horses out, lift
back the rail, and fit in the chock that we'd knocked out. Simple as
striking matches, wasn't it?

"Well, the horses were getting a good bellyful in the police horse
paddock at night, and Bill took the first watch with the sheep. It was
very cold and frosty on the flat and he thought the sheep might make
back for the ridges, it's always warmer up in the ridges in winter out
of the frost. Bill roused me out about midnight. `There's the sheep,' he
says, pointing to a white blur. `They've settled down. I think they'll
be quiet till daylight. Don't go round them; there's no occasion to go
near 'em. You can stop by the fire and keep an eye on 'em.'

"The night seemed very long. I watched and smoked and toasted my shins,
and warmed the billy now and then, and thought up pretty much the same
sort of old things that fellers on night watch think over all over the
world. Bill lay on his blanket, with his back to the fire and his arm
under his head--freezing on one side and roasting on the other. He never
moved. I itched once or twice to turn him over and bake the front of
him--I reckoned he was about done behind.

"At last daylight showed. I took the billy and started down to the river
to get some water to make coffee; but half-way down, near the sheep
camp, I stopped and stared, I was never so surprised in my life. The
white blur of sheep had developed into a couple of acres of long dead
silver grass!

"I woke Bill, and he swore as I never heard a man swear before--nor
since. He swore at the sheep, and the grass, and at me; but it would
have wasted time, and besides I was too sleepy and tired to fight. But
we found those sheep scattered over a scrubby ridge about seven miles
back, so they must have slipped away back of the grass and started early
in Bill's watch, and Bill must have watched that blessed grass for the
first half of the night and then set me to watch it. He couldn't get
away from that.

"I wondered what the chaps would say if it got round that Bill Barker,
the boss overland drover, had lost a thousand sheep in clear country
with fences all round; and I suppose he thought that way too, for he
kept me with him right down to Homebush, and when he paid me off he
threw in an extra quid, and he said:

"`Now, listen here, Dave! If I ever hear a word from anyone about
watching that gory grass, I'll find you, Dave, and murder you, if you're
in wide Australia. I'll screw your neck, so look out.'

"