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He was angry at the non-arrival of his draymen and the probability that they were drinking at a grog-shanty on the road. He would certainly sack them, he said if that were the case. And he had disquieting news from Moongarr. Pleuro had broken out among the cattle. What was Pleuro? Lady Bridget wondered, but she was not sufficiently interested in cattle to ask the question.
The noise of the cattle became much louder, though the mob was not yet in sight. 'I wish I hadn't got to go off before the branding, he said. 'These Breeza Downs people always want to claim every cleanskin*. You might tell Ninnis and Moongarr Bill, Biddy, to keep a sharp look-out.
Creepers festooned the rocky ledges and crevices. Here and there, a young sapling slanted forward to greet the morning sun when it should rise behind the hummock. Moongarr Bill had undone the pack-bags and was building a fire between two large stones. The flames leaped up, the dead twigs crackled.
'I don't think you need have said that, Bridget, and he went slowly down the steps, and out of her sight like a man who has received a mortal hurt. If purgatory could hold worse torture than life held on that last evening Lady Bridget spent at Moongarr, then neither she nor her husband would have been required to do any long expiation there.
Blood-poisoning was the next thing; and when I came out of that hospital I was more like the used up bit of soap you'll see by the COOLIBAH* outside a shepherd's hut on ration-bringing day, than anything else I can think of. As soon as I could sit a horse again I went to work at Moongarr. I had found things there at a pretty pass.
You've got to have 'em though for stock boys, and I keep my heel on the lot at Moongarr. Wombo and Cudgee aren't bad chaps so long as they are kept clear of their tribe. How do you like the new buggy, my lady? A dandy go-cart, eh? He looked as pleased as a child with a new toy carriage.
She also told Moongarr Bill that in England she had seen a dowser searching for hidden springs by means of a forked hazel twig carried in front of him which pointed downwards where there was water and asked why Australians didn't adopt a similar method. At which Moongarr Bill laughed derisively, and said he did not hold with any such hanky-panky. 'Bad luck, Biddy, McKeith said behind her.
As she stood by the rocks at the creek edge, she heard her husband speaking to Moongarr Bill, who seemed to be walking down along the sandy bed. 'Horses all right, Bill? 'Oh, ay just a possum up a tree gev Julius Caesar a start.... Been digging a decent bath-hole for the ladyship in the morning, boss. There's plenty there. 'I wish it was as near the surface at Moongarr, Bill.
Bridget once hinted to me that you might have your own reasons for desiring your freedom. She would give no grounds for the suspicion that there is any other woman in your life. I do not think anything would make me credit such a thing and I put that notion entirely out of court. I do not know as your letter was dated from Leichardt's Town whether you still live at Moongarr.
Lady Bridget watched the evening meal being prepared between the two fires only watched, for she was sternly forbidden to set hand to it. 'No canned goods, nor cooked food, McKeith said, were allowed at this lay-out. Moongarr Bill was first-class at frying steak.
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