“Not too good. Something wrong with the governors,” answered a man who was cursed with an atrocious squint.

“Humph! Archie, you go out to Stewart’s Well and overseer that engine. Take the small truck. Bill, Mrs Poulton wants wood. Fetch her in a couple of loads.” Mr Stanton turned to a young man of perhaps twenty, fresh-faced, and written all over him the wordEnglishman: “Take the big truck into Mount Lion and bring out a load from Hugo, the storekeeper. When you come back I’ll smell your breath, and if I smell whisky you’re sacked. Whisky and petrol won’t mix.”

Four remaining men were given their orders for the day, and although the work set them, as well as the others, would be done easily by two o’clock, they would not dream of asking for fresh orders, since Stanton never gave orders twice on the same day. For perhaps nine months in the year the average daily hours of labour would not exceed six, but during the remaining three they might well average fifteen. Lamb-marking and sheep-shearing are busy seasons. Fires and floods call for incessant labour, and that labour is cheerfully given on the old principle of give and take.

Half-way back to the “Government House”-so-called because a great station is governed from a squatter’s home-Mr Stanton met Bony.

“Are you Mr Stanton?” asked the disguised detective.

“I am sometimes. The last time I was called ‘Mister’ Stanton was by a stranger two months ago. My name is Jeff Stanton. Up here we are out of the Mister Country.”

Bony’s face remained immobile. Stanton’s grey eyes examined him keenly from head to foot. Bony said:

“I’m looking for work. Is there any chance of a job?”

“Work!”Stanton suddenly roared, the blood surging up behind the mahogany tint of his skin. “I lay awake half the night thinking out what in hell I’ll give my men to do the next day, and you want to keep me awake another half-hour! Things are bad.” His voice rose. “What with the politicians and the taxes and the price of wool, I’m that close to the rocks that a cat’s hairain’t separating us. What can you do?”