"Ben Cartwright," observed Baxter, after a pause. "Anybody else comin', I wonder? Seems like as if people could n't fine a bit o' grass without the whole (adj.) country jumpin' it."
"I move that all trespassers ought to be prosecuted with the utmost vigour o' the (adj.) law," remarked Donovan aloud, as the new-comer dismounted and liberated his horse, a few yards away.
"We should certainly be justified in taking the opinion of the Court on a test case," added Stevenson. "Suppose we make an example of Cartwright? Oh, I beg your pardon!" For the intended sacrifice was just collapsing into an easy position beside the speaker.
"Been scoutin' for you (fellows) this last half-hour," he remarked sociably, but in the suppressed tone befitting time and place. "Seen samples o' your workin' plant, an' know'd who to expect. Heard the dog barkin' jis' now. Soft collar we got here—ain't it?"
"How did you find it?" asked Thompson.
"Know Jack Ling—at the Boree Paddick, about four mile out there? Well, I worked on his horse-paddick las' night, an' he follered me up this mornin', an' talked summons. But I ain't very fiery-tempered, the way things is jis' now; an' I got at the soft side o' the (adj.) idolator; an' he laid me on here. Reckoned I'd mos' likely fine company."
"One good point about a Chow boundary man," observed Thompson. "So long as you don't interfere with his own paddock, he never makes himself nasty."
My own experience of the morning led me to endorse this judgment; wherefore, if John did n't exactly rise in the estimation of the camp, he certainly reduced his soundings in its destestation.
"Comin' down with wool?" asked Baxter.
"Comin' down without wool, or wagon, or any (adj.) thing," replied Cartwright. "Jist loafin' loose. Bullocks dead-beat. Left the wagon tarpolined at the Jumpin' Sandhill, a fortnit ago. Five gone out o' eighteen since then, an' three more dead if they on'y know'd it. Good for trade, I s'pose."
"Had any supper?" asked Thompson.
"Well, no. Run out o' tucker to-day, an' reckoned I'd do till I foun' time to go to Booligal to-morrow."
While three or four of the fellows placed their eatables before Cartwright, Thompson remarked:
"You gave me a bit of a start. When I saw you coming, it reminded me of one time I got snapped by Barefooted Bob, on Wo-Winya, while M'Gregor owned the station. For all the world such a night as this—smoky moonlight, and as good as day. I'd had a fearful perisher coming down with the last wool, and I was making for the Murray, by myself; stealing a bite of grass every night, and getting caught, altogether, five times between Hay and Barmah. Well, I knew there was rough feed in the Tin Hut Paddock; so I crawled along quietly, and loosed-out after dark, in that timber where the coolaman hole is. Then I sneaked the bullocks through the fence, and out past that bit of a swamp; and they had just settled down to feed, when I saw some one riding toward me.
