They were all very sore at Barracaboo station. From manager to horse-boy, from jackaroo to boundary-rider, they felt aggrieved and vengeful. First it had been ‘Around the World by Sea and Land,’ copiously illustrated, and in monthly parts. This was dull—unutterably dull—and each instalment turned out duller and heavier than the last. Also, the pictures resembled those on the specimen sheets as nearly as a mule does a grindstone.  
After this came ‘Diseases of All Known Domestic Animals,’ with gorgeously coloured pictures. As nothing could be found in the whole work relating to horses or cattle or dogs, except the illustrations, this was also voted a fraud. However, they cut out the plates, and stuck them upon the walls of the huts and cottages, so that it was not clear loss altogether.
 
192a[Illustration]
Started back to Atlanta, pursued for half the distance with thunderous whip-crackings. (Page 194.)
But the last straw was ‘The Universal Biography of Eminent Men—Dead and Alive,’ with splendid portraits. 193When they discovered that the notices they had been led to expect of their own ‘Boss,’ ‘Hungry’ Parkes of Humpalong, the Mayor of Atlanta, etc., etc., were absent, and their places filled by paragraphs and woodcuts relating to Nelson, Julius C?sar, Pompey, Scipio Africanus, and such-like characters, they one and all bucked, and refused to pay on delivery. Then they were hauled to Quarter Sessions, confronted with their signatures, and made to pay.
 
In vain they swore that the thing had never been ordered; that it wasn’t up to specification; that their handwriting was a palpable forgery. In vain they related how they had never touched it, but had left their copies lying on verandahs, stockyard posts, in mud, in dust, wherever, in fact, the agent had chanced to bail them up. All in vain; they had to pay—costs and all.
 
Therefore was it that Barracaboo had forsworn literature by sample, or in uncertain instalments, and vowed vengeance upon all shabby men with indelible pencils, and printed agreements with a space left for signature. More especially had they a ‘down’ on people who wore goatees and snuffled when they talked.
 
‘If you see one of ’em at the station,’ said the manager—a rough, tough old customer, and disappointed at being ousted by Julius C?sar—‘set the dogs on him. I’ll pay damages. If he don’t take that hint, touch him up with stockwhips. It’ll only be justifiable homicide at the worst. I know the law: an’ I don’t mind a fiver in such a case!’
 
194‘Let us only get a chance, sorr,’ said the sheep-overseer, ‘an’ we’ll learn ’em betther manners wid our whups. Doggin’s too good for the thrash!’
 
This state of affairs was pretty well known at Atlanta, the neighbouring township; and book-fiends, warned, generally gave Barracaboo a wide berth. Once, certainly, a new hand at the game, and one who fancied himself too much to bother about collecting local information, came boldly into the station-yard just as the bell was ringing for dinner, and produced the advance sheets of a sweet and lively work, entitled, ‘Hermits, Ancient and Modern: Illustrated with Forty-seven Choice Engravings.’
 
He had got to ‘Now, gentlemen,’ when, hearing the howl of execration that went up, he suddenly took in the situation and started back to Atlanta, pursued for half the distance with thunderous whip-crackings by the sheep-overseer and the butcher, who were the only two who happened to have their horses ready.
 
Chancing to have a capital mount, he distanced them and galloped into town, and up the main street, reins on his horse’s neck, and trousers over his knees, half dead with fright, only to be promptly summoned and fined for furious riding within the municipality.
 
For weeks afterwards sheets of ‘Hermits’ strewed the ‘cleared line,’ and he received a merciless chaffing from his fellow-fiends, who could have warned him what to expect had he confided his destination to them.
 
About this time came to Atlanta a small, ’cute-looking, clean-shaven, elderly man. He was unknown to any 195present, but modestly admitted that he was in the book trade, and had a consignment with him. And he listened with interest to the conversation in the ‘Commercial Room.’
 
‘The district’s petered out,’ remarked a tall American gentleman, with the goatee and nasal voice abhorred of Barracaboo. ‘Clean petered out since that last “Universal Biography” business. They’re kickin’ everywhere. Darned if a feller didn’t draw a bead on me yesterday afore I’d time almost to explain business. Then he got so mad that I left, not wantin’ to become a lead mine.’
 
‘Been here a week and haven’t cleared exes.,’ said another mournfully. ‘Off to-morrow. No use trying to work such a desert as this now.’
 
‘Big place, this station with the funny name, you’re talkin’ about?’ asked the newcomer, who had introduced himself as ‘Mr Potts, from London.’
 
‘Over a hundred men of one sort or another all the year round,’ was the reply. ‘Capital shop for us, once too. But it’s sudden death to venture there now. I did real good biz at Barracaboo for the Shuffle Litho. Company. It wouldn’t pay, though, to chance back again.’
 
‘Ah, that was the “Around the World” thing, wasn’t it? Didn’t come up to guarantee, eh?’
 
‘Well, hardly,’ replied the other. ‘However, that wasn’t my fault, you know. All I had to do was to get the orders, which I did to the tune of a couple of hundred or thereabout.’
 
196‘That’s the worst of those things,’ said Mr Potts. ‘Instalments always make a mess of it. Then the agent loses his character, if nothing else. I was out delivering in the Western District for Shuffle Litho., and was glad to get away by the skin of my teeth. But it’s not only the personal danger I object to,’ continued Mr Potts, after a pause. ‘It is the, ahem, the moral degradation involved in such a pursuit—you know what I mean, sir?’
 
‘Just so, just so,’ answered the other vaguely, with a hard stare at the round, red face looming through cigar smoke.
 
‘That’s what made me throw the line up,’ went on Mr Potts, ‘more than anything else. The money’s not clean, sir! I’d rather carry about a ton of print, and risk selling for cash at a fractional advance upon cost price.’
 
‘That’s all right,&rsq............