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
热门推荐
  • 暴怒小妹:美男你别跑

    暴怒小妹:美男你别跑

    苏小沫一觉醒来,没想到居然穿越了!古代众多美男美如云!忙着追美男调戏美男,恶整美男!没想到后果很严重,给自己带来了虐心虐身之痛…一日!一邋遢美女抱着一妖孽美男得腿…一把鼻涕一把泪的说…老公我错了…求你别在藏别在跑了…美男面无表情来了一句:老公!什么意思?邋遢美女心里默念,(装装我让你装骚包男,还给我装清高,等我把你拐到手看我怎么整你)…
  • 未央浮生

    未央浮生

    她拥有倾城之貌、是尊贵的妖族王姬、拥有世人梦寐以求的未离之力,她看似拥有一切的美好。可是,妖族的使命让她不得不工于心计,她学会利用一切达到目的,她自以为自己的一生都在精心谋划之下,直到遇见了一个人,他改变了她步步为营的人生,然而命运生而就让他们相互厮杀。
  • 洛克王国穿越传奇

    洛克王国穿越传奇

    我回来了。。。。。(书友群480926048)两位六年级小写僧何大董,吴帅意外穿越到洛克王国,开启了洛克王国之旅。意外加入家族,各种家族战争,万灵守护者的传说,再次穿越异地,洛克王国全民大赛,王国大灾难…想知道他们到底创造了什么传奇故事吗?快上车!老司机要开车啦!
  • 谁动了我的爱

    谁动了我的爱

    这是一部都市男女的爱情故事,虽然我们生活在现代都市,但并不是每段爱情都是我们想要的结局,在一个一个现实面前,都市里的男男女女们如何取舍,如何保卫自己的爱情。
  • 魔气凌然

    魔气凌然

    天庭崩溃,净土离散。仙人神佛不知所踪,道门古刹隐世不出。天下太平的背后是磨刀霍霍的妖魔精怪,你说我怎么就这么倒霉穿越到了这种世界呢?
  • 幽默一笑天天乐

    幽默一笑天天乐

    老师:“各位同学,觉得自己很蠢的请站起来。”同学们互相看了看,都不敢站起来,只有一个勇敢的站了起来,老师:“这位同学,你觉得自己很蠢吗?”学生:“不是的,老师,我只是不想让你一个人站着!”
  • 残花未落已成哀

    残花未落已成哀

    他对她说过最多的话就是:你烦不烦啊,我说了我讨厌你。而她每次都不会生气,都会笑着接下一句:因为我喜欢你我才跟着你。第一次见面她确认了自己对他一见钟情,但这个叛逆的大男孩每次都以一种厌烦的模样面对她。七年的时间让他渐渐的习惯了这个女孩的陪伴,时不时会损她两句,她也不气,只会默默地跟在他的身后。她说他是她的初恋;她说他是她的一切;她说他是不可缺少……他总说敷衍说烦,说讨厌……直到无人的那一天,他才发现习惯是多么可怕的一件事。那是最后一次见面,她替他挡下了那致命的一刀,她笑着倒下,泪水布满脸颊。她走了,一切恢复了原样,没人缠着自己应该高兴啊,可是为什么心里闷闷的?
  • 网游之天书

    网游之天书

    他失恋了,他失业了,在人生的低迷跌谷,他进入了天书世界,改变自己的命运,挽回自己的家庭,一切的一切都让你无法预料...
  • 隆平集

    隆平集

    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。
  • EXO之晨曦的梦

    EXO之晨曦的梦

    那年,风吹花落,晨曦闪烁。他站在他们第一次相遇的地方,牵着她的手,对她说:“我还是会相信,星星会说话,石头会开花,穿过夏天的栅栏和冬天的风雪过后,你终会抵达。”