He rode straight away to the German’s hut, which was on the northwestern extremity of his further paddock in that direction.  From thence the western fence ran in a southerly direction, nearly straight to the river.  Beyond the fence was a strip of land, in some parts over a mile broad, in others not much over a quarter of a mile, which he claimed as belonging to Gangoil, but over which the Brownbies had driven their cattle since the fence had been made, under the pretense that the fence marked the boundary of two runs.  Against this assumption Heathcote had remonstrated frequently, had driven the cattle back, and had exercised the ownership of a Crown tenant in such fashion as the nature of his occupation allowed.  Beyond this strip was Boolabong; the house at Boolabong being not above three miles distant from the fence, and not above four miles from the German’s hut.  So that the Brownbies were in truth much nearer neighbors to the German than was Heathcote and his family.  But between the German and the Brownbies there raged an internecine feud.  No doubt Harry Heathcote, in his heart, liked the German all the better on this account; but it behooved him both as a master and a magistrate to regard reports against Boolabong coming from the German with something of suspicion.  Now Jacko had been introduced to Gangoil under German auspices, and had soon come to a decision that it would be a good thing and a just to lock up all the Brownbies in the great jail of the colony at Brisbane.  He probably knew nothing of law or justice in the abstract, but he greatly valued law when exercised against those he hated.  The western fence of which mention has been made ran down to the Mary River, hitting it about four miles west of Medlicot’s Mill; so that there was a considerable portion of the Gangoil run having a frontage to the water.  As has been before said, Medlicot’s plantation was about fourteen miles distant from the house at Boolabong, and the distance from the Gangoil house to that of the Brownbies was about the same.

The oppressiveness of the day was owing more to the hot wind than to the sun itself.  This wind, coming from the arid plains of the interior, brought with it a dry, suffocating heat.  On this occasion it was odious to Harry Heathcote, not so much on account of its own intrinsic abominations, as because it might cause a fire to sweep across his run from its western boundary.  Just beyond the boundary there lay Boolabong, and there were collected his enemies.  A fire that should have passed for a mile or so across the pastures outside and beyond his own farm would be altogether unextinguishable by the time that it had reached his paddock.  The Brownbies, as he knew well, would care nothing for burning a patch of their own grass.  Their stock, if they had any at the present moment, were much too few in number to be affected by such a loss.  The Brownbies had not a yard of fencing to be burned; and a fire, if once it got a hold on the edge of their run, would