Part 13 (2/2)

He expected a friend out froland with a lotlike this to sorave as you please They used to ask hiht, but he always said 'he didn't like to leave his ot within a fortnight's drive of Adelaide, he rode in and lived at one of the best hotels He gave out that he expected a lot of cattle to arrive, and got a friend that he'd met in the billiard-room (and couldn't he play surprisin'?) to introduce hients there

So he had it all cut and dry, when one day Warrigal and I rode in, and the boy handed hi his hat respectfully, as he had been learned to do, before a lot of young squatters and other swells that he was going out to a picnic with

'My confounded cattle co business I began to hope they'd never come; 'pon my soul I did The time passes so deuced pleasantly here Well, they'll all be at the yards to-morrow You fellows had all better come and see them sold There'll be a little lunch, and perhaps soents, Runnimall and Co; here's their address, Jack,' he says to ht in the eyes 'They'll send a man to pilot you to the yards; and now off with you, and don't let me see your face till to-morrow'

How he carried it off! He cantered aith the rest of the party, as if he hadn't a thought in the world except about pleasure and honest business nobody couldn't have told that he wasn't just like theentlemen with only their stock and station to think about, and a little fun at the races now and then And what a risk he was running every minute of his life, he and all the rest of us I wasn't sorry to be out of the town again There were lots of police, too Suppose one of them was to say, 'Richard Marston, I arrest you for----' It hardly mattered what I felt as if I should have tuht and cowardliness It's a queer thing you feel like that off and on

Other times afor--which it isn't

The agent knew all about us (or thought he did), and sent a chap to show Mr Carisforth's cattle (Charles Carisforth, Esq, of Sturton, Yorkshi+re and Banda, Waroona, and Ebor Downs, New South Wales; that was the name he went by) the way to the yards We were to draft the into separate pens--cows and bullocks, steers and heifers, and so on

He expected to sell them all to a lot of farmers and small settlers that had taken up a new district lately and were very short of stock

'You couldn't have coent's man to me 'Our boss he's advertised 'e between the farmers and some of the squatters Good store cattle's been scarce, and these is in such rattling condition

That's what'll sell 'eular free-handed sort of chap He's the jolliest squatter there's been in town these years, I hear folk say Puts 'em in mind of Hawdon and Evelyn Sturt in the old overlander days'

Next day ere at the yards early, you bet We wanted to have time to draft them into pens of twenty to fifty each, so that the farht have a chance to buy Besides, it was the last day of our work Driving all day and watching half the night is pretty stiffish work, good weather and bad, when you've got to keep it up for months at a time, and we'd been three months and a week on the road

The other chaps ild for a spree Jim and I had made up ourtown like Adelaide; for we'd never been to Sydney even in our lives, and we'd never seen the sea That was so to look at for the first tihts, every sort and size and age by itself, as near as could be That's the way to draft stock, whether they're cattle, sheep, or horses; then every ed to lump up one sort with another We had time to have a bit of dinner None of us had touched a an to see the buyers co as a small woolshed, too It came out in a cart, and then another cart ca table of boards on trestles with a real first-class feed on it, such as we'd never seen in our lives before Fowls and turkeys and tongues and rounds of beef, beer and wine in bottles with gilt labels on Such a set-out it was Father began to growl a bit

'If he's going to feed the whole country this way, he'll spend half the stuff before we get it, let alone drawing a down on the whole thing'

But Ji to rights while he elling it in the town as We told him the cattle would fetch thatthe auctioneer was able to do These would pay for the feed and the rest of the fal-lals ten tiets in with men like his old pals he loses his head, I believe,' father says, 'and fancies he's what he used to be He'll get ”fitted” quite simple soht be, but it wasn't to co out by and by, dressed up like a real gentleman, and lookin' so different that Jim and I hardly dared speak to him--on a splendid horse too (not Rainbow, he'd been left behind; he was always left within a hundred miles of The Hollow, and he could do it in one day if he anted to), and a lot of fine dressed chaps with hi squatters and officers, and what not I shouldn't have been surprised if he'd had the Governor out with hi'lar, and was made quite free and welcome there

Well, he jumps down and shakes hands with us before theood faithful fellows, and hoe'd brought the cattle over; nods to father, who didn't seeainst any stockal and shows hirinned and showed his white teeth It was as good as a play

Then everybody goes to lunch--swells and selectors, Geroodand speechifying till all was blue By and by the auctioneer looks at his watch He'd had a pretty good tuck-in hiet to business

Father opened his eyes at the price the first pen brought, all pri bullocks, half fatetting the lot, so such a lot of different brands; but Starlight said they'd come from a sort of depot station of his, and were the odds and ends of all the mobs of store cattle that he'd purchased the last four years That satisfied 'em, particularly as he said it in a careless, fierce hich he could put on, as if it was like aIt h; I could see that

By and by we co first-rate His brand had been faked, and the hair had grown pretty well It would have took a sharp hand to know hientlemen,' says the auctioneer, 'here is the imported bull ”Duke of Brunswick” It ain't often an animal of his quality comes in with a mob of store cattle; but I am informed by Mr Carisforth that he left orders for the whole of the cattle to be cleared off the run, and this valuable aniht away in mistake He was to return by sea; but as he happens to be here to-day, why, sooner than disappoint any intending buyer, Mr Carisforth has givennear his value he will be sold'

'Yes!' drawls Starlight, as if a dozen imported bulls, more or less, made no odds to him, 'put hie shi+pment of Bates's ”duchess” tribe next month Rather prefer them on the whole The ”Duke” here is full of Booth blood, so he et what he cost, though; I know that He's been a most expensive aniood call to know him, as well as the rest of us, for a most expensive animal, before all was said and done What he cost us all round it would be hard indeed to cipher up

Anyhow, there was a great laugh at Starlight's easy way of taking it First one and then another of the squatters that was going in for breeding began to bid, thinking he'd go cheap, until they got warm, and the bull went up to a price that we never drea seeht they'd never seen an i one another, as I said before, and he went up to 270 Pounds! Then the auctioneer squared off the accounts as sharp as he could; an' it took him all his time, ith the German and the sreasy notes and silver and copper, out of canvas bags, and the squatters, ere too busy chaffing and talking a was settled up, and all the lots of cattle delivered Starlight told the auctioneer he'd see hihty kind of way, and rode off with his new friend