"What does he want comin' round?" said a man with eyes in which madness showed.
"Did ye come down on the cars?" asked Mike again.
"No—I didn't come down with cattle. I can't tell them that so as to get on."
"There you are then!" cried he of the mad eyes, and walked away.
Mike looked frowningly at the young man.
"Well, young feller," he said, "you've no cause for worry. It doesn't matter whether ye came down in the cattle cars or not. That hat of yours will get ye the first chance."
Some of them laughed, and he turned and looked scathingly at them, but did not deign to explain that he was serious. Cockney, who had understood the significance of Mike's words, if he did not now come over exactly as ally to the newcomer, at least withdrew from his position as a possible enemy.
"That's right!" he declared. "That's the kind of 'at the fellers wear up there w'ere the cattle comes from. You hask thirty shillings. You know about cattle any'ow wiv that 'at. They'll bring yer down to a quid. Well, that's all right, ain't it? Good luck."
The others seemed to see the justice of this. Mike hitched his belt and regained his position as Bull of that herd by saying: "Pay no attintion to thim——"
"To me?" yelled Cockney, breaking in.