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Pioneers, The

<h2>CHAPTER XL</h2> It was early next morning that Cameron's cart with its slowly moving, heavy grey horse drew up before Steve's, and Mrs. Cameron herself got down from it. The Schoolmaster was pacing the long kitchen. He had not been still a moment since Pete M'Coll brought his news. Pete had gone back to the Wirree to see if anything more had been heard of Davey, whether he was to be brought back to the district for trial, or was being held in Melbourne. The story of his arrest had come through on the vessel that brought stores to Port Southern, but it was very vague. A rumour had reached the Albatross an hour or two before she was sailing that a young man saying he was David Cameron—Young Davey—Cameron of Ayrmuir's son, had been arrested for cattle-stealing, and that he and a nigger were being detained on the charge. Pete had not returned, but the Schoolmaster set about making preparations for a journey. Deirdre had packed his tucker bag; his blanket was rolled up to strap on his saddle. "Which way are you going?" Deirdre asked. She knew that the schooner would probably be gone before he could reach the Port, and that it would continue its passage along the coast to Rane before turning back and making for Port Phillip. He had thought of all that too. "I'll ride," he said. "What are you going to do," she asked anxiously. "I don't know!" Out of the chaos of his thoughts no plan of action had yet formed. Then Mrs. Cameron came. Deirdre brought her into the kitchen. "It's Mrs. Cameron, father," she said, and left them. Farrel turned in the direction of her voice. He made a movement towards Mrs. Cameron, who was standing just within the doorway. His hand went out with a seeking motion. "I ... I can't see you," he said, a little querulously. Her hand met his. She knew from his face the desperate and troubled state of mind he was in, and he, hers, from her fluttered breath and the sob that went with it. "I've come to ask you to keep a promise," she said. "Yes?" "You remember the promise?" For a moment he did not remember any words—any formal undertaking; but he knew to what she referred. "You said ... long ago," her voice was scarcely audible, "that if ever you could do anything for me or mine—" "Yes," he said. "If ever I can do anything, I want to." She sank into a chair. Her hands flew to her bonnet strings. She untied them. "You know what it is I want you to do?" she asked. "Yes." He felt for his chair. It was near the one she had taken. He sat down and turned his face towards her. He could just see a dim outline of her against the morning brightness. To him she was a grey figure with a heavy black shadow about her. He strained to meet her eyes again. The very magic of them seemed to illumine her face for him, show him its beautiful outlines. And yet perhaps, he did not see them at all. It was all memory and vivid imagining that gave him the illusion. He did not see her face, thin and lined with pain and loneliness, the patience and vague disappointment that had come to dwell in her eyes. "I want you to get the boy off for me ... to have this charge removed," she said, tremulously. The Schoolmaster knew that this was what he had meant to try to do; but now that she had asked him, he told himself that it must be done. The means employed to lift the burden of blame from Davey's shoulders he knew—would have to be very sure ones. Davey, himself, would not say anything to implicate Conal or anyone else. Evidently the story of his droving for Donald Cameron had not carried much weight. "Yes," the Schoolmaster said, "I will." He had no doubt of himself now that she had appealed to him. "Oh," she cried, after a few moments. "I knew that it was some mischief to us McNab was planning. I can see it all now. I thought it was you, or Conal, he was trying to get at. McNab told Donald that cattle were being moonlighted—most of them Ayrmuir breakaways and wild cattle—at the back of our hills. But he did not know that Davey was droving for Conal, not till he asked me this morning, and I told him. I didn't know myself till a few days ago, when Davey came to me after church. Then he said he'd been working with Conal, and I begged him not to any more, and told him what his father and McNab were trying to do. He promised to come home, but he never came. I was afraid to tell his father for fear he'd never forgive him, and every day I thought Davey'd be coming in the gate. McNab knew, of course. Everybody else in the Wirree seems to have known, but us, that Davey was with Conal. It was to bring our pride in the dust, to make Davey's father the shamed and disgraced man he is, he did it. But Where's Conal? How is it he's not there with Davey? Why did Davey ever go in for this business? Why are you in it? I thought that you would never be doing anything again that would bring you under the law." The distress and reproach in her voice hurt him. "I thought so too," he said bitterly. He did not attempt to excuse himself; and the sightless eyes that gazed at her did not accuse. His mind was back to the subject between them. "This is the concern of two men, I and another," he said. "Davey was no more than a hired drover. Besides—" "Where is Conal?" Mrs. Cameron asked. "Away." His tone forbade further inquiry. There was silence a moment. "How does Mr. Cameron take it?" "He's broken altogether." "Would he"—the Schoolmaster hesitated—"would he consent to say that Davey was droving for him. There were D.C. cows in the mob." Mrs. Cameron hesitated. "I think he would do anything—anything in the world to get the boy off," she said. "I don't know that it would do ... whether it would work," the Schoolmaster said a little wearily. "Probably Davey has said that he was putting the mob through for his father. He said he would if anything happened. If inquiries are made, will you tell Mr. Cameron to back up the story ... it's the only chance. Davey may have been only detained until it could be ascertained whether he is Donald Cameron's son and whether Cameron authorised him to sell the cattle. It would be a splendid opportunity to spoil McNab's game, if it could be done.... But if, for some reason I don't know of yet, it can't be worked, there's another way." "You mean you'll say you were responsible. Davey was only a drover with you," Mrs. Cameron asked. "Yes." She uttered a little cry. "It was what I meant you to do, but I can't bear to think of it," she said. She covered her face with her hands. The Schoolmaster was thinking deeply too; the iron of despair had entered his soul. "What will it mean?" she asked, looking up at him. "Three years hard labour on the roads of the Colony or other place as the judge may direct," he quoted, his voice a little uncertain. "Tell me," she said, rising, a tide of feeling carrying fire to her eyes, dignity to her figure and a subtle timbre to her voice, "would you rather I had not come? Would you rather I had let Davey take his punishment? I'm not sure that he does not deserve it in spite of what you say." "No!" Farrel cried, passionately. He grasped her hand. His face fell over it. "It is the best thing in the world ... for me ... to do something for you," he said. Mrs. Cameron caught her breath when for a moment he carried her fingers to his lips. "You'll look after Deirdre," he said, "if—" "Yes." She stood uncertainly looking at him, a pitiful, quivering emotion in her eyes; then she moved away. "Good-bye," he said, mechanically, hearing the brush of her garments as she left the room. "Good-bye," she said. Deirdre saw that Mrs. Cameron's cheeks were wet with tears when she climbed into the buggy again. She did not speak, but drove silently away. Deirdre had been rubbing Bess's nose and feeding her with handfuls of grass. When she went back to the kitchen her father was sitting with his arms over the side of his chair, his head on them. She flew to him; her arms entwined him. But he pushed her away, with unconscious roughness. "Go away!" he whispered. An angry pain at his grief, at Mrs. Cameron who in some way had been the cause of it, surged through Deirdre. Pete M'Coll rode into the yard. He threw his bridle over the hitching post. "Any news?" Deirdre asked. He shook his head and went into the kitchen. Later the Schoolmaster called Steve in. She heard Steve's voice raised complainingly, her father's, with settled determination, against it. Her heart was sore. Why was he not telling her his plans as he was telling Steve? She heard him arranging to take Pete with him to Melbourne. "I'm going too, father," she cried, flashing into the kitchen. "What have I done that you shouldn't tell me what you are going to do. You're talking to every one else, and my heart's breaking." The Schoolmaster drew her into his arms. "You're not coming, dear," he said. "You're best out of this. I want you to wait here with Steve till Davey comes back." "And you too, father?" He held her close in his arms. "Yes, me too, of course, darling." He crushed her face against his. "It's great times we've had together, my darling, isn't it?" he asked. "I don't like going without you, but it's better. It's great times we've had together ... and now I'm an old blind devil that wouldn't be able to look after you properly in the town. It's not a nice place for a girl to be going about in, and I'd be no good to look after you—no more than a burden. Pete here'll be my guide and take me by the track round the swamp to Melbourne. He says he couldn't do the short cut across the swamp, but he knows the roundabout track all right. We'll have to be busy on Davey's account then. You'll be a good wife to Davey, won't you, darling? And happy as the day's long when he gets back. But you do love me, too, don't you, darling black head? For God's sake say you love me." His voice broke. Deirdre flung her arms about him, reckless of all but that some trouble within had forced that cry. There was a bitter undertone in his words that she did not understand, although she associated them in some way with Davey's mother and the disturbance and mental turmoil into which Davey's arrest had put him. "I love you," she cried, "more than all the world—more than Davey, more than anyone or anything in it!" He stooped and kissed her. "What a jealous brute I am," he murmured, "to have taken that from you." "There's nothing you haven't told me?" she asked, searching his face. "No," he replied, turning his face from her and burying it in her hair. "You haven't told me anything at all of what you're going to do to get Davey off," she said sharply. "Oh, well," he parried. "I don't know ...I haven't decided ... it will depend upon circumstances." He recognised the anxiety of her voice. "You aren't going to try and get him off by putting yourself in his place, are you?" she asked, doubtfully. "You've really been less in the thing than he has, and he's young and strong and—" "Oh no," the Schoolmaster laughed lightly. "I wouldn't try to do that!" He went out to the stable-yard. When the Kangaroo was saddled, he took Deirdre in his arms again. She watched him cantering down the road on the great raking grey, towards the inland plains, Pete M'Coll, on one of Steve's horses, a few yards behind him. The thought of that cry of his troubled her. Why had he said: "For God's sake, say you love me!" The flood of her love for him rose and filled her, the love of all those early years, when he had been mother, brother and playfellow. Little pictures of his tenderness, of his gay good-fellowship, of his care, flitted before her. Because for years it had moved so tranquilly, she had scarcely realised the depth and power of that passionate affection, but now that he had called for it, showed his need of it, as he had never done even in the old days, it surged tempestuously. <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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