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A few days later he received an official letter from the bank, signed 'C. Aubrey Denison, Manager, expressing surprise at his desire to give up the control of a concern that was 'bound to pay, and for the management of which the bank had rejected twenty-three other applications in his favour, and suggesting that, as the poultry were not thriving, he might skin the carcases of such cattle as died in the future, and send the hides to Cooktown 'for every hide the bank will allow you 2s. 6d. nett. With the official letter was a private communication from the Elder Brother telling him not to be disheartened so quickly the place was sure to pay as soon as the drought broke up; also that as the river water was bad, and tea made from it was not good for anyone with fever, he was sending up a dozen of whisky by the mailman next week.

You had better go with that." "How soon does the coach start?" "In an hour or two. As soon as Pat Donohoe, the mailman, has got a horse shod. Come in and have a wash, and fix yourself up till breakfast is ready Where's your bag?" "My luggage is at the railway-station." "I'll send Dan over for it. Dan, Dan, Dan!"

Sophia Jameson, one of Charlie Reynolds' old flames, was there. Charlie had sold his car and given away his wardrobe, but he still managed to look good in a utilitarian white coverall. "Well, we had a lot of laughs, anyway, you big ape!" Sophia was saying to Charlie, when Roy Harder, the mailman with broken-down feet, shuffled up, puffing. "One for you, Reynolds," he said.

The gully crossing lay below the boulders of rock at the head of the lagoon. Presently, two horsemen appeared on the rise. One was McKeith; the other Harry the Mailman otherwise the Blower a foxy, browny-red little man on a raw-boned chestnut, carrying his mail-bags strapped in front and at the side of his saddle. Lady Bridget supposed they had met at the turn-off track just above the crossing.

I've run my pen over a good many sheets, and it has been a kind of relief I began writing this about three weeks ago. Harry the Blower that's the mailman comes only once a month now, and not on time at that. I suppose the drought will break sooner or later, and when it breaks, the Bank is certain to send up and take possession of what's left. So I'm a ruined man, any way.

But already the Fizzer's shoulders were setting square, for the last trip of the "dry" was before him the trip that perished the last mailman and his horses were none too good. "Good luck!" we called after him.

The first batch of travellers had little news for us. They had heard that the teams were loading up, and couldn't say for certain, and, finding them unsatisfactory, we looked forward to the coming of the "Fizzer," our mailman, who was almost due. Eight mails a year was our allowance, with an extra one now and then through the courtesy of travellers.

The mailman reported that the district was now in a state of great commotion, and the strikers, gathering silently in armed force, prepared to defend their rights against a number of free labourers whom the sheep-owners were importing from the South. The men who had killed McKeith's horses were, according to the mailman, entrenched in the Range, awaiting developments.

I was in the habit of contributing to some Sydney papers, and every man is an editor at heart, so, at other times, Mitchell would take another evening off, and root out my swag, and go through my papers in the same methodical manner, and make alterations and additions without comment or reference to me; and sometimes he'd read a little thing of my own which didn't meet his views, and accidentally drop it into the fire; and at other times he'd get hold of some rhyme or sketch that was troubling me, and wrap it up and give it to a passing mailman unbeknown to me.

While awaiting with considerable anxiety the arrival of the mailman, Denison passed the time in killing tiger-snakes, cremating the dead cattle around the place, bathing in the only pool in the river safe from alligators, and meditating upon the advantages of a berth ashore. The mailman, to whom he expressed these sentiments, told him to cheer up.