The black boys went in with them to Pike's store to take back
supplies on the pack-horse. They travelled over the same country
that they had seen coming up; the men at the stations greeted them
with the same hospitality. Nothing was said about Considine's good
fortune. It was thought wise to be silent, as he didn't know how
soon his wife might hear of it.
They left the gins at the blacks' camp, which they chanced on by
a riverside. The camp was a primitive affair, a few rude shelters
made by bending bamboo sticks together and covering them with strips
of paper bark. Here the sable wariors sat and smoked all day long,
tobacco being their only civilised possession. Carew was very
anxious to look at them, a development of curiosity that Considine
could not understand.
"Most uninteresting devils, I call 'em," he said. "They're stark
naked, and they have nothing. What is there to look at?"
Having parted with Maggie and Lucy, they pushed onwards, the old
man beguiling the time with disquisitions on the horse-hunting
capabilities of his gins, whom he seemed really sorry to leave. As
they got near Pike's, he became more restless than ever.
"See here, Mister," he said at last, "my wife's here, I expect,
and if she gets wind of this, I'll never get rid of her. The only
thing to do is to slip away without her knowing, and she might never
hear of it. I won't go into the place at all. I'll go on and camp
down the creek, and get the coach there after it leaves the town,
and she'll never know."
The town of "Pike's" consisted of a hotel, a store, a post-office,
a private residence, and coach-stables; these were all combined in
one establishment, so the town couldn't be said to be scattered.
Pike himself was landlord of the "pub," keeper of the store, officer
in charge of the post-office, owner of the private residence, holder
of the mail contract, and proprietor of the coach-stables. Behind
him was only wilderness and "new" country.
Nobody ever saw him at home. Either he was on the road with a
bullock-team, bringing up supplies for the hotel and store, or he
was droving cattle down on a six months' journey to market; or he
was away looking at new country, or taking supplies out to men on
the half-provisioned stations of the "outer-back;" or else he was
off to some new mining camp or opal-field, to sell a dray-load of
goods at famine prices.
When Charlie and Carew rode up to the store they did not see Pike,
nor did they expect to see him. By some mysterious Providence they
had arrived the very day the coach started on its monthly trip
down to Barcoo; and in front of the hotel were congregated quite a
number of people--Pike's wife and his half-wild children, a handful
of bushmen, station hands, opal miners, and what-not, and last,
but not least, a fat lady of about forty summers, with flaring red
hair.