The Shadow of a Man

do we do,

her eyesight at the very outset. But the paddock had not got its name for nothing; it was overrun with the

, and follow the fence,

t see a sol

s we can see for the scrub. Each man takes his own line of country from this gate to the one opposite-seven miles away-and collects eve

Moya, smiling; and they struc

all we have to do is to hug the fence. Slightly inglorious, b

cult to ride straigh

ing in the world. Why,

ee s

open to persuasion, and found her gallop in a stride. Ives followed, though he could see nothing but sand and saltbush in the direction indicated. Sheep there were, however, and a f

ook out! That mare can turn in her

and round spun both horses as in the air. Moya jerked and swayed, but kept her seat.

he. "You'll make a better

she had been deliciously flushed and excited. Her c

n't draw to their own water at the opposite corner of their own paddock, not they! No, there they'd stick and die of thirst if one of us wasn't sent to rout them out. It was my billet every day last week, and a tougher one I never want. One time there was less than half a dozen of 'em: think of driving five weak sheep through eight or nine miles

ny?" asked M

I've got enough for two in my pocket, so you shall sample

a w

sheep, which you profe

t," explained the connoisseur. "And

to Moya after drawing the cork from the glass mouthpiece; and from the latter Moy

erish of thirst before we strike the

or more delicious," said Moya in all sincerity, for alre

he replaced the cork

er fence in the right place. It's really more like a well, without much water in it, but with a rope and a bucket with a hole in it. That bucket's the thing! You fill it a bumper, but it runs out faster than it comes u

f his acute receptivity, upon which the veriest trifles stamped themselves with indelible definition; and it was the same with

ust in which she rode, till the beat of hoofs came back with a scuttle of trotters, and the mob was swollen by a score at least, and the thickening cloud pierced by Moya radiant wit

asked. "I'm certain tha

ard it again, while the laggi

remonstrated Moya. "No wonder you

h it, sometimes, when I strike the covered-in well I was telling you about. But here we are at the corner; there's a

n the way, if we run

consi

t's a ruin, but the four-hundred-gallon tank belonging to it was left good for the s

Mr. Ives, and have

s of her hands were dreadfully inflamed. But the day would be her first and last in the real bush; she would see it through. She never felt inclined to turn back but once, and that was when a sheep fell gasping by the way, its eyes glazed and t

of the wires; and beyond these, to the left, was the long and ragged edge of a forest so dense (though low) that

e worst bit of country in the whole of Riverina. No one will take

. The name seemed familiar to

pressing a sigh. "I heard them speaki

lose sight of the fence in Blind Man's Block for all I'm ever likely to be worth: there was a man's skeleton found there just

s that cut the sky like a scaffold a mile or two ahead; yet more than once her eyes returned to

e effect. "You can't do more than a couple of miles an hour with sheep; and at that rate we

ed Moya curiously. "I've nev

as about to show off in yet another branch of the bus

s of the posts lie exactly under the wires: put your head between 'em, and when the bottom wire bisects the shadow it's as near noon as you would make it with a

ou are no good

. "My only other merit as a bushman is a good rule which I am sorry to say I've broken through talking to you. I always have my lu

essed approval; but not until she was asked; for she was not herself during this interval of inaction, or rather she was herself once more. Care indeed had ridden behind her all the morning; but now the black imp was back before her troubled eyes, and for the moment they saw nothing else. But Ives began to see and to wonder what in the world it could be. She was engaged

! You're simply pe

had the wit to acce

our fault, at any

lled the bag; there's certain to b

s ride on

It'll save time, Miss Bethune, because I c

ith his patent yelp, and each tuft and bush shook out its pure merino. It was harder work to head them off the fence at an angle of forty-five, and to aim for the other fence before a

Bethune! A drink, a

ace stop

e got nothing for you

f of his mouth, but

you had so

t is I couldn'

be able to see it from here; no, it's

d Moya, more sta

ime. You stay w

k has been removed? If I couldn't see it

ride ri

urse I

oya s

here's the whim-water.

said Moya,

tell you. And it's only rather salt-that's why we've given u

r which she had put on with her smi

mine, for I shan't touch a drop. I'm really not so thirsty as

turned in her saddle to take a last look at the black hieroglyph of a whim, with the little iron roof blazing beside

bandoned, and the

s been manager. I hear it was

long the wires. Moya and the jackeroo were ambling leisurely behi

s unoccupied?"

r of fact, it's un

ed me to drin

es any water's better than none when y

for a time, a time of imaginative torment, for her mind ran on the latter end of such sufferings as she was only beginn

to use the hut,"

I think of it, I remember hearing that they couldn't get men to stay there. Blind Man's B

a shudder. "I never want to see Blind

ackeroo reminded her. And that

on of Moya to save her friend from the reprimand he seldom failed to earn. Rigden came galloping to meet them, and for both men's sake Moya treated him prettily enough in front of Ives. Even through that day's coat of red,

w we went so long

lips were sealed

and the jackeroo felt justified in speaking strictly for himself; and thought it so like Miss Beth

ried Rigden, in better spirits than ev

!" cried Mo

ink of your coming musterin

allen; she did

had," she informed all within hearing; "now le

would not let it dishearten him. The very fac

for tea at his tent," he said. "He littl

ch Moya was much too honest to deny. "The

his back to one post. The rest kept their saddles, and began gently rounding up the mob, till it formed a pear-shaped i

ly,

to Moya's side, to ensure her complete appreciation of a manoeuvre he delighted in, but at the wor

the start, as the first grains slip through the hour-glass; by wondering twos and threes, as the reluctant leaders were seen alive and well in the farther paddock; thereafter by the dozen abre

r hand upon his thigh. At the same time Rigden vanished in a yellow cloud, whence his voice came quicker and thicker, crying hundred after hundred above the dull din of a scuf

ncluded Rigden hoarse

d and seventy-two," repl

ur

ain,

the hundreds are all right; but nothing will convince me that they w

ped the yellow deposit

ut," said he; "but if I'm

nd these were full of an unconscious admiration for Rigden and his prowess; but Rigden wa

had set them bleating for a drink; the rest lit their pipes and turned their horses' heads

pring you on the poor ch

o say to her, though he had

s Bethune? Doesn't it make you keener than

e shot ahead; but Rigden and Moya