d his knife on his trousers and then
used it to cut up a fill of tobacco. Sax had taken over the management
of the brands after the adventure with Eagle, and was very glad to pull
the irons out of the fire and let them cool in the sand. In fact,
everybody was pleased to "knock off", both because they were thoroughly
tired, and more especially because Mick's cruelty to the warragul had
caused an unpleasant feeling to take the place of the former spirit of
hearty good fellowship.

The men let the cattle go and rode dejectedly back to camp, and even
Mick's efforts to start a conversation with his two white companions
was not a great success. A fire was lit, the quart-pots were boiled
and "tea-ed", and the damper and meat served out all round, and soon
afterwards the stockmen unrolled their swags and lay down for the night.

Sax could not sleep. He turned over on one side and then on another,
but did not seem able to find a comfortable position. During the
excitement of his fall from the horse in the morning he had not noticed
any injuries, but now, when he wanted to forget everything and go to
sleep, he felt a large bruise on his hip and a sore place on each
shoulder. The moon shone in his face and kept him awake, and he lay on
his swag in a very unhappy frame of mind.

Mick's behaviour to Eagle worried him. His body was too tired and sore
to rest, but his mind was unusually active, and kept on turning over
and over the incidents of the day, and especially the short struggle
between the white man and the warragul native.

Sax had been on the other side of the mob of cattle when the incident
had occurred, but he had seen enough to make him very angry at the
injustice. Eagle had proved himself to be Sax's friend on three
occasions, and the lad consequently took the present matter to heart.
He quite forgot that Mick did not know who Eagle was, and merely
thought him to be a more than ordinarily useless black-fellow. Sax had
found out to his cost what an exceedingly unpleasant task it is to keep
brands hot on a blazing north-wind summer's day in the Australian
desert.

The tired lad's indignant thoughts became confused as sleep gradually
claimed him, and at last his aching body was at rest, though his mind
still kept active and started to build dreams. Just after midnight,
when everything was still, and the last of the cattle had ceased to
splash in the water-hole and had gone out on one or another of the long