第38章

We had a long talk with Starlight, and what he said came to much the same.

One stockman they had `squared', and he was to stand in.

They had got two or three flash chaps to help muster and drive, who were to swear they thought we were dealers, and had bought cattle all right.One or two more were to meet us farther on.

If we could get the cattle together and clear off before anything was suspected the rest was easy.The yard was nearly up, and Jim and I wired in and soon finished it.It didn't want very grand work putting into it as long as it would last our time.

So we put it up roughly, but pretty strong, with pine saplings.

The drawing in was the worst, for we had to `hump' the most of them ourselves.

Jim couldn't help bursting out laughing from time to time.

`It does seem such a jolly cheeky thing,' he said.`Driving off a mob of cattle on the quiet I've known happen once or twice; but I'm dashed if ever I heard tell of putting up duffing improvements of a superior class on a cove's run and clearing off with a thousand drafted cattle, all quiet and regular, and him pottering about his home-station and never "dropping" to it no more than if he was in Sydney.'

`People ought to look after their stock closer than they do,' I said.

`It is their fault almost as much as ours.But they are too lazy to look after their own work, and too miserable to pay a good man to do it for them.They just get a half-and-half sort of fellow that'll take low wages and make it up with duffing, and of course he's not likely to look very sharp after the back country.'

`You're not far away,' says Jim; `but don't you think they'd have to look precious sharp and get up very early in the morning to be level with chaps like father and Starlight, let alone Warrigal, who's as good by night as day? Then there's you and me.

Don't try and make us out better than we are, Dick;we're all d---- scoundrels, that's the truth of it, and honest men haven't a chance with us, except in the long run -- except in the long run.

That's where they'll have us, Dick Marston.'

`That's quite a long speech for you, Jim,' I said; `but it don't matter much that I know of whose fault it is that we're in this duffing racket.

It seems to be our fate, as the chap says in the book.

We'll have a jolly spree in Adelaide if this journey comes out right.

And now let's finish this evening off.To-morrow they're going to yard the first mob.'

After that we didn't talk much except about the work.Starlight and Warrigal were out every day and all day.The three new hands were some chaps who formed part of a gang that did most of the horse-stealing in that neighbourhood, though they never showed up.The way they managed it was this.They picked up any good-looking nag or second-class racehorse that they fell across, and took them to a certain place.There they met another lot of fellows, who took the horses from them and cleared out to another colony; at the same time they left the horses they had brought.

So each lot travelled different ways, and were sold in places where they were quite strange and no one was likely to claim them.