g as I've lived, but what some chap had his hands
on it quick enough. But I s'pose it's all right."

"It's me wife I'm troublin' about. I'm no dandy, Goodness knows, but if
people'll let me alone I'll let them alone, and I don't interfere with
anyone. But if old Peg turns up she'll want to be right in front of
the percession. If she follows me, I'll realise everything by public
auction, unreserved sale, for spot cash, and I'll sneak back here to a
place I knows of, where there's no trooper can find me. I ain't goin'
halves with that woman, I tell you. She wouldn't stick to me if I was
poor, and I ain't goin' to take her up again now. You'd better come back
with me, Mister, and show me the way round a bit."

"There's a mob of cattle, Gordon." he went on, changing the subject
quickly; "let's ride up here, while the boys bring 'em into camp." And
off they went at a carter, leaving the question of his social prospects
in abeyance for the time being.

The ceremony of taking delivery lasted some days, Considine's signature
to the deed of transfer being only the first step. This long document,
prepared in Sydney, kept them going in literature for about a week; and
they were delighted to find that, through the carelessness of a clerk,
in one part of the deed there figured "one bull of mixed sexes and
various ages."

They rode out, day after day, through interminable stretches of dull
timbered country, or over blazing plains waving with long grass. Here
they came on mobs of half-wild cattle, all bearing the same brand,
a huge RL5. These were not mustered into a yard or counted, except
roughly. Gordon was not completing a purchase, but simply taking over
what were there--many or few; good or bad, he could only take what he
found.

Miles and miles they rode, always in the blazing heat, camping for a
couple of hours in the middle of the day. To the Englishman it seemed
always the merest chance that they found the cattle, and accident
that they got home again. At rare intervals they came upon substantial
mustering-yards, where the calves were brought for branding; near these
a rough hut had been constructed, so that they could camp there at
night, instead of returning to the head station.

They always slept out of doors. In the intense heat it was no hardship,
and the huts, as a rule, fairly jumped with fleas. Once they camped
alongside a big lagoon, on whose surface were huge pink and blue
water-lilies and rushes, and vast f