The Pioneers

by Katharine Susannah Prichard

  CHAPTER XXVI

  When Davey came in from the Wirree, the night after Mrs. Cameron hadbeen to see Deirdre and the Schoolmaster, Donald Cameron was standingbefore the fire.

  He had said nothing all the way of the long drive from Wirreeford; buthis wife, by the set of his face, knew that something unusual hadhappened. He stood before the fireplace waiting for Davey to come home,listening for the sound of his horse's feet, the yelping of the dogs inthe yard that would announce his arrival.

  Before they had left the sale-yards, as he was sitting in the high buggybefore they drove off, he had sent her back to look for Davey and tellhim to come home as soon as the sales were over. Davey, a lean, lithefigure, on the edge of a group of stockmen, had recognised the urgencyin her voice, the appeal of her eyes, as she gave him the message.

  "We were just fixing-up to have a game of poker to-night, Mrs. Cameron,"Mick Ross had said.

  She sought Davey's eyes. The shadow of his hat was over them. He stood amoment flicking his leggings with the lash of the long whip curled onhis arm.

  "Right, mother! I'll come along, presently," he said.

  She went back to her husband, her heart soothed.

  But his face all the way home had filled her with fear.

  "Has anything happened to upset you, Donald," she asked.

  "Aye, matter enough," he replied.

  "What is it?" she ventured.

  "You'll hear soon."

  He lapsed into silence again.

  She knew that there was trouble ahead for Davey. What it was she couldonly imagine; every fibre of her being ached to know. She hurried Jennyon with the dinner so that his father's inner man would be warmed andcomforted before Davey arrived.

  He was an hour or two later than they were.

  When he came into the kitchen she went up to him and put her arms roundhim.

  "Whatever you do, don't cross your father, Davey dear," she said. "He'sin a queer temper to-night."

  Davey looked at her stupidly. He threw off his hat and brushed his handacross his forehead.

  "Right, mother," he said slowly.

  His voice was thick. She smelt the whisky on his breath as he turnedinto the next room.

  Hurrying backwards and forwards from the fire to the table, lifting thedinner she had kept warm for him by the fire, she did not hear the firstwords of the storm that was brewing in the inner room. Lifting the trayshe carried it in, but on the threshold she stood still, her heart coldat the sight of her husband and son.

  They were facing each other, all the antagonism that had been latent formonths, between them, ablaze in their eyes, betrayed by every line oftheir passion-white faces. She put her tray on the table.

  Donald Cameron had a packet of papers in his hand. The torn envelope hehad taken them from lay on the floor.

  "Look at them ... look at them!" he shouted. "Perhaps you can tell methe meaning of them."

  David took the papers. He pushed back a chair, staring at them.

  "Curse McNab!" he muttered. "He promised me--"

  "Curb your tongue in this house!" Donald Cameron took a step forward."Have you anything to say to these bills? McNab says you've had creditfor a couple of hundred pounds."

  Davey's head cleared. The sight of his father's face, livid with rage,raised a demon in him.

  "Yes," he said, "there's a couple of drinks I had to-day not chargedfor."

  "You insolent young blackguard!" Donald Cameron cried, careless of wordsin his anger. "Is this the sort of son I've got--goes robbing me behindmy back, drinking with pothouse boys, lags and thieves? I thought youcould be trusted to take charge of my interests while I was ill."

  "Stop that!" Davey's nostrils quivered ominously.

  "Thought you could play the young lord ... and McNab comes telling me--"

  "I'll wring McNab's neck!"

  "Aye, you will," said the old man, bitterly. "You've let him wring youproperly. McNab's got no reason to love me and you know it ... but hedid the square thing this time--if he never did it in his life before,telling me I was being robbed by my own son."

  "I'd advise you, father, not to talk that way," Davey's temper wasrising. "I wanted money; you wouldn't have given it to me if I'd askedfor it. I had to get it. McNab lent it to me. He said I could pay him byand by, and that it was good enough--being Cameron's son--to borrowmoney on. He said you'd never see these receipts I gave him."

  "Well, you'll borrow no more," Donald Cameron breathed. "Johnson cantake charge of things till I'm about again. And before you make anarrangement of this kind again you'll perhaps wait till I'm dead andburied. I'll have it posted in the Wirree that no one is to serve youwith drink unless you pay for it."

  "If you do that--" Davey began.

  "What I regret is that I didn't give Johnson charge of things from thefirst," the old man continued. "But I set my own son before him. You'veshown y' weren't fit for the trust--snaring me on a level with gaolbirds...."

  Davey's voice trembled with passion.

  "I haven't snared you!" he cried, "I haven't taken what wasn't my own.Isn't what's yours, mine? Haven't you always said so? Isn't that whatyou've said when I've asked for wages and you've said: 'No!' Haven't yousaid that it will be all mine some day--this place and all the moneyyou've made? Who else have you got to give it to? I've only been doingwith the money what you ought to have done. I've spent some of it so asnot to have us shamed in the country."

  "Oh, that's it, is it?" Donald Cameron's grey eyes gleamed beneath theirshaggy brows. "The son's to make ducks and drakes of the fortune thefather earns by the sweat of his brow. Well, I'll tell you this much,Davey, you'll not get a penny of my money to throw to the winds. If youwere a good son, a hardworking, industrious lad, y' might be sure of it,but if you were fifty times flesh of my flesh, you'd not get a penny togo to the devil with."

  "Donald! Donald!" Mary Cameron laid a hand on her husband's coat. "Don'tspeak to the boy like that," she cried. "You know he's a good lad, thathe's worked hard for years."

  He pushed her away.

  "Be silent!" he said harshly. "You've held y're tongue, though you musthave known what's been going on--that he's got into these brawling,roistering ways. McNab told me about them--said that I'd be blaming himwhen I found out, if he didn't tell me himself. You've screened andhidden the boy."

  "Leave mother out of it," Davey said.

  "Davey!" she besought him.

  "It's all right, mother," he turned from her, impatiently. "We've got tohave this out now and be done with it. I'm not going on as I have done.This is what I've got to say."

  He eyed Donald Cameron squarely.

  "Since I left school four years ago, I've worked on this place--workedharder than two men. And what have I got for it--wages? No. Abuse?Stacks of it! And you're making money, hand over fist."

  The contempt in his eyes deepened.

  "I know what your bank says. I know what the countryside says aboutDonald Cameron's money. You're the richest man this side of theranges....

  "But how do we live? You go about in old clothes as if you hadn't apenny to bless yourself with; and I might be anybody's rouseabout forthe look of me. Never a penny leaks out of your pockets if you can helpit. There's none in them to leak out of mine. Don't you know what peopleare saying about us? Haven't you heard anybody say: 'There go Cameronand his son! Old Cameron is as mean as they make 'em, and Young Davey'sa chip of the old block!' It was hearing that got me down. What's thegood of your money to you? What's the good of it to mother? What's thegood of it to me? Because you worked hard for it in the beginning, isthat any reason why you should hang on to it, when you've got it--beafraid to spend it?

  "I might just as well be dead as working always with nothing else in theworld to think of but work--always under your thumb, screwed down--notallowed to have a mind of my own. I'd rather get a job on the roads andbe free, and have a few shillings in my pocket."

  Donald Cameron's face was set.

  "I've said my say," he said.
>
  "And I've said my say," cried Davey.

  "Johnson'll have charge from to-morrow an' you'll work under him."

  "You'll give me wages--pay me the same as the rest of the men?" Daveyasked, his eyes bright with anger.

  "No."

  Cameron hesitated. Something of the justice of the boy's point of viewreached him. But there was more involved than a mere recognition ofjustice. It meant the breaking of a will. And it was foreign to his mindto yield; his obstinacy was the habit of a lifetime.

  "You're my son--not a hired labourer on the place," he said. "I've fedand clothed you all your days. You'll have food and clothes--and whatelse I like to give you."

  "And how much will that be?"

  Davey eyed him narrowly.

  "It won't wear a hole in y'r trousers pockets." Donald Cameron permittedhimself the grim humour, believing that he had won the day. "And itwon't encourage you to be dicing and drinking at McNab's."

  His mother, more sensitive to Davey's state of mind, broke in.

  "Oh," she cried, "have no more of this talking now I Sit down and eatyour supper, Davey. It'll all be cold."

  "Stick to your money!" Davey yelled. "I won't be fed and clothed by youany longer. I'll earn my own living somewhere else." He strode out ofthe room. His mother heard him go across the flagged floor of thekitchen.

  "Go out after him, Donald. Call him back," she urged.

  "No," said Cameron slowly.

  Davey's defiance was a shock to him. He had ruled his little worldautocratically. His will had been law. He had not believed that Daveywould dare to resist it.

  "If he goes of his own will--let him come back of it," he said.

  "Oh, go after him, Donald," she cried. "You've driven him to it, you,with your harshness."

  She ran to the door; but already the beat of hoofs was flying up fromthe misty depths of the trees.

  "Davey! Davey! Davey!" she called.

  She ran down the track calling him.

  But Davey was beyond her voice, or the sound of his horse's hoofs andthe hot blood in his ears dulled the echo of his name that floated downto him.

  When Mary went indoors again Donald Cameron was sitting in his chair,the fire had gone out of his eyes, leaving him dull and vacant.

  "You've been harsh with him, Donald," she said. "It's all true what hesays. You have worked him like a navvy, and never given him enoughpocket money to keep him in tobacco even. It's hard on him when theMorrison boys and the Rosses have their own money to spend, andeverybody saying we're better off than any of the people about. Youwouldn't have stood so much yourself at his age."

  "Whist, woman," he said pettishly, his head bent, as if he were tryingto catch the sound of distant hoof-beats. "Of course you'd take sideswith him!"

  "Oh Donald, isn't it yourself in him that's making him like this," shecried. "Isn't it your own blood speaking in all his high-handed ways?What did you think your son would be to take the sort of treatmentyou've given him from any man--even his own father? You should havestayed on the farm in the old country if you'd wanted that sort of manfor a son. If you hadn't wanted Davey to have a high spirit you shouldnever have come over the sea here. You shouldn't have had me to comewith you for his mother...."

  Donald Cameron dropped into his chair. His face was grey and lined, asif the light behind it were extinguished.

  "Be quiet, will you not, woman," he said.

  "I will not!" There was a spark in her eyes. "I've got to say what I'mthinking, now, Donald Cameron. I've held my tongue long enough. You'vehad your way, and I've hardly dared to breathe when you spoke, foryears. Your always laying your will on people crushes the spirit inthem! The dominating way you have wants to lay down everything beforeit. But I'm glad you've not crushed Davey--though it's breaking my heartto think of his going away from us. I'd rather have it than see him growinto the creeping, crawling thing Nat Johnson is. Davey's got in himwhat brought you and me here. I'm glad he's got that spirit. There's nofear in it--it goes straight forward. You've grown old and I've grownold," she continued breathlessly. "We've lost all our fire, but he's gotit--it's going on in him. And you with your old ideas--you don't likeit--but he's got to be free--he's got to go his own way--he's got tobreak his own earth, Donald."

  Donald Cameron moved restively.

  "It's from his mother he's taken his liking for clacking words, then,"he said.

  She fell back from him with a little desperate gesture that she had madeso little headway against the stone-wall of his mind.

  "Will you not go after him to Wirreeford and get him to come homeagain?" she asked pitifully. "He is a clever lad. He'll be a credit andjoy to us yet, if you'll only give him his head for a bit, Donald. Thisat McNab's doesn't mean anything; it's only to put you right with thepeople here, really--and because he's troubled in his mind aboutsomething else!"

  "What do you mean?"

  His eyebrows twitched, his sharp eyes settled on her.

  "There's a girl on his mind," she replied hesitatingly.

  "Jess Ross?" he asked. "I'd fixed in my mind for him to marry her."

  "Well," there was the glimmer of a smile in her eyes. "It's not Jessiethat Davey's got fixed in his mind to marry, so perhaps it's just aswell you should be away from each other for a while."

  "One of the Wirree girls--lag's daughters, every one of them!"

  His fingers drummed on the arm of his chair.

  A shade of sadness had fallen on Mrs Cameron's face.

  "Well ... you--you won't get Davey to come home, or let me try?" sheasked, her heart fainting at her own words.

  "No." He repeated the word slowly as if in fear that his tongue wouldgive effect to other stirrings of his brain. "Of his own will hewent--of his own will he'll come back again."

  "Would you have in like circumstances?" she asked.

  He did not reply.

  "He's our only one, Donald," she pleaded.

  "He's my son. But what's the meaning of these?" he said, shuffling thehandful of McNab's papers Davey had thrown down. "Did I ever make billslike this for myself? Haven't I worked and slaved year in and year out.Did I ever throw away roistering what he has?"

  Mary looked at the bills. She had not seen them before.

  "Oh," she said, slowly, "that's the bad blood of me in him. My peoplewere all a spendthrift lot, and I've never been able to keep anything atall myself, whether it was love, or money, or a shawl, or even a spiritof my own to go through my life with."

  She picked up the tray with Davey's untouched meal on it, and went outof the room.