us, soon disabused us of any
opinion we might have held that he was sissified....

"What's wrong with _you_, you young ---- ---- ---- ---- you?" began the
captain. The snicker died slowly from Nipper's lips, and in his face
dawned an infinite, surprised respect....

Then, after he had subdued us:

"So you're stowaways, eh?... and you think you're going to be given a
free ride to Brisbane and let go ashore, scot free?... not much! You'll
either go to jail there or sign up here, as cattlemen for the trip to
China--even though I can see that your mouths are still wet from your
mothers' tits!" And he ended with a blasphemous flourish.

Nippers and I looked at each other in astonishment. Of course we wanted
to sign on as cattlemen. No doubt some of the men hired at Sydney had
failed to show up at the wharf.

The ship's book was pushed before us.

"Sign here!" I signed "John Gregory" with satisfaction. Nippers signed
after, laboriously.

"And now get aft with you, you ----!" cursed the captain, dismissing us
with a parting volley that beat about our ears.

"Gawd, but the skipper's a _right_ man enough!" worshipped Nippers.

We hurried down the ladder to gobble up what was left of the cornbeef
and potatoes.... Nippers looked up at me, with a hunk of beef sticking
from his mouth, which he poked in with the butt-end of his knife....
"Say, didn't the old man cuss wonderful, and him lookin' like such a
lady!"

* * * * *

There was plenty of work to do in the few days it took to reach
Brisbane, where the cattle were to be taken aboard. The boat was an
ordinary tramp steamer, and we had to make an improvised cattleboat out
of her. Already carpenters had done much to that effect by erecting
enclosures on the top deck, the main deck, by putting up stalls in the
hold. Every available foot was to be packed with the living flesh of
cattle.

We gave the finishing touches to the work, trying to make the boarding
and scantling more solid--solid enough to withstand the plunging,
lurching, and kicking of fear-stricken, wild Queensland steers unused to
being cooped up on shipboard....

* * * * *

We had made fast to a dock down the Brisbane River, several miles out
from Brisbane ... nearby stood the stockyards, with no cattle in them
yet.

In a day's time of lusty heaving and running and hauling we had taken on
the bales of compressed fodder that were to feed th