Charlie introduced himself. "My name"s Gordon," he said, "and this is a friend of mine. We"ve come to take this block over."
"You"re welcome to it, Mister," said the old man promptly. "It"s about broke me, and if you don"t look out it"ll break you. Any man that gits this place will hump his swag from it in five years, mark me! Come on down to the house," he continued, picking up the rope and other gear lying about the fence. "Now, you boys, let that steer out, and then go and help the gins bring the cattle in. Look lively now, you tallow-faced crawlers. Come on, Mister. Did you bring any square-face with you?"
"We brought a drop o" rum," replied Charlie.
"Ha! That"ll do. That"s the real Mackay," said the veteran, slouching along at a perceptibly quicker gait.
"But, look, see here now, Mister!" he continued, anxiously, "you didn"t let Ah Loy get hold of it, did you? He"s a real terror, that Chow of mine. Did you see him when you came in?"
"Yes, we saw him. He couldn"t speak any English, seemingly."
"That"s him," said the old man. "That"s him! He don"t savvy much English. He knows all he wants, though. He can lower the rum with any Christian ever I see. It don"t do to let him get his hands on a bottle of anythink in the spirit line. It"ll come back half-empty. Now then, cook," he roared, seating himself at the rough slab table, and drumming on it with a knife, "let"s have some grub, quick, and you"ll get a nip of rum. This new boss b"long you, you savvy. All about station b"long him. I go buffalo-shooting. Me stony broke. Poor fellow me! Been fifteen years in this G.o.d-forgotten country, too," he said reminiscently, placing his elbows on the table, and gazing at the wall in front of him. "Fifteen years livin" mostly with the blacks and the Chineyman, and livin" like a black or a Chineyman, too. And what have I got to show for it? I"ve got to hump my bluey out of this, and take to the road like any other broken-down old swagman."
"It"s a bit rough," said Charlie. "How did you come to grief?"
"Oh, I came out here with a big mob of cattle," said the old man, filling his pipe, as Ah Loy placed some tin plates, a tin dish, and a bottle of Worcester sauce on the table, and withdrew to the kitchen for the provender. "I lived here, and I spent nothing, and I let "em breed.
I just looked on, and let "em breed. Oh, there was no waste about my management. I hadn"t an overseer at two pounds ten a week, to boss a lot of flash stockmen at two pounds. I jest got my own two gins and three good black boys, and I watched them cattle like a blessed father. I never saw a stranger"s face from year"s end to year"s end. I rode all over the face of the earth, keepin" track of "em. I kep" the wild blacks from scarin" "em to death, and spearin" of "em, as is their nature to, and I got speared myself in one or two little shootin" excursions I had."
"Shooting the blacks?" interpolated Gordon.
"Somethin" like that, Mister. I did let off a rifle a few times, and I dessay one or two poor, ignorant black feller-countrymen that had been fun" my cattle as full of spears as so many hedgehogs--I dessay they got in the road of a bullet or two. They"re always gettin" in the road of things. But we don"t talk of shootin" blacks nowadays These parts is too civilised--it"s risky. Anyhow, I made them blacks let my cattle alone.
And I slaved like a driven n.i.g.g.e.r, day in and day out, brandin" calves all day long in the dust, with the sun that hot, the brandin" iron "ud mark without puttin" it in the fire at all. And then down comes the tick, and kills my cattle by the hundred, dyin" and perishin" all over the place. And what lived through it I couldn"t sell anywhere, because they won"t let tick-infested cattle go south, and the Dutch won"t let us ship "em north to Java, the wretches! And then Mr. Grant"s debt was over everything; and at last I had to chuck it up. That"s how I got broke, Mister. I hope you"ll have better luck."
While he was delivering this harangue, Carew had been taking notes of the establishment. There was just a rough table, three boxes to sit on, a meat safe, a few buckets, and a rough set of shelves, supporting a dipper and a few tin plates, and tins of jam, while in the corner stood some rifles and a double-barrelled gun. Saddlery of all sorts was scattered about the floor promiscuously.
Certainly the owner of No Man"s Land had not lived luxuriously. A low galvanised-iron part.i.tion divided the house into two rooms, and through the doorway could be seen a rough bunk made of bags stretched on saplings.
As the old man finished speaking, Ah Loy brought in the evening meal--about a dozen beautifully tender roast ducks in a large tin dish, a tin plate full of light, delicately-browned cakes of the sort known as "puftalooners," and a huge billy of tea. There were no vegetables; pepper and salt were in plenty, and Worcester sauce. They ate silently, as hungry men do, while the pigs and cattle-dogs marched in at the open-door, and hustled each other for the sc.r.a.ps that were thrown to them.
"How is it the pigs have no tails?" asked Carew.
"Bit off, Mister. The dogs bit them off. They"ve got the ears pretty well chawed off "em too."
Just then a pig and a dog made a simultaneous rush for a bone, and the pig secured it. The dog, by way of revenge, fastened on to the pig, and made him squeal like a locomotive engine whistling. The old man kicked at large under the table, and restored order.
"You ain"t eatin", Mister," he said, forking a duck on to Carew"s plate with his own fork. "These ducks is all right. They"re thick on the lagoon. The Chow only had two cartridges, but he got about a dozen.
He lays down and fires along the water, and they"re floatin" very near solid on it. But here"s the cattle comin" up."
Looking out of the door, they saw about two hundred cattle coming in a long, stringing mob up the plain, driven by four black figures on horse-back. As they drew near the yards, several cattle seemed inclined to bolt away; but the sharp fusillade of terrific whips kept them up to the mark, and, after a sudden halt for a few minutes, the mob streamed in through the gates. A number of rails were put in the posts, and made fast with pegs. The riders then remounted, and came cantering and laughing down to the homestead. All four were aboriginals, two were the boys that had been seen at the yard. The two new boys were dressed in moleskins, cotton shirts, and soft felt hats, and each had a gaudy handkerchief tied round his throat.
One was light, wiry, and graceful as a gazelle--a very handsome boy, the embodiment of lightness and activity. The other was short and squat, with a broad face. Both grinned light-heartedly as they rode up, let their horses go, and carried their saddles on to the verandah, without bothering about the strangers.
"Those are nice-looking boys," said Carew. "I mean the two new boys just coming in."
"New boys!" said the old man. "Them! They"re my two gins. And see here, Mister, you"ll have to keep off hangin" round them while you"re camped here. I can"t stand anyone interferin" with them. If you kick my dorg, or go after my gin, then you rouse all the monkey in me. Those two do all my cattle work. Come here, Maggie," he called, and the slight "boy"
walked over with a graceful, easy swing.
"This is new feller?" he said, introducing Carew, who bowed gracefully.
"He b"long Sydney. You think him plenty nice feller, eh?"
"Yowi," said the girl laughing. "He nice feller. You got "em matches?"
she said, beaming on Carew, and pulling a black pipe out of her trousers" pocket. "Big fool that Lucy, drop "em matches."
Carew handed over his match-box in speechless amazement.
"They"ve been out all day with the cattle," said the old man. "I"ve got a lot of wild cattle in that there mob. I go out with a few quiet ones in the moonlight, and when the wild cattle come out of the scrubs to look at "em we rush the whole lot out into the plain. Great hands these gins are--just as good as the boys."
"Good Lord!" said Carew, looking at the two little figures, who had now a couple of ducks each, a puftalooner or two, and a big pannikin of tea, and were sitting on the edge of the verandah eating away with great enjoyment; "what have they been doing with the cattle to-day?"
"Minding them lest the wild ones should clear out. They dropped their matches somehow; that"s what fetched "em home early. They"ll have to sleep on the verandah to-night. We"ll make that their boodore, as they say in France."
The dark was now falling; the sunlight had left long, faint, crimson streaks in the sky. The air was perceptibly cooler, and flights of waterfowl hurried overhead, making their way to the river. The Chinaman lighted a slush-lamp, by whose flickering light Charlie produced from his swag a small bundle of papers, and threw them on the table.
"We might as well get our business over, Keogh," he said. "I"ve got the paper here for you to sign, making over your interest in the block and the cattle, and all that."
He pored over the doc.u.ment, muttering as he read it. "Your name"ll have to be filled in, and there"s a blank for the name of the person it"s transferred to."
"That"ll be Mr. Grant"s name," suggested Carew.
"I don"t know so much about that," said Charlie. "I don"t think, if a man has a mortgage over a place, that he can take it in his own name.
That fool Pinnock didn"t tell me. He was too anxious to know how we got on with the larrikins to give me any useful information. Anyhow, I"ll fill in my own name--for all the block is worth I ain"t likely to steal it. I can transfer it to Mr. Grant afterwards."
"I don"t care," said the old man indifferently, "I"ll transfer my interest to anyone you like. I"m done with it. I"m signing away fifteen of the best years of my life. But my name ain"t Keogh, you know, though I always went by that. My father died when I was a kiddy, and my mother married again, so I got called by my stepfather"s name all my life. This is my right name, and it"s a poor man"s name to-day." And as the two men bent over him in the light of the flickering slush-lamp, he wrote, with stiff, uncertain fingers, "Patrick Henry Considine."
CHAPTER XVII. CONSIDINE.
For a few seconds no one spoke. Carew and Gordon stared at the signature, and then looked at each other. The newly-found Considine looked at his autograph in a critical way, as if not quite sure he had spelled it right, and then stood up, handing the deed to Gordon.
"There y"are," he said. "There"s my right, t.i.tle and intrust in all this here block of land, and all the stock what"s on it; and if you"re ever short of a man to look after the place in the wet season I"ll take the job. I might be glad of it."
"I think it"s quite likely you won"t want any job from me," said Charlie. "I"ll be asking you for a job yet. Are you sure that"s your right name? What was your father?"
"My name? O" course it"s my name. My father was billiard-marker at Casey"s Hotel, Dandaloo," said the old man with conscious pride. "A swell he had been, but the boose done him up, like many a better man.
He used to write to people over in England for money, but they never giv him any."
"Where did he write to?" asked Carew, looking at the uncouth figure with intense interest. "Do you know what people he wrote to?"
"Yairs. He wrote to William Considine. That was his father"s name. His father never sent any money, though. Told him to go to h.e.l.l, I reckon."
"What was your father"s name?"
"William Patrick Considine."