by Paula Boer
Ben stood to catch Snip. “Let’s go back the other side of the Dalrymple River. I want to check out where that fire went through. There might be a bit of fresh pick there since the rains so the brumbies might have gone back to the old leasehold lands.”
The smell of soot hung in the air. The horses snorted as they lifted their feet high through the ash left from the wildfire. Only a few curled fern fronds provided a glimpse of green, emerging from the burnt ground to unfurl with new life. Blackened stumps of trees stood like rows of soldiers standing on parade. Not a sound could be heard—no birds, no wild animals hopping away, not even a breeze rustling through trees.
Louise had said nothing for minutes. “I’ve never seen the results of a fire like this before. It’s terrible. Look at that burnt skeleton of a wallaby. It must have been caught in the flames.”
Her upper lip quivered and her voice shook. “I can’t help thinking of all the tiny animals and insects that would have died in the fire. Millions! The poor things.”
“Yeh, but nature will bounce back. It could have been far worse. If the fire had reached the base of the hill, Dad would never have stopped it. We could have lost the whole park.” Ben pointed to the other side of the fire trail in the distance where the trees had not been burnt. “You can see where the fire-fighters started the back burn. They did a good job.”
He explained the work of the volunteers to Louise. “See, here they cut down a tree that would have let the fire leap across the fire trail. And you can see where they had to break up this old log. It must have been burning underground. That can restart the fire several days later.”
“That must be dangerous work.” Louise’s interest in the bush fire brigade increased. “How old do you have to be to join?”
“We could be cadets now, but we couldn’t go to a wild fire until we’re eighteen.” Ben knew he’d join his father as a volunteer as soon as he could.
Snip snorted and shied through the burnt forest. Ben sensed the horse’s tight muscles, ready to bolt at any moment. The young horse settled as they reached the open grasslands.
“This is the old leasehold grazing area. You can see the remains of the fence posts.”
They rode alongside the boundary, taking care not to get tangled in the twisted wire on the ground.
Louise indicated a green spot off to their right. “What’s that over there?”
“That’s one of the old cattlemen’s huts. Come on, let’s go and have a look.” Ben let Snip canter and reached the hut first.
He jumped off to have a look around. The tin shack leant at an angle, the rusted metal twisted with nails protruding from the old timber uprights. Ben peered into the tiny single room that held an old spring bed with no mattress, a chair with only three legs propped up on a rock and a homemade table with a box of matches. A blackened stone fireplace took up all of one wall.
Ben led Snip around the other side of the hut. “Hey, Louise! Come and have a look at this.”
When Louise joined him, she stared at what Ben had found. “What do you mean? It’s only an old can isn’t it?”
Ben unscrewed the lid and sniffed inside. “It’s definitely a fuel can. This is probably where the fire started. You can see a scorched spot here, and the way the fire raced across the grass towards the trees.”
The land on the other side of the hut had been untouched by the fire. “And guess who owns that paddock there, where the fence is down?”
“Isn’t that the park too? It doesn’t seem fenced off that well.” Louise led Ned over to the gate that leant open at an angle.
Ben joined her. “That’s supposed to be locked. That’s Willowlea, Smythe-Waters’ place. We’re on the land he wanted to get permission to use. Remember the argument he was having with the ranger the day we went to collect our permit? I reckon he’s deliberately burnt the fence down when he didn’t get his own way, but the fire got out of control.”
Louise’s face showed a look of horror. “No! Surely no one would light a fire deliberately? It killed lots of animals and might have killed people in the park.”
“Yeh, well, I reckon he did it. He probably only intended to burn a short section that nobody would notice to let his stock through.” Ben kicked at the fuel container. “I’m going to tell my dad what we found. Hopefully the police will investigate.”
Chapter 13
Mr and Mrs Hardy sat at the kitchen table as Louise grabbed herself some breakfast. “Aren’t you going to golf, Dad? I thought you were leaving early?”
“That’s a nice good morning.” Louise’s father rose and held out his hand to her. “I’ve been waiting for you. Come outside.”
He led the way through the back door to the garage.
A shiny purple mountain bike rested on its stand in front of the family car. A big yellow ribbon adorned the handlebars.
Louise rushed over and admired the knobbly tyres. “Awesome! What’s the story?”
Mrs Hardy joined them. “Adam Cartwright rang me to say he’d seen Mr Smythe-Waters run over your bike at the butcher’s, so I went to see him at Willowlea. When I mentioned the insurance company and the police, he gave me money for a new bike for you. He said it was an accident, of course.”
The look on her face showed she didn’t believe this.
Louise beamed. “That’s great! But this bike is even better than the one you bought me for Christmas, and that one was really good.”
Mr Hardy wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “We didn’t know then you’d be riding over dirt tracks so much. We thought this time a mountain bike would be better.”
“Cool! And my favourite colour. Thanks Dad, Mum. But I’d better go, Ben is expecting me.”
Mrs Hardy gave Louise a stern look. “We want you to have fun, but you take care with that wild friend of yours. We don’t want you getting in to any more trouble.”
As usual, Ben had the horses in when Louise arrived at the farm. Snip and Jake stood tied to the rail near the house. “What’s up with Ned?”
Ben finished brushing out Jake’s tail. “He’s worked hard the last two days. I thought as we were going to muster today you could take Jake again.”
“Actually, I promised Mum I wouldn’t ride Jake.” Louise felt bad changing Ben’s plans. “Sorry. I really like riding him, but I’d better not. Are you sure I can’t take Ned?”
“Yeh, he’s done enough. I suppose we could swap but I think Snip might be too green for you. I’ll let Jake out and catch Lady.” Ben untied Jake and led him across to the paddock.
Louise knew Snip needed a more experienced rider than her. “Isn’t riding a mare today going to be a problem? What about the horses Graeme and John rode? Or your dad’s other horse?”
“They’re all a bit mad. They don’t get ridden much. Lady’ll be okay. Remember I rode her for our last muster.”
Ben freed Jake then called to Snifter. “Go find! Find Lady!”
The three-legged dog bounded off as told, tail wagging.
Before long, Ben returned leading the chestnut mare. Louise admired her flashy looks as she strode into the yard, head up and ears pricked.
“She’s lovely. Thanks.”
It didn’t take long to tack up the horses. Louise and Ben made good time to the old mines and on to the creek where Ben had met the snake. Lady and Snip went well together, matching each other’s strides.
“Has she settled now?”
Louise stroked Lady’s neck. “Yes, she’s fine. I wasn’t used to her springy step to start with. She’s very easy to ride, but much keener than Ned.”
The part-Arabian mare tossed her head as if to say ‘How dare you compare me to an Appaloosa!’
“Hopefully we’ll see some brumbies soon. Then we can try to drive them towards our valley.” Ben urged Snip on, zigzagging his way across the grassland, looking for fresh brumby tracks or dropp
ings.
Lady spurted forward to catch up to Snip but Louise didn’t worry. The mare responded well to the slightest aid. They continued to search for the next hour. By mid-morning they’d seen no sign of wild horses.
Louise pulled up and rested a hand on the pommel. She frowned and shook her head. This was their last chance. “Do you think they’ve all gone further away?”
Ben looked as disappointed as Louise felt. “I’ve no idea. Let’s go and look in our valley. Remember we saw signs on the track yesterday? Maybe they’re in there.”
Passing the signpost tree, they made their way along the narrow trail. No fresh signs of horses showed in the soft ground. Louise’s heart sank further. “Do you think the yards we made will last until next holidays? Maybe we’ll be luckier then?”
“Shhh!” Ben held up his hand.
He stopped Snip and whispered to Louise. “Look ahead. There’re horses in that clearing.”
Louise peered through the trees. At first she couldn’t see anything. When she moved forward she noticed small specks grazing in the distance. Several small mobs of horses picked at the grass.
“Wow! Right in our valley. How lucky is that? What do we do now?”
Ben walked Snip forward. “Come on. Let’s hope they smell us and head up the valley. If they start to run, try to keep a few hundred metres behind them. We don’t want them to turn down that other trail to the lake.”
Their horses picked up the excitement. Lady gave a loud whinny.
“Oh no! Shush, Lady.”
The wild horses jerked up their heads. As one, they turned and fled.
“Come on! Let’s go!” Ben shot off at a gallop from the edge of the trees, following the band of racing brumbies.
Lady flew across the ground, powerful and agile. Wind whistled in Louise’s face making her eyes stream. Her heart pounded with the excitement of the chase. This was so cool! She gave Lady her head and followed Ben.
A thundering of hooves behind her made her look over her shoulder. A liver chestnut head surged towards Lady’s rump, mouth open showing white teeth. With a shock Louise realised the young stallion intended capturing Lady.
“Ben! Help!”
At Louise’s shout, Ben turned to see what the problem was. “Go, Louise! Go as fast as you can for the yards. Go into them and let him follow.”
Not fully understanding, only wanting to get away from the charging stallion, Louise pushed Lady faster. The ground blurred in her vision as Lady spurted forward. Louise thought she had been going fast before, now she felt like she flew. Blood pounded in her ears and sweat dribbled down her neck. The mare’s legs pumped as she covered the ground in huge strides.
Louise saw the start of the funnel to the yards, the prickly wattle lining the sides of the valley. She shortened her reins and steered Lady towards the one-way gate into the yards.
Lady didn’t hesitate. She pushed through the rail, barely slowing down. The yard proved too small to gallop around. She propped, spinning to face the young horse behind her. Louise saw more horses follow the stallion through the gate, and then Ben on Snip.
He waved wildly to Louise but she couldn’t make out what he said amidst the noise of the wild horses.
Ben rode close to her and grabbed her arm. “Get off! Get out of the yards! It’s not safe!”
Understanding dawned on Louise. Without trying to stop Lady, she dropped her feet out of her stirrups and vaulted off before running for the rails. She scrambled through the gap at the same time as Ben. They stood and watched the horses mill around in confusion, the wild horses panicked from being trapped. Lady and Snip danced amongst the herd, still fully tacked, dodging the young stallion.
“We’ll have to let them settle. It’s too dangerous to go in there yet. Well done.” Ben’s face, covered in dust and sweat, wore a huge grin. “Look who we’ve caught!”
Louise’s heart had started to calm down. She took a good look at the horses in the yard. The young stallion arched his neck at Lady and whickered through flared nostrils. “That’s your liver chestnut colt! He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?”
“Look over there, behind that grey.” Ben pointed to the far side of the yard, near the pool that would provide drinking water for the captives.
“My buckskin! Awesome!” Louise couldn’t believe her eyes.
The lovely mare had stopped with two others. Although she breathed heavily, she didn’t look distressed. Her thick black forelock hung over one eye, her golden coat gleaming in the sun. “She’s even more beautiful than I remembered.”
Ben and Louise waited for the horses to settle. Snip joined them at the rail, though Lady still tried to evade the pursuing stallion. “We’d better get our guys out of there. Hopefully the brumbies will stay away from us and we can lead them through the gate. If you hold it open, I’ll catch Lady first.”
As Ben predicted, the brumbies rushed to the back of the yard when Ben entered. He easily caught the two domesticated horses and led them out of the gate.
Louise let the rail spring back into place so the wild horses couldn’t escape. “Now what?”
Ben stroked Snip’s nose. “We’ll have to tame the ones we want so we can lead them home. Let’s release all the others. That should make it easy to handle the two we want.”
Letting the wild horses out of the yard without losing the buckskin mare and liver chestnut colt proved a lot harder than Louise thought. Every time she opened the rail to let one go, it veered away from her, despite Ben waving his arms trying to drive it through.
Only the young stallion would approach.
Louise knew that this horse meant a lot to Ben; he didn’t want one of the others. She swung the gate closed yet again to prevent the colt escaping. “This isn’t working. Can’t we try something else?”
Ben went to untack Snip. “You’re right. They’re so spooked up. Let’s go and have lunch and let them calm down again.”
An old dead log lay at the base of a huge gum tree. Louise flopped onto it and opened her bag. After taking a long swig of water, she sighed and leant back against the peeling bark of the trunk.
She didn’t notice the beauty around her today. Her mood went up and down like a roller-coaster, delighted to have caught the buckskin mare, but frustrated that they couldn’t release the other horses and catch the ones they wanted.
“Peter! Peter! Peter!”
Louise looked up in alarm. “Who’s there?”
Ben laughed. “That’s Jacky Winter. Did he startle you?”
Confused, Louise couldn’t see anyone. The call came again. This time she noticed a tiny brown flycatcher perched on a dead branch above her head. His tail wagged in a figure of eight as he sang his song.
“I thought it was a person! What a cute bird.”
“Got any more oranges?”
“Oh!”
The deep voice made Louise jump. The appearance of Old Harry smiling through his whiskers seemed unreal. First the bird and then the old man. How did he get there so quietly?
“See ya caught some good ’uns.” He nodded in the direction of the yard.
Ben walked up carrying Snip’s saddle and leant it against a boulder. “Yeh, thanks to you. We made the yards like you said. It worked!”
The old man nodded as he squatted down on his heels. He pulled a strip of dried meat from his pocket and chewed slowly.
“I saw yer work. I’ve been sprinkling out clover hay to attract ’em in.”
“That’s why they were in the valley.” Louise had wondered why the wild horses had been attracted to a place where they must have been able to smell humans. “Thanks. But now we can’t cut out the ones we want. The young stallion keeps getting in the way.”
Ben nodded. “Yeh, and I really want to keep him. Louise wants the little buckskin mare. We can’t seem to separate either of them.”
Old
Harry continued chewing on his jerky. “I’ll give yer a hand.”
After accepting a share of Louise’s lunch, Old Harry went through the one-way gate and held it open. “You two move towards the mob and make them come my way. I’ll sort ’em out.”
Louise worried that the horses would all escape. Apart from Ben’s colt, she hadn’t been able to get the horses to approach her if she hung on to the open rail. If she left it propped open, all the horses would run through. She hesitated and looked across at Ben.
“Come on. You go that way, I’ll go the other. Go slowly.” Without waiting for Louise to answer, Ben circled the horses from the right.
The brumbies paced and fretted in a tight packed bunch, heads bobbing and pawing at the ground. They nipped at each other and swished their tails.
As Louise approached from the left, the horses surged towards Old Harry at the gate. They seemed to have no fear of the old man as he stood quietly at the rail. A large black mare rushed at the opening and galloped through, kicking up her heels as she found freedom. The others went to follow her.
Louise gasped as she saw her buckskin approach the opening. She would get away!
Old Harry changed to stand with his arms outstretched and his fingers wide open like a shaggy scarecrow with bulging eyes. With a sudden prop, the mare spun to avoid him. As she turned and headed away from the gate, Old Harry’s body seemed to shrink and his arms dropped to his sides. He averted his eyes as the next horse bolted through the opening.
One by one, the unwanted horses fled. Only the liver chestnut colt and the buckskin mare remained.
Ben beamed as he thanked Harry. “That was awesome!”
Louise nodded. “Now we’ve got to catch these two so we can lead them home.”
Chapter 14
Ben clipped Snifter onto his chain. “Sorry, mate. You’ve got to stay home again today.”