a day to come, they had to be "tailed,"and brought within the strong bars of the rendezvous.
Branding was the next business. This is no trifling matter with oldcattle. With the calves indeed it is a bit troublesome at times, butthe grown-up ones resent the adding of insult to injury. It is nouncommon thing for men to be severely injured during the