A letter, from the foreman of the telegraphic repairing line
party, asking for a mob of killers, and fixing a date for its delivery to
one "Happy Dick."
"Spoke just in the nick of time," Dan said; but as we discussed plans
Cheon hinted darkly that the Maluka was not a fit and proper person to be
entrusted with the care of a woman, and suggested that he should
undertake to treat the missus as she should be treated, while the Maluka
attended to the cattle.
Fate, however, interfered to keep the missus at the homestead, to
persuade Cheon that, after all, the Maluka was a fit and proper person to
have the care of a woman, and to find a very present use for the house;
an influenza sore-throat breaking out in the camp, the missus developed
it, and Dan went out alone to find the Quiet Stockman and the "killers"
for Happy Dick.
CHAPTER XV
Before a week was out the Maluka and Cheon had won each other's undying
regard because of their treatment of the missus.
With the nearest doctor three hundred miles away in Darwin, and held
there by hospital routine, the Maluka decided on bed and feeding-up as
the safest course, and Cheon came out in a new character.
As medical adviser and reader-aloud to the patient, the Maluka was
supposed to have his hands full, and Cheon, usurping the position of
sick-nurse, sent everything, excepting the nursing, to the wall.
Rice-water, chicken-jelly, barley-water, egg-flips, beef-tea junket, and
every invalid food he had ever heard of, were prepared, and, with the
Maluka to back him up, forced on the missus; and when food was not being
administered, the pillow was being shaken or the bedclothes straightened.
(The mattress being still on the ends of cows' tails, a folded rug served
in its place). There was very little wrong with the patient, but the
wonder was she did not become really ill through over-eating and want of
rest.
I pleaded with the Maluka, but the Maluka pleading for just a little more
rest and feeding-up, while Cheon gulped and choked in the background, I
gave in, and eating everything as it was offered, snatched what rest I
could, getting as much entertainment as possible out of Cheon and the
staff in between times.
For three days I lay obediently patient, and each day Cheon grew more
affectionate, patting my hands at times, as he confided to the Maluka
that although he admired big, moon-faced women as a feast for the eyes,
he liked them small and docile when he had to deal personally with them.
Until I met Cheon I thought the Chinese incapable of affection; but many
lessons are learned out bush.
Travellers - house-visitors - coming in on the fourth day, I hoped for a
speedy release, but visitors were considered fatiguing, and release was
promised as soon as they were gone.
