The thing "; but the Dandy read out every word in them in
a loud, clear voice, to his own amusement and the drovers' discomfiture.
The papers having been thus proved satisfactory, the drovers started
their boys with the bullocks, before giving their attention to the
packing up of their camp baggage, and we turned to our own affairs.
As the Dandy's new yard was not furnished yet with a draughting lane and
branding pens, the mixed cattle were to be taken to the Bitter Springs
yard; and by the time Jack had been seen off with them and our own camp
packed up, the drovers had become so involved in baggage that Dan and the
Dandy felt obliged to offer assistance. Finally every one was ready to
mount, and then we and the drovers exchanged polite farewells and parted,
seller and buyer each confident that he knew more about the cash for that
cheque than the other. No doubt the day came when those drovers ceased
to marvel at the Maluka's simple trust.
The drovers rode away to the north-west, and as we set out to the
south-east, Dan turned his back on "them little darlings" with a sigh of
relief. "Reckon that money's been earned, anyway," he said. Then, as
Jackeroo was the only available "boy," the others all being on before
with the cattle, we gathered together our immense team of horses and
drove them out of camp. In open order we jogged along across country,
with Jackeroo riding ahead as pilot, followed by the jangling, straggling
team of pack- and loose horses, while behind the team rode the white folk
all abreast, with six or eight dogs trotting along behind again. For a
couple of hours we jogged along in the tracks of Jack's cattle, without
coming up with them, then, just as we sighted the great rumbling mob, a
smaller mob appeared on our right.
"Run 'em into the mob," Dan shouted; and at his shout every man and horse
leapt forward - pack-horses and all - and went after them in pell-mell
disorder.
"Scrub bulls! Keep behind them!" Dan yelled giving directions as we
stampeded at his heels (it is not all advantage for musterers to ride
with the pack-team) then as we and they galloped straight for Jack's mob
every one yelled in warning: "Hi! look out there! Bulls! Look out,"
until Dan's revolver rang out above the din.
Jack turned at the shot and saw the bulls, but too late. Right through
his mob they galloped, splitting it up into fragments, and in a moment
pack-horses, cattle, riders, bulls, were part of a surging, galloping
mass - boys galloping after bulls, and bulls after boys, and the white
folk after anything and everything, peppering bulls with revolver-shots
(stock-whip having no effect), shouting orders, and striving their utmost
to hold the mob; pack and loose horses galloping and kicking as they
freed themselves from the hubbub; and the missus scurrying here and there
on the outskirts of the melee, dodging behind bushes and scrub in her
anxiety to avoid both bulls and revolver-shots. Ennui forsooth! Never
was a woman farther from death by ennui.
Finally the horses gathered themselves together in the friendly shelter
of some scrub, and as the woman sought safety among them, the Maluka's
rifle rang out, and a charging bull went down before it. Then out of the
thick of the uproar Sambo came full gallop, with a bull at his horse's
heels, and Dan full gallop behind the bull, bringing his rifle to his
shoulder as he galloped, and as all three galloped madly on Dan fired, and
the bull pitching blindly forward, Sambo wheeled, and he and Dan galloped
back to the mob to meet another charging outlaw and deal with it.
Then in quick succession from all sides of the mob bulls darted out with
riders at THEIR heels, or riders shot forward with bulls at their heels,
until the mob looked like a great spoked wheel revolving on its own axis.
Bull after bull went down before the rifles, old Roper, with the Maluka
riding him, standing like a rock under fire; and then, just as the mob
was quieting down, a wild scrub cow with a half-grown calf at her heels
shot out of the mob and headed straight for the pack team, Dan galloping
beside her and cracking thunderclaps out of a stock-whip. Flash and I
scuttled to shelter, and Dan, bending the cow back to the mob, shouted as
he passed by, at full gallop: "Here you are, missus; thought you might
like a drop of milk."
For another five minutes the mob was "held" to steady them a bit before
starting, and then, just as all seemed in order, one of the prostrate
bulls staggered to its feet - anything but dead; and as a yell went up
"Look out, boss! look out!" Roper sprang forward in obedience to the
spurs, just too late to miss a sudden, mad lunge from the wounded outlaw,
and the next moment the bull was down with a few more shots in him, and
Roper was receiving a tribute that only he could command.
With that surging mob of cattle beside them, the Maluka and Dan had
dismounted, and were trying to staunch the flow of blood, while black
boys gathered round, and Jack and the Dandy, satisfied that the injuries
were not "too serious," were leaning over from their saddles
congratulating the old horse on having "got off so easy." The wound
fortunately, was in the thigh, and just a clean deep punch for, as by a
miracle, the bull's horn had missed all tendons and as the old campaigner
was led away for treatmen he disdained even to limp, and was well within
a fortnight.
