McKeith had set himself the task of opening up the fine country out West, which he knew only needed a system of irrigation by Artesian Bores to defy drought, the squatters curse.

That object once accomplished--he gave himself with luck and good seasons five or six years--there would be nothing to stop his becoming a patriot and a millionaire.
But Colin went slowly and cannily--and that was why the Leichardt's Land Government believed in him.

He had the reputation of never spending a penny on his private or public ambitions where a halfpenny would serve his purpose, and he was known to be a man of deep counsels and sparing of speech.

Thus, no one knew exactly what was his business down south at this time.

Only the general remark was that Colin McKeith had his head screwed on the right way and that some day he would come out on top.
But that there was deep down a spring of romance beneath that hard Bushman's exterior, Joan Gildea, herself a romance writer, guessed easily.