You'd carry
her like a lamb if I let you."
Then the Maluka's reply came, and Mac whistled in amazement. "By George!"
he said to those near him, "she IS a goer, a regular goer"; and after
much careful thought wired an inane suggestion about waiting until after
the Wet.
Darwin laughed outright, and an emphatic: "Wife determined, coming
Tuesday's train," from the Maluka was followed by a complete breakdown at
the Katherine.
Then Darwin came in twos and threes to discuss the situation, and while
the men offered every form of service and encouragement, the women-folk
spoke of a woman "going bush" as "sheer madness." "Besides, no woman
travels during the Wet," they said, and the Maluka "hoped she would prove
the exception."
"But she'll be bored to death if she does reach the homestead alive,"
they prophesied; and I told them they were not very complimentary to the
Maluka.
"You don't understand," they hastened to explain. "He'll be camping out
most of his time, miles away from the homestead," and I said, "So will
I."
"So you think," they corrected. "But you'll find that a woman alone in a
camp of men is decidedly out of place"; and I felt severely snubbed.
The Maluka suggested that he might yet succeed in persuading some
suitable woman to come out with us, as maid or companion; but the
opposition, wagging wise heads, pursed incredulous lips, as it declared
that "no one but a fool would go out there for either love or money." A
prophecy that came true, for eventually we went "bush" womanless.
