about three o’clock in the afternoon
The girl sat behind the bar -- the coolest place in the shanty -- reading ` Deadwood Dick ' . On a worn and torn and battered horse-hair sofa , which had seen cooler places and better days , lay an awful and healthy example , a bearded swagman , with his arms twisted over his head and his face to the wall , sleeping off the death of the dead drunk . Bill and Jim -- shearer and rouseabout -- sat at a table playing cards . It was about three o'clock in the afternoon , and they had been gambling since nine -- and the greater part of the night before -- so they were , probably , in a worse condition morally -LRB- and perhaps physically -RRB- than the drunken swagman on the sofa . Close under the bar , in a dangerous place for his legs and tail , lay a sheep-dog with a chain attached to his collar and wound round his neck . Presently a thump on the table , and Bill , unlucky gambler , rose with an oath that would have been savage if it had n't been drawled . ` Stumped ? '