Valley of the White Gold

by Tony Parsons

  Then, as he came out of one of his spells of blackness, Jim heard the sound of a man’s voice singing clearly in the still evening air. ‘And the dawn comes up like thunder from China across the bay…’

  At first bewildered by the singing, because it was the last thing he expected to hear in these circumstances, Jim was conscious enough to recognise that there was probably only one man in the Half Moon acute enough to try to put him at ease by singing as a rescue was attempted. He’d never heard Rod sing but it was the very sort of thing he would do and it gave Jim the incentive to try to stay awake so he could greet his rescuer. Meg barked her welcome too. A few moments later, he heard boots scraping on the slope above him and then Rod was at his side. ‘How’s it going, old son? Got yourself in a spot of trouble?’ Rod asked.

  ‘Not so good. I can’t move much,’ Jim answered weakly.

  ‘Not to worry. Feel like a drink of water?’

  ‘I’ll say.’

  Rod held the water bottle to Jim’s lips and he swallowed eagerly.

  ‘That’s beaut,’ Jim said. ‘Are you on your own?’

  ‘Alec’s up top with the horses and your father’s waiting at your second gate,’ Rod said.

  ‘How are you going to get me up?’

  ‘I’m going to carry you. Where do you think you’re hurt?’

  ‘Where am I not? My chest hurts so something’s amiss there. I’ve got a crook shoulder and I think my ankle might be busted. I’ve got a bump on my head that hurts like billyo. I’ve been out to it quite a bit,’ Jim said.

  ‘That all? You’ve also got a lot of scratches. Helen wouldn’t know you for all the blood. You look like a Red Indian,’ Rod said, trying to put Jim as much at ease as possible before the climb up the slope, which would inevitably be hairy for both of them. ‘Now, I’m probably going to hurt you some more because I’ve got to get you up that slope and onto my horse. We don’t have time to get the right people here to help you. Darkness would beat us and it’s already getting chilly. If you can just put your good arm around my neck, away we’ll go,’ Rod instructed.

  ‘You can’t carry me up that slope,’ Jim gasped as Rod heaved him free of the tearing blackberries.

  ‘Can’t isn’t a word we’re going to use right now,’ Rod said as he began the slow ascent. Meg patiently followed them up.

  Pain washed over Jim in great waves and beads of sweat formed on his blood-spattered face. Sweat covered Rod’s face too as he toiled upwards. The ascent was even more trying and hazardous than the descent, and Rod was conscious of the fact that if he lost his footing and slid down the slope with Jim in his arms it could easily be curtains for both of them. It took all of his fitness and strength to make the climb and he was at about his last gasp when he felt Alec’s hand on his arm. He shook away the sweat from his eyes and gently lowered Jim to the ground. ‘I’ll have a drink of water,’ he panted after he had recovered his breath.

  ‘How is he?’ Alec asked.

  ‘I think he’s passed out,’ Rod said, checking Jim’s heartbeat and pulse. ‘Just as well. The ride back to Dan isn’t going to be a picnic. Do you think you can lift him up to me, Alec?’

  ‘I’ll give it a burl,’ Alec said. He was still in awe of Rod’s feat in carrying Jim up the slope. It would have been beyond his capabilities. He managed to lift the unconscious Jim sufficiently for Rod to take him and then sit him over the pommel. Rod held him with his right arm and together they turned their horses for the lower country.

  The twilight was waning when they spotted Dan val0002413 beside the open gate. ‘How is he?’ he asked as the two riders came abreast of him.

  ‘He’s not the best. The blood’s mostly from blackberry thorns. The bush saved him but we think his horse has had it. He was right down at the bottom of the slope,’ Rod said. ‘Righto, you and Alec take Jim from me. I’ll get down and help you ease him into the back of the ute.’

  Jim returned to consciousness as they were putting the blanket over him. ‘Looks like you’ll have to do without me for the big show, Dad,’ he said weakly.

  ‘We’ll manage, Jim,’ Dan said tightly. ‘Don’t you worry about that. I’m taking you into Mudgee.’

  ‘Thank Rod for me. When I heard him singing, I knew I’d be okay,’ Jim said.

  ‘Singing?’ Dan said and looked sideways at Rod, bewildered.

  ‘I thought it would help to keep his spirits up, not to mention mine,’ Rod said with a grin. ‘Are you okay now or would you like one of us to sit with him?’

  ‘We’ll be back at the house inside ten minutes. Meg can sit with him. You get on home, Rod. You’ll only just make it and you can’t ride these paddocks in the dark,’ Dan said.

  ‘We’ll be off then,’ Rod said.

  ‘Thanks a lot, Rod. You too, Alec.’ Dan smiled gratefully at both men.

  ‘I didn’t do anything, Dan,’ Alec said modestly.

  ‘Alec found him,’ Rod said.

  ‘I’m obliged to the both of you.’ Dan shook his head in amazement. How could he have been so wrong about his neighbour?

  Jim Stafford came to in a kind of mental fog and found Helen bent over him with a pair of tweezers in one hand and a chrome bowl in the other. Every now and again he felt a sharp twinge of pain. ‘Helen,’ he said weakly.

  ‘Hello, sweetheart. So you’ve come back to us. How are you feeling?’

  ‘Not too bad, but what are you doing?’

  ‘I’m digging blackberry thorns out. They’ll fester if I don’t get them all. I’ve found another dozen or so today,’ Helen said.

  ‘Today? How long have I been in hospital?’ Jim asked.

  ‘Your dad brought you in the night before last. This is your second morning here.’

  He was conscious of the heaviness that encased him and his groping hand encountered plaster on his right leg.

  ‘I’m just going to turn you a little so I can get at the big scratches on your thighs,’ Helen said.

  Jim experienced something approaching panic. Because of the hospital gown he was wearing, which barely covered his body, he realised he was as good as naked, and suddenly felt selfconscious in front of the woman he loved. ‘Um, do you have to?’ he gulped.

  ‘I have to, Jim. I could get one of the other nurses to do it, but I just thought you’d prefer it was me,’ Helen said.

  ‘Well…’ he began.

  ‘Don’t be silly. What’s this sudden shyness about? We’re going to be married, aren’t we?’ Helen asked. She had been waiting months for Jim to pop the question but he had pre-varicated, using the excuse that they didn’t have anywhere to live. Helen thought it was time she took matters into her own hands.

  ‘Yes, but–’

  ‘No buts any more, Jim. Your father has already mentioned he’s buying out Wally so the house at Glen Avon will be yours.’

  Of course, Jim knew all about this and he’d been going to tell Helen that Glen Avon would be theirs when he proposed to her, but she’d beaten him to it. ‘I know, Helen. I was just waiting for the right moment to ask you,’ Jim said.

  ‘To ask me what?’ she asked sweetly as she plucked another thorn from his thigh.

  ‘Whether you’d marry me?’ he said.

  ‘You know I will. You’d better hurry up and get well so we can make some firm plans,’ Helen said. ‘There, I think I’ve got all your thorns.’

  ‘Well, that’s that. Thank goodness,’ Jim breathed. ‘I’d kiss you if I could get up. I suppose you’ll want to start thinking about the wedding…’

  ‘We’ll have plenty of time for that. You need lots of rest and then we can talk about the future,’ Helen said.

  ‘In the meantime, I’m going to miss the big sheep show. Dad will spit chips.’

  ‘So you are. Too bad. But I’m sure Beth and Bella will be on hand to help,’ Helen said.

  ‘I wanted to be there. There’ll never be another show like this in my lifetime.’

  ‘You’re lucky you’re here at all, Jim. If you hadn’t landed in t
hose blackberries, you might have met the same fate as your horse and left me without my fiancé.’

  Helen looked around, saw that there was nobody in sight, and bent and kissed him. Jim was a bit of a wreck but on the inside he was glowing with happiness.

  Helen was overjoyed too. It wouldn’t be too long before Jim was well again and they could be married. They’d have a home and Jim would be all the better for not being quite so close to his father. Not that Dan wasn’t a good man, but she didn’t want Jim to be an exact replica of him. She knew that sheep and wool were very important to the people who lived in the valley of the Half Moon – they were to her own family – but they weren’t the be-all and end-all. No way. She and Jim were going to take trips together, so they could see something of the world beyond the Half Moon, expand their horizons. She was now Jim Staffords fiancée and she was determined they and their children would have a happy and fulfilled life.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Dorothy Stafford had been heard to say that when trouble came it did not come just a single time; it came in batches. Having Jim in hospital was bad enough, especially before the big sheep show, but worse was to follow.

  The day after Jim was taken to Mudgee Hospital, Dan was at Mattai filling the feed troughs in the ram shed. He was thinking about Jim and how he was going to miss having him at the show – and for a few moments he relaxed his usual concentration on the job at hand. There was a quiet ram beside him, pushing its head into the trough, and Dan was standing between this ram and several others in the pen. Suddenly, one of these others charged towards the quiet ram, hitting Dan just below the knee. The impact was so fierce that Dan fell sideways onto the slatted floor. The pain in his right leg was excruciating – he thought he was going to faint and he began to retch. Yet he knew he had to try to get to his feet in case the ram charged again. He staggered up but couldn’t put his right leg on the ground and realised he was in big trouble. On one leg he edged his way to the gate of the pen, escaped through it and eased himself down on an upturned four-gallon feed bucket.

  When Dan hadn’t returned from the ram shed within an hour, Dorothy realised something was amiss. He had told her he wouldn’t be long as they were going in to Mudgee to visit Jim. Together, Dorothy and Bella found Dan in the shed, moaning in agony. They managed to lift him into the Fairlane and took him to Mudgee Hospital. When he returned home several days later, it was on crutches with his broken leg in plaster. This was a very serious setback with the big show only a few days away. Dan couldn’t manage to trim up his show team and Jim was out of action completely. So Beth and Bella were enlisted to do the clipping under Dan’s direction. Beth did her share before the sheepdog trials got underway. She’d clipped sheep on other occasions, but Bella was less experienced and took a lot of ribbing from Dan until Dorothy warned him off. Fortunately, Hugh Johnstone arrived just as they finished and offered to help prepare the sheep. When he found out that Jim was in hospital, he also offered to hold the rams at the show. This was a huge relief for Beth, Bella and Dorothy as holding rams wasn’t the sort of job anyone sought with enthusiasm. Even quiet rams could play up.

  Because Hugh was helping out so much, Dorothy invited him to stay with them at Mattai. During his stay he didn’t see much of Beth because she was away at the sheepdog trials, but he did see a lot of Bella. The more time he spent with her, the more he liked her. Such a wonderful woman had been completely wasted on Wally Osborne, he thought with indignation and sadness at the way she’d been treated. And to see Bella on a horse was something else. He had got to see her in action when she had suggested they go out to the scene of Jim’s accident to see where it had happened. Bella felt like a long ride and was keen for any opportunity to escape her father’s gloom. They took a thermos and some sandwiches and told Dorothy that they wouldn’t be back until after lunch.

  Dorothy watched her daughter and Hugh ride away, a smile playing on her lips. It was obvious that Hugh liked Bella. She just hoped that Bella’s disastrous marriage to Wally hadn’t put her off altogether.

  Despite her troubled past with Wally, Bella never came across as a woman of experience. There was never a touch on the hand or a word spoken out of place; nothing to give the impression that she wanted more from Hugh than companionship. And she was great company, too. As they rode, she pointed out various things of interest around the property, so the ride out to the hill country proper seemed to take no time at all. Hugh marvelled at how effortless their friendly banter was. Finally, they sat on their horses on the ridge above the slope where Jim had come to grief.

  ‘I don’t know how on earth Rod managed to carry Jim up that slope,’ Hugh exclaimed, surveying the side of the hill just below them.

  ‘Rod Cameron can do almost anything if he sets his mind to it,’ Bella said.

  Hugh looked at her sharply and tried to assess how much feeling there was in her remark. It was important that he know. He didn’t want to intrude on someone else’s territory. But it would certainly be a blow if Rod and Bella were keen on each other.

  ‘Rod is a great bloke and totally dependable. He’s very ambitious and some people think he’s arrogant, but he will always be there when the whips are cracking. He helped me get away from Wally.’

  ‘I see,’ Hugh said, unable to hide his disappointment at Bella’s obvious admiration.

  ‘He’d make a great husband for Beth, too, if he ever gets his act together,’ she laughed, putting the smile back on Hugh’s face. ‘Beth is completely in love with Rod and I think he likes her a lot, but a few things have got in his way. That’s all in the past now, but I think Rod wants to wait until the sheep show is over before he declares his hand. Beth’s really uptight about it.’

  Hugh was satisfied with what Bella had told him, though he still felt it would be easy enough for any woman to be more than a little keen on Rod.

  Closer to home, they sat side by side on Dan’s favourite log and ate ham sandwiches with their thermos tea. Hugh wished the lunch, and the day, would last forever. He had never been with a woman he liked as much as Bella, with whom he felt so content. She didn’t act coy or flirtatious around him like a lot of women did but was completely natural. It was like they’d been mates for ages.

  ‘We’d better be getting back,’ Bella said after they had eaten all their lunch. ‘I hope there are no more dramas back at the ranch. We’ve had enough to last us for a while. It’s such a good thing you came back in time to help us.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to the show,’ Hugh said, smiling. ‘I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be right now.’ He hoped that he could get to know Bella even better in the future. He planned to spend much more time in the Half Moon.

  The Central Tablelands Championships were the biggest trials Beth had ever attended. Not only was there a large contingent of handlers from the region but also from many other parts of Australia. The handlers’ caravans crowded the showground, and the buzz of activity increased Beth’s nerves about competing against all of these people she didn’t know.

  The sheep for the maiden trial were a bit iffy. They would work quite well if the dog didn’t put too much pressure on them, but they would run and run if the dog tried to control them too much. Beth’s two kelpies, Trump and Troy, lost too many points by trying to work their sheep and scored 68 and 63 respectively. She knew she needed an 86 or better to get into the final of the maiden with Bonny.

  Beth had her heart in her mouth as she walked out onto the ground with Bonny. This was only the second time she had worked the collie at a trial. She’d been saving her for a big occasion such as this one. The first occasion had been the small trial at Turella where she’d come third and shown no tendency to beat the bell as she’d done with Wally. Now, she again sat patiently and, when Beth sent her away, cast out nicely and finished well behind her sheep where Beth stopped her. Two steps in were enough to cause the three wethers to bolt down the ground away from her.

  Beth held Bonny back off them until, sighting her at th
e casting peg, the sheep stopped running. Bonny moved out on to the point and edged the wethers in a wide circuit around Beth. Now it was on to the first obstacle, a race with two wings.

  Bonny responded to commands very quickly and the race was negotiated rapidly, but Bonny lost points at the bridge when the lead wether broke away and twice ran right around the bridge. That was six points down the drain. The same wether gave trouble at the pen, and Beth reckoned she’d lost a couple of points there. She’d probably lost points for the sheep being slightly off-course as well, but she thought she’d done well enough to get Bonny into the final. When the score of 89 points was announced, Beth was ecstatic. Bonny was in the maiden final.

  ‘I’ve never seen Beth Stafford work a collie before,’ Clem Grover said to his old friend and rival Charlie Dillon. ‘She must have seen the light. Where’d she get this one?’ Clem didn’t get many chances to have a dig at Charlie, who was a kelpie man through and through.

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Charlie said. He thought Beth had done a great job with Bonny, considering the shape she was in when taken away from Wally Osborne. Where Wally’s spoken commands had been loud and urgent, Beth’s were almost inaudible.

  ‘She’s not a bad dog,’ Clem said. ‘Crikey, that Beth’s a great sort of girl, isn’t she? I reckon she’s as good as her mother was. Beats me why someone hasn’t snapped her up.’

  ‘Dan’s too handy with the shotgun and Beth’s a bit fussy,’ Charlie said. ‘But I think she’s keen on Rod Cameron.’