After much pressing, Hugh had this day allowed her to try Obadiah,
Binjie's celebrated show jumper, an animal that could be trusted
to jump anything he could see over; so during their ride to the
habitat of the Donohoes they left the regular track, and followed
one of the fences for a mile or two, looking for a suitable place
to try the horse. No good place offered itself, as the timber was
thick, and the country so rugged that she would have had to ride
at a stiff post-and-rail either up or down a steep slope. Loitering
along, far off the track, they crossed a little ridge where stringybark
trees, with an undergrowth of bushes and saplings, formed a regular
thicket.
Suddenly Hugh gave a whistle of surprise, and jumped from his horse.
"Hold this horse a minute, please," he said. "There has been a
mob of sheep driven here."
"Whereabouts?" said she, staring round her.
"All about here," he said, pointing to the ground. "Don't you see
the tracks? Hundreds of 'em. But I can't see what they were up to.
There's no place they could get 'em out without cutting the wires,
and the fence is sound enough. Good heavens, I see it now! Well,
that's smart he continued, leaning against a post and giving it a
shake.
"What have they done I don't understand. How have they got the
sheep through without breaking the fence?"
"They've dug up four or five posts," he said, kicking over some red
earth with his foot, "laid that piece of fence flat on the ground,
driven the sheep over it, and then put the fence up again. No
wonder we are missing sheep! Two or three hundred have gone out
here! Here's a chance at last--the chance I've been waiting for
all these years! What a lucky thing we came here! And now, Miss
Grant," he said, remounting, "we won't have any jumping to-day.
I'll have to follow these tracks till I come on the sheep somewhere,
if it's in Red Mick Donohoe's own yard. Do you think you can find
your way back to the homestead?"
"What for?"
"To tell them to send Poss and Binjie after me. I don't expect
they've gone home yet. I want a witness with me when I catch Red
Mick with these sheep, or else fifty of his clan will swear that
he has been in bed for six weeks, or something like that."
"Then," she said firmly, gathering up the reins in her daintily
gloved hands as she spoke, "I'm going with you. I'm just as good
a witness as Poss or Binjie."
"No, no, no," said Hugh, "that won't do. There may be a row. It's
a rough sort of place, and a rough lot of people. Now look here,
Miss Grant, oblige me and go home. The horse will take you straight
back."