‘Did the Sheik Ibrahim drink claret, or go to the theatre, leaving his flocks and herds to the Bedaween?’ said Mr. Forbes. ‘Some people appear to be able to combine the pleasures of all religions with the duties of none.’
‘Smart antithesis, James,’ said Churbett approvingly. ‘I’ll take another cup of tea, please, to keep. I’m going to read Sydney Smith in the verandah after breakfast. Yes, I _am_ proud of that theatre exploit. Few people would have nerve for it.’
‘You would have needed all your nerve if you had found a hundred and fifty fat cattle scattered and gone next morning,’ said Mr. Forbes, a quietly sarcastic personage.
‘But they were _not_ gone, my dear fellow; what’s the use of absurd suppositions? We got back before daylight. Not a beast had left the camp. Now there are a great many people who would never have thought of doing that.’
‘I should say not,’ said Hamilton. ‘Fred, your natural advantages will be the death of you yet. Come with me, Effingham, if you want to see the dam and the old horse. They are our show exhibits, and we are rather proud of them.’
Walking through the garden to the lower end of the slope upon which the homestead of Benmohr was built, Wilfred saw that the course of the creek, dignified with the name of a river, had been arrested by a wide and solid embankment, half-way up the broad breast of which a sheet of deep, clear water came, while for a greater distance than the eye could reach along its winding course was a far-stretching reservoir, lake-like, reed-bordered, and half-covered with wild-fowl.
‘Here you see our greatest difficulty, Effingham, and our greatest triumph. When we took up this run a shallow stream ran in winter and spring, but in summer it was invariably dry. This exposed us to expense, even loss. So we resolved to construct a dam. We did so, at some cost in hired labour; a spring flood washed it away. Next year we tried again, and the same result followed. Then the neighbours pitied and “I told you so’d” us to such an extent that we felt that dam _must_ be made and rendered permanent. We had six months’ work at it last summer; during most of the time I did navvy work, wheeling my barrow up and down a plank like the others. It was a stiff job. I invented additions, and faced it with stone. That fine sheet of water is the result of it; I believe it will stand now till the millennium, or the alteration of the land laws.’