Return to the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  Both Jamie and Rob Roy had won small Maiden trials but it was a big step up to Open-class company. Angus did fairly well with Jamie until they got to the pen, when Jamie moved quickly, startling the sheep, and one sheep ran out. The ninety points he scored was one of the best rounds Angus had ever completed but it wouldn’t be good enough to get him into the final. Six dogs ran ninety-one and a real class dog ran a ninety-three, which put the pressure right on Angus and Rob Roy. Catriona, who was with her father for most of the trials, could see that he was very uptight.

  ‘Just relax, Daddy. Remember what David told you – a dog can detect if you’re nervous. Have a small whisky before you go out.’

  Angus had a drop more than a small whisky to calm his nerves, and suddenly he felt that he was going to do all right.

  In the next round everything fell Angus’s way, and Rob Roy performed to perfection. He ran a ninety-three to be equal top dog, and Angus realised he had a chance of winning the Open. He had done everything David had drummed into him and it had all worked. Catriona kissed him and told him he had done very well. Stuart, who had run second in the Improver Trial, nodded his agreement.

  As he walked Rob Roy back to his utility, fellow workers were calling to him ‘Good round, Angus’. For the first time Angus felt one of them. He realised he had always been regarded as an easybeat because he had never done well in the trial ring. People had used the blood of the dogs he had imported and had reasonable success, but he never had. With a ninety and a ninety-three on the scoreboard, Angus suddenly had confidence he had never had before. He also had confidence in his dog, which he recognised was streets above anything he had ever owned before. He remembered working Toss for Andrew MacLeod and how diplomatically Andrew had told him that the dog didn’t have it for Australian conditions. He owed both Jamie and Rob Roy to David’s expertise and his kelpies. He had been too biased and ignorant to use kelpie in his borders until David blasted him and called him pigheaded, which no other man had been game to do. It was a shame Jane wasn’t here to see him work his dogs, the show being too strenuous for her. He was pleased she was going to have the operation. He reckoned that he had a few years left in him to enjoy his retirement and so should Jane.

  That night David rang from Queensland and Catriona told him that her father was on equal top score with ninety-three and had run a ninety with Jamie.

  ‘Give Angus a big well done from me, Cat. Tell him not to forget to talk softly and encouragingly to Rob. He’ll know what I mean,’ David said.

  David had taken Rob Roy and handled him for Angus. The dog had a lot of ability but lacked confidence. By urging, encouraging and praising him with lots of ‘good dog, Rob’, David had got him responding very well. Rob would cast half a mile and he had great distance off his sheep. He had the knack of adjusting his distance to the pace of the sheep he worked – a valuable attribute in a trial dog, especially in the face of touchy sheep.

  It was touchy sheep that put paid to most of the dogs in the Open final. The dogs worked too close, frightening the sheep, and the sheep ran all over the ground. Catriona sat with her brother and father and watched as the three first finalist dogs foundered. Catriona had picked up a lot about sheepdogs from David. He had taught her how to work a dog and she had watched him at work with Rob Roy.

  ‘You’ll have to keep him right off, Daddy. These sheep are very touchy. As soon as a dog gets close to them they run.’

  Angus nodded. He knew what he had to do but anything could happen on the trial ground.

  Catriona watched anxiously as her father walked through the gate onto the oval. Angus was in his eighties and white-haired and this was the last time he would ever walk onto this oval. Ever since he took over Inverlochy from his father, Old Angus, her father had been the leading man of the district, but he had never won an Open sheepdog trial. David had to convince him that it wasn’t the size of the property or the number of sheep that mattered but the keenness and expertise of the handler. You didn’t need a lot of sheep and tons of work if you had the right strains of border collies. Kelpies needed more work and it was harder to get trial dogs from them unless you had certain key traits in your dogs. What David had done was blend the best traits of both breeds. And while a lot of Australian border collies had kelpie in them, not many people had kelpies like Nap and Clancy. That was what Rob Roy had going for him today. He had the blood of two great kelpies mixed with some of the best available border collie strains.

  As Angus Campbell walked out to the peg it was David MacLeod’s injunctions that were uppermost in his mind. ‘If you’re faced with touchy sheep keep your dog well out and well off them. If he casts narrow, he’ll spook them straight off.’ It had been David’s insistence on keeping Rob Roy until he was satisfied he would ‘run the fence’ that would help to make the difference now. Everyone else had failed to score above eighty-two in the final simply because they couldn’t handle the jumpy sheep.

  Angus sat Rob Roy well behind him and waited until the bell rang. He had noted that the wethers came out with their heads in the air and were certain to be lively. He let them wait and settle a little before casting Rob Roy to the right. True to his training, Rob ran the fence and finished a good twenty-five metres behind the three wethers. They had seen him but he was too far clear to give them any immediate cause for concern. When Rob stopped, they turned and looked at him. The next time they looked he was a few metres closer. They edged away and stopped and Rob crept cautiously towards them. The lead wether ran a few steps but as the dog hadn’t come on, he stopped again. This procedure went on all the way down the ground. Here the sheep had to be taken around a peg and they came fairly close to where the handler stood. Another of David’s injunctions popped into Angus’s consciousness: ‘On touchy sheep or near sheep of any description, don’t make any sudden movements. Don’t wave your hand quickly or speak loudly.’ So here he commanded Rob to back off as the wethers wheeled at a run to clear the peg.

  That was the first tricky peg negotiated. It was now on to the race that would be a real test because if you tried to put too much pressure on touchy sheep they were likely to break up and run down either side of the race. Every time sheep left the mouth of the race the dog lost points. Rob lost a couple straight off because the lead wether broke, and although Rob stopped him before he had run right round, it was still points lost, maybe two, possible three. It was up to the judge.

  It took some time to get the three wethers through the race and then it was on to the bridge. Again the lead wether broke and again Rob turned him back. The three sheep had their rear ends to the bridge and Angus shifted Rob to try and get the lead wether to turn away so that he didn’t have to bring his dog in. The trio of wethers found the bridge more inviting than the black-and-white horror facing them. The lead wether with the odd-sized horns ran up the ramp and then across it and his mates followed him.

  The final test was the pen. The wethers ran past the pen before Angus could get into his circle. Rob gathered them and placed them a few metres out from the pen and then began his hold-and-drive routine. He would move a little to one side and then as the sheep moved, he would come back to his original position. It was Clancy all over again, bamboozling the sheep with his footwork. They didn’t know which way to run because every time they moved, the dog was there. So slowly, ever so slowly, Rob moved them into the pen. Angus left his circle and shut the gate. He stopped his watch and saw that he had only just made it, with only a bare ten seconds left. He had put in a lot of time on the lift and pull – bringing the sheep down the ground to the handler – but it had made all the difference.

  ‘Good boy, good dog,’ Angus said softly, as he patted Rob Roy’s head before letting the wethers out of the pen.

  It was only at that moment that he became conscious of the sound of clapping and from out of the crowd he heard someone call ‘Good on yer, Angus’. He had no idea who had called but the words warmed his heart. Nothing he had ever achieved with his cattle came near to how he fe
lt at that moment.

  When he had put the sheep away he walked slowly around the oval to where he had left Catriona and Stuart. They were walking briskly towards him and as he got closer he saw that Catriona was crying. She was crying because she had just heard that he had won the Open Trial. Rob Roy had won it by seven points. Beyond his children he saw his daughter-in-law, Carol, who looked as if she was close to crying too.

  ‘Oh, Daddy,’ Catriona sobbed as she hugged him, ‘you were absolutely brilliant out there!’

  ‘Did I win it?’ Angus asked unbelievingly.

  ‘You won it, Dad, you’ve won. Well done!’ Stuart assured him.

  Angus had won the Open at last. He had won it because he had taken David MacLeod’s advice, and because David had done the spadework on his dog.

  ‘Did you see Rob at the pen? Just like Clancy, wasn’t he?’

  Catriona nodded. Nobody who had seen Clancy score the 100 points at the National would ever forget him.

  ‘David would have been very proud of you, Daddy,’ Catriona said through her tears.

  ‘I wish he had been here to see it. I couldn’t have done it without David’s help,’ Angus said.

  ‘What matters is that you’ve done it.’

  ‘By God, I have. Jane will get one hell of a surprise when I walk in and tell her,’ Angus said.

  ‘She certainly will,’ Catriona laughed.

  Later, at the presentation of trophies, Catriona felt tears well up again as she stepped forward to present the Andrew MacLeod Memorial Trophy to her father.

  ‘It gives me enormous pleasure and pride to not only be asked to represent the MacLeod family but to present the Andrew MacLeod Memorial Trophy to my father, Angus Campbell. This trophy was inaugurated by him to honour the memory of Andrew MacLeod, whose dogs won so many trials on this ground.

  ‘This is one of the few trophies that have eluded my father since he began exhibiting animals in his own right fifty-odd years ago. My father has always loved sheepdogs and imported border collies from Scotland and some of you here today probably have the blood of those dogs in your own dogs. This is my father’s last trial, as he is retiring. To win it caps a lifetime of breeding high-class animals. I know there is nothing that could give him greater pleasure than to take home this award,’ Catriona said.

  Angus was clearly affected by his daughter’s words and it took him a few moments to compose himself and respond. Finally he mustered a weak smile as he stepped forward to accept the trophy.

  ‘Catriona has stolen my thunder because she has said what was in my heart and mind to say. There is nothing that could give me greater pleasure than to be able to say I won the Andrew MacLeod Memorial Trophy because I donated it to honour the memory of the first man who showed me how to work a sheepdog. If I had not been so pig-headed, maybe I would have won the Open here many years ago. I stuck out for pure borders until my son-in-law, David MacLeod, took me to task and persuaded me to use his two great kelpies Nap and Clancy with my borders.

  ‘This is my last trial, but it’s a fairytale ending. And it isn’t the last you’ll see of the Campbells because my son Stuart will carry on with the dogs and there is a grandson, Angus MacLeod, who can work a dog a long way better than I can. So, to use the words of the old Campbell march, Baile Ionaraora (“The Campbells are coming”) … Cruachan! (the war cry of Clan Campbell).’

  Angus shouted drinks for the triallers and then in a high state of euphoria, compounded by four stiff whiskies, set off for Inverlochy. He was followed, for safety’s sake, by Stuart and Carol, who had seen him imbibe the whiskies.

  At the Inverlochy homestead Stuart and Carol left Angus to break the news of the Open win to Jane. Angus let out his dogs and after tying them up he picked up the big trophy and sash and walked a little unsteadily up the back steps. The house was still and quiet. It was the housekeeper’s day off, and there was no sign of Jane.

  ‘Jane,’ Angus called, ‘Jane, I’m home. Jane, you’ll never guess what happened.’

  But there was no answer from Jane.

  Angus walked from the kitchen to the lounge room, to find Jane lying on the big sofa with an arm trailing on the floor. It almost held the book she had been reading. Angus stiffened and put down the trophy on the table. His first thought was that his wife had fallen asleep and he shook her slightly to check if he was right. When she didn’t respond, he sat down on the floor beside the sofa and began to stroke her hair. Presently, he got up and went into the bedroom for a covering. He came back with a blanket of the Campbell tartan that he had bought on his last trip to Scotland, and placed it over his wife’s body.

  He then went to the phone and rang Stuart. He told him that his mother had passed away, and asked him and Carol to come to the homestead. Catriona was evidently feeding the dogs and he had to wait to give her the news.

  Catriona got through to David at Aberfeldy. He listened gravely as his wife gave him the news of Jane’s death.

  ‘What is it, Dad?’ Moira asked. She sensed it was bad news.

  ‘Jane died this afternoon, Moy. Angus found her on the sofa when he arrived back from the trial,’ he said.

  ‘Oh no, that’s terrible. Poor Grandma. And she had finally decided to have the operation,’ Moira said gravely, taking a seat as she absorbed the shock of the news.

  ‘I’m afraid she left it too long, Moy.’

  ‘We’ll have to go back in the morning, Don,’ David said later to his manager. We’ll get up early and hit the track. Cat must be feeling very down – Jane had leant on her so heavily of late. Not to mention poor Angus. It must have shattered him to find her like that. He won the Open with Rob Roy and had the big trophy in his hands to show Jane when he found her,’ David said.

  ‘Oh, Dad. How awful. Poor Grandpa. What will he do without Grandma?’

  ‘Goodness knows, Moy. I’m trying to think how old I was when I first met Jane Campbell. I used to think she was very stuck-up even though she once put on a party for me, after I rescued Cat from the likes of Stanley Masters and Wade Missen. Jane put on a heap of tucker – chocolate cake, and all that sort of stuff. Then she sent what we didn’t eat home in a big box.’

  ‘Was that after they gave you the saddle?’ Moira asked.

  ‘Oh, yes. Jane thought they were better than us but she came good at the end. She asked me to go and see her because she had something she wanted to tell me,’ David said.

  ‘Which was?’ Moira urged.

  ‘It was a private conversation, Moy. I think your grandmother knew her days were numbered. All I will say is that it took a lot of guts on her part. I reckon Jane had more to her than what showed under that society veneer.’

  So they returned to High Peaks after detouring first at Inverlochy to see Angus and Stuart. Catriona was with her father and helping him to make arrangements for the funeral.

  Anne was much saddened by Jane’s death because, as David had told Moira, her first outings in the Merriwa district were tennis parties at Inverlochy. She and Jane had been friends ever since those days and although there had been some acrimony because of the Campbells’ objections to Catriona marrying David, Anne had weathered that and had seen her son accepted well and truly by the Campbells. True, Jane had often come across as superior and patronising, but at heart she and Angus were good people. It had been Angus who had looked after Anne after her fall just before David was born while Andrew had been away at the Forbes sheepdog trial.

  Dougal and young Angus came home for the funeral, as did Stuart and Carol’s children, so all the younger generation were in the church for the service. Some very complimentary things were said about their grandmother. There was reference to her standing in the district and her interest in art and charity work. It was a very big funeral and some Campbell relations had come all the way from Scotland to attend it. David met many of Jane’s relatives for the first time. Some were very posh indeed. After the funeral there was a great gathering of friends and relatives at Inverlochy. It was as if Jane had brou
ght them to her for one last occasion. Angus felt that Jane would have approved as she always liked to have people around her.

  Those closest to Angus were most concerned about what he would do now. He immediately rejected the idea of going to Port Macquarie to live on his own. He wanted to stay close to his kin. He had a housekeeper and he said that if he got too useless to look after himself, he would employ a nurse. Catriona was much relieved by this edict. Her father was within reach at Inverlochy and she could keep an eye on him there a great deal easier than if he were on the coast. Jane’s death ushered in one of the most depressing years David had experienced. This was an admission of a nature not usually associated with David because he was regarded as one of the most positive people anyone could meet. Cattle prices remained low, wool was ‘on the nose’ and at the end of the year he had an almighty row with Dougal.

  David was not against Dougal being a vet. If he had to be anything, a vet was the best choice, for Dougal could become involved in David’s artificial insemination program for his sheep flocks, and advise on lifting the standard of his Herefords even higher through embryo transplantation. Sarah Matheson had intervened to help with the AI program but embryo transplantation was another matter.

  But Dougal had ambitions which were beyond the scope of David’s plans for him. He finished vet school equal first and immediately left for South Australia to do a course in embryo transplantation, though not because of anything David wanted. He then spent six months with a large horse practice and announced that he was going to the United States to do a special course in equine reproduction. David hit the roof and there was a blazing row.