Say, Ladyship, just you ask your husband what a sort of an insult he's got ready for YOU up at his Bachelor's Quarters at Moongarr.' The words had not left his mouth when McKeith's driving whip whizzed in the air and raised blood on the speaker's cheek.

Steadbolt dropped his hold of the roan leader's bridle and fell back screaming imprecations.
At a touch, the buggy-horses bounded forward.
'Sit tight, Biddy,' said her husband.

'Up you get, Cudgee,' he shouted.
The black boy leaped to the back-seat, and in a moment the buggy swerved by the bullock-dray that was drawn up a little further down the road, and the excited horses galloped past the nineteen public houses and the zinc-roofed shanties, past the new quarter of tents and whirring machinery, past the deserted shafts and desolate mullock heaps, then way out along the sandy wheel-track into the unpopulated Bush.
For the first mile scarcely a word was exchanged between husband and wife.

The horses were fresh and McKeith had enough to do to keep them from bolting.

Moreover, even in emotional phases, he was always silent while chewing the cud of his reflections.