At Large
d hawker of the bush. Now, the hawker out there is a very extensive development of his prototype here at home; he is Westbourne Grove on wheels, with the prices of Piccadilly, W. But these pa
to them in sticky tires. Little pools had formed all over the plain; and westward, on the off-side of the wagon, these pools caught the glow of the setting sun, and filled with
prerogative, and lolling back wreathed in smoke. His thick bare arms were idly folded. He was a stout, brown, be
g the pace only where the track was good. He looked twenty years Flint's junior, and was, in fact, just o
quite ten weeks. Flint had tried everything, and failed; Edmonstone had everything before him, and did not mean to fail. Flint was experienced, Edmonstone sanguine; things surprised Edmonstone, nothing surprised Flint. Edmonstone had dreams of the future, and golden dreams; Flint troubled
longer; there was a noticeable change in them whenever young Edmonstone bent forward to gaze at the sun away
s quick, anxious way; "dark just as we reach the scrub; we shall have no
Edmonstone's left, in the mild falsetto that contrasted so queerly with the bodil
pare the horseflesh and the whipcord-both
to get to the Murrumbidgee to-night. No? Well, at all events, you
township at an unearthly hour, when all the time we might camp in comfort a
hem from the time we've been on the roads-and we'd have been back a week ago at least. I shall have no peace of mind until I step out of the bank, and tha
f riches, you see-and young blood! When you've been out h
ave. But if I can't peg out my claim and pick up nuggets, I'm going to do the next best thing. It may be hawking and it may not. I mean to see. But we must give the thing a chance, and not run unnec
to it. I only don't see the point
all is concealed about my pe
es am I to tell you so?" And there was a squeak of impatience in the a
e some distance
marked at length, "a store
of t
was robbed of e
kno
ot him dead
'll swing
ean heels, and nobody knows
to find them waiting for
ly deny that we ar
ut his pipe wit
not a bushranger at all; he and his mates are mere robbers and murderers. Ned Kelly didn't go shooting miserable storekeepers; and he was the last of the bushrangers, and is likely to remain the last. Besides, these chaps will streak up-country, not down; but, if it's any comfort to you, see here," and Flint pocketed his pipe, made a long
singly, and restored the pistol to its ho
time, but was more in earnest
t it-hawking with an empty wagon? How could I push, push, push-as I've got to-after losing all to start with? A hundred pounds! It isn't much, but it
ural to him to think out the business and its possibilities in this way, and it was no les
ink so much about
tone in a low, excited tone. "Home and
ed the face of his friend; then lay back agai
had been exiled for years, and it'
t already seeme
n years; wait until you have tried digging, selecting, farming, droving; wait until you have worn a trooper's uniform and a counter jumper's apron, and ridden the boundaries a
happy that his mind would fly from the one to the other without touching the present. And so he thought now, gazing westward, of home, and of something sweeter than home itself; and he blended that which had gone before with that which was yet to come; and so wonderful was the harmony between these two that to-day was entirely forgotten. Then the sun swung half-way below the dark line
cal footfall of the horses, the hoarse notes of crows wheeling through the twil
the antipodes by a mi
asleep,
N
y one ahead of us this
; w
," said Flint, pointing to a fresh
ifficult in the dusk to distinguish the trail
see any one, as close to the scrub as we are now. Whoever it is, he must have stru
hall see him in a minute. Don't yo
was looming through the dusk-very broad and round, with only the crown of a wideawake showing above the sh
e used my last, and I'm j
Dick, pulling up. "Tak
returned until a loaded pipe was satisfactorily alight; and as the tobacco glowed in the bowl the man's face glowed in comp
when the fellow had thanked him with
ed good-
t again; but I shall know it if ever I do. I
tered the forest of low-size
fter half-an-hour, "there's some one gallop
lint, waking
e scrub-can't you hear the
ar no
en ag
stened i
r an instant-but no,
s no sound then, and h
ou will push on, why, let's do it;
es they trotted on gamely; then, without warning, they le
ight, sat two shadowy forms on horseback,
ied one of the
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