Naturally I felt impatient at the delay, but was told by the Creek that
"there was no hurry!" "To-morrow's still untouched," Mac explained. "This
is the Land of Plenty of Time; Plenty of Time and Wait a While. You'll be
doing a bit of waiting before you've done with it."
"If this rain goes on, she'll be doing a bit of waiting at the Fergusson;
unless she learns the horse's-tail trick," the Creek put in. On inquiry,
it proved that the "horse's-tail trick" meant swimming a horse through
the flood, and hanging on to its tail until it fought a way across; and I
felt I would prefer "waiting a bit."
The rain did go on, and, roaring over the roof, made conversation
difficult. The bushmen called it a "bit of a storm"; but every square
inch of the heavens seemed occupied by lightning and thunder-bolts.
"Nothing to what we can do sometimes," every one agreed. "WE do things
in style up here - often run half-a-dozen storms at once. You see, when
you are weather-bound, you might as well have something worth looking
at."
The storm lasted nearly three hours, and when it cleared Mac went over to
the Telegraph, where some confidential chatting must have taken place,
for when he returned he told us that the Dandy was starting out for the
homestead next day to "fix things up a bit." The Head Stockman however,
waited back for orders.
