'Yes. Rodney Shaw has come back to Cudgegong. I don't know whether that can be reckoned as good news or bad, but it's true,' said Ned.
'It is a long time since he went away,' said Jim.
'Nigh on seven or eight years, I should think, maybe not quite so long.'
'He'll find his property all right. Benjamin Nix is a good manager,' said Jim.
'And a good fellow too,' answered Ned. 'Better than his boss, I reckon.'
Turning to Doonan, he said, 'There's likely to be trouble in this district before long, I hear.'
'How's that?'
'Horse thieves about again,' said Ned.
Jim Dennis thought of the strange stallion boxed in his yard, and glanced at Constable Doonan. Was there more rumour and suspicion to surround him?
'It's a rum go too,' said Ned. 'Rodney Shaw bought a fine stallion in Sydney, a thoroughbred, and sent him up to Cudgegong. The man in charge of him complains that someone either stole him or let him loose while he was resting at Potter's. There'll be a deuce of a row at Cudgegong about it.'