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"It's a girl at the station, you fool," he said. "The youngster said " "Silence!" Slaughter shouted, as he advanced a step into the hut and faced the black-browed man, with the gleam in his eyes which had held the men of Birralong back, and his fists clenched. "You bandy her name, and " "Well, what then?" Barber interrupted.
An occasional job of repairing some farming implement necessitated the blowing up of the forge and the swinging of the anvil hammers, the sounds of which, mingling with those of the buzz-saws, would have led a chance visitor to regard Birralong as a thriving, busy centre.
He set off as he spoke, and Peters looked round at Gleeson. "It's an improvement on Walker," he said. "What do you say, Tony?" "I'm on," Tony answered. "Then it's good enough," Gleeson replied; and the three followed after Palmer Billy up the rise. It was a ride of ten miles from Birralong township to Barellan, and from the Murray's selection another two miles had to be added.
He had always seemed to understand her, for he had never talked as some of the others had, particularly those who had suddenly made up their minds to leave Birralong, and for that reason alone she was satisfied with him. But there came a time when this sense of satisfaction was disturbed.
Behind the main building was another, which served as a store for the produce obtained either by purchase or in payment for outstanding "tallies" of goods supplied, a small annexe to the main building giving sleeping accommodation to Marmot, who, being a man of frugal habits and simple mind, "ran the store on his own," as they said in Birralong.
But in Birralong, as in other parts of the world, it was the unexpected that happened. The township one day was profoundly moved by the information, which passed with the rapidity which is only possible for gossip in a small community, that the schoolmaster had been struck down and lay dying.
Mother wants you to come to the Flat, and every one in Birralong " "I promised before " and her lip quivered for a moment "to come to Mrs. Dickson. She asked me. I don't want to offend any one, but she is so kind to me, and she's blind too, poor creature, and all alone."
Over the whole distance between the school-house and the solitary Three-mile he walked on, brooding and bitter. The action of the woman who turned from him when she first saw him after her arrival at Birralong, came to be viewed in a less charitable light than it was when he spoke of it to Ailleen.
"It ought to be, unless Birralong has changed," Tony answered, with a short laugh. "Now, suppose we give the Rest a chance?" Marmot looked round and smiled. Then he went to the back door, closed and bolted it, and came on to the verandah where they were, closing and locking the door after him, and suspending on a nail a notice-board, always ready, and bearing the legend, "Gone to Rest."
He told the others they could stay, if they liked, but he was off to give the festivities at Birralong the benefit of his vocal art. Peters and Tony fell in with the proposal, and started off without giving Walker time to get ahead of them and warn Gleeson to keep out of sight.
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