{"product_id":"2940013745940","title":"Half Crown Bob","description":"Big, burly Tom M'Grundy, with the thirst of a sponge, features of a\u003cbr\u003ered, red nose, the heart of an angel, and the financial genius of a\u003cbr\u003eWilkins Micawber--his I. O. U.s and P. N.s would have covered the Old\u003cbr\u003eMan Plain with a pavement of tesselated indebtedness--drove up to the\u003cbr\u003eboats as they were raising steam for the trip to Echuca. They had\u003cbr\u003edropped down from the wharves overnight, and had tied up at the south\u003cbr\u003ebank of the Murrumbidgee, just below the bend in the stream where the\u003cbr\u003eone hundred and fifty acre police paddock runs into Mungadel Station.\u003cbr\u003eBoth the steamers--the Jessie Jane and the Resolution--were under\u003cbr\u003eM'Grundy's agency, and while there was no dodge that Mac could not\u003cbr\u003ework to steal a march upon an opposing firm--the rivers ring yet with\u003cbr\u003ethe way he \"did\" McCulloch's Hay manager (Fehon, present N. S. W.\u003cbr\u003eRailway Commissioner, was boss of the big concern then) out of £2000\u003cbr\u003eworth of wool freight--he was studiously just to the several owners he\u003cbr\u003erepresented. He tapped them for loans and drinks with equal\u003cbr\u003eimpartiality, and he gave the \"little\" men with the one cranky steamer\u003cbr\u003eand the solitary crazy barge the same show for cutting a plummy slice\u003cbr\u003eout of the rich cake of the season's wool-traffic, as he did the\u003cbr\u003e\"bigger\" men, who had half-a-dozen steamers and twice as many barges.\u003cbr\u003eNo flunkeyish, kiss-his-hand favouritism to the well-in owner was ever\u003cbr\u003eshown by Tom M'Grundy, and it would have been better for the small men\u003cbr\u003eon the rivers had all the agents and managers followed his lead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Jessie Jane was a small man's craft, skippered by its owner, and\u003cbr\u003eunder the double disadvantage of carrying with its cargo an eternally-\u003cbr\u003eon--the-eve-of-going-to-blazes boiler and a tremendous mortgage; while\u003cbr\u003ethe Resolution belonged to a man who was being helped literally by a\u003cbr\u003ebank, and who--though bound to go under some time like all bank-made\u003cbr\u003ecreatures (some day I'll recite certain legends of a Riverina bank-\u003cbr\u003esweating room)--would be \"on the top\" for five seasons or so.\u003cbr\u003eTherefore Tom M'Grundy would, without doubt, have found it in the long\u003cbr\u003erun much more to his own profit had he favoured the Resolution. But\u003cbr\u003ethat was not his way of doing business.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs he drew rein on the sandy hummock, he hailed the crafts which the\u003cbr\u003efreshet was jostling restlessly against one another. The gilded,\u003cbr\u003ebrassy Resolution, with a barge lashed a-beam, lay astern of the\u003cbr\u003ebeggarly Jessie Jane, which looked as if the current half-year's\u003cbr\u003einterest on the mortgage now just due would sink her to the bottom of\u003cbr\u003ethe river; and the big boat now and then stuck her nose more viciously\u003cbr\u003einto her shabby rival, as though she would smash her from very\u003cbr\u003econtempt. The Resolution and her barge were carrying twelve hundred\u003cbr\u003ebales of \"way back\" clips, and the tarpaulined pile towered\u003cbr\u003emajestically above the four hundred which were all the Jessie and her\u003cbr\u003ebarge were permitted by stern Tommy Freeman, the Echuca representative\u003cbr\u003eof the Melbourne Underwriters' Association, to load up with.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe contrast between the two crafts was so forcible, that even\u003cbr\u003eunreflective Tom Mac was struck by it, and hesitated, after hailing,\u003cbr\u003eas to whether it would not, as a mere matter of business, be the\u003cbr\u003ebetter policy to give the commission direct to the Resolution, instead\u003cbr\u003eof making it a matter of competition. Before he could decide, however,\u003cbr\u003eslim Jim Barton, owner and master of the Jessie Jane, was clambering\u003cbr\u003eup the bank in answer to his call.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Morning, Mr. Mac! What's up? Anything fresh?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Morning, Jim. Yes, there's a fresh freight offering, but I'm going\u003cbr\u003eto give you and the Resolution the chance of it. It will all depend on\u003cbr\u003ewho can get to Echuca first, and back to Mungadel!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh, racing!\" Jim's face, which had lit up with the agent's first\u003cbr\u003ewords, lost its animation. \"I'm not on. I can't race, and I'm not\u003cbr\u003egoing to run risks of that sort.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well,\" said sympathetic Mac, \"it isn't exactly a race, Jim. But look\u003cbr\u003ehere, wait till that lazy lubber of a Linton comes. Damn. You'd think\u003cbr\u003ethat chap was commodore of the Pacific squadron, he puts on so much\u003cbr\u003eside! Now, Linton--I say, Linton, Skipper Linton, hurry up, man!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Aye, aye, Mr. M'Grundy, I'm coming!\" and slowly, as became the\u003cbr\u003emaster of the dashingest new boat on the rivers, not to mention his\u003cbr\u003eantecedents as an officer of Money-Wigrams line, he walked from his\u003cbr\u003estate-room--they were \"state-rooms\" on the Resolution, and \"cabooses\"\u003cbr\u003eon the Jessie Jane--to the gangway. There he stopped.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070246437104,"sku":"2940013745940","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013745940_p0.jpg?v=1763589695","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013745940","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}