Five minutes pa.s.sed, and then the voice of Mitch.e.l.l was heard again, uninterrupted by the clatter of tinware. It said in impressive tones:
"It would not be a bad idea for some of you chaps that camp in the bunks along there, to have a look at your things. Scotty"s bunk is next to Tom"s."
Scotty shot out of his place as if a snake had hold of his leg, starting a plank in the table and upsetting three soup plates. He reached for his bunk like a drowning man clutching at a plank, and tore out the bedding.
Again, Smith hadn"t forgot.
Then followed a general overhaul, and it was found in most cases that Smith had remembered. The pent-up reservoir of blasphemy burst forth.
The Oracle came up with Smith that night at the nearest shanty, and found that he had forgotten again, and in several instances, and was forgetting some more under the influence of rum and of the flattering interest taken in his case by a drunken Bachelor of Arts who happened to be at the pub. Tom came in quietly from the rear, and crooked his finger at the shanty-keeper. They went apart from the rest, and talked together a while very earnestly. Then they secretly examined Smith"s swag, the core of which was composed of Tom"s and his mate"s valuables.
Then The Oracle stirred up Smith"s recollections and departed.
Smith was about again in a couple of weeks. He was damaged somewhat physically, but his memory was no longer impaired.
HUNGERFORD
One of the hungriest cleared roads in New South Wales runs to within a couple of miles of Hungerford, and stops there; then you strike through the scrub to the town. There is no distant prospect of Hungerford--you don"t see the town till you are quite close to it, and then two or three white-washed galvanized-iron roofs start out of the mulga.
They say that a past Ministry commenced to clear the road from Bourke, under the impression that Hungerford was an important place, and went on, with the blindness peculiar to governments, till they got to within two miles of the town. Then they ran short of rum and rations, and sent a man on to get them, and make inquiries. The member never came back, and two more were sent to find him--or Hungerford. Three days later the two returned in an exhausted condition, and submitted a motion of want-of-confidence, which was lost. Then the whole House went on and was lost also. Strange to relate, that Government was never missed.
However, we found Hungerford and camped there for a day. The town is right on the Queensland border, and an interprovincial rabbit-proof fence--with rabbits on both sides of it--runs across the main street.
This fence is a standing joke with Australian rabbits--about the only joke they have out there, except the memory of Pasteur and poison and inoculation. It is amusing to go a little way out of town, about sunset, and watch them crack Noah"s Ark rabbit jokes about that fence, and burrow under and play leap-frog over it till they get tired. One old buck rabbit sat up and nearly laughed his ears off at a joke of his own about that fence. He laughed so much that he couldn"t get away when I reached for him. I could hardly eat him for laughing. I never saw a rabbit laugh before; but I"ve seen a "possum do it.
Hungerford consists of two houses and a humpy in New South Wales, and five houses in Queensland. Characteristically enough, both the pubs are in Queensland. We got a gla.s.s of sour yeast at one and paid sixpence for it--we had asked for English ale.
The post office is in New South Wales, and the police-barracks in Bana.n.a.land. The police cannot do anything if there"s a row going on across the street in New South Wales, except to send to Brisbane and have an extradition warrant applied for; and they don"t do much if there"s a row in Queensland. Most of the rows are across the border, where the pubs are.
At least, I believe that"s how it is, though the man who told me might have been a liar. Another man said he was a liar, but then _he_ might have been a liar himself--a third person said he was one. I heard that there was a fight over it, but the man who told me about the fight might not have been telling the truth.
One part of the town swears at Brisbane when things go wrong, and the other part curses Sydney.
The country looks as though a great ash-heap had been spread out there, and mulga scrub and firewood planted--and neglected. The country looks just as bad for a hundred miles round Hungerford, and beyond that it gets worse--a blasted, barren wilderness that doesn"t even howl. If it howled it would be a relief.
I believe that Bourke and Wills found Hungerford, and it"s a pity they did; but, if I ever stand by the graves of the men who first travelled through this country, when there were neither roads nor stations, nor tanks, nor bores, nor pubs, I"ll--I"ll take my hat off. There were brave men in the land in those days.
It is said that the explorers gave the district its name chiefly because of the hunger they found there, which has remained there ever since. I don"t know where the "ford" comes in--there"s nothing to ford, except in flood-time. Hungerthirst would have been better. The town is supposed to be situated on the banks of a river called the Paroo, but we saw no water there, except what pa.s.sed for it in a tank. The goats and sheep and dogs and the rest of the population drink there. It is dangerous to take too much of that water in a raw state.
Except in flood-time you couldn"t find the bed of the river without the aid of a spirit-level and a long straight-edge. There is a Custom-house against the fence on the northern side. A pound of tea often costs six shillings on that side, and you can get a common lead pencil for fourpence at the rival store across the street in the mother province.
Also, a small loaf of sour bread sells for a shilling at the humpy aforementioned. Only about sixty per cent of the sugar will melt.
We saw one of the storekeepers give a dead-beat swagman five shillings"
worth of rations to take him on into Queensland. The storekeepers often do this, and put it down on the loss side of their books. I hope the recording angel listens, and puts it down on the right side of his book.
We camped on the Queensland side of the fence, and after tea had a yarn with an old man who was minding a mixed flock of goats and sheep; and we asked him whether he thought Queensland was better than New South Wales, or the other way about.
He scratched the back of his head, and thought a while, and hesitated like a stranger who is going to do you a favour at some personal inconvenience.
At last, with the bored air of a man who has gone through the same performance too often before, he stepped deliberately up to the fence and spat over it into New South Wales. After which he got leisurely through and spat back on Queensland.
"That"s what I think of the blanky colonies!" he said.
He gave us time to become sufficiently impressed; then he said:
"And if I was at the Victorian and South Australian border I"d do the same thing."
He let that soak into our minds, and added: "And the same with West Australia--and--and Tasmania." Then he went away.
The last would have been a long spit--and he forgot Maoriland.
We heard afterwards that his name was Clancy and he had that day been offered a job droving at "twenty-five shillings a week and find your own horse." Also find your own horse feed and tobacco and soap and other luxuries, at station prices. Moreover, if you lost your own horse you would have to find another, and if that died or went astray you would have to find a third--or forfeit your pay and return on foot. The boss drover agreed to provide flour and mutton--when such things were procurable.
Consequently, Clancy"s unfavourable opinion of the colonies.
My mate and I sat down on our swags against the fence to talk things over. One of us was very deaf. Presently a black tracker went past and looked at us, and returned to the pub. Then a trooper in Queensland uniform came along and asked us what the trouble was about, and where we came from and were going, and where we camped. We said we were discussing private business, and he explained that he thought it was a row, and came over to see. Then he left us, and later on we saw him sitting with the rest of the population on a bench under the hotel veranda. Next morning we rolled up our swags and left Hungerford to the north-west.
A CAMP-FIRE YARN
"This girl," said Mitch.e.l.l, continuing a yarn to his mate, "was about the ugliest girl I ever saw, except one, and I"ll tell you about her directly. The old man had a carpenter"s shop fixed up in a shed at the back of his house, and he used to work there pretty often, and sometimes I"d come over and yarn with him. One day I was sitting on the end of the bench, and the old man was working away, and Mary was standing there too, all three of us yarning--she mostly came poking round where I was if I happened to be on the premises--or at least I thought so--and we got yarning about getting married, and the old cove said he"d get married again if the old woman died.
""_You_ get married again!" said Mary. "Why, father, you wouldn"t get anyone to marry you--who"d have you?"
""Well," he said, "I bet I"ll get someone sooner than you, anyway.
You don"t seem to be able to get anyone, and it"s pretty near time you thought of settlin" down and gettin" married. I wish _someone_ would have you."
"He hit her pretty hard there, but it served her right. She got as good as she gave. She looked at me and went all colours, and then she went back to her washtub.
"She was mighty quiet at tea-time--she seemed hurt a lot, and I began to feel sorry I"d laughed at the old man"s joke, for she was really a good, hard-working girl, and you couldn"t help liking her.
"So after tea I went out to her in the kitchen, where she was washing up, to try and cheer her up a bit. She"d scarcely speak at first, except to say "Yes" or "No", and kept her face turned away from me; and I could see that she"d been crying. I began to feel sorry for her and mad at the old man, and I started to comfort her. But I didn"t go the right way to work about it. I told her that she mustn"t take any notice of the old cove, as he didn"t mean half he said. But she seemed to take it harder than ever, and at last I got so sorry for her that I told her that _I"d_ have her if she"d have me."
"And what did she say?" asked Mitch.e.l.l"s mate, after a pause.
"She said she wouldn"t have me at any price!"
The mate laughed, and Mitch.e.l.l grinned his quiet grin.
"Well, this set me thinking," he continued. "I always knew I was a dashed ugly cove, and I began to wonder whether any girl would really have me; and I kept on it till at last I made up my mind to find out and settle the matter for good--or bad.
"There was another farmer"s daughter living close by, and I met her pretty often coming home from work, and sometimes I had a yarn with her.
She was plain, and no mistake: Mary was a Venus alongside of her. She had feet like a Lascar, and hands about ten sizes too large for her, and a face like that camel--only red; she walked like a camel, too. She looked like a ladder with a dress on, and she didn"t know a great A from a corner cupboard.