Chapter 4



`All right,' said I, `he must have got there a day before his time.
It is a big mob and no mistake. I wonder where they're taking them to.'
Aileen shrugged her shoulders and walked in to mother with a look
of misery and despair on her face such as I never saw there before.

She knew it was no use talking to me now. The idea of going out
to meet a large lot of unknown cattle had strongly excited us,
as would have been the case with every bush-bred lad. All sorts of wonders
passed through our minds as we walked down the creek bank,
with our bridles in our hands, towards where our horses usually fed.
One was easy to catch, the other with a little management was secured.
In ten minutes we were riding fast through the dark trees and fallen timber
towards the wild gullies and rock-strewed hills of Broken Creek.

It was not more than an hour when we got up to the cattle.
We could hear them a good while before we saw them. `My word,' said Jim,
`ain't they restless. They can't have come far, or they wouldn't roar so.
Where can the old man have "touched" for them?'

`How should I know?' I said roughly. I had a kind of idea,
but I thought he would never be so rash.

When we got up I could see the cattle had been rounded up in a flat with