The commodious station home destroyed, the Katherine bestirred itself
further in the speeding of its guests. The Telegraph came with the offer
of their buggy, and then the Police offered theirs; but Mine Host,
harnessing two nuggety little horses into his buck-board, drove round to
the store, declaring a buck-board was the "only thing for the road."
"You won't feel the journey at all in it," he said, and drove us round
the Settlement to prove how pleasant and easy travelling could be in the
Wet.

"No buggy obtainable," murmured the Maluka, reviewing the three offers.
But the Sanguine Scot was quite unabashed, and answered coolly: "You
forget those telegrams were sent to that other woman--the Goer, you
know--there WAS no buggy obtainable for HER. By George! Wasn't she a
snorter? I knew I'd block her somehow," and then he added with a gallant
bow and a flourish: "You can see for yourselves, chaps, that she didn't
come."



The Wag mimicked the bow and the flourish, and then suggested accepting
all three vehicles and having a procession "a triumphal exit that'll
knock spots off Pine Creek."

"There'd be one apiece," he said, "and with Jackeroo as outrider, and
loose horses to fill in with, we could make a real good thing of it if we
tried. There's Tam, now; he's had a fair amount of practice lately,
dodging round corners, and if he and I stood on opposite sides of the
track, and dodged round bushes directly the procession passed coming out