About ten o'clock
I was sick of the shed and the life . It was within a couple of days of cut-out , so I told Mitchell -- who was shearing -- that I 'd camp up the Billabong and wait for him ; got my cheque , rolled up my swag , got three days ' tucker from the cook , said so-long to him , and tramped while the men were in the shed . I camped at the head of the Billabong where the track branched , one branch running to Bourke , up the river , and the other out towards the Paroo -- and hell . About ten o'clock the third morning Mitchell came along with his cheque and his swag , and a new sheep-pup , and his quiet grin ; and I was n't too pleased to see that he had a shearer called `` the Lachlan '' with him . The Lachlan was n't popular at the shed . He was a brooding , unsociable sort of man , and it did n't make any difference to the chaps whether he had a union ticket or not . It was pretty well known in the shed -- there were three or four chaps from the district he was reared in -- that he 'd done five years hard for burglary .