But the drilling and the hoarse cries of the hardworked sergeants seemed endless, and Cameron wandered on and watched the riding and shooting tests which separated the genuine bushmen from the counterfeits, who swarmed here, as easily as the winnow separates the grain from the chaff. At last the squads broke up, and the men mixed with the crowd or went off, mopping their steaming faces, to their tents or the canteen.
Mortimer broke loose from the men around him, and went instantly to Cameron, whom he had quickly seen while drilling. He carried him off direct to his tent.
’I’m awfully sorry to have kept you waiting so long,’ he said. ’Here, try this deck-chair, it’s more comfortable than that bench. And what will you have to drink? Oh, I know, you like lemon squash.’ He turned to a rough-looking fellow at the door. ’Go down to the canteen, Brady, like a good fellow, and get a jug of lemon squash. Here’s the money.’ He turned back to Cameron. ’I’d have given anything to get away when I saw you, but you can guess what it is out there.’
’Yes, yes,’ said Cameron, ’it doesn’t matter; it was all interesting. I have been looking about.’
’Is all well up there?’ he said. ’It isn’t often you come down.’
’Nothing’s wrong,’ said Cameron, ’I came down to meet my wife, that’s all.’
’Of course, of course,’ said Mortimer; ’stupid of me. I was reading about it only this morning in the paper—about the big welcome the citizens intend to give your little girl. There is to be a launch—the Government launch, isn’t it?—and the mayor and no end of people are going up the harbour to meet her.’
’You’ve been consulted about it, surely?’ said Mortimer warmly. ’They’re not doing all this without referring to you?’
’I’ve had no fixed address since I came down,’ he said. ’They’ve overlooked me, I suppose, because they don’t know I exist; I hardly do, you know.’
’Are any of the others down with you?’ asked Mortimer—’Bart or Roly or any of them?’
’Oh no,’ said Cameron. ’Some one has to mind the landed property against my return.’
’And are they all well?’ pursued Mortimer. ’Roly—wasn’t Roly looking a little thin before I left?’
’Oh no,’ Cameron said, ’he’s right enough. The girls feel the life more than he and Bart. My eldest girl seemed very off colour when I left?’