'No, not that,' laughed Jim. 'There is not much chance of throwing money about freely at Wanabeen.'
'I suppose not,' replied the doctor. 'In Swamp Creek there would not appear to be much chance of spending to the casual outsider's vision, but it's wonderful how the money goes even here. I'm always hard up, and blessed if I know how it happens. What do you think Alf Sniggers asked me this morning?'
'I don't know, could not even make a guess at it,' said Jim. 'He's a funny chap is Sniggers.'
'He owes me an account, and he wanted to know if I'd take a bullock in payment. Now what the deuce is the good of a bullock to me? I couldn't sell it—everyone round here wants to sell, not to buy. There's no chance of eating it, and, being of the wrong sex, there's no milk to be got out of it, and, in fact, it would be on my hands and a perfect nuisance. I explained these little facts to Sniggers, and what do you think he said?'
'Out with it,' laughed Jim.
'The beggar said that any doctor who wouldn't swop a few dirty drugs for a real live bullock must be a fool, and he "wouldn't have nothing more to say to him." Upon my word, Jim, he went away in a high state of indignation, for all the world as though I had done him an injury.'
'Did he settle the account?' asked Jim, laughing.
'Not he. I have put it down in my third volume of bad debts,' said Dr Tom, mournfully. 'But what's your trouble? I was forgetting about that.'
'It's not exactly a trouble, it's a difficulty,' said Jim. 'I don't know who to put up on Neptune in the race. Madsley will ride for me, but he's got a queer temper, and a rider with a nasty temper and a horse with a nasty temper generally have differences. If Madsley and Neptune happened to differ in the race, or just before it, and commenced to argue the matter, there would be no cup or two hundred sovs. for me.'
Dr Tom looked thoughtful, and shook his head.