Soon
afterwards Julia went outside, walked round the hut, and stayed
awhile, listening and looking in every direction. When she returned,
Nosey said, in a hoarse whisper:
"Is he gan yet?"
"I think," replied Julia, "he won't be coming again to-night. He has
thrown away his trouble this time, anyhow; but ye must hould your
tongue, Nosey, if ye want to save your neck; he means to have you if
he can."
Nosey stayed on the run some weeks longer, following his sheep. It
would not be advisable to go away suddenly, and, moreover, he
recollected that what the eye could not see might some time be
discovered by another of the senses. So he waited patiently,
standing guard as it were over the dead, until his curiosity induced
him to pay a farewell visit by daylight to the place where Baldy was
buried.
There had been hot weather since the body had been deposited in the
shallow grave, and the crevices among the piles of bluestones had
been filled by the wind with the yellow stalks of decayed grass.
Nosey walked round his own particular pile, and inspected it closely.
He was pleased to find that it showed no signs of having been touched
since he raised it. It was just like any of the other heaps of rocks
around it. He had, at any rate, given Baldy as good a funeral as
circumstances would permit, better than that of many a man who had
perished of hunger, heat, and thirst, in the shelterless wastes of
the Never-Never Land, "beyond Moneygrub's farthest run.
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