I asked him why when first he heard me approaching he sprang for his gun, before looking to see who it was?
“Oh,” he laughed, “I thought it was a kangaroo, and if I had waited to see him, before getting the gun, he would have been out of range before I got a shot at him. My mates were after kangaroos this morning.”
The day passed quickly in pleasant chat, and just about sundown the three horsemen returned from their search for the lost man. They had found his body beside the creek where I had filled my billy in the morning. The poor fellow had apparently found the water and in his delirium had thrown himself down beside it, and must then have been bitten by a snake, for when they found him his body was much swollen and going bluish. The three friends had at once dug a hole just below the surface, and buried the body, and had then cut a large cross on one of the gum trees to mark the spot, then, continuing their search for the body of the other poor fellow, had buried it in the same way.
Poor fellows! Theirs was a sad end. Only a few days ago they were on board their ship, no doubt full of health and strength, but a restless roving spirit had led them like myself to desert their vessel, and now they were sleeping their last long sleep in the lone Australian bush, and I had only narrowly escaped a like fate.
I stayed with my new friends for two weeks, and it was a happy restful time. They were employed splitting rails and fence posts, and making trunnels for shipbuilders, and they had more orders than they could execute. They only worked four days a week. I was very surprised at this, and said so.
“My friend,” said Frank, “in this country we work to live, as you will soon find, not live to work, and we find that four days hard work per week will supply us with all we need. Then we have two days to improve ourselves in learning, hunting, fishing, trading, visiting, etc., and on Sunday we lie back and rest, and if we have a visitor like you, we talk about other lands, and the Homeland, which none of us have seen yet, but hope to, as we are all natives of New South Wales.”
During my stay with them, I learnt much that was useful to me afterwards, such as cutting rails and felling large trees. At other times I would help in splicing ropes and making traces for the bullock teams that took the rails and trunnels to the Lake McQuarrie for shipment to Sidney and Newcastle.
At the end of my pleasant stay, Frank took me over to the house of Mr. Williams, at Belmont, on the banks of the lake, who was in want of a man to look after a sailing yacht and several rowing boats, to teach his children swimming, and to make himself generally useful. He at once engaged me, and I felt that the place would suit me very well until I had become thoroughly acquainted with that part of the country.