登陆注册
15512800000036

第36章 His Masterpiece(1)

Greenhide Billy was a stockman on a Clarence River cattle-station, and admittedly the biggest liar in the district. He had been for many years pioneering in the Northern Territory, the other side of the sun-down -- a regular "furthest-out man" -- and this assured his reputation among station-hands who award rank according to amount of experience.

Young men who have always hung around the home districts, doing a job of shearing here or a turn at horse-breaking there, look with reverence on Riverine or Macquarie-River shearers who come in with tales of runs where they have 300,000 acres of freehold land and shear 250,000 sheep; these again pale their ineffectual fires before the glory of the Northern Territory man who has all-comers on toast, because no one can contradict him or check his figures. When two of them meet, however, they are not fools enough to cut down quotations and spoil the market; they lie in support of each other, and make all other bushmen feel mean and pitiful and inexperienced.

Sometimes a youngster would timidly ask Greenhide Billy about the `terra incognita': "What sort of a place is it, Billy -- how big are the properties? How many acres had you in the place you were on?"

"Acres be d----d!" Billy would scornfully reply; "hear him talking about acres! D'ye think we were blanked cockatoo selectors!

Out there we reckon country by the hundred miles. You orter say, `How many thousand miles of country?' and then I'd understand you."

Furthermore, according to Billy, they reckoned the rainfall in the Territory by yards, not inches. He had seen blackfellows who could jump at least three inches higher than anyone else had ever seen a blackfellow jump, and every bushman has seen or personally known a blackfellow who could jump over six feet. Billy had seen bigger droughts, better country, fatter cattle, faster horses, and cleverer dogs, than any other man on the Clarence River.

But one night when the rain was on the roof, and the river was rising with a moaning sound, and the men were gathered round the fire in the hut smoking and staring at the coals, Billy turned himself loose and gave us his masterpiece.

"I was drovin' with cattle from Mungrybanbone to old Corlett's station on the Buckadowntown River" (Billy always started his stories with some paralysing bush names). "We had a thousand head of store-cattle, wild, mountain-bred wretches that'd charge you on sight; they were that handy with their horns they could skewer a mosquito.

There was one or two one-eyed cattle among 'em -- and you know how a one-eyed beast always keeps movin' away from the mob, pokin' away out to the edge of them so as they won't git on his blind side, so that by stirrin' about he keeps the others restless.

"They had been scared once or twice, and stampeded and gave us all we could do to keep them together; and it was wet and dark and thundering, and it looked like a real bad night for us.

It was my watch. I was on one side of the cattle, like it might be here, with a small bit of a fire; and my mate, Barcoo Jim, he was right opposite on the other side of the cattle, and had gone to sleep under a log.

The rest of the men were in the camp fast asleep. Every now and again I'd get on my horse and prowl round the cattle quiet like, and they seemed to be settled down all right, and I was sitting by my fire holding my horse and drowsing, when all of a sudden a blessed 'possum ran out from some saplings and scratched up a tree right alongside me.

I was half-asleep, I suppose, and was startled; anyhow, never thinking what I was doing, I picked up a firestick out of the fire and flung it at the 'possum.

"Whoop! Before you could say Jack Robertson, that thousand head of cattle were on their feet, and made one wild, headlong, mad rush right over the place where poor old Barcoo Jim was sleeping. There was no time to hunt up materials for the inquest; I had to keep those cattle together, so I sprang into the saddle, dashed the spurs into the old horse, dropped my head on his mane, and sent him as hard as he could leg it through the scrub to get to the lead of the cattle and steady them.

It was brigalow, and you know what that is.

"You know how the brigalow grows," continued Bill; "saplings about as thick as a man's arm, and that close together a dog can't open his mouth to bark in 'em. Well, those cattle swept through that scrub, levelling it like as if it had been cleared for a railway line. They cleared a track a quarter of a mile wide, and smashed every stick, stump and sapling on it.

You could hear them roaring and their hoofs thundering and the scrub smashing three or four miles off.

"And where was I? I was racing parallel with the cattle, with my head down on the horse's neck, letting him pick his way through the scrub in the pitchy darkness. This went on for about four miles.

Then the cattle began to get winded, and I dug into the old stock-horse with the spurs, and got in front, and began to crack the whip and sing out, so as to steady them a little; after awhile they dropped slower and slower, and I kept the whip going. I got them all together in a patch of open country, and there I rode round and round 'em all night till daylight.

"And how I wasn't killed in the scrub, goodness only knows; for a man couldn't ride in the daylight where I did in the dark.

The cattle were all knocked about -- horns smashed, legs broken, ribs torn; but they were all there, every solitary head of 'em; and as soon as the daylight broke I took 'em back to the camp -- that is, all that could travel, because I had to leave a few broken-legged ones."

Billy paused in his narrative. He knew that some suggestions would be made, by way of compromise, to tone down the awful strength of the yarn, and he prepared himself accordingly. His motto was "No surrender"; he never abated one jot of his statements; if anyone chose to remark on them, he made them warmer and stronger, and absolutely flattened out the intruder.

"That was a wonderful bit of ridin' you done, Billy," said one of the men at last, admiringly. "It's a wonder you wasn't killed.

同类推荐
  • 平石如砥禅师语录

    平石如砥禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 原诗

    原诗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 西麓堂琴统摘录

    西麓堂琴统摘录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说婆罗门避死经

    佛说婆罗门避死经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 本草求真

    本草求真

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 镜像世界

    镜像世界

    张少云一次失足落水,穿越了18年的时间。回到1997年的张少云发现这个世界并非是自己所认识的世界,他开始重新认识这个熟悉而又陌生的世界,参考另一个世界失败的人生来重新选择自己的未来。
  • 从5万到500万的股市短线操盘绝招

    从5万到500万的股市短线操盘绝招

    本书分为基础篇、技术篇、实操篇三部分。主要内容包括:股市战场经:熟悉规则,应对交易心理误区;选股决定盈亏:巧用短线操盘优势,精心选股;点线赚钱术:K线分析有窍门,看清行情等。
  • 腹黑将军请走开

    腹黑将军请走开

    她是沈家不受待见的二小姐,却因一连串的变故她死而复生,男扮女装,流落军营。不想竟然遇见了前任未婚夫,那鼎鼎大名的慕容将军视她为眼中钉,处处针对。她凭着自己坚强的意志,出众的智谋,让他对她刮目相看,悄无息的占据了他心底的每个角落。
  • 《赢在中国》给创业者的100个忠告

    《赢在中国》给创业者的100个忠告

    本书论述到位,事例经典,以《赢在中国》中评委和选手的创业语录点题,全方位地对创业者提出了忠告和建议,包括:创业是什么?创业者自身应该具有什么样的素质?创业项目如何寻找?如何融资和处理财务问题?如何寻找创业伙伴?如何丰富人脉?如何打造创业团队?如何管理员工?如何对待客户?如何在竞争激烈的商场生存?等等。本书具有很强的实用价值和可读性,相信通过阅读本书,广大创业者一定会从中学习到很多有益的东西并加以借鉴。
  • 略国

    略国

    大概是一个普通少年成长为一位逐鹿天下的枭雄故事。本书背景宏大,慎入。主角如果十几章没有出现不要惊讶,他只不过这片英雄辈出的时代一员。PS:简介不会写,就这样。
  • 末世逆乾坤

    末世逆乾坤

    黑暗降临,人类失去了光明,勇者才能存活下去,战者才能拯救一切。逆境中重生,一切可怕的存在都将在我们的内心深处泯灭,我们就是光明。丧尸突袭,蝗虫过境。。血与火的挣扎中,只要我们还在乎所在乎的,人类就不会孤独。。
  • 启示录之君临天下

    启示录之君临天下

    该小说主要讲述了少年游零因为一次意外奇遇而去找自己的神秘同学而被未知生物所伤,关于这世界真正的王座之争也慢慢的拉开了序幕,少年的爱恨情仇又该如何抉择
  • 武极战帝

    武极战帝

    华夏杀手易邪陨落,魂穿异界,继承古今第一体质,以张狂之姿,一路高歌猛进,拳打天骄,脚踏苍穹!
  • 尘封的情缘

    尘封的情缘

    音乐学院毕业的温蕊与男友出国之即,突遭家庭变故,为了照顾家人做起了并不被看好的钢琴家教,随后在教学过程中接触了形形色色的家庭,认识了从事各行各业的家长,培养了不同年龄段的学生,更遇见了与之同样背负心灵十字架的青年才俊谢天佑,随之展开了一系列啼笑皆非但又扑朔迷离的感情纠葛......
  • 穿越之冷王的冰妃

    穿越之冷王的冰妃

    (【蓬莱岛】作品)内容简介:从穿越到这个家族开始,就注定了她要为自己的“亲人”洗冤。先是为母冲喜,出嫁到雪王府,再到母亲无原无故离去,却前无人去为她报丧。从阻拦她回家省亲,到秘密派人暗杀。这一切都只不过是一个人的野心!对她一见钟情的琴翼,却阴差阳错看着她出嫁。可是在看到她真容时,却狠心离开。不是她不够美,也不是他不喜欢她,而是她的容貌太熟悉。对她不闻不问的雪王,却对她暗生情素。因为一条不成规矩的约定,和自己的亲生弟弟如同熟人陌路。他们虽然都没为她针锋相对,但却是万古愁肠。青梅竹马的杨凌对她生死不离。三个相同容貌的人,一条血脉相连。命运的捉弄让她背负着数条血债,今生她欠人的太多。不为自己也要为别人讨回公道。怎能让他们一手遮天,逍遥法外?一场看似家族纷争,却隐藏着国家的命运。一场复仇计划,一个被命运摆弄的女子无形中成了整个阴谋的旗子。她是怎样反败为胜,扭转乾坤的呢?一场惊心动魄的阴谋,却在江湖掀起万层波浪。(以前的简介:悠岚月,容貌甜美,心却微凉。当找到可以依靠的人时,他们却因种种原因不能长相厮守。一句话,一个阴谋,她成了局中棋子。温柔的琴翼,对她处处的呵护。清秀的杨凌,对她默默的付出。玩世不恭的羽落,对她死心塌地。冰冷无情的雪王,对他舍心难忘。黄严,竹洛绵,刑沫......他,他,他,虽然都是她生命中的过客,但是却在他生命中掀起万层风浪。在经过生离死别之后,身上的淡淡樱香残流,但是她的爱情会属于谁?)