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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343972" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Conroy's Gap</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">This was the way of it, don't you know -- <br>Ryan was &quot;wanted&quot; for stealing sheep, <br>And never a trooper, high or low, <br>Could find him -- catch a weasel asleep! <br>Till Trooper Scott, from the Stockman's Ford -- <br>A bushman, too, as I've heard them tell -- <br>Chanced to find him drunk as a lord <br>Round at the Shadow of Death Hotel. <br>D'you know the place? It's a wayside inn, <br>A low grog-shanty -- a bushman trap, <br>Hiding away in its shame and sin <br>Under the shelter of Conroy's Gap -- <br>Under the shade of that frowning range <br>The roughest crowd that ever drew breath -- <br>Thieves and rowdies, uncouth and strange, <br>Were mustered round at the &quot;Shadow of Death&quot;. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The trooper knew that his man would slide <br>Like a dingo pup, if he saw the chance; <br>And with half a start on the mountain side <br>Ryan would lead him a merry dance. <br>Drunk as he was when the trooper came, <br>to him that did not matter a rap -- <br>Drunk or sober, he was the same, <br>The boldest rider in Conroy's Gap. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;I want you, Ryan,&quot; the trooper said, <br>&quot;And listen to me, if you dare resist, <br>So help me heaven, I'll shoot you dead!&quot; <br>He snapped the steel on his prisoner's wrist, <br>And Ryan, hearing the handcuffs click, <br>Recovered his wits as they turned to go, <br>For fright will sober a man as quick <br>As all the drugs that the doctors know. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">There was a girl in that shanty bar <br>Went by the name of Kate Carew, <br>Quiet and shy as the bush girls are, <br>But ready-witted and plucky, too. <br>She loved this Ryan, or so they say, <br>And passing by, while her eyes were dim <br>With tears, she said in a careless way, <br>&quot;The Swagman's round in the stable, Jim.&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Spoken too low for the trooper's ear, <br>Why should she care if he heard or not? <br>Plenty of swagmen far and near -- <br>And yet to Ryan it meant a lot. <br>That was the name of the grandest horse <br>In all the district from east to west; <br>In every show ring, on every course, <br>They always counted The Swagman best. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He was a wonder, a raking bay -- <br>One of the grand old Snowdon strain -- <br>One of the sort that could race and stay <br>With his mighty limbs and his length of rein. <br>Born and bred on the mountain side, <br>He could race through scrub like a kangaroo; <br>The girl herself on his back might ride, <br>And The Swagman would carry her safely through. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He would travel gaily from daylight's flush <br>Till after the stars hung out their lamps; <br>There was never his like in the open bush, <br>And never his match on the cattle-camps. <br>For faster horses might well be found <br>On racing tracks, or a plain's extent, <br>But few, if any, on broken ground <br>Could see the way that The Swagman went. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When this girl's father, old Jim Carew, <br>Was droving out on the Castlereagh <br>With Conroy's cattle, a wire came through <br>To say that his wife couldn't live the day. <br>And he was a hundred miles from home, <br>As flies the crow, with never a track <br>Through plains as pathless as ocean's foam; <br>He mounted straight on The Swagman's back. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He left the camp by the sundown light, <br>And the settlers out on the Marthaguy <br>Awoke and heard, in the dead of night, <br>A single horseman hurrying by. <br>He crossed the Bogan at Dandaloo, <br>And many a mile of the silent plain <br>That lonely rider behind him threw <br>Before they settled to sleep again. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He rode all noght, and he steered his course <br>By the shining stars with a bushman's skill, <br>And every time that he pressed his horse <br>The Swagman answered him gamely still. <br>He neared his home as the east was bright. <br>The doctor met him outside the town <br>&quot;Carew! How far did you come last night?&quot; <br>&quot;A hundred miles since the sun went down.&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And his wife got round, and an oath he passed, <br>So long as he or one of his breed <br>Could raise a coin, though it took their last, <br>The Swagman never should want a feed. <br>And Kate Carew, when her father died, <br>She kept the horse and she kept him well; <br>The pride of the district far and wide, <br>He lived in style at the bush hotel. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Such wasThe Swagman; and Ryan knew <br>Nothing about could pace the crack; <br>Little he'd care for the man in blue <br>If once he got on The Swagman's back. <br>But how to do it? A word let fall <br>Gave him the hint as the girl passed by; <br>Nothing but &quot;Swagman -- stable wall; <br>Go to the stable and mind your eye.&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He caught her meaning, and quickly turned <br>To the trooper: &quot;Reckon you'll gain a stripe <br>By arresting me, and it's easily earned; <br>Let's go to the stable and get my pipe, <br>The Swagman has it.&quot; So off they went, <br>And as soon as ever they turned their backs <br>The girl slipped down, on some errand bent <br>Behind the stable and seized an axe. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The trooper stood at the stable door <br>While Ryan went in quite cool and slow, <br>And then (the trick had been played before) <br>The girl outside gave the wall a blow. <br>Three slabs fell out of the stable wall -- <br>'Twas done 'fore ever the trooper knew -- <br>And Ryan, as soon as he saw them fall, <br>Mounted The Swagman and rushed him through. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The trooper heard the hoof-beats ring <br>In the stable yard, and he jammed the gate, <br>But The Swagman rose with a mighty spring <br>At the fence, and the trooper fired too late <br>As they raced away, and his shots flew wide, <br>And Ryan no longer need care a rap, <br>For never a horse that was lapped in hide <br>Could catch The Swagman in Conroy's Gap. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And that's the story. You want to know <br>If Ryan came back to his Kate Carew; <br>Of course he should have, as stories go, <br>But the worst of it is this story's true: <br>And in real life it's a certain rule, <br>Whatever poets and authors say <br>Of high-toned robbers and all their school, <br>These horsethief fellows aren't built that way. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Come back! Don't hope it -- the slinking hound, <br>He sloped across to the Queensland side, <br>And sold The Swagman for fifty pound, <br>And stole the money, and more beside. <br>And took to drink, and by some good chance <br>Was killed -- thrown out of a stolen trap. <br>And that was the end of this small romance, <br>The end of the story of Conroy's Gap.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Andrew+Barton+Paterson">Andrew Barton Paterson</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343972" data-title="Conroy's Gap de Andrew Barton Paterson" data-description="This was the way of it, don't you know -- 
Ryan was &quot;wanted&quot; for stealing sheep, 
And never a trooper, high or low, 
Could find him -- catch a weasel asleep! 
Till Trooper Scott, from the Stockman's Ford -- 
A bushman, too, as I've heard..."></div>
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