Tens into that seventeen days.
Give 'em a week over for unforeseen emergencies, and call it four weeks."
It sounded quite cheerful and near at hand, but a belated thunderstorm or
two, and consequent bogs, nearly doubled the four weeks.
Almost every day we heard news of the teams from the now constant stream
of travellers; and by the time the timber was all sawn and carted to the
house to fulfil the many promises there, they were at the Katherine.
But if the teams were at the Katherine, so were the teamsters, and so was
the Pub; and when teamsters and a pub get together it generally takes
time to separate them, when that pub is the last for over a thousand
miles. One pub at the Katherine and another at Oodnadatta and between
them over a thousand miles of bush, and desert and dust, and heat, and
thirst. That, from a teamster's point of view, is the Overland Route
from Oodnadatta to the Katherine.
A pub had little attraction for the Sanguine Scot, and provided he could
steer the other Macs safely past the one at the Katherine, there would be
no delay there with the trunks; but the year's stores were on the horse
teams and the station, having learnt bitter experience from the past, now
sent in its own waggon for the bulk of the stores, as soon as they were
known to be at the Katherine; and so the Dandy set off at once.
Pages:
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164