I got to Bates’s paddocks about daylight, and went straight up to the hut where the man lived that looked after it. Most of the diggers that cared about their horses paid for their grass in farmers’ and squatters’ paddocks, though the price was pretty high. Old Bates, who had a bit of a good grassed flat, made a pretty fair thing out of it by taking in horses at half-a-crown a week apiece. As luck would have it, the man in charge knew me; he’d seen me out with the Yankees one day, and saw I was a friend with them, and when I said I’d come for Bill’s sorrel he thought it likely enough, and got out the saddle and bridle. I tipped him well, and went off, telling him I was going to Wattle Flat to look at a quartz-crushing plant that was for sale. I accounted for coming up so early by saying I’d lost my road, and that I wanted to get to Wattle Flat sharp, as another chap wished to buy the plant. I cut across the range, kept the sun on my right hand, and pushed on for Jonathan’s. I got there early, and it’s well I did. I rode the sorrel hard, but I knew he was pretty tough, and I was able to pay for him if I killed him. I trusted to leaving him at Jonathan’s, and getting a fresh horse there. What with the walk over the bluff and the forest, having no sleep the night before, and the bother and trouble of it all, I was pretty well used up. I was real glad to see Jonathan’s paddock fence and the old house we’d thought so little of lately. It’s wonderful how soon people rise grand notions and begin to get too big for their boots.

“Hello, Dick, what’s up?” says Jonathan. “No swag, ‘lastic-side boots, flyaway tie, new rifle, old horse; looks a bit fishy, don’t it?”

“I can’t stop barneying,” I said. “Have you a decent horse to give me? The game’s up. I must ride night and day till I get home. Heard anything?”

“No; but Billy the Boy’s just rode up. I hear him a-talkin’ to the gals. He knows if anybody does. I’ll take the old moke and put him in the paddock. I can let you have a stunner.”

“All right; I’ll go in and have some breakfast. It’s as much as I dare stop at all now.”

“Why, Dick Marston, is that you? No, it can’t be,” said both girls together. “Why, you look like a ghost. He doesn’t; he looks as if he’d been at a ball all night. Plenty of partners, Dick?”