With the stallion tied up, Tusker approached his hind legs warily. He flicked a rope around the pastern of one rear leg and knotted it. He pulled the rope up through the head collar and tightened it until the stallion’s back leg was drawn up under him. The stallion fought to stand on three legs, groaning in pain as the heavy head collar pressed down on him. Tusker picked up the big western-style saddle and slammed it on the horse’s quivering back. He pulled the girth up tightly and backed away quickly.
Despite being hobbled and tied, the stallion launched himself straight into the air like a rocket. He kicked out with his free hind leg and bucked crazily, trying to get rid of the terrible thing on his back. Each time he bucked, Tusker rushed in to his side with a long metal rod and prodded him savagely. The stallion squealed, a primeval sound of terror and pain. In horror, Lara realised that Tusker was giving the horse electric shocks with the prodder. Kahu swore under his breath and her mother cried out.
Before anyone could stop her, Lara’s mother was on her feet and running to the corral. She was screaming at Tusker at the top of her voice, ‘Leave that horse alone, you pig!’
Tusker flew around in surprise as Lara’s mother scrambled over the corral fence. She stood in front of Tusker, her eyes blazing. She hardly came up to his chest as she yelled at him, ‘Nobody has the right to treat an animal like that. Put that thing down!’ Lara felt a surge of pride at her mother’s bravery in confronting a man like Tusker. Yet she was also frightened at the foolhardiness of such an act. Tusker couldn’t care less what was right or what was wrong. He reached out to grab the camera swinging from her neck. Barry and Kahu rushed up and Tusker backed off.
‘He’s my horse,’ Tusker sneered. ‘I can do what I want.’
‘You can’t torture the animal,’ Lara’s mother shouted at him in disbelief.
‘He’ll soon learn who’s boss.’
‘That horse will never back down,’ Kahu cursed Tusker. ‘He’ll die before giving in to a jerk like you.’
‘He’ll die then. He should fetch a good price for me at the knackers.’ Tusker grinned horribly.
‘We have these photos,’ Lara’s mother waved her camera at Tusker desperately. ‘The SPCA will want to know about this.’
‘Electric cattle prodders are an approved animal restraint, lady. Ain’t nothing they can do to me,’ Tusker grinned again.
‘Not when they’re used like that,’ Barry hissed. ‘We’ll do you for this.’
‘Go for it,’ Tusker replied sarcastically. ‘It’ll be too late for this chunk of horsemeat.’
Lara looked at the white stallion. He stood exhausted, head hanging and froth drooling from his mouth.
Kahu turned and walked away as if he couldn’t bear to look at the horse. Lara trailed after him dispiritedly. Behind them, Lara’s mother was still ranting and raving at Tusker. But Kahu and Lara both knew that all the words in the world couldn’t save the white stallion.
18
Making plans
‘I’ve got to do something or Tusker will kill him,’ Kahu said to Lara as they waited for Barry and her mother to catch up with them in the bush. ‘I can’t wait for the SPCA to act. It’ll be too late by then.’
His words had a finality that scared Lara. ‘How can I help?’ she begged.
‘Nobody can help. I’ll have to steal the stallion. I don’t want anyone else involved in anything illegal.’
‘Steal him? How? Tusker watches him night and day and he’s padlocked up.’
‘My grandfather once told me a legend passed down to him from our ancestors. It’s given me an idea of how I can free him. I think I can do it.’
‘Do what? You’re speaking in riddles!’
‘I’ll explain tonight,’ he said, as her mother and Barry hurried along the track towards them. Lara’s mother was fuming. Her face was blotched and swollen from crying.
‘That pig of a man!’ she said furiously to Kahu and Lara. ‘I’m developing these photos and taking them straight to the police.’
‘What can they do?’ Barry said sagely. ‘The horse belongs to Tusker and he has no marks or injuries. The police can’t get into a debate about how horses should be broken in.’
They tramped back to the ute, buried in their own thoughts. Barry joined Kahu and Lara as they trailed behind. ‘I agree with you—that horse is done for unless someone can get him away from Tusker,’ he said to them quietly.
Something about the way Barry said the word someone made Kahu look across at the man more carefully.
‘You know, the stallion and his band could roam free out on my land,’ Barry went on. ‘If someone could get him there, that is,’ he added conspiratorially. ‘My station’s about a five-hour ride from here.’
Kahu understood and was greatly relieved. Barry knew he was up to something and had offered a solution to the one problem Kahu had been unable to resolve. Once he had freed the stallion, where could he take him? Now he had his answer. The horse could remain free at Barry’s property, far from Tusker and the annual DOC roundups. Whether he would stay in the area was another matter, but at least it was a start.
Later that evening, Kahu and Lara lay in front of a crackling open fire in Lara’s lounge. Her mother was tucked in her darkroom developing the photos. Rain hammered on the iron roof and wind beat incessantly against the windows. Lara imagined the stallion hobbled and tied in the miserable dark shed as the storm raged.
‘Tell me about the legend you heard from your grandfather,’ she asked Kahu. His head was in her lap. As he talked she played with his long dreadlocks.
He told her about a taniwha who lived long ago in a cave near the shores of Lake Taupo. When Kahu’s ancestors first settled in the area the taniwha kept attacking them. The chiefs of the tribe knew they had to destroy the taniwha, but how? He was cunning and strong, with huge fangs and the wiry body of a lizard. The warriors devised a plan. They plaited strong ropes made of flax and set a snare at the entrance to the taniwha’s cave. The beautiful daughter of one of the chiefs approached the cave. When the taniwha came out to devour her, they pulled the ropes of the snare tightly around his squirming body.
‘How can that help with Tusker? What are you planning?’ Lara asked, both intrigued and worried at the same time.
‘I’m going to set a snare outside Tusker’s hut. When I’ve caught him I can grab the keys to the padlock on the stallion’s door.’
‘He’s too strong! A snare won’t hold him.’
‘Once he’s caught in the snare I can tie him up more securely. It’ll give me and the horses time to escape.’ He sounded determined.
‘You’re crazy. Even your ancestors didn’t take on the taniwha alone. They helped one another.’
‘Yeah, and so you’re the beautiful daughter?’ Kahu teased.
Lara pulled a face at him. ‘It’s no joke. If you had some help you could get the horses free while others dealt with Tusker.’
‘I can’t ask for help to break the law. It’s stealing, and Tusker could have me up for assault.’
‘Not if it was a bunch of kids who really believed in what they were doing. They wouldn’t arrest a pack of teenagers.’
‘What are you on about?’
‘Tane, Joe, Aroha—your mates,’ Lara said decidedly. ‘They will want to help.’
‘I don’t want them involved. They don’t even know about the white stallion.’
‘Then you should tell them. There’s too much they don’t know about you already.’
Kahu fobbed her off stubbornly. ‘I’m doing this on my own.’
‘Then the stallion’s dead,’ Lara said, with a sense of foreboding.
The next day at school, Lara searched out Kahu’s friends in order to speak to them alone. Usually they wouldn’t have two words to say to her, but she knew they would want to help their friend. What they could do, she wasn’t exactly sure, though she had to ask for Kahu’s sake and the sake of the stallion. Kahu would be furious at her for revealing his secrets, yet all of
a sudden that wasn’t important. All that mattered was his safety and the survival of the white stallion.
Lara bailed Tane up outside the boys’ loos. ‘Kahu’s in trouble. He needs your help,’ she told him point-blank.
‘Kahu?’ he asked doubtfully. ‘What sort of help?’
Lara tried to explain everything to him succinctly, wondering if he could get his head around what she was telling him.
‘Kahu’s been crazy over horses ever since he was a little kid. He’d risk anything for them,’ he said. Lara knew then that he understood. ‘Me, Joe and Aroha will ride out with him and string up that Tusker jerk.’
‘You can ride?’ she said incredulously.
‘What’d you expect? We grew up on horses—pig-hunting horses and nags off the farm. We’re not all townies like you,’ he scoffed.
‘I can ride now too, and I’m going with you. The white stallion means as much to me as he does to Kahu.’
‘And what does Kahu mean to you?’ he quizzed.
Lara noted with surprise that there was no malice in his question, just curiosity. Still, she ignored the comment and together they plotted how they would convince Kahu that he needed their help.
19
Trapping Tusker
Lara was helping Kahu trim the horses’ hooves when Tane, Joe and Aroha rode up to the paddock. Tane was on a stocky brown gelding and Joe and Aroha rode slightly smaller, though equally sturdy, horses. None wore saddles and their bridles were made of rope. Kahu’s initial surprise smouldered to anger as he realised why they were there.
‘I don’t need your help, guys.’ Kahu said coolly.
‘Maybe not,’ Tane said, ‘but it’s time we all rode out together.’
‘We’re not a bloody posse. Lara had no right to say anything to you, this is my business.’
‘We want to help. It’s what mates do.’
‘And how do we get out to the Kaimanawas? Dad drops me and Robbie off at the foot of the ranges and I trek out from there to Tusker’s hut. The float only takes two horses.’
‘Barry has a horse truck,’ Lara said triumphantly. ‘I’ve already asked him and he said he’d take us out.’
‘So it’s all organised.’ Kahu flashed black eyes at her. ‘And what happens when Tusker has us up for assault? Do you all go down with me, just for a horse?’
‘He’s not just a horse, you know that!’ Lara cried. ‘When the police see Mum’s photos they’ll understand we had to do something. Tusker will be released as soon as we’ve got the horses safely away. He won’t be hurt.’
‘What about stealing? In the old days they hanged people for horse rustling,’ Tane half-joked.
‘I don’t care,’ Lara said resolutely. ‘If we don’t do something, the white stallion’s dead.’
Kahu’s dark eyes rested on Lara’s intent face. ‘OK, it’s a team effort then. Like I have a choice!’ he said laughing, and the tension between them evaporated.
It was agreed that Barry would pick them up at Kahu’s early the next morning and truck them out to the Kaimanawa Ranges. The horses grazed overnight together in the paddock and Lara, Tane, Joe and Aroha bunked in Kahu’s room. They didn’t get much sleep as they discussed their plans for the next day. Kahu told them about Tusker’s habits and movements and the layout of the huts and the corral. He had a pig snare from a hunting mate and intended to set it outside Tusker’s hut in the centre of the path to the stallion’s shed. Once Tusker stepped into the free-running noose, his leg would become trapped. It would give Kahu time to run up, lasso him, and tie him down. ‘I’ll give him a taste of his own medicine and truss him up like he does the horses,’ Kahu said.
Tane managed to convince Kahu that he and Joe should tie up Tusker while Kahu concentrated on grabbing the key to the padlock and freeing the stallion. ‘From what I’ve heard about that horse I’m not going near him,’ Tane said drolly. ‘You’re the horse whisperer.’ Lara and Aroha were to be in charge of releasing the stallion’s band from the corral. They’d ride out with Kahu leading on Koura. Hopefully the white stallion would follow Koura of his own accord. Joe was to stay behind to cut Tusker loose once there was no chance of him catching up with them.
When Barry dropped them off in the ranges in the morning he wished them good luck. ‘I’ll expect you at the station before dusk. If you don’t show I’ll send a search party out to Tusker’s hut. Go safely now.’
They rode towards Tusker’s hut, following a path cut through the dense bush by deer and wild pigs. Robbie trod carefully, stepping over fallen ponga logs and skirting puddles of mud. Lara dodged low-lying branches and brushed aside the long wet fern fronds that drooped across the track. Kahu called them to a halt a safe distance from the hut and they dismounted and tethered their horses to a stand of totara.
Kahu led the way through the thick undergrowth and Lara, Tane, Joe and Aroha crept behind. They carried backpacks laden full of ropes, cutters and the snare. Joe even carried a pair of handcuffs he’d borrowed from his father, who was a guard at Rangipo Prison. He wasn’t taking any chances. He’d handcuff Tusker to a tree before he had the chance to wallop him.
Once they reached the muddy clearing where Tusker’s hut stood they hid in the bush and surveyed the scene. Smoke puffed listlessly from the chimney of Tusker’s hut and there was no sign of him outside. The white stallion’s band stood morosely in the corral. Not a single sound came from the stallion’s shed. Drizzly rain began to fall and Lara pulled up her hoody. She noticed Kahu check his watch. Silently he took the snare from his backpack. Lara hoped the steel-cabled loop in his hands would be strong enough to hold Tusker.
Kahu indicated to the others to stay put as planned, and he snuck into the clearing carrying the snare. They watched as he slipped along the path leading to the stallion’s shed and crouched beside a big manuka tree near the track. He secured the snare tightly to the tree and placed it directly in Tusker’s path. Deftly he set it and scrambled back to where they lay. Now it would be a matter of waiting for Tusker to emerge from his dingy hut and walk to the shed.
As they waited, Kahu unfurled a lasso from his backpack and looped it around his arm. Tane and Joe fidgeted with the ropes and Aroha smiled tensely at Lara. They all flinched when the door to Tusker’s hut swung open. Tusker loomed in the doorway, his large body blocking the opening. How on earth were three boys going to tie up this hulk of a man, Lara wondered.
Tusker reached for his oilskin and trudged off down the path towards the stallion’s shed. Lara held her breath so tightly the blood pounded in her ears. What if Tusker missed the snare? What then? Just as she thought her lungs would burst, Tusker bellowed like an injured bull. Kahu instantly sprang up and ran to the path, Tane and Joe close behind. Lara and Aroha leapt up to see what was happening and to get ready for their part in the rescue.
Tusker was hopping about madly, trying to release his leg from the snare holding him to the tree. As he bent to loosen the noose, Kahu spun the lasso expertly through the air and it fell around Tusker’s body and arms. He quickly yanked on the lasso until it encircled Tusker tightly in its grip. Kahu tied the lasso to the tree as Tane and Joe got out their ropes. Tusker rolled pitifully on the muddy ground, cursing the teenagers at the top of his voice. ‘Let me bloody loose! You little shits, I’ll ring ya scrawny necks when I get my hands on you.’ Joe made sure this was impossible when he took the handcuffs and locked Tusker’s hands together behind the tree.
While Tane and Joe finished tying up Tusker, Kahu grabbed the iron key to the stallion’s door from Tusker’s belt. ‘You’re ruddy mad going near that horse,’ Tusker snarled up at him. ‘He’s a man-hater. He’ll kill ya for sure.’
‘Yeah, and who’s made him that way?’ Kahu snapped.
Lara overheard Tusker’s comment and turned to Kahu before dashing off to free the other horses from the corral. ‘Will the stallion let you get close enough to free him?’ she asked concernedly.
Kahu shrugged. ‘I guess I’ll soon find out.’
20
The pit pony
After Lara’s mother confronted Tusker, he’d become even more incensed at the white stallion’s unwillingness to yield. When Barry and Lara’s mother walked away despondently, Tusker had turned back to the stallion in a rage. The horse stood trembling and exhausted in the corral. Tusker picked up a long leather stock whip and lashed his sides repeatedly. The stallion didn’t make a sound. He only turned his drooping head and looked at Tusker, quiet defiance shining in his eyes.
Tusker couldn’t stand the stallion’s eyes upon him. He grabbed a piece of black cloth from his pocket and loosened the ropes from the posts. He whipped the hobbled stallion into the cattle crush and slipped the blindfold over his head. He opened the door to the shed and forced the horse back inside. ‘Stew on your own in the dark for a few days, then we’ll see who’s boss,’ Tusker snarled at him. He then padlocked the door shut.
The suffocating space terrified the blindfolded horse. The walls of the shed scrapped against his sides and when he tried to rear, he bashed his head against the low ceiling.
The hut smelled damp and close. A storm rolled in and the wind howled around the hut, shaking it ferociously. As he cowered in the dark, a nightmare from some distant past haunted him. In the dream, he was locked in a narrow crate in total darkness and was flung from side to side on a vast sea. He might have gone crazy had it not been for a stronger inner voice telling him there was nothing to fear. It was only the dark. The stallion listened to the voice of his ancestors and was able to settle.
Restless Spirit Page 7