“ARE ye tired, lass?” said Scottie.
Ess Lincoln straightened her bent shoulders.
“Yes,” she admitted, “I am, rather. It was so bumpy and rough and dusty
in the coach. But it was interesting in a way, and the driver was so
good. I think he was delighted to get an ignorant city new chum to tell
his tales to, of the wonders of the back-country. He was astonished
that I’d never been anywhere in the real out-back, but he didn’t seem
to think I’d any reason to be astonished when he told me he’d never
seen any of the big cities in Australia, and had never even seen the
sea.”
“There’s more like him about,” said Scottie, “though they’re gettin’
fewer.”
“When do we come on to the station?” asked Ess.
“We’ve been drivin’ through one of the paddocks of it since half an
hour after we left the township,” said Scottie.
“But isn’t a paddock where you feed the sheep?” said Ess in surprise.
“Aye, when there’s feed on it,” said Scottie. “There’s sheep in this
paddock now, but it’s big an’ they’re scattered lookin’ for feed.”
The girl gasped. “But there isn’t a sign of grass,” she protested. “Why
aren’t they in a paddock where there’s more grass?”
“Because this is one of the best we have left,” said Scottie, grimly.
“It rins up to the foot o’ the hills ye’ll see and it gets the last
drain o’ the water off them. But there’s been a dry spell awhile back
and most o’ the grass is gone.”
“How dreadful,” said Ess Lincoln, gazing with wide eyes on the bare
plain that shimmered in the heat. “I’ve heard of how little grass there
is out here in dry weather, but I never dreamed it was as bad as this.
Why, there’s _no_ grass.”
“The sheep can still find some,” said Scottie, “though I’ll admit
they’ll no find it much longer. The front paddocks is eaten as bare as
a city sidewalk, and when these back paddocks is cleaned....” He broke
off and shrugged his shoulders.
“What will happen then?” asked Ess. “You mustn’t mind me asking
questions, you know. It’s all so new to me.”
“It depends what the boss thinks,” said Scottie. “We may turn them up
on the hills, or we may keep them alive a while longer in the mulga
paddocks, cuttin’ down the trees for them tae feed on—or we may kill
them tae the last one an’ boil them down for tallow.”
“What a cruel business,” said Ess.
“It’s a cruel country whiles,” said Scottie. “Cruel tae man and beast.
But if it came rain to-morrow ye’d see this plain as green as a cut
emerald in three days, an’ wi’ plenty of rain the grass would soon be
higher than the fence there.”
“I’ve heard of that.” said Ess. “But never thought the ground the grass
came from could be so bare.”
She took out a handkerchief and tried to wipe the thick dust from her
face. But the dust defied her efforts. It was crusted thick on
everything—on the backs of the horses, on every inch of the buggy, on
their knees, shoulders and heads. It rose swirling from the feet of the
horses, floated past them and hung in a still cloud that trailed for a
mile on the road behind them. Out on the plain, to one side of them
little dust-devils rose and twirled in the air and moved in twisting
spirals across the flats. The boulders on the hills that rose on the
other side of the road glared in the light of the sun, and the heat
waves along the surface of each spur quivered and danced exactly, the
girl remembered, as she had noticed the air quiver over the surface of
the locomotive boiler at the sleepy, sun-smitten terminus.
“There’s some o’ the sheep,” said Scottie, pointing with the whip to a
string of tiny dots on the horizon. “And there’s all that’s left o’
some more,” as they drove past a dozen skins hung over the fence and
the huddled red heaps that lay on the ground beyond. A score of crows
were busy rending and tearing at the carcases, and they rose, cawing
hoarsely, and flapping heavily away a few yards as the buggy passed.
“It’s horrible—horrible,” the girl said, averting her face as the birds
flopped back to their feast with harsh croaks of satisfaction.
“They were lucky to be dead afore the crows got them,” said Scottie.
“When they’re a bit weaker the crows’ll take the eyes out o’ them afore
they’re dead—ay, an’ afore they drop at times.”
Ess shuddered. “Are there any of these sheep about where—where we’ll be
living?” she asked.
“No, no,” said Scottie. “Thunder Ridge is back on the edge of the
hills, an’ we keep the hills for cattle. An’ even if we shift the sheep
tae the hills they’ll no come near the house.”
“I’m glad of that,” said Ess. “I couldn’t sleep if those poor things
were about.”
Scottie looked at her in surprise. “I forgot,” he said. “Ye’re no used
tae this sort o’ thing, an’ it’ll be—unpleasant tae ye. I wadna
mentioned that about the craws if I’d thocht.”
“But I’d rather you told me,” protested Ess. “I’m going to live with
you now, and amongst all this, and it’s better for me to know.”
“It’s a peety ye hadna been comin’ tae it at better times,” said
Scottie. “But come a sup o’ rain ye’ll see it bonnie enough yet.”
They drove in silence for another hour along the edge of the hill, and
then turned in round the shoulder of one of the spurs and trotted
steadily into a narrowing valley. The road crept into the side of the
valley, and presently the shuffling thuds of the horses’ hoof-beats in
the dust gave way to sharp clicks and rattles as the road climbed
gradually up the side of the hill. Beyond the head of the valley the
hills rose blue and hazy, and Ess sighed with relief.
“I’m so glad the house is up in the hills,” she said. “They’re bare
enough near at hand, but the distance at least looks better than that
dreadful flat. But how still and dead everything seems.”
A high fence came creeping down the hill to join the road, and where it
crossed their path Scottie pulled up his horses and jumped down to open
the gate.
“That’s the last o’ the out paddocks,” he said, when he had led the
horses through and closed the gate, and climbed to his seat again. A
heap of whitened bones with a horned skull amongst them lay just inside
the gate, and Ess pointed to it. “More dead things,” she said; “we seem
to have seen nothing but dead things all the way. Why is this fence so
much higher than the others we passed, uncle?”
“Tae keep the wild dogs—dingoes—off the flats. They’re murder amongst
the sheep, but they’ll no tackle the cattle. They’ll hae a merry time
if we hae t’ shift the sheep up here.”
“Murder and killing and dead things,” said the girl. “It’s worse than a
battlefield.”
“Maist o’ the outside country is a battlefield, lass,” said Scottie.
“We’re battlin’ wi’ the drought or the floods, or bush an’ grass fires,
or starvation an’ disease, or rabbits an’ dingoes, or ae thing an’
anither near a’ the time. Up here a man pits his brain an’ his money,
an’ whiles his life, against Natur’ an’ a’ her warks. There’s nae
bullets nor bay’nits, bit it’s juist steady battle a’ the same.”
He had lapsed into the broader speech he always used when he was moved
to deeper feelings or excitement, and the girl glanced at his set face
curiously.
“I wonder you get men to face it,” she said, “when there are easier
lives to be lived elsewhere.”
“Aye, aye, whiles I wunner mysel’,” agreed Scottie. “But the breed o’
men ye get here’s hardened tae’t. It’s a hard life, but they’re hard
men. Ye’ll meet some o’ them up at the Ridge. Ye’ll find them rough an’
ready mebbe, you bein’ used wi’ city folk. But they’re good lads at
heart maistly, though they hae their faults mebbe.”
“They won’t get drunk and—and swear—and that sort of thing before me,
will they?” asked Ess, hesitatingly.
“Na, na,” said Scottie, hastily. “A man micht lat slip an oath mebbe
withoot thinkin’—I micht dae the same mysel’—but ye’ll hae to lat that
pass by an’ no hear like. They think a lot o’ a lassie oot here, an’
ane like yersel’ they’ll be like tae let ye use them for a doormat tae
yer feet.”
Ess laughed. “I’m glad you think they’ll be kind to me,” she said. “I
like people who are, so I’ll like them all.”
“Ye’ll get all the kindness ye need, an’ a wheen o’ compliments, I’m
thinkin’,” said her uncle, smiling. “An’ if ye think at times they’re
rough like, ye’ll just mind they’re well meanin’. An’ they wadna put a
thocht or a word on a decent lassie that she could be shamed to hear.
There’s just a single man that ...” he hesitated, and mumbled a moment
over his words. “I don’t rightly know if it’s fair tae a man to
prejudice ye against him, but there is a man there that the less ye hae
to do wi’ the better I’ll be pleased. He has light thochts an’ ways wi’
women, though he’s no likely to use them wi’ you. But we’ll say nae
mair, an’ if I think it needs it I’ll just tell ye again—or tell him.”
“One word to me will be enough,” said the girl, proudly. “And if you
tell me who it is I’ll take care to avoid him. I hate coarse men.”
“He’s no coarse. He’s smoother than silk an’ finer than lawn linen. He
has the tongue o’ a politician an’ the manners o’ a dancing master, an’
if his acts was as good as his looks he’d be the best man I ever met.”
Ess’s lip curled a little. “He must be a fop,” she said; “I wonder he’s
any use in this country.”
“I’ve painted ma picture wrong if it gie’s ye that notion. He’s as
tough as fencin’ wire, an’ can out-fight, out-drink, an’ out-devil the
wildest o’ the gang. He puts himself out to please nobody but himsel’,
but I never knew the man or maid, horse or dog, that didn’t like him.”
“You’re making me wildly curious,” said the girl. “And I believe you
like him yourself in spite of your warning me against him.”
“There can be no harm in me likin’ him,” said Scottie, evasively. “An’
there can be no good in you doin’ the same.”
“There’s the house,” he said presently. “Ye can see the smoke, an’
ye’ll see itsel’ when we rise the crest.”
The valley curved sharply, and the road followed and ran over a
shoulder of the ridge and down on to a little plateau, where the
out-station buildings and horse paddocks were set.
No men were about the houses, but half-way down the slope, and watching
up the valley, they saw one man.
“That’s the cook,” said Scottie, getting down to open the yard gate;
“He hasna seen us, an’ he’s watchin’ for some o’ them bringin’ down a
few cattle. The station sent over yesterday for meat Hark—I can hear
them comin’.”
They could hear from up the valley the pistol-like cracks of a
stockwhip, and the deep lowing of cattle, and the rattle of stones. The
sounds increased and swelled suddenly to a roar, as a mob of cattle
swung round the corner and came surging down towards the slope, at the
top of which Ess and Scottie stood. A man cantered easily behind the
mob, the long-thonged stockwhip swinging in his hand, and snapping
swiftly at any beast that swerved from the mob.
Ess watched the scene spread at her feet, and her eyes shone with
pleasure and excitement at the sound of clattering hoofs and rumbling
lowings, and the sight of the tossing heads and horns, and shifting
colours of the rushing bodies.
“Wait a minute, uncle—_please_,” she said breathlessly, as Scottie
started to lead the horses on. “Isn’t it splendid? I’d no idea cows
could run so fast.”
“I keep forgettin’ these things is new t’ye,” said Scottie, halting the
horses again. “They’re runnin’ easy enough, though. Ye’ll need tae see
them when they’re in a stampede. A good horse has tae stretch himsel’
tae pass them then.”
“How beautifully the man rides; oh——” Ess caught her breath at the
whirling speed and suddenness of what followed. Horse and rider shot
forward with a rush, swerved from the track, and went clattering and
scrambling along the face of the hill past the cattle. The mob was a
small one of twenty or thirty, but the track and valley bottom was
narrow, and gave no room to pass otherwise. Fifty yards past the head
of the mob the rider turned and swooped down to the track again, the
loose stones and rocks clattering and roaring at his heels. For an
instant Ess thought the horse had fallen, but at the foot he picked up
his stride and swept round in a curve. The mob had checked and half
turned on itself at sight and sound of the horseman before them, and
next moment he was crowding them back, his body swaying lithely in the
saddle, and the whip pouring a volley of crackling reports about them.
They swung outwards towards the slope where the cook was standing, and
the horseman circled round and round them, his whip falling in
lightning strokes on any of the brutes that tried to break out.
Gradually they steadied and stood, crowding into a compact bunch,
heaving restlessly and rattling their horns.
Ess let her breath go with a deep sigh. “It’s wonderful,” she said.
Below them they heard the rider shout “Which one, Blazes?” and saw the
cook cautiously approach and scrutinise the shifting bodies.
“There y’are,” he shouted suddenly; “that one—see—the brindle wi’ the
white face.”
“Ye never saw ane thrown an’ tied, I suppose,” said Scottie, glancing
at the girl’s excited face and chuckling. “Watch then.”
The rider slowly approached the mob, the brutes flinching and crowding
back from him. Suddenly the whip flickered out a few swift cuts, swung
back and snapped out a string of reverberating cracks, the horse leaped
forward and crowded into the opening the yielding bodies gave him, and
horse and rider and cattle grew dim and indistinct in the dust that
churned up and hung about them. Out of the haze the cattle broke with
terrified bawlings, and scattered galloping over the valley and the
slope.
The brindle with the white face went tearing down the track, the horse
thundering at his heels and forging alongside him. The slashing whip
turned him, and they came racing up the lower slope. Straight for the
cook they came till to the watchers above it seemed they must run him
down. Then they saw the horse quicken his stride, and, as he came
alongside with a rush, the rider leaned out and snatched at the waving
tail beside him, whipped it in to his leg—and with a crash the bullock
came down head over heels. At the same instant the horse propped
sharply, and before he had fully stopped the man was down and running
to the fallen beast. As he flung himself on it the dust hid them again,
but in a few seconds he was up and running back to his horse, leaving
the bullock struggling helplessly on its side with tied feet. The horse
stood till the man was almost touching it, and then, as it moved
forward, with a clutch and a spring he was in the saddle and the horse
was off at a gallop, sweeping round the scattered herd. In less than a
minute they were swept together, and being pushed up the valley and
round the corner.
“That’s all,” said Scottie. “Quick work, eh?”
“Quick,” said Ess. “Oh—I can’t tell you—I’m tingling all over. What a
wonderful rider. Who is it?”
“Naething wonderful,” said Scottie, calmly. “There’s no a man on the
Ridge here but could do the same within a second or two. But yon’s the
man I was speakin’ o’. The best horseman and the worst character on
Coolongolong station—Steve Knight.”
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