ng, but I don't see how I'm going to pay you.' `Never mind that,
Bogan, old man,' says Barcoo. `I'll take it from anyone yer likes to
appoint, if that worries yer; and, look here, Bogan, if I can't fight
you I can fight for you--and don't you forget it!' And Barcoo used to
lead Bogan round about town in his spare time and tell him all that was
going on; and I believe he always had an ear cocked in case someone said
a word against Bogan--as if any of the chaps would say a word against a
blind man.

"Bogan's case was hushed up. The police told us to fix it up the best
way we could. One of the jackaroos, who reckoned that Bogan had swindled
him, was a gentleman, and he was the first to throw a quid in the
Giraffe's hat when it went round for Bogan, but the other jackaroo was
a cur: he said he wanted the money that Bogan had robbed him of. There
were two witnesses, but we sent 'em away, and Tom Hall, there, scared
the jackaroo. You know Tom was always the best hand we had at persuading
witnesses in Union cases to go home to see their mothers."

"How did you scare that jackaroo, Tom?" I asked.

"Tell you about it some other time," said Tom.

"Well," said Mitchell, "Bogan was always a good woolsorter, so, next
shearing, old Baldy Thompson--(you know Baldy Thompson, Harry, of
West-o'-Sunday Station)--Baldy had a talk with some of the chaps, and
took Bogan out in his buggy with him to West-o'-Sunday. Bogan would sit
at the end of the rolling tables, in the shearing-shed, with a boy to
hand him the fleeces, and he'd feel a fleece and tell the boy what bin
to throw it into; and by and by he began to learn to throw the fleeces
into the bins himself. And sometimes Baldy would have a sheep brought to
him and get him to feel the fleece and tell him the quality of it. And
then again Baldy would talk, just loud enough for Bogan to overhear, and
swear that he'd sooner have Bogan, blind as he was, than half a dozen
scientific jackaroo experts with all their eyes about them.

"Of course Bogan wasn't worth anything much to Baldy, but Baldy gave him
two pounds a week out of his own pocket, and another quid that we made
up between us; so he made enough to pull him through the rest of the
year.

"It was curious to see how soon he learned to find his way about the hut
and manage his tea and tucker. It was a rough shed, but everybody was
eager to steer Bogan about--and, in fact, two of them had a fight about
it one day. Baldy and all of u