【荆棘鸟】第四章 09

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Bluey Williams had turned up with his dray loaded high and twelve spare horses behind him, for he was moving fast to get through his rounds before the rains made further provisioning of the stations impossible. "Monsoons¹ are comin'," he said, rolling a cigarette and indicating piles of extra groceries with his whip. 

  "The Cooper an' the Barcoo an' the Diamantina are runnin' real bankers an' the Overflow² is overflowin'. The whole Queenslan' Outback's two foot under water an' them poor buggers is tryin' to find a rise in the groun' to put the sheep on."

  Suddenly there was a controlled panic; Paddy and the boys worked like madmen, moving the sheep out of the low-lying paddocks and as far away from the creek³ and the Barwon as they could. Father Ralph tur ned up, saddled his horse and set off with Frank and the best team of dogs for two uncleared paddocks alongside the Barwon, while Paddy and the two stockmen each took a boy in other directions.

 

  Father Ralph was an excellent stockman himself. He rode a thoroughbred chestnut⁴ mare⁵ Mary Carson had given him, clad in faultlessly tailored buff jodhpurs, shiny tan knee boots, and a spotless white shirt with its sleeves rolled up his sinewy⁶ arms and its neck open to show his smooth brown chest. In baggy⁷ old grey twill trousers tied with bowyangs and a greyflannel under- shirt, Frank felt like a poor relation. Which was what he was, he thought wryly⁸, following the straight figure on the dainty mare through a stand of box and pine beyond the creek. He himself rode a hard-mouthed piebald stock horse, a mean-tempered beast with a will of its own and a ferocious⁹ hatred¹⁰ of other horses. The dogs were yelping¹¹ and cavorting¹² in excitement, fighting and snarling¹³ among themselves until parted with a flick¹⁴ from Father Ralph's viciously wielded¹⁵ stock whip. It seemed there was nothing the man couldn't do; he was familiar with the coded whistles setting the dogs to work, and plied¹⁶ his whip much better than Frank, still learning this exotic Australian art.

 

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