Robbery under Arms / A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Australian Goldfields

terwards, or the other way on, 'get out the lot we've just branded, and drive 'em straight for that peak, where the water shines dripping over the stones, right again the sun, and

ht no mortal men could 'a kept 'em in that blind hole of a place. But father headed 'em, and turned 'em towards the peak. The dog worried those that wanted to stay by the yard or turn another way. We dropped our whip on 'em, and kept 'em going. In five minutes they were

y, as well as scrubby, and the poor devils of cattle got as sore-footed as babies-

, rocky, open kind of a place;

t. These young things is generally soft. Come her

d like bushes, and they were big ironbarks and messmates too. On three sides of us was this awful, desolate-looking precipice-a dreary, gloomy, God-forsaken kind of spot. The sky got cloudy, and the breeze turned cold and began to murmur and whistle

ain side, tearing its way through scrub and heath till it settled down in the glen below. 'It won't do for a man's horse to slip, w

ithout speaking, t

how you a trick that none of you native boys are up to, smart as you think yourselv

ow the old mare after a bit. I left a few cows among 'em on purpo

rope that he had round her neck to it. I saw her follow him slowly, and turn

em up as soon as he saw the old mare walk towards the mountain side,

nder about the hoofs that they could not hav

like sheep. Cattle will do that. I've seen a stockrider, when all the horses were dead beat, trying to get fat cattle to take a river in

ld, and never tried to bite a beast once he got within the walls. He looked quite satisfied, and kept chuckling almost to himself. I really believe I've seen dogs laugh. Once upon a time I've read of they'd have taken poor Crib for a familiar spirit, and hanged or burnt him. Well, he knew a lot, and no mistake. I've seen plenty of Christians as he could buy and sell, and no trouble to him. I'm dashed if the old mare, too, didn't take a pleasure in working cattle on the cross. She was the laziest old wretch bringing up the cows at home, or running in the horses. Many a time Jim and I took a turn out of her when fa

I walked along, leading our horses and yarning away as we u

I know now. I think I heard long ago from one of the Crosbies of a place in the ranges down towards behind the Nulla Mountain, "Terrible Hollow". He didn't know about it himself

the old fellow "split" about it

ling; the rest were too frightened after that, and they all swo

ish he never had. I don't care about those cross doings.

I suppose. It won't do to leave old dad

the more for that. But I wish father had broke his leg, and was lying up at h

too. The gully seems getting wider, and I ca

ompany soon, and the poor devils of calves won't ha

leading cattle are beginning to r

splendid little plain, up to the knees in grass; a big natural park, closed round on every side with sandsto

t and began to feed, without a notion of their mothers they'd left behind; but they were not the only ones there. We could see other mobs

k quite comfortable an

I didn't know you were the right stuff, you'd never have seen it, though you're my own flesh and blood.

y hungry and stiff. They put their heads down to th

'and come after me. I'll show you a good camping p

at had fallen down, was the entrance to a cave. The walls of it were quite clean and white-looking, the floor was smooth, and

flour and corn-meal. We very soon made some cakes in the pan, that tasted well, I can tell you. Tea and sugar too, and qu

t. He took a pretty stiff pull, and then handed it to us. 'A lit

ar of something hanging over us. A dreadful fear it is. It makes a coward

had more than was good for me at Dargo Races that I wouldn't touch it again for two years;

r. 'When you're ready we'll h

, close-smelling, dirty-clean graveyard they call a gaol. But it's no use beginning on that. We were young men, and free, too. Free! By all the devils in hell, if there are devils-and there must be to tempt a man, or how could he be so great a fool, so blind a born idiot, as to do anything in this world that would put his freedom in jeopardy? And what for? For folly and nonsense. For a

pretty nigh knocked all sense and feeling out of it, not so much in repentance, though I don't say I feel sorry, but to think what a fool, fool, fool I'd been. Yes

reen grass outside that I never shall see again. Never see the river rippling under the big drooping trees, or the cattle coming down in the twilight to drink after the l

horses. We soon did that, and then we rode away to the other cattle. They were a queer lot

own beasts, too; that was a thing we had very seldom seen. Some of the best cattle and some

I said to father. 'They're the pi

ishly, or you'll lose a plant that may save your life, as well as keep you in cash for many a year to come. That brand belongs to Starlight, and he was the only man left alive of the men that first f

ever hardly saw such a lot before. All got the JJ bran

, of course, as they've only the one brand on they never can be claimed or sworn to. They're from some of M

. 'I'd like to have that dark bay colt with the star. My word, what a forehand he's got; a

he's taken the wrong way, though he talks so soft. The half-caste is an out-and-out chap with cattle, and the horse doesn't stand on four legs

g so easy to the bait father held out to him about the horse. 'A very smar

o turn dog, now you know the way in? Isn't it as easy to

ood as he sent, and all for Jim's sake. Poor Jim! He'd always go to the mischief for the sake of a good horse, and

about when this "bot" was first hit on. There's chaps in the police getting now, natives or all the same, as can ride and track every bit as wel

. 'Don't say I dragged you in. You and your brother can go home, and no o

g up with his head high and his tail stuck out like a circus horse. If he'd been the dev

e colt stopped, turned, and galloped back to his ma

But in that time the die was cast, the stakes we

t,' says Jim; 'I'll do either way that

-d fools all the same-father and sons. It'll be the deares

ther; 'so let's have no more chat. We're li

ide that not one man in a thousand could ever hit on, except he was put up to it; a wild country for miles when you did get out-all scrub and rock, that few people ever had c

come by,' Jim said, 'what a jo

one walls all round, and where it narrowed the first discoverers had buil

ned into the narrowest part of the gully. Once in this, like the one they came down, and the cattle or horses had no chance but to walk slowly up, one behind the other, till they got on the tableland above. Here, of course, every kind of work that can be

looked at his own beast, with the ears altered and the brand faked, and never dreamed he ev

into his head; just as if his life, mine, and Jim's didn't matter a straw compared to this man

always be different from other men to the end of the world. What's the most surprising part of it is that men like father, who have hated the breed and suffered by them, too, can't help having a curious liking and admiration for them. They'll follow them like dogs, fight for them, shed their blood, and die f