G. B. Lancaster

“ A starving mob ’d just walk through it ’fore we could stop ’em.”
Harry grunted. There were occasions when he pitied Condy.
“Don’t you know that every blessed little settler in the district has fed this road to his sheep till they’ve swallowed all but the bones of the hills and the dust? And do you think that those same sheep ’d have walked past Marshall’s land with only a five-wire up? Go and cool your head in the sea, old man. Your brain’s gone pulpy.” ”

“ Will you get into the saddle, man?”
They rode down with the sleepy, stooping sway of body that is peculiar to the drover, and a man in the paddock wheeled his horse to them and came up headlong. This man was a town cadet. Harry knew, when he saw him handle his stock-whip (which is not the correct thing for sheep-country, in any case) . Also, the expressions that he used to his dogs were uncanonical.
“It’s going to be better than I hoped. Now, Condy, you see me talk to him. And dress by—no; I think you’d best let me do the gassing. You just look all the kinds of fool you can. ”

“ The cadet foamed.
“Your sheep are in here,” he explained loudly—“in this private property—eating our grass—lots of them. Take them away. Confound you! will you take them away?”
Harry swung in a breath into the keen, hard man of biting tongue that half his mates feared and hated.
“Our sheep in your grass? What the devil d’you mean? Our sheep? Who’s your boss?”
“Marshall. He——”
“And what the devil does Marshall mean by stealing our sheep? Because we can’t keep a man in front, and a man behind, and a troop of men on each side, are our sheep not to be safe on the public highway? ”

“ That’s an old game. Gaps in the fence to decoy sheep. Marshall’s a downy bird. How many different brands has he got on that flock? Better not try that game too often, or you’ll get into trouble. Where are your gaps?”
The cadet had helped in the construction of this fence, and he knew it to be absolutely perfect and sheep-proof. Besides, Harry’s speech was direct insult.
“There isn’t a gap in the whole of it, you fool. What’d we want to feed every starving mob that comes along for? They can’t have got in that way.” ”

“ But he jumped the fence and ran among the fifty-odd that fattened on Marshall’s feed, working them with cunning across to Marshall’s sheep, that lay in the high cocksfoot and flax. Then. he came back, comparatively undistressed.
“That’s pretty well boxed ’em. And they’re doing their little best to improve matters. Developments are beginning. Lick along back over the hill.”
“Can’t.” Condy lay flat and battled with that particular kind of seasickness which overtakes a man who has exerted himself beyond his strength. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1961, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 62 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”