At about eleven o'clock a scout came in with the intelligence that a large body was advancing in irregular order through Wilson's paddock, and a quarter of an hour later the men of Cow Flat swarmed out of the bush and over the fence and charged Waddy at a trot.
'Toe the scratch, men!' yelled Peterson; and the defenders of Waddy climbed out of the holes and presently turned a solid front to the enemy.
The Cow Flat commander, who had expected to take the place by surprise, wavered at the sight of organised opposition and called a halt at the other edge of the quarries; and invaders and besieged faced each other across the broken ground while the Cow Flat leaders held a council of war.

On the level behind the entrenched army the women of Waddy and their families were picknicking gaily on the grass, for it was accepted as a great gala day in the township, and flags of all shapes and colours, devised from all kinds of discarded garments, fluttered from tree-tops, chimneys, posts, clothes-props, and any other eminence to which a streamer could be fastened.
Perceiving their opponents reluctant to charge, Peterson's command presently developed a fine flow of sarcasm.
'Won't ye stip over, ye mud-gropers ?' cried Devoy.

'It's a nice little riciption we've arranged for yez.
'Who stole the goats ?' retorted the enemy.
'Sure, is it the bits of goats, then?
Ye might come an' take them if ye won't be stayin' all day there dishcussin' polemics.' Devoy was understood to be a man of learning and unequalled in argument.
'Kidnappers an' goat-stealers!' yelled the foe.
Devoy posed on a rock in an oratorical attitude.
'Ye came suspectin' t' have a foine aisy time the mornin',' he said.

'Yez contimplated playin' the divil wid a big shtick among the weemin an' the childther.

Tom Moran, ye thunderin' great ilephant av a man, d'ye think ye cud fight a sick hen on a fince ?' Moran replied with uproarious profanity and frantic pantomime, and the abuse became general and vociferous.