We of the Never-Never Part 22

With that surging mob of cattle beside them, the Maluka and Dan had dismounted, and were trying to staunch the flow of blood, while black boys gathered round, and Jack and the Dandy, satisfied that the injuries were not "too serious," were leaning over from their saddles congratulating the old horse on having "got off so easy." The wound fortunately, was in the thigh, and just a clean deep punch for, as by a miracle, the bull's horn had missed all tendons and as the old campaigner was led away for treatmen he disdained even to limp, and was well within a fortnight.

"Pa.s.sing the time of day with Jack," Dan called the scrimmage; as we left the field of battle and looking back we found that already the Bromli kites were closing in and sinking and settling earthwards towards the crows who were impatiently waiting our departure--waiting to convert the erst raging scrub bulls into white, bleaching bones.

Travelling quicker than the cattle, we were camped and at dinner at "Abraham's"--another lily-strewn billabong--when the mob came in, the thirsty brutes travelling with down-drooping heads and lowing deeply and incessantly. Their direction showing that they would pa.s.s within a few yards of our camp fire, on their way to the water, as a matter of course I stood up, and Dan, with a chuckle, a.s.sured me that they had "something else more important on than chivying the missus."

But the recollection of that raging mob was too vividly in mind, and the cattle beginning to trot at the sight of the water, decided against them, and the next moment I was three feet from the ground, among the low-spreading branches of a giant Paper-bark. Jackeroo was riding ahead, and flashed one swift, sidelong glance after me but as the mob trotted by he trotted with them as impa.s.sive as a statue.

But we had by no means done with Jackeroo; for as we sat in camp that night at the Springs, with the cattle safe in the yard, shouts of laughter from the "boys'" camp attracted our attention, and we found Jackeroo the centre-piece of the camp, preparing to repeat some performance. For a second or so he stood irresolute; then, clutching wildly at an imaginary something that appeared to enc.u.mber his feet, with a swift, darting run and a scrambling clamber, he was into the midst of a sapling; then, our silence attracting attention, the black world collapsed in speechless convulsions.

"How the missus climbed a tree, little 'un," the Maluka chuckled; and the mimicry of action had been so perfect that we knew it could only be that.

Every detail was there: the moment of indecision, the wild clutch at the habit, the quick, feminine lift of the running feet, and the indescribably feminine scrambling climb at the finish.

In that one swift, sidelong glance every movement had been photographed on Jackeroo's mind, to be reproduced later on for the entertainment of the camp with that perfect mimicry characteristic of the black folk.

And it was always so. Just as they had "beck-becked" and b.u.mped in their saddles with the Chinese drovers, so they imitated every action that caught their fancy, and almost every human being that crossed their path--riding with feet outspread after meeting one traveller; with toes turned in, in imitation of another; flopping, or sitting rigidly in their saddles, imitating actions of hand and turns of the head; anything to amuse themselves, from riding side-saddle to climbing trees.

Jackeroo being "funny man" in the tribe, was first favourite in exhibitions; but we could get no further pantomime that night, although we heard later from Bett-Bett that "How the missus climbed a tree" had a long run.

The next day pa.s.sed branding the cattle, and the following as we arrived within sight of the homestead, Dan was congratulating the Maluka on the "missus being without a house," and then he suddenly interrupted himself "Well, I'm blest!" he said. "If we didn't forget all about bangtailing that mob for her mattress."

We undoubtedly had, but thirty-three nights, or thereabouts, with the warm, bare ground for a bed, had made me indifferent to mattresses, and hearing that Dan became most hopeful of "getting her properly educated"

yet.

Cheon greeted us with his usual enthusiasm, and handed the Maluka a letter containing a request for a small mob of bullocks within three weeks.

"Nothing like keeping the ball rolling,", Dan said, also waxing enthusiastic, while the South-folk remained convinced that life out-bush is stagnation.

CHAPTER XIX

Dan and the Quiet Stockman went out to the north-west immediately, to "clean up there" before getting the bullocks together; but the Maluka, settling down to arrears of bookkeeping, with the Dandy at his right hand, Cheon once more took the missus under his wing feeding her up and scorning her gardening efforts.

"The idea of a white woman thinking she could grow water-melons," he scoffed, when I planted seeds, having decided on a carpet of luxuriant green to fill up the garden beds until the shrubs grew. The Maluka advised "waiting," and the seeds coming up within a few days, Cheon, after expressing surprise, prophesied an early death or a fruitless life.

Billy Muck, however, took a practical interest in the water-melons, and to incite him to water them in our absence, he was made a shareholder in the venture. As a natural result, the Staff, the Rejected, and the Shadows immediately applied for shares--pointing out that they too carried water to the plants--and the water-melon beds became the property of a Working Liability Company with the missus as Chairman of Directors.

The shadows were as numerous as ever, the rejected on the increase, but the staff was, fortunately, reduced to three for the time being; or, rather, reduced to two, and increased again to three: Judy had been called "bush" on business, and the Macs having got out in good time.

Bertie's Nellie and Biddie had been obliged to resign and go with the waggons, under protest, of course, leaving Rosy and Jimmy's Nellie augmented by one of the most persistent of all the shadows--a tiny child lubra, Bett-Bett.

Most of us still considered Bett-Bett one of the shadows but she persisted that she was the mainstay of the staff. "Me all day dust 'im paper, me round 'im up goat" she would say. "Me sit down all right".

She certainly excelled in "rounding-up goat," riding the old Billy like a race-horse; and with Rosy filling the position of housemaid to perfection, Jimmy's Nellie proving invaluable in her vigorous treatment of the rejected and the wood-heap gossip filling in odd times, life so far as it was dependent on black folk--was running on oiled wheels: the house was clean and orderly, the garden flourished; and as the melons grew apace, throwing out secondary leaves in defiance of Cheon's prophecies, Billy Muck grew more and more enthusiastic, and, usurping the position of Chairman of the Directors, he inspired the shareholders with so much zeal that the prophecies were almost fulfilled through a surfeit of watering. But Cheon's att.i.tude towards the water-melons did not change, although he had begun to look with favour upon mail-matter and station books, finding in them a power that could keep the Maluka at the homestead.

For two full weeks after our return from the drovers' camp our life was exactly as Cheon would have it--peaceful and regular, with an occasional single day "out-bush"; and when the Maluka in his leisure began to fulfil his long-standing promise of a defence around my garden, Cheon expressed himself well-pleased with his reform.

But even the demands of station books and acc.u.mulated mail-matter can be satisfied in time, and Dan reporting that he was "getting going with the bullocks," Cheon found his approval had been premature; for, to his dismay, the Maluka abandoned the fence, and began preparations for a trip "bush." "Surely the missus was not going?" he said; and next day we left him at the homestead, a lonely figure, seated on an overturned bucket, disconsolate and fearing the worst.

Cheon often favoured an upside-down bucket for a seat. Nothing more uncomfortable for a fat man can be imagined, yet Cheon sat on his rickety perch, for the most part chuckling and happy. Perhaps, like Mark Tapley, he felt it a "credit being jolly" under such circ.u.mstances.

By way of contrast, we found Dan and Jack optimistic and happy, with some good bullocks in hand, a record branding to report for the fortnight's work, and a drover in camp of such a delightful turn of mind that he was inclined to look upon every bullock mustered as "just the thing." He was easily disposed of, and within a week we were back at the homestead.

We had left Cheon sad and disconsolate, but he met us, filled with fury, and holding a sack of something soft in his arms. "What's 'er matter?" he spluttered, almost choking with rage. "Me savey grow cabbage "; and he flung the sack at our feet as we stood in the homestead thoroughfare staring at him in wonder. "Paper yabber!" he added curtly, pa.s.sing a letter to the Maluka.

It was a kindly, courteous letter from our Eastern neighbour, who had "ventured to send a cabbage, remembering the homestead garden did not get on too well." (His visits had been in Sam's day). "How kind!" we said, and not understanding Cheon's wrath, the Maluka opened the bag, and pa.s.sed two fine cabbages to him after duly admiring them.

They acted on Cheon like a red rag on a bull. Flinging them from him, he sent them spinning across the stony ground with two furious kicks, following them up with further furious kicks as we looked on in speechless amazement. "What's 'er matter?" he growled, as, abandoning the chase with a final lunge, he stalked indignantly back to us; and as the unfortunate cabbages turned over and lay still on their tattered backs, he began to explain his wrath. Was he not paid to grow cabbages, he asked, and where had he failed that we should accept cabbages from neighbours? Cabbages for ourselves, but insults for him! Then, the comical side of his nature coming to the surface as unexpectedly as his wrath, he was overcome with laughter, and clung to a verandah post for support, while still speechless, we looked on in consternation, for laughing was a serious matter with Cheon.

"My word, me plenty cross fellow," he gasped at intervals and finally led the way to the vegetable garden, where he cut an enormous cabbage and carried it to the store to weigh it. The scale turned at twelve pounds, and, sure of our ground now, we compared its mighty heart to the stout heart of Cheon--a compliment fully appreciated by his Chinese mind; then, having disparaged the tattered results to his satisfaction, we went to the house and wrote a letter of thanks to our neighbour, giving him so vivid a word-picture of the reception of his cabbages that he felt inspired to play a practical joke on Cheon later on. One thing is very certain--everyone enjoyed those cabbages including even Cheon and the goats.

Of course we had cabbage for dinner that day, and the day following, and the next day again, and were just fearing that cabbage was becoming a confirmed habit when Dan coming in with reports we all went bush again, and the spell was broken. "A pity the man from Beyanst wasn't about,"

Dan said when he heard of the daily menu.

It was late in September when Dan came in, and four weeks slipped away with the concerns of cattle and cattle-buyers and cattle-duffers, and as we moved hither and thither the water-melons leafed and blossomed and fruited to Billy's delight, and Cheon's undisguised amazement and the line party, creeping on, crept first into our borders and then into camp at the Warlochs, and Happy d.i.c.k's visits, dog-fights, and cribbage became part of the station routine. Now and then a traveller from "inside"

pa.s.sed out, but as the roads "inside" were rapidly closing in, none came from the Outside going in, and because of that there were no extra mails, and towards the end of October we were wondering how we were "going to get through the days until the Fizzer was due again," when Dan and Jack came in unexpectedly for a consultation.

"Run clean out of flour," Dan announced, with a wink and a mysterious look towards the black world, as he dismounted at the head of the homestead thoroughfare then, after inquiring for the "education of the missus" he added, with further winks and mystery, that it only needed a n.i.g.g.e.r hunt to round off her education properly but it was after supper before he found a fitting opportunity to explain his winks and mystery.

Then, joining us as we lounged in the open starry s.p.a.ce between the billabong and the house, he chuckled: "Yes, it just needs a n.i.g.g.e.r hunt to make her education a credit to us."

Dan never joined us in the evenings without an invitation, although he was not above putting himself in the way of one. Whenever he felt inclined for what he called "a pitch with the boss and missus" he would saunter past at a little distance, apparently bound for the billabong, but in reality ready to respond to the Maluka's "Is that you, Dan?"

although just as ready to saunter on if that invitation was not forthcoming--a happy little arrangement born of that tact and delicacy of the bush-folk that never intrudes on another man's privacy.

Dan being just Dan rarely had need to saunter on; and as he sewed down on the gra.s.s in acceptance of this usual form of invitation, he wagged his head wisely, declaring "she had got on so well with her education that it 'ud be a pity not to finish her off properly." Then dropping his bantering tone, he reported a scatter-on among the river cattle.

"I wasn't going to say anything about it before the "boys," he said, "but it's time some one gave a surprise party down the river;" and a "scatter-on" meaning "n.i.g.g.e.rs in," Maluka readily agreed to a surprise patrol of the river country, that being forbidden ground for blacks'

camps.

"It's no good going unless it's going to be a surprise party," Dan reiterated; and when the Quiet Stockman was called across from the Quarters, he was told that "there wasn't going to be no talking before the boys."

Further consultations being necessary, Dan feared arousing suspicion, and to ensure his surprise party, and to guard against any word of the coming patrol being sent out-bush by the station "boys," he indulged in a little dust-throwing, and there was much talking in public about going "out to the north-west for the boss to have another look round there," and much laying of deep plans in private.

Finally, it was decided that the Quiet Stockman and his "boys" were to patrol the country north from the river while we were to keep to the south banks and follow the river down to the boundaries in all its windings, each party appointed to camp at the Red Lily lagoons second night out, each, of course, on its own side of the river. It being necessary for Jack to cross the river beyond the Springs, he left the homestead half a day before us--public gossip reporting that he was "going beyond the Waterhouse horse mustering," and Dan finding dust-throwing highly diverting, shouted after him that he "might as well bring some fresh relays to the Yellow Hole in a day or two," and then giving his attention to the packing of swags and pack-bags, "reckoned things were just about fixed up for a surprise party."

CHAPTER XX

At our appointed time we left the homestead, taking the north-west track for over a mile to continue the dust-throwing; and for the whole length of that mile Dan reiterated the "advantages of surprise parties," and his opinion that "things were just about properly fixed up for one"; and when we left the track abruptly and set off across country at right angles to it, Sambo's quick questioning, suspicious glance made it very evident that he, for one, had gleaned no inkling of the patrol, which naturally filled Dan with delight.

"River to-night, Sambo," he said airily, but after that one swift glance Sambo rode after us as stolid as ever--Sambo was always difficult to fathom--while Dan spent the afternoon congratulating himself on the success of his dust-throwing, proving with many ill.u.s.trations that "it's the hardest thing to spring a surprise on n.i.g.g.e.rs. Something seems to tell 'em you're coming," he explained. "Some chaps put it down to second-sight or thought-reading."

When we turned in Dan was still chuckling over his cute handling of the trip. "Bluffed 'em this time all right," he a.s.sured us, little guessing that the blacks at the "Red Lilies," thirty miles away, and other little groups of blacks travelling down the river towards the lagoons were conjecturing on the object of the Maluka's visit--"something having told them we were coming."

The "something" however, was neither second-sight nor thought-reading, but a very simple, tangible "something." Sambo had gone for a stroll from our camp about sundown, and one of Jack's boys had gone for a stroll from Jack's camp, and soon afterwards two tell-tale telegraphic columns of smoke, worked on some blackfellow dot-dash-system, had risen above the timber, and their messages had also been duly noted down at the Red Lilies and elsewhere, and acted upon. The Maluka was on the river, and when the Maluka was about, it was considered wisdom to be off forbidden ground; not that the blacks feared the Maluka, but no one cares about vexing the goose that lays the golden eggs.