Part 15 (1/2)
”Yes. You knew him, then?”
The stranger seemed to have lost a great deal of his a.s.surance. He turned his side to the counter, hooked his elbow on it, and gazed out through the door along Sunset Track.
”You can give me half a pound of nailrod,” he said, in a quiet tone--”I s'pose young Hake is in town?”
”No; the whole family went away. I think there's one of the sons in business in Sydney now.”
”I s'pose the M'Lachlans are here yet?”
”No; they are not. The old people died about five years ago; the sons are in Queensland, I think; and both the girls are married and in Sydney.”
”Ah, well!... I see you've got the railway here now.”
”Oh, yes! Six years.”
”Times is changed a lot.”
”They are.”
”I s'pose--I s'pose you can tell me where I'll find old Jimmy Nowlett?”
”Jimmy Nowlett? Jimmy Nowlett? I never heard of the name. What was he?”
”Oh, he was a bullock-driver. Used to carry from the mountains before the railway was made.”
”Before my time, perhaps. There's no one of that name round here now.”
”Ah, well!... I don't suppose you knew the Duggans?”
”Yes, I did. The old man's dead, too, and the family's gone away--Lord knows where. They weren't much loss, to all accounts. The sons got into trouble, I b'lieve--went to the bad. They had a bad name here.”
”Did they? Well, they had good hearts--at least, old Malachi Duggan and the eldest son had.... You can give me a couple of pounds of sugar.”
”Right. I suppose it's a long time since you were here last?”
”Fifteen years.”
”Indeed!”
”Yes. I don't s'pose I remind you of anyone you know around here?”
”N--no!” said the grocer with a smile. ”I can't say you do.”
”Ah, well! I s'pose I'll find the Wilds still living in the same place?”
”The Wilds? Well, no. The old man is dead, too, and--”
”And--and where's Jim? He ain't dead?”