“Stock horses all flash,” the Sanguine Scot said, and then went out and apologised to an old bay horse. “We had to settle her hash somehow, Roper, old chap,” he said, stroking the beautiful neck, adding tenderly as the grand old head nosed into him: “You silly old fool! You’d carry her like a lamb if I let you.”
Then the Măluka’s reply came, and Mac whistled in amazement. “By George!” he said to those near him, “she is a goer, a regular goer”; and after much careful thought wired an inane suggestion about waiting until after the Wet.
Darwin laughed outright, and an emphatic: “Wife determined, coming Tuesday’s train,” from the Măluka was followed by a complete breakdown at the Katherine.
Then Darwin came in twos and threes to discuss the situation, and while the men offered every form of service and encouragement, the women-folk spoke of a woman “going bush” as “sheer madness.” “Besides, no woman travels during the Wet,” they said, and the Măluka “hoped she would prove the exception.”
“But she’ll be bored to death if she does reach the homestead alive,” they prophesied; and I told them they were not very complimentary to the Măluka.
“You don’t understand,” they hastened to explain. “He’ll be camping out most of his time, miles away from the homestead,” and I said, “So will I.”
“So you think,” they corrected. “But you’ll find that a woman alone in a camp of men is decidedly out of place”; and I felt severely snubbed.
The Măluka suggested that he might yet succeed in persuading some suitable woman to come out with us, as maid or companion; but the opposition, wagging wise heads, pursed incredulous lips, as it declared that “no one but a fool would go out there for either love or money.” A prophecy that came true, for eventually we went “bush” womanless.
The Măluka’s eyes twinkled as he listened. “Does the cap fit, little ’un?” he asked; but the women-folk told him that it was not a matter for joking.
“Do you know there is not another white woman within a hundred-mile radius?” they asked; and the Măluka pointed out that it was not all disadvantage for a woman to be alone in a world of men. “The men who form her world are generally better and truer men, because the woman in their midst is dependent on them alone, for companionship, and love, and protecting care,” he assured them.