by Anne Hampson
'I had no idea kookaburras were golden and perfumed,' from Cherry in soft impassive tones. 'And for your information, Lin, they laugh—quite heartily, I believe.'
'Of course they do! I remember now. The first settlers didn't like them at all, did they?' Lin stopped and became thoughtful. 'Never mind all that; let's get back to this question of whether or not we're taking this bloke's advice—'
'It's twenty-five minutes past eight,' ventured Cherry, rising from her chair and carrying her crockery to the sink. 'If the car should break down—'
'There you go again.' broke in Lin with an exasperated glance in her direction. 'Why should it break down? You're always meeting trouble half-way. Either it's the electricity might go off, or the water pipe might burst if we don't lag it.'
'Both are contingencies for which I like to be prepared. You grumbled when I asked you for a third towards the butane stove, but you were jolly glad of it when the electricity failed. And downstairs they did have a burst pipe during the frost just before Christmas, but we didn't.'
'Well, if the car breaks down there isn't anything you can do, so forget it. Now, Kate, where were we? I have a feeling you're not inclined to take this fellow's advice after all?'
'After all?' Kate's brows lifted a fraction. 'I never for one single moment intended taking his advice. Our plans are made and we're not changing them, not for Mark Copeland and the rest of the Outback squatocracy put together!'
The other two became eager, Cherry saying in her customary quiet manner that they would show this arrogant gentleman that they were not in the least afraid of the rigours of the Outback, and Lin declaring vehemently:
'We'll show him! You're right there, Cherry! He's going to look—and feel—ridiculous when he sees that we're more than capable of managing this outfit! Why, with all those cowboys— With all those stockriders,' she amended on noting the expression on Cherry's face, 'there'll be no work much to do. We'll just supervise.'
Kate did look a little doubtful all at once and a frown creased her brow.
'It's a very great undertaking,' she began, when Lin interrupted her.
'There'll be a foreman and we'll learn from him. Anything as large as High Creek Downs will practically run itself. It can't be much trouble, otherwise this Mark couldn't have managed it as well as his own station.'
'That's true,' Kate agreed, but felt forced to add, 'You're sure you still want to risk it? I mean, giving up your jobs…'
'Certainly we want to risk it,' from Cherry over at the sink. 'This dull round's been getting both Lin and me down for a long while. You teach a class, then it leaves you just as you're becoming attached to the kids. You begin all over again with a new lot, teaching them what you taught the others last year, and so it continues, becoming more and more monotonous all the while.'
'I'd love to teach,' returned Kate with a tinge of regret. 'I often wish I'd gone in for teaching, but at the time being a secretary appealed to me. However, it doesn't matter now,' she added brightly, and both her friends agreed.
The following weeks were full of excitement at the prospect of the new life upon which they were about to embark. It was also a busy time of preparation and of selling their furniture and everything else they did not want.
Mr. Waring had at first been rather shocked at the idea of the three girls going out to Australia, and also he was not at all pleased that Kate had written personally to Mark Copeland. Like him, Mr. Waring had pointed out that it was not the correct procedure.
'I don't agree,' said Kate, already becoming filled with the confidence attending great wealth. Lin had declared her to be a millionairess, and as such she was not going to be admonished by this ancient man with the sagging chin and sparse white hair. 'This Mark Copeland is at the present time employed by me. You do realize that, Mr. Waring?'
'He manages the property, yes.'
'Then he's in my employ. Naturally I shall write to him, if I feel it's in any way necessary.'
'Well, Miss Beresford,' began Mr. Waring in his thin, rather feminine voice, 'I should not do that any more if I were you. His solicitor's written—' Breaking off, he sorted through a mound of papers on his desk and brought out a letter—and as all he did was to tap it several times with a long bony forefinger, Kate did wonder why he had put himself to all that trouble. 'He instructed them to inform me that he has no intention of entering into any private correspondence with the new owner of High Creek. He knows of course that you and your friends are determined to go over there in spite of his good advice, but his solicitors stress that you must not contact him personally about any matter at all. You must find your own way to this property—'
'Find our own way?' with a tinge of hauteur totally new to Kate. 'What makes him think we can't find our way about?'
'The Outback's notorious for its vastness, Miss Beresford, and it is not easy to find one's way about, simply because you have miles and miles of scrub and semi-desert. You can't fly all the way to this station. I suppose you know that?'
'Of course we know. We're going to buy a car when we arrive in Brisbane, and drive from there. We decided to do it this way so that we can see something of the country.'
A pale enigmatic smile. Obviously Mr. Waring did not applaud an idea like that. But the girls were bent on adventure and as long as they planned their route carefully there could not possibly be any snags. Cherry was dependable; she was also a geographer and both Kate and Lin had full confidence in her ability to plan the latter part of the journey to High Creek Downs.
'Well,' Lin was saying a few days before their departure, 'everything appears to be moving just as it should. That woman from over the road is buying the cooker, and Mrs. Downstairs wants the table and chairs. One of the teachers at school is interested in the car and I think he'll buy it in the end. He's wrangling over the price at the moment, but I'm not giving the darned thing away.'
'But why give yourself trouble?' demanded Kate with a shrug of her shoulders. 'We don't need the money.'
'You're the wealthy one,' Lin pointed out. 'We're still counting every penny.'
'I don't want you to. And about your salary—'
'Wages. We're only helpers on the ranch now.'
Kate laughed.
'You're just dying to get into the saddle, aren't you?'
'I love riding, you know that. Unfortunately I can't do as much as I'd like owing to the cost. They've just put it up again at the riding school.'
'Returning to the question of your—wages. I'm paying you the same as you're getting now.'
'Not likely! We're in this for the adventure.'
Kate shook her head. This was not the first time they had had this argument.
'I must pay you what you're getting now, Lin. It's good of you to come and help me run the place, so why should you lose by it?'
'I've just said, we're in this for the adventure. We persuaded you—because we were fed up and wanted a change. This inheritance of yours was a heaven-sent opportunity. I myself have always wanted the wide open spaces, and although I've never mentioned it, I'd have emigrated to Australia, and worked on one of these stations, had it not been for the fact of not wanting to leave you and Cherry. We've been together a long while, Kate.'
Kate nodded. They were all in the sitting-room, and with the antique plates having been sold, the twenty-seven holes in the walls were laid bare. Cherry had tried filling them with some plaster she bought in a tube, but as it kept falling out she gave the idea up.
'We've been together a long while,' Kate agreed presently, then reverted to the question of the girls' wages. Some argument followed, but Kate finally had her way. She also insisted on paying the fares, later, when she received the money for the thousands of beef cattle which, she expected, would be sent off to market at the appropriate time. Meanwhile, of course, the girls were compelled to draw on their savings, which had been meant originally for a holiday in Spain.
When at last everything had been sold, and the tickets bought, the girls were beco
ming more and more excited: Lin in an exuberant way, Kate a little more subdued and Cherry managing successfully to conceal her true feelings. But her friends knew her and secretly they smiled at this familiar veneer of calm.
'Everything appears to be perfect,' sighed Lin as they ate their final breakfast in the flat. 'Just think, in about a week to ten days we shall be residing in a Regency mansion!'
Kate and Cherry laughed.
'I wish I'd been able to get a photograph of the place,' said Kate. 'Mr. Waring promised to send for one, but he's such a funny man—so fussy, and he seems to be in a dream half his time. You'd think he'd retire, wouldn't you? I'm sure he's been a good solicitor in his time, but he's certainly past it now.'
As neither of the other two was particularly interested in Mr. Waring and his shortcomings as a solicitor the conversation became centred on the more exciting matter of the flight to Brisbane and the overland journey from there which the girls had planned. With her customary meticulous care Cherry had contacted a motoring organization and the route had been worked out for her. If they did not want to camp there were isolated cattle stations en route at which they could put up, the owners being used to this sort of thing. But from the first it had been settled that the girls should camp.
'I want to be wakened by sun-up,' declared Lin. 'I want to hear the dawn chorus of the kookaburras and magpies and mudlarks! I want to wash in the cool clear waters of the billabong!'
'Billabongs are usually dry,' commented Cherry in her calm and quiet tones. 'In any case, they're cut-offs and the water would be stagnant.'
'Why do you always take the romance out of everything?' demanded Lin with a frown. 'You might be the geographer, but I do happen to know that billabongs can form beautiful lagoons.'
A faint smile from Cherry, and a nod, but that was all. Lin went on to repeat that everything was just perfect.
'Everything except our neighbour, the high-and-mighty Boss of Cunya River Downs,' she added with a grimace, and Kate's head lifted… in the only way the head of a millionairess could lift.
'He won't be troubling us,' she returned shortly, 'because we shan't be having anything whatever to do with him.'
'Which shouldn't be difficult, seeing that the stations are so vast.'
'They join, though,' Cherry put in. 'We're bound to come across him some time.'
'Not unless we happen to be at the boundary at the same time as he—which isn't in the least likely, not when you consider the length of that boundary. It's a million to one chance of our ever meeting him.'
Cherry glanced at the clock as Kate was speaking. It was time they made a move, she said, rising and picking up her plate.
Lin rose also, but proceeded to do a jig round the kitchen.
'Aren't we lucky having an heiress for a friend! Kate, my love, I thank you with all my heart!'
'If you would wipe the stove down,' began Cherry, running water into the sink. 'Mr. Brown's coming for it before he goes to work.'
'Lord, what a girl! Cherry, what's the betting I get a man before you do?'
'You're really serious? You expect to find a husband in the Outback?'
'You bet your sweet life I'm expecting to find a husband in the Outback!'
'And leave me flat?' Kate's hazel eyes twinkled, then became questioning as Lin shook her head.
'He'll come and work for you. It'll be fun having my husband riding along by my side all day.'
'I expect,' murmured Cherry in affable tones, 'that I'm to be the maid-of-all-work.' She passed a cup to Kate who had picked up a tea-towel. 'Kitchen and food and all that. The men eat enormous meals of mutton, even for breakfast, so I'll be spending my life cooking.'
'You will not,' promptly rejoined Kate. 'Why, you've said all along that it's the outdoor life that's attracting you—just as it is Lin.'
'I did say that, and it is. But on thinking about this business of running so vast an establishment I can see myself in the house most of the time.'
'You know why?' Lin shot the question at Kate. 'Cherry will never rest unless she's there to watch those lubras. And she'll be worrying about electricity failures and burst pipes and any other snags which are likely to occur. You're a fussy old maid, Cherry! Don't expect to find a husband if you continue to be so concerned about the mundane things of life all the time, and spend half your time preparing emergency programmes the way you do.'
'Some men like their wives to be efficient in the house, and to be ready when things go wrong.'
Lin shrugged, declaring that the only man Cherry was likely to get would be one like herself, a fusspot who would be so busy anticipating trouble that he'd have no time for the romantic side of marriage.
Cherry said nothing; she had her own ideas and nothing would change them. Some day, she told herself, there would come along the right man for her; and he wouldn't consider her fussy at all, but merely capable.
'I shall make sure there are enough maids in the house,' promised Kate, adding that as her uncle had had that mean streak he might have economized on household expenses. 'More lubras will be employed if that's the case,' Kate went on. 'You're certainly not slogging over a hot stove all day, Cherry. I know you're right about the enormous meals the men eat, and as there are so many men employed I expect the cooking does go on all day. But you are certainly not doing it.' The two girls were by the sink and for a moment they regarded one another in silence: Cherry, blonde with soft grey eyes and decidedly attractive features; Kate, dark-haired with hazel eyes, widely-spaced beneath a high intelligent forehead. Her skin was clear and peach-tinted—slightly darker than that of Cherry, who rarely had colour in her face, but who somehow suited the pallor which was relieved only when she blushed. Kate's features were finely etched, with delicate contours and a retroussée nose that added an elfin-like quality to her face. Slender and of medium height, she often gave the mistaken impression of fragility. 'You shall ride with Lin and me, supervising the stockriders and all the others employed on the estate.'
CHAPTER TWO
After flying to Brisbane, where they remained just long enough to buy and equip a big overlanding car, the three girls began their long journey which took them through the Great Divide and on across a vast landscape characterized by eucalypts and brigalow scrub, followed by what seemed like an endless expanse of dry semi-desert and mulga. This gave way eventually to a region of bare rock and sand and spinifex scrub. At night the girls made camp, cooking a meal on the butane stove which Cherry insisted on retaining even though everything else in the flat was sold. There might just be an electricity failure at High Creek Downs some time, she had said, and no amount of persuasion would make her part with the stove.
'You see,' she remarked in her quiet gentle way as she produced the meal all nicely heated up, 'I know what I'm about, Lin.'
'We could have bought a similar stove in Brisbane,' Lin pointed out, but added at once, introducing a hint of admiration into her voice, 'I hand it to you, Cherry—' She accepted the plate of stewed meat and vegetables being passed to her as she sat on the groundsheet they had spread out under some stunted gum trees. 'We'd be lost without you.'
Cherry smiled and handed another loaded plate to Kate.
'I reckon we'd all be lost without each other now—after all these years,' she said, tipping out the rest of what was in the pan and sitting down to eat it. Kate glanced affectionately at her, inclined to agree that what Cherry had said was true. Cherry was the practical one, always prepared for any emergency; Lin provided the humour and moral uplift when things went wrong. It was her boast that she had no idea what was meant by pessimism. Kate was inherently compassionate and it was to her that Cherry turned on the death, three years ago, of her only brother. He had been killed in a road accident and without Kate's sympathy and help Cherry would undoubtedly have suffered a nervous breakdown. What was going to happen when they all got married? Kate wondered, then immediately put the thought from her. Time enough to worry about that if and when the eventuality arose. Meanwhil
e she and her two friends were looking forward to enjoying themselves at High Creek Downs, where everything would be new and exciting.
'Well, girls,' Lin was saying in a rather dreamy voice, 'this is our last night out here in the wilds. By tomorrow lunchtime we should be arriving at Kate's stately home.'
'I must admit I'm dying to see it—now that I've got used to the idea of being rich,' Kate added with a rather deprecating smile. 'I expect it'll be terribly old-fashioned inside—with dark paint and cumbersome furniture, I mean. But we'll soon put that right, once we're settled in.'
'And once the cattle are sent off to whoever buys them. I wonder what time of the year that will be?' Lin added musingly. 'In the meantime we'll have to go carefully, because we've blued in most of our money on the car and equipment.'
'It'll be quite simple to be thrifty, because there aren't any shops,' put in Cherry, reaching for a currant loaf and removing the wrapper. 'Are you ready for your sweet?'
'Please. Can't we have butter on it?'
'Of course; there's the dish. Help yourself.'
The sun flared across the opalescent landscape of plain and undulation; it was sinking rapidly and a miracle was unfolding before their eyes. The acacia scrub was vibrating with transient colour, every shade of crimson following one upon the other, swiftly. Bronze crept unobtrusively in, only to vanquish the crimson and gently clothe the landscape with a less flamboyant hue.
'Isn't it wonderful?' Kate breathed a deep sigh, her whole mind alert to this incredible phenomenon of nature of which she knew she would never tire, no matter how many times she should see it repeated. 'We're very lucky…'
'You're dead right about that,' came the swift and enthusiastic rejoinder from Lin. 'And Cherry and I are especially lucky in having an heiress for a friend. Who would ever have thought, a few weeks ago, that we'd be doing this now?'
'I hope it all comes up to expectations.' Kate looked from one to the other a trifle anxiously. 'Many people have emigrated to Australia and then disliked it intensely, and gone back to England just as quickly as they could.'
