‘Good heavens!’ said Wilfred. ‘And what was done?’
‘Jim was hanged, all reg’lar, as soon as they could get him back to Sydney. We was all “turned in to Government,”’ said the chronicler. ‘After a bit, the Colonel got me back for groom, so I stayed here till my time was out. I know the old place (I had ought to), every rod of it, back to the big Bindarra.’
‘You can milk well, I believe?’
‘He can do most things, sir,’ said Dick, comprehensively guaranteeing his friend, and mounting his mare, he motioned to the old fellow, who had just commenced to emit a derisive chuckle from his toothless gums, to follow him. ‘If you’ll s’cuse us now, sir, we’ll go home and get freshened up a bit. Tom won’t be right till he’s had a sleep. He’s hardly had his boots off for a week. You’ll see us at the yard in the morning all right, sir, never fear.’
‘Well, I’m glad you’ve come back, Dick,’ said Guy; ‘we’ve missed you awfully. The heifers are too much for Andrew. However, it’s all right now, so the sooner you get home and make yourself comfortable the better.’
This suggestion, as the ancient prodigals ambled away together, caused old Dick to grin doubtfully. ‘I’ve got to have it out with my old woman yet, sir.’
Whatever might have occurred in the progress of a difficult explanation with Mrs. Evans, the result was so far satisfactory that on the following morning, when Wilfred went down to the milking-yard, he found the pair in full possession of the situation, while the number of calves in companionship with their mothers, as well as the state of the brimming milk-cans, testified to the early hour at which work had commenced.
Dick had regained his easy supremacy, as with a mixture of fearlessness and diplomacy he exercised a Rarey-like influence over the wilder cows, lately introduced to the milking-yard.
His companion, evidently free of the guild, was causing the milk to come streaming out of the udder of a newly calved heifer, as if by the mere touch of his fingers, the bottom of his bucket rattling the while like a small-sized hailstorm.
Greeting the old man cheerfully, and making him a compliment on his milking, Wilfred was surprised at the alteration in his appearance and manner.