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followed by the two little girls, made his way out into the yards.

Ann drove the last sheep into the race as Marsh moved forward to meet “the boss”; and then while the two men talked together, the children joined Ann in the shade of the willows outside the post and rail fence.

After a moment the engine stopped. It was twelve o’clock, the shearers’ dinner time! Across the paddocks Biddy and Jo raced back to the homestead, and Ann followed more slowly with Holmes. She could see that something had put him out and concluded that the prospect of the poor clip was the cause of his annoyance. But when he spoke she realized that the worry, though more immediate, was less serious.

It appeared that Marsh and the burly half-caste were on bad terms, and the sheep-farmer’s chief preoccupation at the moment was to prevent any open disagreement.

“I wouldn’t have engaged Hicky’s gang if I hadn’t been forced to,” said Holmes. “One doesn’t want trouble at shearing time, and they’re both difficult customers to handle. However if they stick to their own jobs there’s no necessity for them to come up against one another. And Hicky spends most of his evenings at the Omoana ‘pub’.”

“Perhaps that’s the cause of the trouble,” said Ann shrewdly.

Holmes shrugged.

“It may be. A pity Rod has got mixed up with that crowd. He’s too fine a lad for them. However, he’s twenty-five and it’s his own business, not mine. All I ask is that he doesn’t let his private quarrels interfere with my work.”