gave two hundred and fifty notes for him
afore he left England, I've heard 'em say.'

'Bring him along,' said Starlight, who came up just then. 'In for a
penny, in for a pound. They'll never think of looking for him on the
Coorong, and we'll be there before they miss any cattle worth talking
about.'

So we took 'Fifteenth Duke of Cambridge' along with us; a red roan he
was, with a little white about the flank. He wasn't more than four year
old. He'd been brought out from England as a yearling. How he'd worked
his way out to this back part of the run, where a bull of his quality
ain't often seen, nobody could say. But he was a lively active beast,
and he'd got into fine hard fettle with living on saltbush, dry grass,
and scrub for the last few months, so he could travel as well as the
others. I took particular notice of him, from his little waxy horns to
his straight locks and long square quarters. And so I'd need to--but
that came after. He had only a little bit of a private brand on the
shoulder. That was easily faked, and would come out quite different.

Chapter 12

We didn't go straight ahead along any main track to the Lower Murray and
Adelaide exactly. That would have been a little too open and barefaced.
No; we divided the mob into three, and settled where to meet in about a
fortnight. Three men to each mob. Father and Warrigal took one lot; they
had the dog, old Crib, to help them. He was worth about two men and a
boy. Starlight, Jim, and I had another; and the three stranger chaps
another. We'd had a couple of knockabouts to help with the cooking and
stockyard work. They were paid by the job. They were to stay at the
camp for a week, to burn the gunyahs, knock down the yard, and blind the
track as much as they could.

Some of the cattle we'd left behind they drove back and forward across
the track every day for a week. If rain came they were to drop it, and
make their way into the frontage by another road. If they heard about
the job being blown or the police set on our track, they were to wire to
one of the border townships we had to pass. Weren't we afraid of their
selling us? No, not much; they were well paid, and had often given
father and Starlight information before, though they took care never
to show out in the cattle or horse-stealing way themselves. As long
as chaps in our line have money to spend, they can always get good
information and other things, too. It is when the money runs shor