Baldy, "and it's bad news for me; there's ten
more of my fatteners missing" (Nosey stopped chopping and listened)
"and the master says I'll have to hump my swag if I can't find out
what has become of them. I say, Nosey, you don't happen to have seen
any dingoes or blacks about here lately?"

"I ain't seen e'er a one, neither dingo nor blackfellow. But, you
know, if they were after mischief they'd take care not to make a
show. There might be stacks of them about and we never to see one of
them."

Nosey was proud of his cunning.

"Well," said Baldy, "I can hear of nobody having seen any strangers
about the Rises, nor dingoes, nor black fellows. And the dingoes,
anyhow, would have left some of the carcases behind; but the thieves,
whoever they are, have not left me as much as a lock of the wool of
my sheep. I have been talking about 'em with old Sharp; he is the
longest here of any shepherd in the country, and knows all the
blacks, and he says it's his opinion the man who took the sheep is
not far away from the flock now. What do you think about it, Nosey?"

"What the----should I know about your sheep?" said Nosey. "Do you
mean to insinivate that I took 'em? I'll tell you what it is, Baldy;
it'll be just as well for you to keep your blasted tongue quiet about
your sheep, for if I hear any more about 'em, I'll see you for it; do
you hear?"

"Oh, yes, I hear. All right, Nosey, we'll see about it," said Baldy.

There would have been a fight perhaps, but Baldy was a smaller man
than the other and was growing old, while Nosey was in the prime of
life.

Baldy went to Nyalong next day. His rations did not include gin, and
he wanted some badly, the more so because he was in trouble about his
lost sheep. Gin, known then as "Old Tom," was his favourite remedy
for all ailments, both of mind and body. If he could not find out
what had become of his sheep, his master might dismiss him without a
character. There was not much good character running to waste on the
stations, but still no squatter would like to entrust a flock to a
shepherd who was suspected of having stolen and sold his last
master's sheep.

Baldy walked to Nyalong along the banks of the lake. The country was
then all open, unfenced, except the paddocks at the home stations.
The boundary between two of the runs was merely marked by a ploughed
furrow, not very straight, which started near the lake, and went
eastward along the plains. In the Rise