And off went Maddie at a pace that gave Joe and the boy all they knew to catch her.
We"re to live here for a month or two till I get used to outdoor work and the regular old bush life again. There"s no life like it, to my fancy. Then we start, bag and baggage, for one of George"s Queensland stations, right away up on the Barcoo, that I"m to manage and have a share in.
It freshens me up to think of making a start in a new country. It"s a long way from where we were born and brought up; but all the better for that. Of course they"ll know about me; but in any part of Australia, once a chap shows that he"s given up cross doings and means to go straight for the future, the people of the country will always lend him a helping hand, particularly if he"s married to such a wife as Gracey.
I"m not afraid of any of my troubles in the old days being cast up to me; and men are so scarce and hard to get west of the Barcoo that no one that once had d.i.c.k Marston"s help at a muster is likely to remind him of such an old story as that of "Robbery Under Arms".
THE END