by Anne Hampson
‘Roads?’ with a lift of one arrogant brow. ‘I understood that only bush tracks went to that property.’
‘That’s what I mean. We can’t be back for dinner.’ ‘Gran Amelia’s peevish enough without you adding to it by your absence from dinner. She likes us all there, you know that... even if she doesn’t always speak to us,’ he added with a sort of grim humour.
‘All right; we’ll try to be back - but don’t send out a search party if we aren’t back; I’m not likely to get bushed.’ Thane’s eyes ran over her.
‘I don’t suppose you are, not so close to home. However, make an effort to get back for dinner - in fact, I’ll expect you back,’ he added on a note of finality, and without giving Dena further opportunity of arguing he strode away in the direction of the stockyard.
The holding which Colin had bought lay to the south of the
Bradon ranch, so that now that Melville Downs was occupied Colin was Thane’s nearest neighbour, being only about fifty miles away, over the bush tracks. The homestead was a low rambling building with a corrugated iron roof and a verandah along the front. Even before Dena parked the utility the men were out on the front, waiting, smiles on their faces.
‘So you did persuade Loren to come?’ Colin’s gaze became fixed on her face, admiringly. ‘I was worried in case you wouldn’t come,’ he said to her, his blue eyes smiling and a hand lifted as if he would like to take hold of hers with it. ‘Dena told Ian that she wasn’t sure whether you’d want to come, but said she would ask you. Welcome to Melville Downs; it isn’t anything like Moonrock, as you can see.’ He swept a hand deprecatingly and for a fleeting second a scowl darkened his handsome features. Loren blinked. It would almost seem that already Colin was disssatisfied with his purchase. Ian, on the other hand, talked enthusiastically of the property as they all sat on the verandah drinking lime juice and soda.
‘I’ve practically made up my mind to join Colin,’ he said, darting a glance at Dena, who was looking into the shimmering heat haze to where, some three miles away, the sails of a windmill could be seen over the one and only bore. The windmill pumped up subterranean water to a storage pool from where it was piped to troughs.
Dena turned her head and a slight frown hovered on her brow.
‘It requires a good deal of thought first, Ian. I don’ t want to discourage you, but others have lost money on this place. I’m sure Colin won’t mind my telling you this,’ she added, sending Colin a questioning glance. He shrugged indifferently and, looking at Dena, Loren realized that she also was noticing his lack of enthusiasm over the property he had bought. ‘There’s very little water here—’
‘I don’t agree,’ cut in Ian, still in that eager tone. ‘I’ve a hunch that we could get water at a lower level.’
“You mean, the bores haven’t been put down deeply enough?’
‘Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.’
Dena thought about this, but her frown remained. Loren could see that she was anxious about Ian’s investing his money in land which had proved so hostile and barren that two previous owners had lost everything they owned and had been forced to return to the town.
‘The previous owner did try for water. His cattle... ’ For a moment Dena was silent and then, ‘They were dying from thirst. We didn’t know because he was a very proud man, and Thane and Mr. Bradon had tried to warn him off buying this place. When we did eventually find out what was happening we took his cattle and kept it, and later sent it off with our own fats to the market. But the loss was dreadful.’ She looked with faint apology at Colin, but his attention was wholly with Loren, on whose face his eyes were fixed. He seemed immune to the fact that he was embarrassing her.
‘I know about all this,’ returned Ian. ‘And I still think we could obtain water if we sent down a deep enough bore.’
Dena told him that Moonrock water was obtained at quite a moderate depth, but even that did not discourage Ian, who said that some of the water was thousands of feet deep.
‘You can still bore for it, though,’ he pointed out, whereupon Dena spoke about the enormous cost, but Ian went on, ‘I have some money saved, and I’m willing to invest it in this property. I’m tired of living in the town; I want the open spaces and I’m willing to work, even if I don’t make a great deal of money.’
‘All cattlemen are in it for the money, Ian.... ’ Dena
allowed her voice to trail away into silence. Ian, it would appear, had already made up his mind.
‘Can we come and visit you?’ Colin asked the question as the girls were getting into the utility, ready for their departure. ‘I don’t expect the Boss of Moonrock will raise any objections?’ His smile was for Loren and it was faintly mocking. ‘Your guardian did go to some length to let me know I mustn’t do any chasing, but he didn’t actually warn me off.’ He laughed then and so did Ian, but Loren was becoming angry. Colin had put his arm round her waist as they walked to the utility, and his face had come close as if he would kiss her cheek. He was altogether too familiar, she decided, and what was more she did not care for him very much. There was something insincere about him and she found herself hoping Ian would change his mind about going into partnership with him.
‘I’ll talk to Ian over the air about it,’ Dena was saying guardedly. ‘He’ll let you know about visiting Moonrock.’ Dena came forward in the cab and pressed the starter. ‘So long for now.’ She waved and so did Loren. The next moment the vehicle crunched over rough burnt-sienna ground and soon the bush track was being traversed, both girls silent, deep in thought.
‘What did you think of Colin?’ Dena asked at length. ‘You remember him from the movie show, of course?’
‘No. I couldn’t recollect him when Thane told me about him—’ She stopped as Dena slanted her an interrogating glance. ‘Thane said he was interested in me - at the movies, I mean. But I was introduced to so many men that I couldn’t place him. I did remember him again today, but only vaguely, not with any real impression of what he was like. I don’t think Ian should join him in that venture,’ she added, by way of a reply to Dena’s first question.
‘Thane said he was interested in you, eh?’ Dena slowed down and swept a hand. Following the direction indicated, Loren gave a little gasp. A white brumby stood among the trees, quivering and alert, a proud animal with its head held high. ‘I must have him,’ declared Dena. ‘I say this every time I see him, but I mean it this time.’ ‘No, don’t catch him and break him,’ pleaded Loren as Dena put her foot down and the car shot forward again. ‘He’s wild, and wildness is in his blood. His kind were here before ours.’
‘No such thing,’ corrected Dena. ‘Horses are not indigenous to Australia; all that are wild are from horses that have escaped. ’
Loren’s eyes were still on the brumby; she did not see that it made any difference if it had been bred from horses that had originally escaped and she fervently hoped it would never be caught and broken.
‘What were we saying? Ah, yes, Colin was interested in you. I wondered what he was talking about when he said Thane had told him not to do any chasing.’ Dena gave a laugh. ‘Just the thing the Boss would do. Never lets anything get ahead of him; believes that prevention’s better than cure.’ Dena slanted her a glance, her lips curving humorously. ‘ So you’re not allowed boy-friends? Your chastity as well as your money’s to be guarded, apparently.’
Loren went a trifle red at Dena’s outspokenness, but made an indignant declaration that Thane had no need for this caution as there was no possibility of her falling for anyone like Colin.
‘No,’ responded Dena musingly as she dwelt on what Loren had said. ‘He isn’t a nice type. Also, I’ve a feeling he won’t stand up to the life there and that he’s quite likely to let Ian down and either leave him flat with the place or insist on its being sold. ’
‘I gained the same impression. I hope Ian changes his mind about going into partnership with him. ’
No comment on that and as Loren looked sideways at her
friend she did begin to wonder if Dena was keen on Ian. He was certainly very different from Colin - more mature - and there had been no familiarity towards Dena, even though they had known each other for a long while. Colin, on the other hand, did not appear to have the patience to talk about the problems facing him; on the contrary he seemed utterly bored by them and all he was interested in was Loren, on whom his gaze had been fixed for practically the whole of the time.
‘How am I going to invite Ian to Moonrock without inviting Colin?’ Dena slowed down as the utility began to lurch and sway over the uneven sun-baked track. ‘I want Ian to come to the shed dance, but Thane won’t have Colin. Thane’s terribly astute and if you and I have read Colin’s character then you can bet Thane has too. That’s why he let
Colin know that he wouldn’t approve of him as a friend for you; it also explains why, when I was making out the invitation list, Thane crossed Colin’s name off. He said I could invite Ian, but I didn’t — it looked so wrong to ask one and not the other. ’
‘You want Ian to come, though?’
‘Yes, I’d like him to come.’ But Dena shook her head resignedly. ‘I’ll have to forget it,’ she sighed, adding that as all neighbours were invited to these shed dances both Ian and Colin were going to feel slighted when they learned it had taken place and they had been left out.
‘It’s a wonder they don’t know about it already?’ The shed dance was tomorrow evening, but as neither Colin nor Ian had mentioned it they had obviously not been informed by anyone that it was taking place.
‘Colin’s still a stranger round here, so he won’ t be talking to many people over the air; and that’s the only way one gets the news. He was at the movie show, granted, but I don’t expect the Bradons are his friends. They’re too stuck-up to become friendly with a mere farmer, and that’s all Colin is, with that comparatively small area of land. ’
Dena put a spurt on when the tracks improved slightly and the two girls arrived back in time for dinner. Afterwards Gran Amelia went to her room and Thane joined Loren and Dena on the verandah. Dena was unusually quiet and after a while Thane asked her what was wrong.
‘I’d like Ian to come tomorrow evening,’ she answered without hesitation, looking straight at Thane.
‘Why not? I told you to invite him.’
‘How can I - without inviting Colin as well?’ she retorted pettishly.
‘You’re asking me to have Colin, is that it?’ He seemed in a strangely mellow mood, relaxing in his big wicker chair with its comfortable cushions, his face softened by the shadows, his long legs stretched out in front of him.
‘Will you, Thane?’ Pleading the tones and a half smile touched the corners of the Boss’s mouth. Loren caught her
breath, lowering her eyes in order to avoid his swift yet searching glance.
‘It’s very important that Ian comes, then?’ His full interest was now with his cousin who, unlike Loren, did not seem to mind if he read her expression. All she said was,
‘He’s an old friend, Thane, and I’ll not know what to say to him when he discovers we’ve held the dance and not invited him. ’
Thane was already nodding in agreement even before Dena finished speaking and, after only a moment’s consideration, he agreed to Dena’s sending out the two invitations, his smile deepening to laughter as she said, ‘Thanks a lot. Boss; you’re a good sort, really.’
‘I do have my softer moments,’ he agreed, and his eyes strayed to Loren, who had raised her head and was looking at him with clear bright eyes. ‘Yes ... I do have my softer moments.... ’
CHAPTER SIX
ON Saturday morning Loren was wakened by a duet of laughter from a pair of kookaburras perched in the eucalypt outside her bedroom window. As she lay there listening the laughter melted to a clicking of bills which itself faded to a low mumbled colloquy which Loren interpreted as a sulky complaint and with a little rueful sigh she rose from the bed.
A small plate of scraps stood as usual on a small table and, throwing open the window wide, she tossed the scraps on to the lawn, making sure they went to one side of the sprinklers which were working, keeping the grass green. The food dispatched, laughter pealed forth again, so infectious that Loren joined in. The birds fluffed their feathers as they looked up, half expectantly.
‘No more. Go and catch yourselves a couple of lizards!’ How tame they were! Leaning from her window one day last week at early dawn, to inhale the fresh dew-laden fragrance of the grasslands, she had seen one huge fellow taking food from the Boss’s hand, and she herself had — without much trouble — managed to gain the birds confidence and every
day just before sundown these two bright-eyed jackos came and waited for her to take their supper out to them in the garden. The jackos were still on the lawn, looking up at her, but presently, realizing that no more food was forthcoming, they flew into the gum tree where they laughed their heads off, infecting their listener so that she laughed too.
‘You funny, delightful, lovable birds!’ Her eyes wandered as she spoke; the Boss of Moonrock rode across the plain, a magnificent horseman who seemed to live for the saddle. Loren stood there, fascinatedly watching him as he made for a couple of thin wiry stockmen watering their horses at a bore-trough. He stopped on reaching them and watered his own horse, conversing as he did so, and waving a hand as if giving some instruction. After a while Loren came from the window, had a bath, then dressed herself, and brushed her hair before the mirror, her thoughts rather chaotic as they swerved from pleasurable anticipation of the visit to Kouri End with Dena this morning, to the fear that, as Dena had suggested, Thane would announce his engagement to Felicity at the shed dance tonight. Twice this week he had been over to the Bradon ranch and although Loren had said that it was quite possible he went there on business, Dena firmly maintained that it was to see Felicity, and that if any business were being conducted with her father it was pertaining to a forthcoming marriage. It had on the whole been a week of events, what with the visit of the Flying Doctor, then Prof having to remain in bed so that there was no school. There had been the visit to Melville Downs and now there was the visit to town and, this evening, the shed dance would be held in the long low building where Stew had been fixing lights and decorations for practically the whole of the week.
Thane and Dena were already at the table when Loren went down to an early breakfast. Thane had told Dena that he was going into Kouri End on business and he would fly them in with him. Loren’ s eyes lit up on learning this, although she was swept into a vortex of conflicting emotions as she owned to herself that she would have loved to fly alone with Thane -high above the wide and timeless plains of porcupine grass where cattle grazed, immune to the heat and the dust and the merciless glare of the sun. Yet, paradoxically, Loren was glad of the presence of Dena, who would chat and laugh and infect Loren with her exuberance ... and keep the whole situation impersonal. But perhaps Dena would not be in her usual high spirits today; perhaps she, like Loren, could think of little else but this nagging worry that Thane would have something important to announce at the dance tonight. Looking at her, and seeing the rather dreamy expression in her eyes, Loren with another switch of thought began to wonder if Dena were thinking of Ian. If so, then obviously she was no longer interested in Thane, or his plans for the future.
Thane drove the utility to the airstrip, passing along the shaded drive of the house where palms and fig trees grew among the gums, and canna-flowers and phloxes and roses bloomed beneath them, saturating the air with their fragrance, a fragrance which mingled with the more subtle scent of the wattles, making their golden clouds against a harsh and vibrant sky.
Once in the plane they secured their belts; the engine throbbed and rotated as Thane taxied along the runway spurting clouds of ochre-coloured dust. A galah, shrieking in protest, flew from its perch in the gum tree and settled in the grey-green foliage of a casuarina where, no doubt, he continued to scream in protest. Watching Thane, Loren saw his eyes roving arou
nd, missing nothing as they swept for as far as they could reach over the tropical grasslands. The country hereabouts was neither flat nor mountainous, but an undulating mosaic of colour combinations - myrtle green and olive, greys and fawns and jasper red, with sprinklings of the more vivid cinnabar, all of which provided a subtle foil for the creamy coats of the pretty Asian cattle, over whose run they were now flying. Stockmen moved about and a lone boundary rider could be seen inspecting the fences, a long way off, on the brow of a hill. For a long while they flew over the Benedict lands, but eventually they were over another property, that of Jake Cunningham, who had been at the movie show with his wife and two sons.
‘You’ve a bird’s eye view of the rodeo,’ Thane said, glancing down to where riders were separating and, like lightning flashes, swooping on bullocks picked out because their sharp curved horns were dangerously near to turning in on their brains. Horsemen would bring down the bulls by their tails while others seized the animals and began sawing off the horns at the base.
‘Doesn’t it hurt?’ cried Loren anxiously as one bull, having escaped, charged wildly at a horseman tearing around, obviously enjoying the game enormously.
‘Yes, unfortunately. Were you down there you’d hear the bulls’ howls of pain; it’s not a pleasant noise, but this job has to be done.’
Loren glanced swiftly at him, and she saw that his expression was rather grim. He hated hurting anything.... Her thoughts wavered from the present to that day when Thane had punished her for kicking him so viciously - and so inexcusably, she now owned, but she certainly had not done so at the time. Thane had not troubled about hurting her. He’d been in a furious temper, though, and Loren had now learned that it was most imprudent to arouse that temper and fervently hoped she would never do so again.
On arrival at Kouri End Thane left the plane at the far end of the airstrip and accompanied the girls to a cafe where they had coffee and biscuits. He then left them after arranging to meet them at lunch time so that they could have the meal together.
