Dead Man's Land Part 18

The man shrugged his shoulders, and made a comprehensive sign which included the four little animals.

"Yes, I see that," said Mark, "but what do you want here?"

The man shook his head sadly, and the boys saw that he was very yellow, as if dried in the sun, and had a particularly thin and peculiar face, with two long, pendant, yellowish moustachios which reached far beneath his chin. His beard was closely clipped, and they noted that he held a pair of small scissors, and as he drew back one of his twisted moustachios, he was occupied the while carefully snipping off the greyish stubble that just showed slightly upon his chin.

"But how did you come here?" asked Mark.

"Walked," said the man sadly.

"When?"

"Last--night," sighed the stranger, uttering the first word in quite a high-pitched tone, the second sounding almost like a groan.

He was very shabbily dressed--just an old flannel shirt and a pair of fustian trousers, while his head was covered by one of the regular, broad-brimmed, flop felt hats so common amongst Englishmen for protection from the sun.

"Well, you are a cheerful looking gentleman," thought Mark, and he had hard work on meeting his cousin's eye to keep from bursting into a fit of laughter. Then a sudden thought struck him.

"When did you say you came here?"

"Last--night?"

"What time?"

"No watch," said the man. "Quite dark."

"But what did you come for?"

The man pointed to the ponies, and Mark gazed at his cousin and whispered, "I say, I think I have seen this fellow before."

"Hanging about that dealer's yard?"

"Yes."

"I am sure I did," whispered Dean, as the man turned from them to check the wandering of another of the ponies.

"Dean," said Mark, "I have got an idea."

"Let's have it."

"That chap has come to steal our ponies."

"Bother!" cried Dean contemptuously. "When did you say you came?"

"Last--night," said the man.

"Here, I say, you, sir," cried Mark. "Did you say you came here last night to look after our ponies?"

"Yes," said the man, and they saw that he was working with his left hand now, snipping at the stubbly beard with the scissors, while with the other he held his moustache back to keep it from being cut.

"Look here," said Mark; "was it you who came close up to me in the dark when I was on the watch?"

"Yes," said the man sadly. "Thought you was asleep."

"It was lucky for you that I did not shoot you."

"Yes," said the man dismally, as he slowly took off his hat and poked one long thin finger through a hole that the boys had not previously noticed, shook his head at it sadly, put his hat on again, and went on snipping as before.

"There, Dean! Now, then, was it a false alarm?"

"Well, no; but I should never have taken this chap for a lion," replied his cousin. "Here, I say, you, sir, why do you speak as if you were sorry that my cousin did not hit you?"

"Wasn't," said the man, mournfully snipping away.

"Well, what do you want?"

"Breakfast," said the man. "Had none since you come away."

"That's cool," said Mark, as he looked at the man suspiciously. "Oh, here come Buck Denham and Dan. They have smelt that something's wrong about the ponies. Here," he continued, turning to the two fresh arrivals, "what are you two laughing at?"

"At 'im, sir," whispered Dan, as the oddity moved away after a pony.

"Yes, he's rather a rum 'un to look at, gen'lemen," said Buck, in the same low tone. "I have seen him before. Sort of hang-about as has to do with him as sold you those ponies. I think he's a bit touched in his head--dotty, you know."

"That's what I think too, gentlemen," whispered Dan. "I have been to 'Stralia--Sydney, you know, where chaps go out shepherding and don't see anything but the woolly ones sometimes for three months together, and I have heard as some of them quite goes off their heads, miserable and lonely like, for they have n.o.body to talk to but the sheep."

"But this isn't Australia," said Mark.

"And this fellow hasn't been with sheep," added Dean, "but ponies."

"No, sir," said Dan; "but horses do just as well."

"That they wouldn't," cried Mark. "A man who had horses with him could make companions of them."

"Yes," cried Dean, "and have a good long ride every now and then."

"To be sure," added Mark. "A man who had a horse or a dog for companion could not go off his head. Look at Robinson Crusoe; he was jolly enough with a poll parrot."

"Oh, yes, sir; but then a poll parrot could talk."

"Yes, but he had to teach it first," said Dean.

"Yes, sir," said Dan, "but you couldn't teach a sheep. Why, if you had one of them for years you would never get anything out of him but Baa!"

"Bah, then, to what you are saying," cried Mark. "Here, I say, you, sir," he cried, looking in an amused way at their visitor, who had finished his clipping, pocketed his scissors, and had taken hold of his moustachios as if they were reins and stroked them down with a twist, looking dolefully at those about him the while; "I'll answer for it that we give you some breakfast, and then you had better be off."

The man shook his head.

"Eh? What do you mean by that?" said Mark.