CHAPTER 10.
Lady Bridget had read so far when the door of the bathroom opened and McKeith came out, clean again in fresh riding gear, and with a valise ready packed and strapped in his hand.
The noise of the cattle became much louder, though the mob was not yet in sight.
'I wish I hadn't got to go off before the branding,' he said.

'These Breeza Downs people always want to claim every cleanskin*.

You might tell Ninnis and Moongarr Bill, Biddy, to keep a sharp look-out.

And now let me have my grub--I'm sorry, dear, to have you hurry up your dinner.' He strode along to the dining-room, too absorbed in his own annoyances to notice his wife's face or to ask any questions about her letters.
[*cleanskin--unbranded calf] Lady Bridget gathered them up and followed him.

The Malay boy waited at table with the assistance of a servant girl from Leuraville, the only female domestic--with the exception of Mrs Hensor--on the head-station.
McKeith swallowed his soup and ate the savoury stew prepared by the Chinese cook with the appetite of a man who had been all day in the saddle.