standing, and shouted: "Here
you are. Come in behind me."

Their horses started to do the right thing, which is to come in between
the steer and the mob, but Sax rode straight at the beast, drove it
towards Vaughan, who tried to turn his horse suddenly and only made
matters worse, for the steer galloped back into the mob. Mick swore
and cut it out again, and drove it several yards out from the other
cattle and gave it a parting cut with his stock-whip. Sax and Vaughan
galloped after it. It dodged and tried to get back, but, more by luck
than good management, the boys kept it out in the open. At last they
got it on the run towards the second mob and were feeling very pleased
with their success, when it suddenly turned.

Sax was in the lead. His horse was an old stock-horse, and as soon as
the beast turned, it turned too, quickly, and in its own length. But
the boy on the horse's back did not turn! Sax had been going for all
he was worth, standing up in the stirrups and leaning forward
excitedly, when, all of a sudden, the horse under him jerked round on
its fore feet. Sax went straight on over the animal's head and came to
the ground all in a heap, while the horse galloped on for a few yards
and then stopped and looked round at its fallen rider. Vaughan did not
fare quite so badly. His horse did not turn at full gallop. It
propped and then turned. When it propped, it flung Vaughan forward.
He clutched the horse's neck to save himself from coming off, and when
the horse turned he hung on still tighter.

The steer got away easily and was making back to the mob when Uncle and
Fiddle-head came to the rescue. Everybody laughed at the two white
boys, but they took the fun in good part and learnt their first
important lesson in handling cattle: it's never so easy that it doesn't
need care.

[1] A camp-horse is a horse which has been especially trained for
cutting out cattle on a cattle-camp.

[2] Working on the face of the camp means taking cattle which have been
cut out from the man who is doing this particular job, and driving them
away to the second mob.

CHAPTER XVII

The Branded Warragul

By noon the cattle were in two mobs, clean-skins and branded. Leaving
the clean-skins in charge of three boys, with instructions to keep them
from straying, Mick and the other stockmen drove the branded cattle
right away and let them go, and then rode back to camp for dinner. A
fire was lit, the nine