The Pioneers
Page 27
CHAPTER XXVII
A sou'wester was tearing across the plains, threatening to sweep thewhole Wirree township off its foundations and dash the fragments of themud houses against the hills. It broke round the Black Bull with thenoise of great guns, and in the pauses of its blowing the booming of thesea on the beaches five miles away could be heard.
When Davey burst open the door he brought a gust of wind into thetap-room that set the lights sputtering and flaring. Two of them wentout. The glasses on McNab's bench danced as he hammered it with hisfists.
"For two pins I'd thrash you," he yelled. "You got me into borrowingmoney from you. I was a blamed young fool! But what's your game? What doyou mean playing fair to me and then giving me away to the old man. Aneat way of bleeding him, that's what it was. Getting me in here drunkand then--"
The Schoolmaster was playing cards with a couple of men on an upturnedbox behind the door. He threw down his cards and took Davey's arm.
The boy threw it off.
"Leave me alone, Mr. Farrel," he cried. "I'd sweep the floor withthe--the damned swine, if he were worth sweeping the floor with. You'reall afraid of him. Well, I'm not! You see here, Mister McNab," he leantacross the bar and his eyes burnt their way into the pale shifty eyes ofThad McNab. "I'll break every bone in your body if you ever interferebetween me and mine again. D'you hear that? I don't know what you've gotup your sleeve, and I don't care! You just keep it there, see, or it'llbe the worse for you."
McNab had blenched at the boy's headlong passion. The quivering longarms seemed scarcely able to keep themselves off his miserableshoulders.
His skin was the gingery colour of his hair, and though he grinnedfeebly, looking everywhere but at Davey, there was not a man who did notsee he was trembling. Thad McNab was a coward, everybody knew that.There was nothing in the world he feared more than the vengeance whichmight wreak itself on his miserable body. As Young Davey stamped out ofthe bar there was a rustle of movement, smothered oaths of surprise andamusement, a swinging of eyes after him with something of admiration andapplause in them; but McNab was recovering himself. He gazedspeechlessly after the boy too; there was a ghost of a smile on hisface. His mind was working; his lips moved though no words came. The menwho had wanted to cheer Young Davey shifted their opinions uneasily.There would be more to score to McNab's account yet, they imagined.
The Schoolmaster did not follow Davey out of the bar as he felt inclinedto; but when the boy had gone McNab looked across at him.
"That's what comes of interferin', Farrel," he said.
"You'll know better another time, won't you, McNab," the Schoolmasterdrawled, looking up from the cards he was holding. "It's a bad businessgetting between father and son."
McNab's smile changed.
"I was alludin' to your interferin' when I had a bit of business onhand, Mr. Farrel," he snarled.
"Had you a bit of business on, Thad?" the Schoolmaster asked. "Who with?Davey? And did I interfere? Well, now you beat me! Out with it! Let'shear all about it. We're all old friends here."
McNab's wrath surged so that he could not speak.
"There now!" Farrel cried. "He won't tell! Never mind, McNab, you cameoff very well! When Young Davey came in I thought he'd have you out onthe road for a certainty, and he's a pretty bruiser. Showed him how toput up his fists myself a couple of years ago."
It was Dan's way of saying things, with a whimsicality, an inimitablegeniality, tinged with sarcasm, that brought the house down.
When the men in the bar threw back their heads and stretched their lungsthat night, Thad did not laugh. He stood, shivering, with gimlet flamesin his eyes, his fingers twitching restlessly. There were drinks allround and the Schoolmaster played another rubber before he swung out ofthe shanty and into the wind that roared and beat over the plains.
Davey was waiting in the lee of the garden fence round Farrel's cottage,his little red mare set with her haunches against the wind.
"What is it, Davey?" the Schoolmaster asked when he saw him.
"It's this, Mr. Farrel," Davey said, on a short breath, "I've quarrelledwith the old man. I want a job."
The cottage was in darkness. But after he had taken Davey to the stableand they had turned Red into it, they went indoors, and a light gleamedfrom the small square windows until the sky was waning on the edge ofthe plains. Then Davey came to the door and the Schoolmaster with him.
"It's not advice--as I told you--but a job I'm wanting," the boy said.His voice carried against the wind, hoarse with anger anddisappointment.
"But this job, Davey, you know what it is."
The Schoolmaster's voice was troubled.
"Yes, I know--haven't I told you. As a matter of fact I haven't theprice of food or a bed on me, and I'm not going back for it. You saidthese cattle of Maitland's in the yards would have to be taken to thehills. Maitland's got fattening paddocks up beyond Steve's, hasn't he?Tim and Pat Kearney have cleared off to the new rush, and you said you'dhave to get somebody to take them for Conal."
"You can have what money--" the Schoolmaster began.
"It wasn't what I asked for," Davey said curtly.
None knew better than Farrel what the difficulties of his getting workof any sort would be in the Wirree with McNab's mark against him. In thehills no one would employ him for fear of offending Donald Cameron. Butit was neither McNab, nor Donald Cameron, the Schoolmaster was thinkingof when he tried to persuade the boy to go home. Not a word moved Daveyfrom his purpose to be independent.
"If you take this mob to-morrow, you will clear out then and look foranother job on the other side of the ranges?"
"Yes," Davey said eagerly.
"Right," the Schoolmaster replied, "but I don't want you in thisbusiness with Conal, Davey."
The boy gripped his hand.
"You said if ever I was hard-up for a friend," he said, "to come to you.And this job with those beasts of Maitland's is the only thing stickingout for me just now."
Farrel turned away wearily.
"I'd be glad enough to stand by you always, Davey," he said. "But thisis different! I'd never forgive myself if I got you into a mess.However, it can't do any harm your taking these beasts to Steve's.Deirdre and I'll be going up in a day or two. I'll tell Conal about it.Then you can go on over the ranges. There's always work on Middleton'sor Yaraan. Come in now and I'll make you a cup of tea."
Davey glanced at the lightening dome of the sky.
"It's a couple of hours to dawn yet," he said, with a sigh. "Then I'llbe going."