s, whoever he was, that
had had so many better chances than we had and had chucked 'em all away.

But it's a strange thing that I don't think there's any place in the
world where men feel a more real out-and-out respect for a gentleman
than in Australia. Everybody's supposed to be free and equal now; of
course, they couldn't be in the convict days. But somehow a man that's
born and bred a gentleman will always be different from other men to the
end of the world. What's the most surprising part of it is that men like
father, who have hated the breed and suffered by them, too, can't help
having a curious liking and admiration for them. They'll follow them
like dogs, fight for them, shed their blood, and die for them; must be
some sort of a natural feeling. Whatever it is, it's there safe enough,
and nothing can knock it out of nine-tenths of all the men and women you
meet. I began to be uneasy to see this wonderful mate of father's,
who was so many things at once--a cattle-stealer, a bush-ranger, and a
gentleman.

Chapter 6

After we'd fairly settled to stay, father began to be more pleasant than
he'd ever been before. We were pretty likely, he said, to have a visit
from Starlight and the half-caste in a day or two, if we'd like to wait.
He was to meet him at the Hollow on purpose to help him out with the mob
of fat bullocks we had looked at. Father, it appears, was coming here
by himself when he met this outlying lot of Mr. Hunter's cattle, and
thought he and old Crib could bring them in by themselves. And a mighty
good haul it was. Father said we should share the weaners between the
three of us; that meant 50 Pounds a piece at least. The devil always
helps beginners.

We put through a couple of days pleasantly enough, after our hardish bit
of work. Jim found some fish-hooks and a line, and we caught plenty
of mullet and eels in the deep, clear waterholes. We found a couple
of double-barrelled guns, and shot ducks enough to last us a week. No
wonder the old frequenters of the Hollow used to live here for a month
at a time, having great times of it as long as their grog lasted; and
sometimes having the tribe of blacks that inhabited the district to make
merry and carouse with them, like the buccaneers of the Spanish Main
that I've read about, till the plunder was all gone. There were scrawls
on the wall of the first cave we had been in that showed all the
visitors had not been rude, untaught people; and Jim