o separate the cows and calves and
other cleanskins from the main herd, thus dividing it into two mobs.

The mounted stockmen put the cattle together tightly and held them.
Mick was riding a bright chestnut gelding with high wither and an
intelligent head, whose name was Hermes and who was reputed to be a
famous camp-horse.[1] Signalling to his boys to be ready, Mick rode
straight into the mob of cattle. Almost at once he saw an unbranded
steer and pointed his whip towards it. The horse did the rest. With
wonderful skill, Hermes worked alongside the steer, shouldered it to
the outside of the mob, and cut it out from the other cattle.
Immediately two other stockmen came in behind it and drove it a few
hundred yards away, where it was kept by three mounted boys who had
been detailed for the purpose. It is far easier to keep a hundred
cattle in one place than it is to do the same to a single beast, but
Mick and Hermes were now cutting out cleanskins one after another
without any pause, thus increasing the second mob very quickly. It is
a splendid sight to see cattle being cut out by a good man on a good
horse. The man needs to have a quick eye and never to hesitate once,
for he is right in the midst of several hundred wild cattle who are
afraid of him, and are ready to wreak their vengeance on him at the
first opportunity. He must be a faultless rider, for a camphorse can
turn right round at full gallop in its own length, and woe to the man
who loses his seat at that time. He is amongst the feet and horns of
desert cattle. Mick never made a mistake. He took the matter as
quietly as it could possibly be done, and gradually worked the
clean-skins out and made up the other mob.

When a thing is done well it looks easy to a spectator, and the white
boys thought that this work of cutting out, which they had heard so
much talk about, was a very simple matter indeed. Mick saw them edging
nearer and nearer, and knew that they were very keen to try their
hands, so he shouted out: "Have a shot at working on the face of the
camp.[2] Be steady, though," he warned them. "It's not as easy as it
looks."

They soon found out that the drover was right. Their horses knew far
more about the matter than they did, but the men on their backs were
clumsy, and started to pull them this way and that, till the horses got
worried, and didn't know what to do. Mick brought a young steer out to
the edge of the mob where the boys were