“I believe you,” I said, thinking of our ride yesterday. “It’s quite bad enough to follow him on level ground. But don’t you think our tracks will be easy to follow with a thousand head of cattle before us? Any fool could do that.”

“It ain’t that as I’m looking at,” said father; “of course an old woman could do it, and knit stockings all the time; but our dart is to be off and have a month’s start before anybody knows they are off the run. They won’t think of mustering before fat cattle takes a bit of a turn. That won’t be for a couple of months yet. Then they may catch us if they can.”

We had a long talk with Starlight, and what he said came to much the same. One stockman they had “squared,” and he was to stand in. They had got two or three flash chaps to help muster and drive, who were to swear they thought we were dealers, and had bought cattle all right. One or two more were to meet us farther on. If we could get the cattle together and clear off before anything was suspected the rest was easy. The yard was nearly up, and Jim and I wired in and soon finished it. It didn’t want very grand work putting into it as long as it would last our time. So we put it up roughly, but pretty strong, with pine saplings. The drawing in was the worst, for we had to “hump” the most of them ourselves. Jim couldn’t help bursting out laughing from time to time.

“It does seem such a jolly cheeky thing,” he said. “Driving off a mob of cattle on the quiet I’ve known happen once or twice; but I’m dashed if ever I heard tell of putting up duffing improvements of a superior class on a cove’s run and clearing off with a thousand drafted cattle, all quiet and regular, and him pottering about his home-station and never ‘dropping’ to it no more than if he was in Sydney.”

“People ought to look after their stock closer than they do,” I said. “It is their fault almost as much as ours. But they are too lazy to look after their own work, and too miserable to pay a good man to do it for them. They just get a half-and-half sort of fellow that’ll take low wages and make it up with duffing, and of course he’s not likely to look very sharp after the back country.”