His part was confined to giving Mr. Cottonbush a receipt for nineteen hundred and seventy head of female cattle of all sorts, sizes, and ages, and having divided the said cows and heifers into two droves, an immediate departure was made for Rainbar. Mr. Banks was permitted to examine and explore the wonders of Turonia for the space of one day only; and after bidding farewell to his friends at the camp and at Branksome Hall, Mr. Neuchamp rejoined his party, manfully performing his share of road work until, after many a weary week’s travelling and monotonous daily drudgery, they struck the river within a day’s ride of Rainbar. When Mr. Neuchamp once more alighted at the door of his cottage he felt the pleasurable glow which is rarely absent from the mind of any healthily constituted man returning after absence to his home. ‘Home, sweet home!’ hummed Mr. Neuchamp. ‘I don’t know whether the time-honoured words strictly apply to Rainbar, but I’m glad to see the old place again. The grass looks none too fresh, though, as if they had had little or no rain. It would have been inspiriting to have seen a little green after all the terrible dry weather we have had. I suppose these two thousand new cattle will be able to keep alive. As for paying for them, if I had not Levison’s advice and guarantee to depend upon, I should utterly despair of it.’ He had finished his evening meal when Mr. Jack Windsor was announced, that gentleman having been all day ‘out back,’ and having but just returned. He was unaffectedly glad to see Ernest, and gave a favourable account of the stock and station matters generally. ‘I don’t say as we’ve had much of a break-up of the dry time,’ he said, ‘but the rains come very stiddy and soaking every now and then. Besides, there’s been one or two fine thunderstorms out back, where I’ve been to-day. The feed’s a deal better than any I see in here. We’re a-getting on towards the end of the autumn now, and we might have a regular wet season, that will just crown us. I suppose the store cattle is all right.’ ‘In very fair strength and spirits, Jack. Mr. Banks thought that they would do splendidly here before spring, if there was any rain at all.’ ‘If it wasn’t for these confounded cockies,’ said Mr. Windsor, ‘that big flat would be a first-rate place to break ’em into, while they’ll have to be at the water every day. But it’s no use thinking of it. I’ve had a deal of bother with ’em as it is; them boys are always cutting about the run on horseback, looking for a calf, or a colt, or something. I’d give a tenner out of my own pocket they was all out of that and back at Bowning or some other stringy-bark hole as is fit for ’em.’ Three days had elapsed since this conversation, when the two large droves of patient, slow-moving cattle arrived at Rainbar. Mr. Windsor was much impressed by their general appearance, and asserted confidently that such a lot of cows and heifers had never before been seen on the river.