The Call of the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘Now, what on earth is Angus doing up here?’

  They went down to the horse yard and were surprised to find that there was a very large Hereford bull on the back of the truck.

  ‘’Day, Angus, what brings you up here?’ Andrew asked. He thought Angus might have been delivering Catriona on his way to taking the bull to a client, but Catriona was not with her father and was not due to arrive until midday. ‘And what’s that you’ve got there?’

  ‘G’day, Andy, David. It’s a bull.’

  ‘I can see it’s a bull, Angus. What are you doing with it?’

  ‘I thought you might be able to use it. I’ve been using it myself, but he’s past the age I sell working bulls. Got a fair bit of Vern blood in him. I know you’re trying to get a decent little herd together and, begging your pardon, that bull you’re using leaves a lot to be desired.’

  ‘Now, look here, Angus, if you’re doing this because of what happened with Catriona, forget it. I told you that any man worth his salt would have done just the same as we did. I can’t afford a bull as good as that fellow, and until I can, I’ll get by with what I can afford.’

  ‘I’m not asking you to buy the bull. You can use him for a couple of seasons to upgrade your females and then put another good bull over them,’ Angus suggested in a conciliatory tone. He was aware how thin-skinned Andy was when it came to money matters.

  ‘I don’t like taking things for nothing. It’s very decent of you to offer me the bull, but I like to pay my way.’

  ‘Don’t be so stiff-necked, Andy. If you want to pay for the bull, you can either help me out with breaking in some of my horses or you can swap me a horse or shear some of my rams. Tim seems to be too busy to handle our horses any longer.’

  ‘How many horses have you got to handle?’ Andrew asked.

  ‘Six or seven. The best of the crop,’ Angus answered.

  ‘How much is the bull worth?’

  ‘Well, now, that’s hard to say. He’s an old fella.’

  ‘How much, Angus?’ Andrew persisted. ‘A thousand, two thousand, three?’

  ‘Somewhere about that,’ Angus said airily. The bull was actually worth three times that amount, but he wasn’t going to tell Andy that.

  ‘I’d still be in your debt. I don’t like being in debt. The bank was bad enough.’

  ‘If you would take a horse on and draft it, maybe win a Maiden draft, that would suit me,’ Angus suggested. It was what he’d had in mind all along. He had been trying to build a name for his horses for years, but not being the horseman Andrew was – or that a lot of other stockmen were – he hadn’t achieved the status he’d been looking for.

  Andrew looked up at the bull and considered the proposition with his usual care. There was no doubt that the bull was a clinker, worth a lot of money. Angus only ever used the best bulls in his stud herd. The Inverlochy herd was by far the best in the district. It was full of Colly Creek and South Boorook blood with some extra Vern blood tossed in. On the one hand, Angus had made a very neighbourly gesture and Andy would look small if he refused it. On the other hand, he did not want to owe Angus any favours.

  David listened to this interplay between his father and Angus Campbell with great interest. He was well aware how fiercely independent Andy was, and for one long, horrible moment he thought his father might refuse Mr Campbell’s offer of this wonderful bull. And it was a wonderful bull: as long as a wet week with terrific hindquarters and a great bull’s head. David could picture it standing among the cows down on their bottom country, and he knew it would sire great calves.

  ‘All right, I’ll accept your offer,’ Andrew said. ‘But I’ll work the bull out to my value. Agreed?’

  ‘If that’s what you want,’ Angus said as they shook hands on it. ‘Can we take him off?’

  ‘Back your truck up to the ramp. Will he lead?’

  ‘Oh, yes. We taught him to lead as a calf. He’s been to the shows,’ Angus said.

  Andrew nodded. He thought he had seen the bull before today and he was definitely worth more than Angus had suggested. The only factor that pulled his price back a bit was his age. Still, Angus must be going soft.

  They walked the bull off the truck and Andrew put a headstall on him. Close up, the bull was even bigger than he had appeared on the truck.

  ‘Colly Creek would have been proud to offer this fellow,’ Andrew said. It was a compliment that he knew would impress Angus. Colly Creek had been a famous name in the Hereford world before its dispersal.

  Angus nodded. ‘He’s a fair bull and we’ve got some good young stock by him. He should do the job for you. Now I must be going, but I’ll be back with Catriona in a little while.’

  ‘Wow,’ David exclaimed excitedly, as soon as Angus had driven away. ‘Can I tell Mum?’

  ‘Tell away.’

  David shot off to give his mother the news about the bull and to urge her to inspect it immediately.

  ‘My God, it’s a monster,’ she exclaimed when she laid eyes on the animal at the end of the halter.

  ‘He’s been to the shows, that’s why he’s so quiet,’ David explained. He walked up to the bull’s head and began scratching the short white hair in the dish of his head.

  ‘David, get away from him,’ Anne yelled. ‘If that bull wanted to, it could toss you to kingdom come. Those horns would go right through you.’

  ‘He’s as quiet as a lamb, Mum,’ David said as he went on scratching the great head.

  ‘Famous last words, David. You are not to go near it. You can’t trust bulls. Isn’t that right, Andy?’

  ‘Mum’s right, Davie. Never take a bull or a stallion for granted and never turn your back on them. This fellow is too big to meddle with. Quiet he may be, but a bull can do anything.’

  ‘Andy, you surely didn’t buy him?’ Anne asked.

  ‘No, Anne. It seems that Angus feels he is in debt to us, so I told him I would work off the bull’s cost. He makes our old bull look very ordinary.’

  After a somewhat closer, albeit cautious, examination of the bull, Anne retreated to the house with a reminder that smoko would be ready in a few minutes. ‘You should have asked Angus to stay for it,’ she said.

  ‘He was in a hurry, Anne. He had something else to do before he brings Catriona back.’

  There was a very good reason why Angus had had to leave in a hurry, and that reason was contained in a large cardboard box which had been delivered from Tamworth that morning.

  This box was on the back seat of Angus’s car when he delivered Catriona to High Peaks just after midday. Angus managed to carry it into the house unseen by David and his father, who were out taking the bull down to his new paddock. Angus left Catriona with Anne and drove back to Inverlochy. He was well pleased with his efforts that morning.

  ‘I must say, you’ve made a remarkable recovery, Catriona,’ Anne said as she inspected her.

  ‘I did have a little mark on my face but thankfully it has healed up now.’

  Anne never looked at Catriona without regretting the fact that she had been unable to have a daughter. Catriona really was an enchanting child, with her beautiful golden curls and brown eyes. Her clothes were always of lovely quality and seemed as if they were made for her. That day, she was wearing a cotton frock of tartan pattern in soft blues and her hair was set off with a matching tartan ribbon.

  ‘And how is your pony?’

  ‘She’s very well, thank you. Her hair has grown again and you wouldn’t know anything had happened to her,’ Catriona said.

  ‘You must be pleased about that. David told me she is a very nice pony.’

  ‘I am pleased, yes. Where is David, Mrs Mac?’

  ‘Oh, he and his father took their horses and have gone off with the new bull. But of course you would know about the new bull.’

  ‘Daddy did say something about it. Will they be long?’

  ‘They were warned not to be, and they knew you would be here at twelve. They’d better not be late. How is school?�
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  ‘School is school. This is my last year at home. I’ll be going to school in Sydney next year.’

  ‘What do you think about that?’

  ‘I’m not too keen on the idea, but Stuart goes to Scots and I have to go to PLC. It’s expected of me,’ Catriona said.

  ‘Oh, dear,’ Anne said with reserve, holding her tongue about what she really thought of sending children away to boarding school.

  ‘There isn’t a suitable school in town, you see,’ Catriona added.

  Anne understood why Jane Campbell might have given her daughter this message. Although government schools provided a good education, they did not provide the polish that the Campbells demanded for their children. Anne believed, however, that children paid a price for their years away, their very important formative years. She certainly wouldn’t like to lose David for six years. He was too much of a free spirit to transplant into what would be a totally foreign environment for him. There were people who said the MacLeods were ruining their son by not making him do other things, such as taking him to sports practice on weekends, but Anne knew that her son was not cast in the mould of other boys. He was immensely gifted with animals, and one day he would inherit High Peaks, which was his whole life. True, she would like David to mix more with other children, something he had always shied away from doing. At least today was a start, with Catriona coming to his birthday.

  As if reading Anne’s mind, Catriona asked, ‘Why doesn’t David have other boys here for his birthday? I have several girls over for my parties.’

  ‘David doesn’t make many friends. He gets on well enough with most children, but there’s nobody very special. You see, Catriona, David spends most of his time here on the property. I just can’t tear him away.’

  ‘It’s a wonder that he bothers with me,’ Catriona said in her curious young grown-up way.

  ‘Well, you have a common interest of horses. And your father is keen on sheepdogs, so that’s something else you share.’

  ‘I see,’ Catriona replied, stealing glances around the room to see if David was on his way. ‘Why have you set the table for five people, Mrs Mac? Shouldn’t there only be four places?’

  ‘My younger sister is due here any minute. She was leaving Sydney early this morning. Katie always tries to be here for David’s birthdays as he is her only nephew and she is very fond of him.’

  ‘Have I met her before?’

  ‘Not for some years, since the very bad bushfire that went through part of Inverlochy. You were all evacuated to the school. I think it may have been the year you began school. You may not remember Katie, but you probably remember the fire.’

  ‘My word I do. Thankfully, the wind changed or we would have lost the house. But no, I don’t remember your sister. Is she like you?’

  ‘Katie is a little like me, although more of a tomboy. She has been all over the world and done some extraordinary things, like hiking through the Himalayas and climbing the Swiss Alps. When she comes to High Peaks she spends more time outdoors with Andy and David than she does inside with me.’

  ‘Is she a teacher like you were?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘No, she’s a theatre sister at one of Sydney’s biggest hospitals. And a very good one, too.’

  ‘Is she married?’

  ‘No, she has never married. She came very close to it once, but the young man she liked married someone else. She has never found the right person since.’

  One thing Catriona liked about David’s mother was the fact that she treated her more like a grown-up than a little girl.

  ‘Every couple of years Katie goes overseas to see some new place, and every other year she comes and stays with us.’

  ‘What does David think of her?’ Catriona asked with real interest.

  ‘He likes her a lot. She’s such a down-to-earth person and she doesn’t make a fuss of him. They get on famously.’

  ‘Mummy says that David is just like Mr MacLeod, or at least he will be when he gets older. Do you think so too, Mrs Mac?’

  ‘I don’t know what Andy was like as a boy. His father was in the army for five years and Andy only had his mother to depend on. He grew up a very quiet, self-sufficient young man. David takes after him in a lot of ways. I’ve tried to show David that there are other things in life outside High Peaks, although so far I haven’t made much headway. David is rather keen on reading, though, whereas Andy only reads the rural papers.’

  At that moment they were interrupted by the sound of a car approaching outside. Katie Gilmour had arrived. She was driving a new red Falcon and although she had wanted to announce her arrival by blowing the horn several times, she knew better. A few years earlier she had been given a dressing-down by Andy. He had been breaking in a young horse and the sound of the horn nearly put the colt over the top of the horse yard.

  ‘Kate!’ Anne screamed with delight as she flew down the path to greet her sister.

  ‘Anne!’ Kate shrieked in reply and threw her arms around her older sister.

  ‘You look wonderful,’ Anne said as she inspected her.

  Kate Gilmour was taller than her sister (as a child she had often been described as gawky) but she did not have Anne’s striking looks. She was not unattractive, except that she had a rather long nose in a longish face. Her eyes were a shade lighter brown than her sister’s and full of mischief. They alternately flashed and glowed. Her hair was dark and lustrous like Anne’s, and when out riding she often tied it in a ponytail with a piece of string or baler twine. Dressed now in yellow slacks and a cream silk blouse, Kate looked anything but the tomboy Anne knew she would become before the day was out.

  ‘Come on in – lunch is ready. You always arrive on time. I’ll ring the bell for the others.’

  Andy and David were cantering up the horse paddock, having delivered the new bull to his harem. They had inspected him with approval for a final time. Their old bull had been cut out and turned into another paddock for the time being. They had seen the red vehicle arrive and, from a distance, thought at first it was Wilf White’s utility. Kate had driven a green car on her last trip.

  David’s face lit up when he saw his aunt and his smile made Kate feel warm inside. If there was any person outside her parents and Anne for whom she had a special love, it was her nephew.

  ‘Hello, Andy. Hi, David,’ she called to them as they rode into the house yard. Both riders dismounted with the ease born of long practice.

  Kate envied them their closeness with horses. She wanted to get on a horse right now and canter away down to the creek and then up into the hills.

  ‘My, you have grown so much since I saw you last,’ Kate said as she hugged David and kissed him. ‘And I’ve been hearing some wonderful things about you … rescuing a damsel in distress and saving her pony.’

  ‘Aw, Dad did the rescuing,’ David muttered, ‘I just rode her pony.’

  ‘Yes, I heard all about that, too. I mean to go and look at that spot. How are you, Andy?’ She gave her brother-in-law a kiss on his cheek and a pat on the arm. She admired Andrew for what he had done on High Peaks. He had worked himself into the ground and it showed in the lines of his face and the grey streaks in his hair.

  ‘Not too bad, Kate. The season is fair and prices are reasonable. Looks like the Vietnam business has fizzled out. Don’t see why we had to be involved anyway. It’s their business, not ours. It didn’t help our wool prices. Not like the Korean show. Got yourself a new Ford?’

  ‘Yes, I thought I would invest in a new car, and maybe do a few longer trips around Australia.’

  ‘Come on, you lot. Let’s talk inside. We’re keeping our other guest waiting,’ Anne said.

  David rolled his eyes and Kate caught his gesture. She waited until Anne had turned away and then bent and whispered in David’s ear, ‘Who is it, Davie?’

  ‘Catriona Campbell,’ he growled.

  ‘So this is the girl you and Andy rescued, is it?’

  ‘That’s her. I don’t know why Mum had
to invite her here for my birthday. I asked her not to.’

  But when Kate got an eyeful of Catriona she had a very good idea why Anne had invited the little girl. Catriona was very well spoken with lovely manners, and she was quite at ease in the presence of three adults. She was still a little in awe of Andy, but after that day on the mountain he had assumed an almost god-like stature in her mind and, unlike David, he even talked to her.

  This day was turning out to be no different in that regard. David virtually ignored her. He had more important things to concentrate on, like doing justice to the lunch his mother had set out, and after lunch there would be presents. That was always exciting.

  Because of the hot summer weather, Anne had settled for a salad lunch rather than a hot meal. The only concession to this was a dish of small potatoes baked in their jackets, which both Andy and David liked a lot, especially with butter and cream. There was cold turkey, fowl and ham, and their own home-grown tomatoes and lettuce in a special tossed salad with Anne’s own mayonnaise. This was followed by a dessert of fruit salad and ice-cream, small slices of cold watermelon, and nuts, and the special treat of jellied sweets.

  In the centre of the big table stood David’s birthday cake, complete with eleven candles. It was a double-decker cake filled with jam and cream. All in all it was a meal calculated to satisfy even David’s appetite.

  Throughout the meal Anne noticed that Andy’s eyes kept flicking to the clock on the mantelpiece. Her husband’s preoccupation with the clock began to get on her nerves, and at last she could restrain herself no longer.

  ‘Andy, are you in a hurry to go somewhere, somewhere more important than your son’s birthday lunch?’

  ‘Not at all. What makes you think that?’ Andy asked pleasantly.

  ‘Because you can’t keep your eyes off the clock. Are you expecting someone?’

  ‘Now, why would you ask that?’

  ‘You can’t fool me, Andy, you’ve got –’

  Anne’s words were halted in mid-sentence by the sound of a vehicle outside. She went to the front door and looked out. ‘Who do we know who owns a green truck and a yellow horse float?’ she asked.