“But there are others as bad as he left behind.
I wouldn’t trust that fellow Boscobel a yard.”
“He won’t stir, Sir. He belongs to
this country, and does not want to leave it.
And when a thing has been tried like that and has failed,
the fellows don’t try it again. They are
cowed like by their own failure. I don’t
think you need fear fire from the Boolabong side again
this summer.”
After this the sergeant and his man discreetly allowed
themselves to be put to bed in the back cottage; for
in truth, when they arrived, things had come to such
a pass at Gangoil that the two additional visitors
were hardly welcome. But hospitality in the bush
can be stayed by no such considerations as that.
Let their employments or enjoyments on hand be what
they may, every thing must yield to the entertainment
of strangers. The two constables were in want
of their Christmas dinner, and it was given to them
with no grudging hand.
As to Nokes, we may say that he has never since appeared
in the neighborhood of Gangoil, and that none thereabouts
ever knew what was his fate. Men such as he wander
away from one colony into the next, passing from one
station to another, or sleeping on the ground, till
they become as desolate and savage as solitary animals.
And at last they die in the bush, creeping, we may
suppose, into hidden nooks, as the beasts do when
the hour of death comes on them.
Conclusion.
The constables had started from Gangoil, on their
way to Boolabong, a little after four, and from that
time till he was made to get out of bed for his dinner
Harry Heathcote was allowed to sleep. He had
richly earned his rest by his work, and he lay motionless,
without a sound, in the broad daylight, with his arm
under his head, dreaming, no doubt, of some happy
squatting land, in which there were no free-selectors,
no fires, no rebellious servants, no floods, no droughts,
no wild dogs to worry the lambs, no grass seeds to
get into the fleeces, and in which the price of wool
stood steady at two shillings and sixpence a pound.
His wife from time to time came into the room, shading
the light from his eyes, protecting him from the flies,
and administering in her soft way to what she thought
might be his comforts. His sleep was of the kind
which no light, nor even flies, can interrupt.
Once or twice she stooped down and kissed his brow,
but he was altogether unconscious of her caress.
During this time old Mrs. Medlicot arrived; but her
coming did not awake the sleeper, though it was by
no means made in silence. The old woman sobbed
and cried over her son, at the same time expressing
her thankfulness that he should have turned up in
the forest so exactly at the proper moment, evidently
taking part in the conviction that her Giles had saved
Gangoil and all its sheep. And then there were
all the necessary arrangements to be made for the night,
in accordance with which almost every body had to
give up his or her bed and sleep somewhere else.
But nothing disturbed Harry. For the present
he was allowed to occupy his own room, and he enjoyed
the privilege.
