The Call of the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘What on earth is going on here? David, stop that at once. Catriona, tell me what caused this fight.’

  The two children refrained from answering. David’s anger was still simmering. He looked at the damage he had caused Stanley with no small amount of satisfaction. He reckoned the creep wouldn’t lay a finger on Catriona again in a hurry.

  ‘Very well, I will see you children in my office. Stanley and Wade, we are going to see Mrs Carruthers. She will attend to you.’

  The three children walked back up the slope, with every child in the school looking on, until they stood side by side outside the principal’s office.

  When Mr Carruthers returned, he took David inside and left the two girls outside. ‘Now, tell me, what caused the fight?’

  ‘I would rather not say, sir.’

  ‘You would rather not say. You half kill another boy in my schoolyard and you would rather not say. You know that I do not tolerate fighting. You gave Stanley a real hiding and I want to know why. I must know, David.’

  David did not want to dob Stanley in, creep though he was, but he was mostly concerned that Catriona did not get into trouble. If he told Mr Carruthers that Stanley had undone Catriona’s blouse, he might somehow imagine that she had done it willingly.

  ‘I think you’re hiding something and I mean to find out what it is. Go back to class and send Catriona in.’

  ‘I didn’t tell him anything, Cat. Not a word,’ David managed to whisper in her ear before she went into the office and the door closed behind her.

  ‘Now, Catriona, I want you to tell me what happened down there. You are a very sensible girl and David has never given me an ounce of trouble so there has to be a very good reason for all this. I want you to tell me about it. Did Stanley say or do something to upset you?’

  He saw by the way the girl’s face flamed that he was on the right track.

  Catriona was not her normal self. She was, in fact, in a state of shock. Her mother had warned her about incidents like this, but Catriona had never expected it could happen in the school grounds. But, out of fear that she might be blamed, Catriona, like David, said nothing. And when Mr Carruthers pressed her harder, she burst into tears.

  After several minutes of fruitless questioning, Carruthers gave up and sent her along to Miss Warne. He decided to try a different approach with Susan.

  ‘Now, Susan, Catriona has given me her version of what happened and I want to check the details with you. Tell me in your words what happened.’

  Susan told the whole story. Mr Carruthers listened carefully until she had finished. ‘So David intervened when Catriona screamed. Is that right?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘He actually got his hand inside Catriona’s blouse?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘You are absolutely certain that Catriona did nothing to entice Stanley?’

  ‘Oh, no, Mr Carruthers. Catriona and I were just talking when Stanley and Wade came over.’

  ‘Is David a special friend to Catriona?’

  ‘I wouldn’t say he is a special friend. Catriona likes David a lot. He helped her last Christmas holidays. It was in the paper.’

  ‘I am aware of what David did. You may go now, and thank you. Please ask David to come back here.’

  ‘Sit down, David,’ Mr Carruthers said when the boy returned to his office.

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Susan has told me what actually happened down at the willow tree today and I have no doubt that what she told me was the truth. If it had been an ordinary fight, you would be in serious trouble. However, it seems that you acted from the best possible motives.’

  ‘Yes, sir. Stanley has a dirty mind. Wade is almost as bad. When I heard Catriona scream, I let him have it.’

  ‘You certainly did. Stanley is in quite a mess. Did your father teach you to box?’ Like most other people in the district, Mr Carruthers knew of Andrew MacLeod’s reputation as a tough man.

  ‘Actually, sir, it was Tim Sparkes. He was with Sharman’s boxing troupe for a season. He taught me.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘But I was told that I should only fight when there’s no other way to settle an argument. I couldn’t very well have asked Stanley to leave Catriona alone. He would have just laughed at me. That’s the kind of boy he is. I had to teach him a lesson, sir.’

  There was a gleam in the principal’s eye and he could not refrain from smiling. ‘You may go back to class. I shall give you a note to take home to your mother. I should like to see her before school breaks up. Please do not discuss any of this with the other children. Understand?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  There was a kind of hush as David took his place in the classroom. Catriona still looked white and strained. She looked across at him and gave him a weak smile. He nodded in reply.

  Stanley Masters did not come back to school that afternoon, nor for the rest of the term. David eventually heard that the Masters family had left the district. Apparently Jack Masters had taken up a position on a property in southern New South Wales.

  Wade Missen did not finish the term either, and from that day on he began to hate David MacLeod, not just because of what he had done to him, but because he knew that he would never be able to beat him.

  Mr Carruthers did not take the senior classes that afternoon. Instead he took Catriona and Susan to their homes and explained what had occurred. Neither girl came back to class that day.

  David never said a word to anyone. His mother learned of the fracas from Mr Carruthers in the first instance and from Jane Campbell shortly after. Anne complied with the principal’s request that she come and see him.

  ‘Has David said anything to you about what happened here the other day?’ Mr Carruthers asked.

  ‘I was not aware that anything had happened,’ Anne said rather tersely. ‘Did it involve David?’

  ‘Oh, yes, it certainly involved David,’ he said, and then related the full story, including the second interview with her son.

  ‘Oh, dear. Was the boy badly hurt?’

  ‘He wasn’t in first-class condition. Between the two of us, I think Stanley got what he deserved. I did not punish David because any boy worth his salt would have reacted in similar fashion. David also tried to defend Catriona by keeping quiet. That boy of yours is really something, Mrs MacLeod.’

  ‘I suppose the Campbells know all about this?’ Anne asked.

  ‘Oh, yes. I took Catriona and Susan home that afternoon. I also told them what other action I would be taking. I had to do that in case there is further trouble. I doubt that there will be because there is prior evidence of Stanley’s unseemly conduct.’

  ‘How did Angus and Jane react to your news?’

  ‘Naturally they were shocked. You don’t expect to find such behaviour in a primary school.’

  ‘Goodness, I’ve heard nothing at all,’ Anne said.

  ‘It’s David I really wanted to discuss with you today. I am afraid to say that in many ways David has disappointed me because his heart is not in his work. He is a very bright boy and he could be at the top of the class, but he only ever does the bare minimum. Many times I have caught him gazing out the windows, lost in his own world. He really needs to concentrate on his lessons.’

  Anne sighed. How could she make Mr Carruthers understand how passionately David loved High Peaks and his animals?

  ‘I understand what you’re saying. Believe me, I know how difficult it is to motivate David. He feels that going to school is a penance he must live with until he’s old enough to leave and look after High Peaks.’

  Mr Carruthers shook his head. ‘The land is very risky, Mrs MacLeod. Your husband has nearly killed himself to free your property from debt. Is that what you want for David?’

  ‘Did you advise Stuart Campbell in this same fashion?’ Anne asked bluntly.

  ‘Well, no,’ the principal said and coloured slightly. ‘But the Campbells have a large property. Stuart’s future is assured.’


  ‘So it’s fine for the Campbells to be landowners but not the MacLeods?’ Anne asked, raising her eyebrows.

  ‘Well, in all strictest confidence, Stuart was not nearly as bright as your David, although he did try harder. I am just saying that it could be worth him learning something else in case things don’t turn out so well on the property. To do that he would have to work harder at high school than he has done here.’

  ‘David will probably learn to shear like his father, and that brings in good money. We hope to buy another property and we could pay that off if two incomes were coming in.’

  ‘If you don’t mind me saying, Mrs MacLeod, David could set his sights higher than shearing. He is very bright.’

  ‘Shearing helped to pay off the debt on High Peaks, Mr Carruthers. Right now we don’t owe anybody a brass farthing. I know you mean well and I appreciate you talking to me about David, but as you know, I was a teacher myself. I know David better than anyone. He is a unique child, and to try to change him too much would do more harm than good.’

  ‘As you say, you know David best and I’m sure you’re right. I think he’s too bright not to be pushed a little harder, but having said that, let me also say that I would be very proud to have David for my son. He is a splendid boy.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr Carruthers. I’m pleased that we both agree on that point. And I am very sorry if David’s fight caused you problems,’ Anne said.

  ‘Well, just between you and me, I do not regret the departure of Stanley Masters from this school. And Wade Missen, too. It is a fact that children seem to be maturing faster these days.’

  ‘I am sure David will not be unduly affected by what goes on at high school or anywhere else. He knows what he wants out of life and Andy and I will do all we can to see that he achieves it.’

  So that was that. But as Anne drove back to High Peaks she wondered what Angus and Jane thought of the Stanley Masters affair. Twice during the current year David had come to Catriona’s rescue. How would Angus take that?

  ‘He told you about it, didn’t he, Mum?’ David asked. He was having afternoon tea a few minutes after getting off the school bus. He had seen his mother through the classroom window and had sensed trouble.

  ‘Who told me what?’ Anne answered.

  David knew he was right. There was trouble looming. It was probably a lecture. His mother was never formal unless a lecture was to follow.

  ‘Mr Carruthers told you about me fighting with that creep Masters.’

  ‘Was there a fight? I gained the impression it was all one-sided. Did Stanley hit you at all?’

  ‘Well, no, I didn’t give him the chance to hit me.’

  ‘And I suppose we can thank Tim Sparkes for your new-found prowess?’

  ‘Too right.’

  ‘I am going to have a serious talk with you, David. You need to know some things before you go to high school. It’s important that I talk to you about the facts of life in case the Campbells should ring or come and see us about what happened.’

  ‘Why should they?’ David asked as he reached for another piece of chocolate cake. If he had to sit through a lecture, he might as well take advantage of what was in the cake tin.

  ‘You’ll make yourself sick if you eat too much of that. Have a piece of fruit instead. Now, you may not appreciate the fact, but the Campbells are once again in our debt – well, your debt, really. If you hadn’t intervened, Stanley might have taken things even further.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Anne sighed. It was a great pity that children had to grow up. But the first shadow of what lay ahead for her son had crossed his path and now she would have to try to explain it.

  So for the next hour, Anne gave David his first major lesson in the facts of life. It was an ordeal for her, and she sensed it was an ordeal for David, too.

  ‘Are you clear about everything now?’ she asked finally.

  ‘Yes, Mum. Can I go now?’

  ‘Yes, you can. And in case you think I’m cross with you, I’m not. I’m proud of what you did, but I hope it is the first and last time you have to do it.’

  ‘Me, too. Thanks, Mum.’ He ran for the back door and she heard it bang loudly behind him. She had absolutely no idea how much of her words he had absorbed, and a brief feeling of sympathy for Mr Carruthers passed over her.

  That night Jane Campbell rang with an invitation for Anne and David to come to Inverlochy for afternoon tea on Saturday. David, as usual, resisted.

  ‘You are going, David. That’s all there is to it. This invitation requires common courtesy,’ his mother said.

  David appealed to his father, who was engrossed in the latest issue of The Land newspaper.

  ‘It’s only one afternoon, Davie, and if I know the Campbells, and if Mrs Rogers is still housekeeper, they’ll bung on a big spread,’ he said.

  David tried to assess the appeal of a big spread against a ride up Jimmy’s Mountain with Lad behind him. Inverlochy lost hands down. He was about to protest again when his father stopped him.

  ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You get this thing at the Campbells’ out of the way and Sunday morning I’ll give you your first shearing lesson. How does that strike you?’

  ‘Wow, will you, Dad?’ David had been busting to learn how to shear. His dad’s promise silenced his protests about going to Inverlochy and he resolved to put on the best face he could for the blasted smoko.

  So it was that in a very fair mood he accompanied his mother to Inverlochy. They were welcomed by Jane Campbell, who stood at the front steps of the big homestead as Anne’s car pulled up. Catriona was standing beside her mother and looked prettier than Anne had ever seen her. She had grown a lot in the year since her accident on Yellow Rock. Today, her long golden hair was tied in two plaits with blue and white check ribbons, and she was wearing a blue and white dress to match. Catriona coloured slightly when David came up the steps. He had been a witness to what had happened to her under the willow tree and that indignity was still fresh in her mind.

  ‘Hi, Cat,’ he growled.

  ‘Hello, David,’ she replied softly.

  They were taken into the very large lounge room, which Anne had come to know well from her visits over the years. The room was furnished with huge leather chairs and an enormous matching sofa. The Campbells sometimes used this room for formal dinner parties and other gatherings. There were two original paintings on the walls, one a Gruner and the other a McCubbin. Anne was keen on art and had once studied it, not that she had ever been able to afford paintings like those. The other main point of interest in the room was the fireplace. This was recessed about five feet and would take a very big log or stump.

  Anne and Jane sat in the lounge chairs facing each other and David and Catriona sat at each end of the sofa. The children listened while their mothers spoke of many things – Christmas, the holidays, Catriona’s clothes for boarding school … it went on and on … and David was bored stiff. He hoped that Stuart Campbell would make an appearance so that he could escape with him to the stables where the in-feed horses were kept. But both Stuart and his father were nowhere to be seen.

  Presently Jane looked across at her daughter and nodded. ‘Catriona has something to say to David,’ she said with a half-smile. Anne thought it rather a forced smile, one of someone trying to be pleasant in a difficult situation.

  ‘Thank you, Mummy. I want to say that Mummy invited you over today so that I could thank you again, David, for what you did at school.’

  Catriona said her piece like a well-drilled child actress. But she had not finished. ‘Mummy has told me what might have happened,’ – and here her face went quite pink – ‘if you hadn’t followed those awful boys down to where Susan and I were sitting. It was two against one and you could have been hurt, David. It was very brave of you to tackle them the way you did.’

  Catriona, like David, had also had a lecture from her mother, though in her case it had not been her first. The emphasis this time was on the biolog
ical consequences of being handled by boys and men, and the fact that, as she grew older, more and more males would look at her.

  Catriona was more advanced physically and mentally than David and she had thought a great deal about what her mother said. She really liked David MacLeod, and she would lie awake at night thinking about him before she went to sleep. Her mother’s words kept coming back to her: ‘It’s a woman’s prerogative to decide who you will allow to take such liberties.’

  She had discussed the idea of boyfriends with Susan and they had agreed that Catriona couldn’t tell her mother about all her feelings for David.

  ‘Aw, it was nothing, Cat,’ David said. ‘I never liked Stanley. I wasn’t going to let him get away with frightening you.’

  ‘It was very gallant of you, David,’ Jane said graciously. ‘I know you don’t want to talk about it, so I think we should go out on the back verandah for afternoon tea.’

  That was the best suggestion David had heard all day and he got up smartly and followed the others outside. Spread out on one long table was about the biggest array of food David had ever seen in his young life. There were several large cakes, including one chocolate and one double-cream cake, and plates galore of other delicacies. There was also a selection of soft drinks in a big copper of crushed ice.

  Poor Mrs Rogers, Anne thought as she surveyed the spread in front of her. She must have been up since dawn putting all this together.

  ‘You weren’t here for Catriona’s birthday party and she will be away at school next year, so we have to make the most of today. It is also a kind of thankyou for being such a good friend to Catriona over the last year,’ Jane said.

  David’s eyes widened. He didn’t know what to say under the circumstances but finally blurted out, ‘It’s very good of you, Mrs Campbell, but there was no need to make such a fuss. Any other boy would have done just the same as I did.’

  ‘I doubt that very much, David. And I should also add that this is a kind of farewell party because Catriona will be going away to Sydney for a few years,’ Jane added.