A Pioneer Sketch.  
There was a lot of men from up-country staying at the Kamilaroi. One could easily tell them by their bronzed hands and faces, and creased or brand-new clothes, from the city members of the well-known Pastoralists’ Club.
 
‘Hello,’ suddenly exclaimed a fine-looking man, whose thick moustache lay snow-white against the deep tan of his cheek, ‘here’s Boorookoorora in the market! H’m, one hundred and sixty thousand sheep (so they’ve got the jumbucks on it at last).... Capital homestead ... stone-built house ... splendid garden and orchard. How things must have changed out there since Wal Neville and Jimmy Carstairs and myself took that country up, and lived for months at a time on damper, bullock and pigweed in a bark humpy. Stone house and orchard! Well, well,’ he concluded, laying down the newspaper with a sigh, ‘I hope they haven’t disturbed the boys. I left them there sleeping quietly enough side by side over five-and-twenty years ago.’
 
‘Shouldn’t have gone home and stayed away so long, 147Standish,’ here remarked a friend. ’You’re out of touch altogether with our side now. That’s the worst of being rich. D’rectly a fellow gets a pot of money left him, off he must go “home.” But here’s Hatton.—Hatton, let me introduce Mr Hugh Standish to you. He’s interested in your place. First man to take it up; early pioneer, and all that sort of thing.’
 
‘Yes,’ said Mr Hatton presently, ‘I was the first to put sheep on Boorookoorora, and they do well. Yes, the two graves are untouched at the old homestead still. Carstairs and Neville! I’ve heard the story, or a version of it. Poor fellows! I had their graves freshly fenced in a couple of years ago. And so you were the third partner. Will you tell us the story of your escape? I should much like to hear it at first hand.’
 
‘Do you know the Grand Stand?’ asked Standish, without replying directly.
 
The other shook his head.
 
‘What is it?’ he asked.
 
‘Why, the big rock, close to the Black Waterhole, on your own run,’ replied Standish.
 
‘Oh,’ said his new acquaintance, ‘you mean Mount Lookout. That’s just at the bottom of the orchard now. You see, we’ve shifted the head station from where you and Warner and Adams and the rest had it.’
 
‘Well, well,’ replied the other, ‘Grand Stand, or Mount Lookout, or whatever you like to call it, I had a very rough time on its top.’
 
‘Ah,’ remarked the owner of Boorookoorora, ‘I’ve had the top levelled and an anemometer erected on it; 148also a flight of steps cut. In fact, it is a sort of observatory on a small scale.’
 
‘The devil it is!’ exclaimed Standish. ‘Well, if you’ll listen, I’ll tell you what I observed once from its top.’
 
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‘There were three of us. We were all young and healthy, and each had a little money. Foregathering (the first time was in this very room), we determined to become partners, and take up country. We would go out in person—far out, beyond even, as poor Neville put it, the “furthest paling of civilisation.”
 
‘There we would acquire a territory, expressible not in poor, miserable acres, but in square miles—thousands of ’em.
 
‘There we would breed sheep and cattle, increasing yearly in multitude, so that the sands upon the sea-shore shouldn’t be a circumstance to them. We would plant in that far country our own vines and our own fig-trees, and sit under their shade in the good days to come—we and our children, and our children’s children after us—in that wide and pleasant heritage of our founding. Alas, the glamour of youth and confidence, and health and strength over a bottle or two of good wine! Five-and-twenty years ago, gentlemen, in this same old room!
 
‘So we went. And the days grew into weeks, and the weeks into months, as we rode, searching hither and thither, to the right hand or to the left, but always with our faces to the falling sun. Over stony ridges and over 149rolling downs; over deserts of cruel spinifex and barren sand; through great scrubs, thick and gloomy; along rivers, tortuous and muddy. At times drenched with rain, at others suffering from heat and hunger and thirst, but ever westward. At length, after many disappointments, emerging from a broad stretch of sterile country and ascending a range of low hills, our eyes beheld something resembling the Canaan of our dreams. Track of horse or beast we had not seen for weeks; therefore we knew that the land was, if we so willed it, ours.
 
‘For a long time we gazed over the timber-clumped, wide expanse, emerald-swarded after some recent fire, and through which ran a creek whose waterholes shone like polished steel under the mid-day sun.
 
‘“Here we rest?” said one; and another,—“The Plains of Hope lie before us!”
 
‘So we rested from our wanderings; and one, journeying backwards, secured the country, defining its boundaries, not by marked trees, but by parallels of latitude.
 
‘Shortly a homestead arose, rude but sufficient. Mob after mob of cattle came up from stations to the south and east, and Boorookoorora became itself a station.
 
‘We got the name from a black fellow. We understood him to signify that the word meant “No place beyond.” This pleased us, for we were, so far, proud of being the “farthest out”—the Ultima Thule of settlement. We may have been altogether mistaken, for the fellow was wild as a hawk, and, at the first chance, gave us the slip. But I’m glad, all the same, that the old name still holds.
 
150‘Of the blacks we had seen very little. They appeared to decline all communication with us. Now and again the stockmen would bring one in; but he came evidently under strong protest, and refused both food and gifts of any description. However, we cared nothing for that, so long as our cattle remained unmolested. They were doing splendidly; and we soon began to talk about sending a mob to the southern markets, with which, in those days, there was little or no communication. We intended to pioneer that trade. There was plenty of room as yet. Our nearest neighbour was a hundred miles away; the nearest township, five hundred. One Sunday morning I went for a ride, leaving Walter and Jimmy alone. The two white stockmen and a couple of black boys, who made up the head station staff, were away on a round of the out-stations.
 
‘I had intended to be back for the dinner, which I had left the pair busily preparing. Unfortunately, when about five miles from the homestead on my return, my horse put his foot in a hole, stumbled badly, and directly afterwards went dead lame.
 
‘The day was a roaster for a tramp; but there seemed no help for it. So, planting the saddle and bridle, also, in a most unlucky moment, my heavy Enfield rifle, I set out through the long, dry grass, which reached at times over my head, and made walking hard and disagreeable work.
 
‘As often as I paused to rest and wipe my dripping face did I curse our remissness in not having “burnt off” before this, and vow to soon have a right royal 151blaze amongst the thick reed-like grass-stalks that hampered my progress towards shade and dinner.
 
‘I had got about two miles along, and was just thinking of having a good drink at the Black Waterhole, which I knew to be close to me, when I suddenly came upon the dead body of a fine young heifer.
 
‘A couple of broken spears stuck out of the carcase—so freshly killed that even the crows had not yet found it. It was, indeed, still warm. By the tracks I could see that the niggers were in force. They had evidently run the beast up from the water, and slain it merely for sport, as it was untouched. My first impulse was to return for the rifle. Second thoughts determined me to make for home as quickly as possible.
 
‘I had kept my shoulder-belt, to which was attached a heavy metal powder-flask. Thinking that I should travel lighter without these things, I started to unbuckle, when a tomahawk hurtled past one side of my head, whilst a spear went sailing by the other. The grass was full of blacks coming at me sideways—that is, between me and the station.
 
‘Turning, I ran for the water, the whole pack, now in full cry, after me.
 
‘Close to the banks of the Black Waterhole stood a tall rock we had named (I don’t know why, for it was as much like one as this tumbler is) the Grand Stand. I daresay it must have been quite one hundred and fifty feet high, if not more—’
 
‘One hundred and seventy-five six,’ put in Mr Hatton, 152who, in common with, by this time, a small crowd, was listening interestedly.
 
‘Thanks. You’ve evidently had more leisure than we could manage. Anyhow, it was sheer on three sides, only accessible, in one part, on the fourth.’ (‘Just where I had the stairway cut,’ murmured Mr Hatton. But no one took any notice).
 
‘Many a time I had climbed it to look for cattle across the plains on which it formed such a landmark. If I could do so now, very quickly, there might still be a chance.
 
‘I could tell by the sound of the spears that I was gaining. They didn’t come slipping quietly past, but whizzed and sung angrily, a sure sign that the throwing sticks were being used; at least I found it so. It was wonderful how they missed me. If the grass had been burnt I was a dead man fifty times over. Presently, I struck a cattle pad, and, at the same moment, caught sight of the Grand Stand. Now they saw what I was after, and put on a spurt, yelling harder than ever. As they arrived at the foot of the rock I was half-way up the narrow, almost perpendicular, track, going like a goat, whilst spears, tomahawks and nullahs hit all around me. One spear grazed my leg, sticking in the breeches, and a stone tomahawk knocked my hat off. I afterwards made use of that spear. It was hot work while it lasted, which, luckily, wasn’t long. The top of the Grand Stand measured about twenty feet each way, and sloped gently inwards, saucer-shape, to a depth of four. There had been rain lately, and a good pool of water was collected 153in the basin, which was strewn with stones and big boulders, remains of a former top, which had broken off and lay around the base. Being in a hurry, I hadn’t time to pull myself up, so tumbled headlong into the water. However, the bath refreshed me much, and, everything below having all at once become silent as the grave, I peeped over.
 
‘Well it was I did so!
 
‘Four big fellows were climbing up, one behind the other.
 
‘Lifting a stone, just as much as I could manage, I rolled it to the edge, and, forgetting to sing out “Stand from under,” let go.
 
‘It caught the first fellow fair on the chest, and the lot went down like skittles.
 
‘Three picked themselves up and limped off howling. The fourth man—he who led—lay quite still, and had to be dragged away. I did not care about expending my ammunition or I could have scattered them also.
 
‘It was terribly hot up there under the sun, but, ripping out the lining of my coat, I covered my head with it. If there had been no water, though, I should have been done—roasted alive.
 
‘Now I had a spell, and took a good look at the niggers.
 
‘They were a wild lot—five-and-twenty of ’em—naked as the day they were born, tall and wiry, with woolly hair and long, black beards. One side of their faces was painted white, t’other red, ribs and legs to match. Half-a-dozen of ’em had some shining stone 154like a lump of crystal either around their necks or tied upon their foreheads. These I took to be chiefs.
 
‘I had never seen any niggers quite like these, and, consequently, was rather impressed, not to say scared. They squatted under a shady tree, the only one for miles around, evidently holding a council of war, whilst I crouched and watched them, and slowly baked on top of my rock.
 
‘Suddenly, all springing to their feet, they ran backwards, then, wheeling together, threw their spears. But the height beat ’em. There was a strong breeze blowing, too, hot as from a furnace, right against them. Quite plainly that game wouldn’t answer, so they squatted again and started another consultation.
 
‘Meanwhile the day grew hotter. The rock was actually blistering my skin through the light clothes I wore.
 
‘Bathing my head and face brought relief.
 
‘Being quite a new chum with respect to blacks and their ways, I half expected that, now, seeing they couldn’t get me down, they would raise the siege and be off.
 
‘Nothing, it appeared, could be furthe............