everywhere in their
efforts to keep the cattle together. The animals had never seen a town
before, and were frightened at the glitter of iron roofs in the sun.

Suddenly a figure on a horse shot out in front and cantered ahead. The
boys became tense with excitement. Was it Mr. Stobart? At first they
could not distinguish him except that he rode a grey horse and sat it
with the perfect ease of a Central Australian. The animal did not want
to leave its companions and started to "play up". But nothing it could
do made any difference to the superb rider; he just sat as if he were
part of the horse, as if he were indeed its brain, forcing it to obey
his will. When he came past the little hill where the lads were
standing he was about a hundred yards away from them, and they could
see him clearly.

"Is it, Sax?" asked Vaughan excitedly. "Is it your pater?"

The drover's son shook his head. "No chance," he said sadly. "My
father's taller than that man. But can't he just ride, Boof?"

The rider had by this time reached a set of troughs which spread out on
the ground and were filled by a bore about half a mile behind the town.
He dismounted, had a good look round to see that everything was right,
and then started to ride back again. But instead of going straight
back to the cattle, he rode up to the boys.

"Good-day," he said, reining in his horse. "Come out to see the
cattle?"

"Yes," replied Sax. "And we were wondering whether Boss Stobart"--he
said the name proudly--"whether Boss Stobart was with them."

The man shook his head. "No. Didn't he come in a week ago? He
started ahead of me. These are T.D.3 cattle."

The lads showed their disappointment on their faces, but of course the
drover did not understand the reason for it. "If it's fun you're after
seeing, you'll get as much with my mob as you would with the Boss's,"
he said with a very slight Irish brogue. "They're sure as wild as
bally mosquitoes. But look, you're a bit too close here. Get back a
bit, and when they've had a drink, go over to the troughs. You'll
likely see a bit of fun at the yards."

The lads did as he told them. They climbed on the roof of an old shed
where they were well out of the way, and could get a good view of the
cattle as they came in to water. They expected the whole mob to file
past at once, but that was not what happened. As soon as the drover
returned, the cattle were rounded up in a hollow between two
sa