The Call of the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘Now, that is a horse,’ the sergeant said when David led him across to the fence.

  ‘That he is,’ David agreed. ‘He was the top stock-horse sire in Queensland.’

  ‘You taking mares to this fellow?’ Hooper asked.

  ‘No, not yet. Maybe never. We want a year or two of him for our own use. Greg is all for it, so we’ll see how he shapes up before we decide. He isn’t young, and we’d like to get as many foals by him as we can.’

  ‘How are things going with Greg?’

  ‘He’s a top bloke and we think he’ll make a good stockman. He’s taken a big load off my shoulders. Not that Dad is useless, but we don’t want him doing too much.’

  ‘Damned shame.’

  ‘Look, about your horse breeding. As I told you, we’re negotiating to buy Glen Morrison, the place across the road from Poitrel. There’s a piece of it that would be ideal for horses. It runs up into hills, which is what you need. The black country is too soft and heavy to produce good-footed horses. If we get that place I could cut you off that bit of ground.’

  ‘But you don’t owe me any favours. Why would you do that?’ Hooper said.

  ‘A lot of people have dreams they never realise. Maybe I can help you fulfill yours. I’d like to see you breed a few thoroughbreds. You might give Angus Campbell a bit of opposition. You should contact old Wilf and ask him for his ideas on making a start.’

  ‘Is he still keeping well?’

  ‘Seems to be. We exchange phone calls now and then. He still wants to know how his mares are doing. He even pays us a yearly visit; stays with Kate and Jean. Angus has been very keen for us to send Ajana to a blood horse, maybe on the shares. I might yet do it, mainly for Wilf’s sake. I’d like to breed something from her that could win a race or two. It would give the old chap a big lift.’

  ‘How much land do you reckon there is in this section you refer to?’ Hooper asked.

  ‘Perhaps two hundred acres. There’s a nice area on the road where you could build a house, put up sheds and grow some lucerne. There aren’t many good little blocks available in this district.’

  ‘You let me know if you buy that place, David. I’m interested.’

  When Sergeant Hooper had left, David walked back into the house and sat down at the kitchen table. He was frowning, and Anne sensed that he was worried.

  ‘You worried about Bill and Wade, David?’

  ‘Sure I’m worried, Mum. They’ve got a mean streak in them a mile wide.’

  But as the winter drew on there was no more word of the Missen boys’ release. It now seemed that they would serve their full nonparole period, which would have them out in the next summer.

  There were plenty of other things to occupy David’s attention. He had agreed to do the film so long as he had technical control, and not until the following year. He compromised to the extent that he suggested some filming be done at shearing time and when they were bringing sheep down from the hills. This delay actually suited the film company because they had to engage child stars to play David and Catriona as children. These children had to be schooled in handling horses and dogs, and this would take time. In the meantime David had to try and win Catriona’s parents over, and he knew this wouldn’t be easy. Catriona was thrilled about the film, but he wasn’t ready for it.

  Shearing came and went and some filming was completed. This included routine sheepdog work around the yards and in the shed.

  ‘I’d like to see some rain,’ David said to his father one evening as they sat together on the verandah watching the last sunlight of the day slip away. They had experienced a wonderful autumn and had gone into winter with a big volume of feed, although the heavy frosts had dried and bleached the grass. There had been very little late-winter rain, and spring had been dry. Andrew said he had only seen seasons like that when he was a boy.

  When September passed into October and there had been no worthwhile rain, David started putting out mineral blocks for the stock. Although there was plenty of dry feed, it had very little nutritional value, and sheep and cattle couldn’t consume enough of it to convert into proper sustenance. The blocks contained urea, which broke down the cellulose in the dry feed and enabled animals to convert it more efficiently. But the cattle were not putting on much weight.

  At the end of October, a dry westerly wind began to blow, and it blew for several days. It was at that time that the MacLeods received word that the Missen boys had been released. Stanley Masters, however, was kept inside after having been involved in a knifing incident.

  Angus and David agreed that Catriona shouldn’t be left on her own. Catriona complied very reluctantly as she felt that Bill and Wade would never be foolish enough to attack her again, especially without Masters. But the grudge Bill and Wade harboured was against David, not Catriona, and it had festered during their time in prison. Bill and Wade knew that if they stepped one inch out of line, David would come down on them like an avenging lion. But if they could get back at MacLeod without him knowing about it, that would be a different matter.

  The dry spring and gusting westerlies provided the solution Bill and Wade had been looking for.

  Kate was driving down the road from Poitrel on her way to surgery very early one morning when she saw a grey utility parked at the side of the road. Kate stopped her car and got out. There didn’t seem to be anyone close by and her first thought was that someone might be trying to pot a rabbit or a wallaby. Shooters were rife in the area. She looked up the hill and saw two men trying to hide themselves behind trees. But that was not what sent her heart pounding. Just above where the men were skulking was a line of flames. And as she watched, the flames flared out across the paddock.

  Kate took out her notebook and wrote down the number of the utility and then got back in her car, turned it around and headed straight for Poitrel. The first person she rang was David.

  ‘There’s a fire been started between here and your boundary. I think it might have been started by the Missen boys because I saw two men hiding in the trees, although they were a fair way away so it’s difficult to say. There was a grey utility parked off the road as well – luckily I have its number. Please ring the police. I’ve got to get to the hospital. There’s an emergency there. Ring Angus to get the fire engines going, and let the Hamiltons know the fire’s near their boundary. Jean will stay here today and start the sprinklers, but the wind is taking the fire up the hill, not in our direction. I’ll get her to bring the animals into the yards just to be on the safe side.’

  ‘Good on you, Kate. And take your gun with you when you go to town. You never know what those mongrels might do.’

  ‘I reckon they’ll be long gone by the time I get there,’ Kate said. ‘But if I have to, I’ll give the buggers a fright.’

  Sergeant Hooper had to be woken but was all business when he heard David’s news. ‘Right, we’ll spread the word and get a couple of cars out looking. What was the vehicle’s number again?’

  ‘Dad! Mum!’ David roared as he put the phone down. His parents were still in bed and often got up a little later now they had Greg Robertson to help. Greg was living in a three-room cottage they’d had built for him during the winter.

  ‘What is it?’ they called.

  ‘Kate’s just rung. There’s a fire in the front paddock at Poitrel. She thinks the Missens started it. They must have been out at dawn in the hope that they’d get well clear before anyone was about. The police are on the way. Mum, will you ring Angus and either Troy or Walter Hamilton? Angus can rouse out his fire team and the Hamiltons may want to shift stock. Hell, a fire with a westerly like yesterday and we’ll be in real trouble. Dad, I’ll get the horses. You and Greg better take some dogs and get up to Yellow Rock. We’ll have to try and get what stock we can mustered and back here behind the creek. Maybe you could muster to the boundary and Greg could take them from you and push them back to the creek. Mum, can you look after the stock below us? Bring them all up and put them in the yards. It’s the hill o
n Poitrel that’s the big worry. If the wind gets up like it did yesterday, the fire will roar up that hill like a train.’

  Fortunately it was dawn and the wind was little more than a breeze, giving the MacLeods and their neighbours time to get themselves organised. Later in the day, when the wind would be at its strongest, they would have little hope. And, luckily, most of the sheep had congregated around watering holes for their early drink and had not yet dispersed back into their daytime haunts. The bulk of the Poitrel wether flock was spread out across the hill country between the boundaries of High Peaks and Strath Fillan. These sheep had to be shifted first because they were in the most immediate danger.

  By the time David, Andrew and Greg reached the High Peaks–Poitrel boundary fence, the fire had taken hold and was about a quarter of a mile further up the hill than Kate had reported. The smoke and flames had frightened the sheep up the hill so they were now in plain view of the riders. A fire travels very fast uphill, and with the westerly behind it all of the Poitrel high country could be devastated, or the slightest wind change could send it roaring off in a different direction. If the fire teams and their neighbours arrived in time, they might just be able to isolate the fire to Poitrel, but you couldn’t get a fire vehicle very far up the hill. The pinching-off had to be done by men carrying backsprays and wet bags, which was dangerous business; the only refuges would be clumps of large rocks.

  ‘We’ll collect the sheep we can see in front of us and you take them down through Yellow Rock and over the creek. It doesn’t matter if they get mixed up with the High Peaks sheep. You can take them all back. When you’ve got the first lot over, come back to Dad for the next lot. Push them, Greg. Time is everything,’ David said urgently.

  He left his father to gather in the nearest sheep and rode off across Poitrel to look for others. Andrew was using a black and tan bitch called Tess and he sent her out in a big sweeping cast that encompassed all the sheep they could see directly in front of them. These sheep were uneasy in the smoke-laden air. David left that lot to his father and rode on. The mobs were smaller now and in rougher places. He put two small mobs together and pushed them hard with Nap and Clancy, who was back in action again at last. Greg had not returned by the time David pushed his mob through the gate into High Peaks. He saw his father coming from the direction of Strath Fillan with another mob of perhaps 300 sheep. The fire was now about halfway up the hill and the wind was definitely picking up. He splashed some water from his water bottle into his hat and gave Nap and Clancy a drink. Although still early morning, it was oppressively hot and the dogs were tonguing. They had had a fast run from the house through to Yellow Rock to begin with.

  David paused before riding back into Poitrel. As he looked down the boundary fence, he saw a line of men climbing the hill. Crikey, the firefighters have moved, he thought. They would never stop the fire front-on with the wind blowing it in their faces. So much depended on the wind. Right now the westerly was driving the fire uphill towards Wallaby Rocks. If it reached there – and David knew there was nothing to stop it – the fire could go down the other side and perhaps burn for days in the rough country on the eastern side of the range. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar horse come into view from the direction of High Peaks – it was King with Catriona riding him hard.

  ‘I left Stuart with Anne,’ she said. ‘They’re bringing the cattle and ewes up to the house. And you won’t want to know this, but three of the film people are on their way here.’

  David slapped his hand against his thigh. ‘Hell. I forgot they were due here today. But at this hour?’

  ‘They stayed in town last night and heard from someone at the hotel that there was a fire here and they apparently shot off as fast as they could. They arrived at High Peaks about half an hour ago and got Anne to saddle them three quiet horses. They’ve followed me down to the creek.’

  ‘Then they’ll lose themselves on Yellow Rock,’ David said.

  ‘No. They’ve teamed up with Greg.’

  ‘Can they ride?’ David asked.

  ‘Not very well, and one is carrying a big camera.’

  ‘The mad buggers will kill themselves on the mountain. Crikey, Cat, I don’t have time for this!’

  ‘They said they wouldn’t get in the way; they just want to be here.’

  ‘Jesus. Cat, keep your eye on them, will you?’

  ‘Okay. Is there anything else I can do?’ she asked.

  ‘Make sure the fire doesn’t come in behind you and those blokes and cut you off. You can take that mob Dad is bringing now down to Greg. That will save some time.’

  ‘I haven’t got a dog, David.’

  ‘I know that. Take Nap. He’ll work for you. I’ll use Clancy.’

  When Catriona arrived back from driving the first lot of sheep down to Greg, she found Andrew holding a small mob of about a hundred sheep. Andrew was looking into the pall of smoke that now covered the upper hill country. Not far from him the three men from the film company had set up their camera and were filming the activity around them.

  Just at that moment David appeared from out of the smoke with another fifty or so sheep. ‘They’re getting harder to locate,’ he said. ‘I saw another lot near Wallaby Rocks.’

  ‘David, let them go,’ Andrew cautioned.

  ‘I’ve still got time. I can’t let them burn to death,’ he said.

  ‘Better the sheep than you,’ Andrew said grimly.

  And then David was gone and, as a gust of wind momentarily cleared the smoke, they saw him heading along the side of the ridge for Wallaby Rocks. At that moment the fire roared up over the ridge and they knew that unless David saw it and galloped back, he would be cut off. The film-makers captured him turning in the saddle and looking behind at the fire, but he had sent Clancy after some sheep and he would never leave his dog.

  ‘David,’ Catriona called out desperately, but he wouldn’t listen. Even above the roar of the flames they could hear David’s voice calling, ‘Clancy, get up. Get up, boy.’ Clancy pulled himself up over one big boulder after another until he was sitting right on top of a mammoth bare rock half the size of a house. And then the fire roared across the ridge and down the other side. Finally they could see David no longer. He was lost in a sea of smoke.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Catriona was screaming and crying alongside Andrew as he looked grimly into the fire-ravaged scene of desolation. Two of the film-makers were gazing with open-mouthed horror at what they had just seen, but this didn’t stop the third man filming. Catriona made an attempt to ride closer, but Andrew caught King’s bridle and brought her back. She was still screaming hysterically, and finally Andrew threw a pannikin of water in her face. That stopped the screaming but great sobs still racked her body.

  There was absolutely nothing anyone could do until the fire burnt itself out on the ridge and the main fire front passed down the eastern slope.

  It took more than half an hour to burn up the scrub and dead timber on the ridge and then the fire surged on down the slope, more slowly now that the wind was not behind it.

  ‘Where’s David?’ Greg asked, appearing from behind.

  ‘In there,’ Andrew said, pointing into the thick, choking smoke on the ridge. ‘Tie the dogs up so they can’t follow me. They’ll burn their feet if they do. I’m going over there to find him, one way or another.’

  ‘I’m going with you,’ Catriona said through her sobs.

  ‘It would be better if you didn’t,’ Andrew said gently.

  ‘No, it wouldn’t. King will take me anywhere.’

  ‘All right,’ Andrew said with resignation. ‘Pick your way. There’s a lot of logs still burning, and trees. Keep clear of them. If your horse collects a hot cinder, you’ll have a job getting him any further. Greg, you hold this mob here until we get back.’

  ‘Where’s Nap?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘I thought he was with you,’ Andrew said.

  ‘He was and then he wasn’t,’ Catriona sai
d.

  Andrew shook his head in despair at the devastating situation. ‘Those Missen boys have got a lot to answer for.’

  They picked their way across the blackened, smoking ridge and bypassed burning stumps and logs. Their horses, well-schooled though they were, were nervous of the flames and smoke. They reached the monstrous boulders up which Clancy had climbed, but there was no sign of the dog. They continued riding right around the rocks. No dog, dead or alive, greeted their anxious eyes.

  ‘Look, there’s a burnt sheep,’ Catriona said. ‘And there’s another.’

  Andrew’s concern increased. If these sheep were in the mob David had tried to rescue, the fire must have overwhelmed them. But why only two? They did not find any more burnt sheep or see any sign of Nap or Clancy. As they dipped down off the ridge towards Wallaby Rocks, the smoke and flames were thicker; there were more logs and they were still burning.

  ‘Catriona, there’s just a chance …’ Andrew said hesitantly. ‘That big cave. David would have had that in his mind all the time, to fall back on.’

  ‘Do you think he could have made it in time?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘If I know David, I reckon that’s where he would have made for.’

  Together they rode along a sheep pad in an eerie world of smoke and burning bushland. A tree crashed down on the ridge above them and caused their horses to prance nervously. It was getting difficult to see much for the smoke, and Andrew handed Catriona his big handkerchief. ‘Tie it over your nose and mouth.’

  ‘Please, God, let David be there,’ Catriona said.

  ‘Better get off,’ Andrew said.

  He waited until Catriona had dismounted and then they picked their way across the still-smoking ground towards the front of the cave. Catriona dropped King’s reins and ran ahead. Andrew picked up the reins and followed more cautiously.

  Catriona stopped at the cave’s entrance and peered inside. The scene that met her eyes was one she would never forget. The first thing she saw was a red and tan dog, which she knew was Nap by the grey on his muzzle. He stood sentinel at the mouth of the cave with his head pointed towards a small mob of sheep. And then, as Catriona’s eyes became more accustomed to the gloom and smoke inside the cave, she saw David, his horse and another red and tan dog. David was dripping water from his water bottle onto Clancy’s feet and the dog was making little whimpering noises.