We of the Never-Never Part 3

CHAPTER IV

The swim being beyond the horses, they were left hobbled out on the north banks, to wait for the river to fall, and after another swift race down and across stream, Mine Host landed every one safely on the south side of the flood, and soon we were clambering up the steep track that led from the river to the "Pub."

Coming up from the river, the Katherine Settlement appeared to consist solely of the "Pub" and its accompanying store; but beyond the "Pub,"

which, by the way, seemed to be hanging on to its own verandah posts for support, we found an elongated, three-roomed building, nestling under deep verandahs, and half-hidden beneath a grove of lofty scarlet flowering ponchianas.

"The Cottage is always set apart for distinguished visitors," Mine Host said, bidding us welcome with another smile, but never a hint that he was placing his own private quarters at our disposal. Like all bushmen, he could be delicately reticent when conferring a favour; but a forgotten razor-strop betrayed him later on.

In the meantime we discovered the remainder of the Settlement from the Cottage verandahs, spying out the Police Station as it lurked in ambush just round the first bend in a winding bush track--apparently keeping one eye on the "Pub"; and then we caught a gleam of white roofs away beyond further bends in the track, where the Overland Telegraph "Department" stood on a little rise, aloof from the "Pub" and the Police, shut away from the world, yet attending to its affairs, and, incidentally, to those of the bush-folk: a tiny Settlement, with a tiny permanent population of four men and two women--women who found their own homes all-sufficient, and rarely left them, although the men-folk were here, there, and everywhere.

All around and within the Settlement was bush: and beyond the bush, stretching away and away on every side of it, those hundreds of thousands of square miles that const.i.tute the Never-Never--miles sending out and absorbing again from day to day the floating population of the Katherine.

Before supper the Telegraph Department and the Police Station called on the Cottage to present compliments. Then the Wag came with his welcome.

"Didn't expect you to-day," he drawled, with unmistakable double meaning in his drawl. "You're come sooner than we expected. Must have had luck with the rivers "; and Mac became enthusiastic. "Luck!" he cried. "Luck!

She's got the luck of the Auld Yin himself--skinned through everything by the skin of our teeth. No one else'll get through those rivers under a week." And they didn't.

Remembering the telegrams, the Wag shot a swift quizzing glance at him; but it took more than a glance to disconcert Mac once his mind was made up, and he met it unmoved, and entered into a vivid description of the "pa.s.sage of the Fergusson," which filled in our time until supper.

After supper the Cottage returned the calls, and then, rain coming down in torrents, the Telegraph, the Police, the Cottage and the "Pub" retired to rest, wondering what the morrow would bring forth.

The morrow brought forth more rain, and the certainty that, as the river was still rising, the swim would be beyond the horses for several days yet; and because of this uncertainty, the Katherine bestirred itself to honour its tethered guests.

The Telegraph and the Police Station issued invitations for dinner, and the "Pub" that had already issued a hint that "the boys could refrain from knocking down cheques as long as a woman was staying in the place"

now issued an edict limiting the number of daily drinks per man.

The invitations were accepted with pleasure, and the edict was attended to with a murmur of approval in which, however, there was one dissenting voice: a little bearded bushman "thought the Katherine was overdoing it a bit," and suggested as an amendment that "drunks could make themselves scarce when she's about." But Mine Host easily silenced him by offering to "see what the missus thought about it."

Then for a day the Katherine "took its bearings," and keen, scrutinising glances summed up the Unknown Woman, looking her through and through until she was no longer an Unknown Woman, while the Maluka looked on interested. He knew the bush-folk well, and that their instinct would be unerring, and left the missus to slip into whichever niche in their lives they thought fit to place her. And as she slipped into a niche built up of strong, staunch comradeship, the black community considered that they, too, had fathomed the missus; and it became history in the camp that the Maluka had stolen her from a powerful Chief of the Whites, and, deeming it wise to disappear with her until the affair had blown over, had put many flooded rivers between him and his pursuers. "Would any woman have flung herself across rivers on wires, speeding on without rest or pause, unless afraid of pursuit?" the camp asked in committee, and the most sceptical were silenced.

Then followed other days full of pleasant intercourse; for once sure of its welcome, bushmen are lavish with their friendship. And as we roamed about the tiny Settlement, the Wag and others vied with the Maluka, Mine Host, and Mac in "making things pleasant for the missus": relating experiences for her entertainment; showing all there was to be shown, and obeying the edict with cheerful, unquestioning chivalry.

Neither the Head Stockman nor the little bushman, however, had made any offers of friendship, Dan having gone out to the station immediately after interviewing the Maluka, while the little bushman spent most of his time getting out of the way of the missus whenever she appeared on his horizon.

"A Tam-o-Shanter fleeing from the furies of a too fertile imagination,"

the Maluka laughed after a particularly comical dash to cover.

Poor Tam! Those days must live in his memory like a hideous nightmare!

I, of course, knew nothing of the edict at the time--for bushmen do not advertise their chivalry--and wandered round the straggling Settlement vaguely surprised at its sobriety, and turning up in such unexpected places that the little bushman was constantly on the verge of apoplexy.

But experience teaches quickly. On the first day, after running into me several times, he learned the wisdom of spying out the land before turning a corner. On the second day, after we had come on him while thus engaged several other times, he learned the foolishness of placing too much confidence in corners, and deciding by the law of averages that the bar was the only safe place in the Settlement, availed himself of its sanctuary in times of danger. On the third day he learned that the law of averages is a weak reed to lean on; for on slipping round a corner, and mistaking a warning signal from the Wag, he whisked into the bar to whisk out again with a clatter of hobnailed boots, for I was in there examining some native curios. "She's in THERE next," he gasped as he pa.s.sed the Wag on his way to the cover of the nearest corner.

"Poor Tam!" How he must have hated women as he lurked in the doubtful ambush of that corner.

"HOW he did skoot!" the Wag chuckled later on when recounting with glee, to the Maluka and Mac, the story of Tam's dash for cover.

Pitying Tam, I took his part, and said he seemed a sober, decent little man and couldn't help being shy; then paused, wondering at the queer expression on the men's faces.

Mac coughed in embarra.s.sment, and the Maluka and the Wag seemed pre-occupied, and, fearing I had been misunderstood, I added hastily: "So is everyone in the Settlement, for that matter," thereby causing further embarra.s.sment.

After a short intense silence the Wag "thought he'd be getting along,"

and as he moved off the Maluka laughed. "Oh, missus, missus!" and Mac blurted out the whole tale of the edict--concluding rather ambiguously by saying: "Don't you go thinking it's made any difference to any of us, because it hasn't. We're not saints, but we're not pigs, and, besides, it was a pleasure."

I doubted if it was much pleasure to Tam-o-Shanter; but forgetting he was sober by compulsion, even he had begun to feel virtuous; and when he heard he had been called a "sober, decent little man," he positively swaggered; and on the fourth morning walked jauntily past the Cottage and ventured a quiet good-morning--a simple enough little incident in itself; but it proved Tam's kinship with his fellowmen. For is it not the knowledge that some one thinks well of us that makes us feel at ease in that person's company?

Later in the same day, the flood having fallen, it was decided that it would be well to cross the horses in the rear of a boat, and we were all at the river discussing preparations, when Tam electrified the community by joining the group.

In the awkward pause that followed his arrival he pa.s.sed a general remark about dogs--there were several with us--and every one plunged into dog yarns, until Tam, losing his head over the success of his maiden speech, became so communicative on the subject of a dog-fight that he had to be surrept.i.tiously kicked into silence.

"Looks like more rain," Mac said abruptly, hoping to draw public attention from the pantomime. "Ought to get off as soon as possible, or we'll be blocked at the King."

The Katherine seized on the new topic of conversation, and advised "getting out to the five-mile overnight," declaring it would "take all day to get away from the Settlement in the morning." Then came another awkward pause, while every one kept one eye on Tam, until the Maluka saved the situation by calling for volunteers to help with the horses, and, Tam being pressed into the service, the boat was launched, and he was soon safe over the far side of the river.

Once among the horses, the little man was transformed. In the quiet, confident horseman that rode down the gorge a few minutes later it would have been difficult to recognise the shy, timid bushman. The saddle had given him backbone, and it soon appeared he was right-hand man, and, at times, even organiser in the difficult task of crossing horses through a deep, swift-running current.

As the flood was three or four hundred yards wide and many feet deep, a swim was impossible without help, and every horse was to be supported or guided, or dragged over in the rear of the boat, with a halter held by a man in the stern.

It was no child's play. Every inch of the way had its difficulties. The poor brutes knew the swim was beyond them; and as the boat, pulling steadily on, dragged them from the shallows into the deeper water, they plunged and snorted in fear, until they found themselves swimming, and were obliged to give all their attention to keeping themselves afloat.

Some required little a.s.sistance when once off their feet; just a slow, steady pull from the oars, and a taut enough halter to lean on in the tight places. But others rolled over like logs when the full force of the current struck them, threatening to drag the boat under, as it and the horse raced away down stream with the oarsmen straining their utmost.

It was hard enough work for the oarsmen; but the seat of honour was in the stern of the boat, and no man filled it better than the transformed Tam. Alert and full of resource, with one hand on the tiller, he leaned over the boat, lengthening or shortening rope for the halter, and regulating the speed of the oarsmen with unerring judgment; giving a staunch swimmer time and a short rope to lean on, or literally dragging the faint-hearted across at full speed; careful then only of one thing: to keep the head above water. Never again would I judge a man by one of his failings.

There were ten horses in all to cross, and at the end of two hours' hard pulling there was only one left to come--old Roper.

Mac took the halter into his own hands there was no one else worthy-- and, slipping into the stern of the boat, spoke first to the horse and then to the oarsmen; and as the boat glided forward, the n.o.ble, trusting old horse--confident that his long-tried human friend would set him no impossible task--came quietly through the shallows, sniffing questions at the half-submerged bushes.

"Give him time!" Mac called. "Let him think it out," as step by step Roper followed, the halter running slack on the water. When almost out of his depth, he paused just a moment, then, obeying the tightening rope, lifted himself to the flood and struck firmly and bravely out.

Staunchly he and Mac dealt with the current: taking time and approaching it quietly, meeting it with taut rope and unflinching nerve, drifting for a few breaths to judge its force; then, nothing daunted, they battled forward, stroke after stroke, and won across without once pulling the boat out of its course.

Only Roper could have done it; and when the splendid neck and shoulders appeared above water as he touched bottom, on the submerged track, he was greeted with a cheer and a hearty, unanimous "Bravo! old chap!" Then Mac returned thanks with a grateful look, and, leaping ash.o.r.e, looked over the beautiful, wet, shining limbs, declaring he could have "done it on his own," if required.

Once a.s.sured that we were anxious for a start, the Katherine set about speeding the parting guests with gifts of farewell. The Wag brought fresh tomatoes and a cuc.u.mber; the Telegraph sent eggs; the Police a freshly baked cake; the Chinese cook baked bread, and Mine Host came with a few potatoes and a flat-iron. To the surprise of the Katherine, I received the potatoes without enthusiasm, not having been long enough in the Territory to know their rare value, and, besides, I was puzzling over the flat iron.

"What's it for?" I asked, and the Wag shouted in mock amazement: "For!

To iron duds with, of course," as Mine Host a.s.sured us it was of no use to him beyond keeping a door open.

Still puzzled, I said I thought there would not be any need to iron duds until we reached the homestead, and the Maluka said quietly: "It's FOR the homestead. There will be nothing like that there."

Mac exploded with an impetuous "Good Heavens! What does she expect? First pillows and now irons!"

Gradually realising that down South we have little idea of what "rough"

means to a bushman, I had from day to day been modifying my ideas of a station home from a mansion to a commodious wooden cottage, plainly but comfortably furnished. The Cottage had confirmed this idea, but Mac soon settled the question beyond all doubt.

"Look here!" he said emphatically. "Before she leaves this place she'll just have to grasp things a bit better," and sitting down on a swag he talked rapidly for ten minutes, taking a queer delight in making everything sound as bad as possible, "knocking the stiffening out of the missus," as he phrased it, and certainly bringing the "commodious station home" about her ears, which was just as well, perhaps.