The defenders
were armed with light sticks, and it was understood that these were to be
used only if the enemy refused to abide by Nature's weapons.
All the mines in the vicinity of Waddy worked short-handed on the day of
the Great Goat Riot; the men, under the command of Captain Peterson, were
sitting in bands, hidden from view in the quarries, smoking, discussing
the situation, and patiently awaiting the attack. They did not wait in
vain. At about eleven o'clock a scout came in with the intelligence that
a large body was advancing in irregular order through Wilson's paddock,
and a quarter of an hour later the men of Cow Flat swarmed out of the
bush and over the fence and charged Waddy at a trot.
'Toe the scratch, men!' yelled Peterson; and the defenders of Waddy
climbed out of the holes and presently turned a solid front to the enemy.
The Cow Flat commander, who had expected to take the place by surprise,
wavered at the sight of organised opposition and called a halt at the
other edge of the quarries; and invaders and besieged faced each other
across the broken ground while the Cow Flat leaders held a council of
war. On the level behind the entrenched army the women of Waddy and their
families were picknicking gaily on the grass, for it was accepted as a
great gala day in the township, and flags of all shapes and colours,
devised from all kinds of discarded garments, fluttered from tree-tops,
chimneys, posts, clothes-props, and any other eminence to which a
streamer could be fastened.
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