The mountain that went to the sea (23 page)

'I guess they're fond of mysteries,' Jeckie said. 'Mystifying is a way of passing time at Mallibee. It all makes for the surprises of life north of Twenty-six.'

'And to the fun,' Sheila added. 'Now if it was Barton coming up that rise, we could look forward to some laughs.'

'And if it was Andrew, would we have laughs?'

Sheila's eyebrows shot up as she stared at Jeckie.

'You'd better ask Andrew that question,' she said. 'You might be surprised by the answer.'

It was too late for any more exchanges. Jason was at the bottom of the steps below the veranda and Aunt Isobel was smiling — but with some reticence — down on him.

Jason removed his hat and made a slight bow.

'Good morning, Miss Ashenden,' he said. 'It was kind of you to allow me to come.'

'Not at all, Jason. It was good of you to come. Will you come on to the veranda, please?' She turned a little, 'And Jane dear, do you think we could have some tea now? I'm sure Jeckie will help you. Cassie made some fresh scones — for the occasion.'

'Of course, Miss Isobel — ' Jane was very nearly all of a flutter. But not quite. Some of Aunt Isobel's calm dignity was catching on.

'Oh dear,' she said to Jeckie as they went through the passage door. 'What an occasion! I do think the others should have been here. I mean Andrew and Barton.'

'He was a darling to call her Miss "Ashenden", wasn't he?' Jeckie said happily. 'As a cousin of the family he must know she has only adopted the name. Everyone at the Morilla barbecue called her Miss "Ashenden" too. I thought it was wonderful.'

'Well, of course, they are used to it. Most of them probably don't even know she has any other name. After all, Miss Isobel is of the former generation of Ashendens. She's much older than most of the station owners and their wives.'

'Yes . . . I suppose she is. I wonder why Jason came? What could have brought him?'

'Well . . . just before we go into the kitchen I think I ought to tell you something, Jeckie. Not everything can be said on the two-way, you know. It's not quite as public

as the "transceiver set", but people on the same wavelength could, well — quite by accident — hear.'

Jane had her hand on the kitchen's screen door, but she did not pull it open. Instead, she stood quite still looking slightly troubled as if, being about to break a confidence, she had a conscience about it.

'I think he has come to ask Miss Isobel if he might take you, in that aeroplane of his, to see the Westerly-Ann Mine from the air!' she said at length. 'You would see where they're scooping more ore out of the Mountain too, and I don't know how Miss Isobel will like that, Jeckie. I don't know how to say this, but I think you ought to know in advance that I have a sort-of feeling Jason might be going to ask you — well — something personal. He was so anxious to take you. I didn't consult Miss Isobel about it, but I don't think a girl . . . I mean a young girl, should be unprepared . .

'Unprepared?' Jeckie was puzzled. Then daylight all but dawned like the piccaninny sunrise — light in advance of the sun.

'You mean . . . you think . . he might be going to .. .

Jane nodded her head solemnly. 'Yes. Oh dear! Have I done the right thing mentioning it?'

Colour had mounted in Jeckie's cheeks.

'But why do you think — well . .. ? I mean, we don't know one another so very well. That is, Jason and I don't know one another very well. I love him. He's such a dear. So kind. But not ...'

`You mean you haven't thought about it? That you don't ... ?'

'I haven't thought about it. Not that way. Of course, Barton was always teasing me, but that was only funmaking.'

'Yes — Barton,' Jane said sadly.

'Oh Jane-dear! Don't tell me I'm supposed to fall in love with Barton just to please you all.' Jeckie was suddenly exasperated, but doing her best to hide it.

'Well — not exactly — but it would have been — well — nice. I mean for me. It's very wrong of me, of course, but Barton is my favourite. That's because Andrew is everybody else's favourite, of course. Not only with Miss Isobel,

but with the other shareholders in Mallibee too. And with most of the other station people. They respect his judgment so much. And he's always polite. Well, don't look like that, Jeckie! Somebody had to love Barton. So I well I did!'

Jeckie touched Jane's hand impulsively. 'I think he's the luckiest man in the north to have you always on his side, Jane,' she said. 'Now let's go and get that darned tea, and those darned scones. If the Black Knight of Mallibee has returned with good will to his own stamping ground, he might as well have his meal good and hot. A sort-of token of forgiveness as well as welcome.'

By the time Jeckie, Jane and the morning tea arrived on the veranda, whatever had been said of importance between Aunt Isobel and Jason, had been said. Sheila had taken herself off paddockwards, so only the four of them sat down to tea.

`Jason is taking his plane out over the range this morning, Jeckie,' Aunt Isobel said as if this was something she remarked, quite incidentally, once a week.

Jeckie said — 'Oh!' because every time she looked at Jason she felt the tell-tale colour rising. Did she live in the latter half of the twentieth century, or didn't she? Had Jason actually been asking Aunt Isobel — well — what Jane had thought he might ask? They were all so definitely old-fashioned.

`Yes, Aunt Isobel,' she said. She was behaving Victorian-wise herself she feared.

'He would like to take you with him to see the view over the range. Would you like to go, my dear? He said you could be back by mid-afternoon.'

Jeckie would madly like to go, but she had to translate this feeling back in time, in order to sound as Aunt Isobel expected her to sound. Not too overtly ecstatic.

'I would like to go very much indeed,' she said. 'Specially with Jason — '

Jason looked at something on the floor that had skidded over towards his chair. His smile was very wide.

'Oh damn!' said Jeckie. 'I knew my shoes would go and spoil it all. I didn't kick it off. It just went . .

Aunt Isobel and Jane looked at Jeckie open-eyed, obviously stunned. Jason's grin widened as he stooped and

picked up the shoe.

'Can you hop?' he asked Jeckie with a wicked glint in his eyes. `I think I'll hang on to this thing as a keepsake.' He put the shoe in his pocket as he stood up and gave Jeckie his arm. 'If you get tired of hopping,' he admonished, 'I can always carry you. My plane is a good way down that paddock. You have far to go on one foot, I'm afraid.'

Aunt Isobel and Jane seemed to be struck dumb. Both wore funny-peculiar looks, but neither said a word.

'You're teaching me a lesson, aren't you, Jason?' Jeckie said tossing the truant strand of hair out of her eyes. 'Well — I'll just show you. I'm a champion hopper.'

Jeckie kept her word and hopped the whole distance. Even when Jason's resolve weakened, she persisted.

'I said I'd do it, so you have to let me, Jason,' she declared.

When they reached the plane Jeckie decided this shining thing was just the smallest bit frightening when it came to the idea of flying in it. It was so tiny. It was like a dragonfly delicately sitting there on the grass by the out-boundary of the long paddock. It shone like dragonflies' wings too.

'It won't turn over, or something, will it?' Jeckie asked as Jason hefted her up into her seat.

'Not in my hands!' he said. `Not with a certain good luck token either.' He closed the Perspex canopy overhead and pulled Jeckie's shoe from his pocket and put it on the ledge above the panel. 'You've yet more hopping to do, infant. You'll see later.'

Jeckie ignored this threat.

They bumped over the grass, then took off, suddenly soaring upwards to the sky. 'Would you please tell me what goes on at Mallibee homestead?' Jeckie asked. 'All of a sudden I feel tired of doing a walkabout in a cloud of mystery.'

'You mean the black sheep being welcomed home? Me being the black sheep?'

She nodded. 'Yes, that, amongst other things.'

'What other things?'

'Well! What has the arrival of Neil Cameron to do with sudden rays of happiness dazzling the air around the homestead? Then again — why are you forgiven for selling the Mountain? After all, you can't change your mind, can you? It's rumbling away in trucks to the sea. From there it will splash away in seventy-thousand-ton carriers to far countries. You can't bring it back and build the Mountain again, can you?'

'No, I can't. Besides, nobody wants it that way
anymore
. Not even Andrew or Miss Isobel.'

'Not even . . . ? Jason, am I going bonkers by any chance?'

'Not yet, Jeckie, but you could keep trying,' he said with a grin. 'But to answer your first question. The Ashendens didn't like Mallibee Mountain going. True enough. Nor did I. But they have to move with the times, as I did. That Mountain, and half the lower mesas in the range mean millions and
millions
of dollars to the people in this whole country. It's solid haematite ore. Markets north of us are screaming out for it. Markets in Europe too. No—it was sad to lose Mallibee Mountain, but it was the dip below it — and the rich stretch of land that was grassed all the year round from the range-side seepage, that caused the hard feelings.'

'But why? There's land . . . millions of acres. All over the place.'

'But not land. in this climate, that is grassed all the year round. Those valleys were where the new breed of cattle were to go.'

Jeckie thought she was beginning to see glimmers of light.

'Andrew minded not being able to experiment with the Santa Gertrudis and the Brahmins?'

The cattle experiment, yes. That's for certain. But losing Neil Cameron was the real blow. He works only with Gertrudis and Brahmins. They're his speciality. That's what he knows, and that's his living. None of the Herefords — horned or poll — are in his country. He's a stud

man, not a drover nor a stockman in the ordinary sense.' `But he's come back! Why? He doesn't work with Herefords.'

'Yes, he's back. There's peace in the valley below the Mountain again! All because Neil Cameron is back! We've found another stretch of land — back in the range. A long shallow gully. There are valleys and gorges back there that have never yet been explored. A real no-man's land. This stretch of grassland is ideal for Andrew's experiment. There's a natural way out too, once a track is bulldozed through.'

'So the speciality cattle come back!' Jeckie said, delighted. 'And with the cattle comes Neil Cameron! He's very impressive. Aren't there other experts?'

'Yes. But only one Neil Cameron. I'm afraid, Jeckie, we're stepping into private realms here. I think you should ask Miss Isobel — but not Jane — about Neil Cameron.'

'lane!' Jeckie felt light had really dawned.

Jane was the answer to it all. There had been something so different about her at the barbecue, and afterwards too: as if she'd only just discovered rainbows!

'Since you've jumped the slip rails yourself, Jeckie, I'll admit you're right. Yes — it's all to do with Jane. She has never known any kind of life other than the life at Mallibee, and her parents before her, and their parents before them. She is loyal and devoted to the Ashendens. Nothing would shake that.'

Jeckie closed her eyes. Jane! she thought. Jane and Neil Cameron!

'So,' Jason went on, 'now we've found another suitable gully back in the ranges, the cattle can come back. With the cattle comes Neil Cameron. Nothing would have persuaded Jane to leave Miss Isobel in her old age, you know, Jeckie. Not even Neil Cameron. Though he tried. I think a handsome bungalow nearby might persuade her to move off a few yards. What do you think? She'll always be at hand to help Miss Isobel.'

'Who found the gully? Andrew or Barton?'

'Well — '

Jason was staring at the controls as he flew the plane. Jeckie glanced at his profile.

'Jason . . .' she said. 'And don't deny it, please. Or

wrap me or Mallibee in any more mysteries. You found the land, didn't you? It is part of your own land which you didn't sell at the time you sold the Mountain. I'm right, aren't I?'

Below them, in the near distance, the range was rising up like a line of striated blocks strung across the plain. It was a brilliant blue range; rugged, table-topped, and very beautiful.

'I know,' Jeckie went on, being insistent. 'I know you found it, because one day Barton showed me on the map in the office where Mallibee ended. There, north of it, was your land left over after the part sold to Westerly-Ann. That remnant took in the lower hills and dips back of the range. It was marked UNSURVEYED TERRAIN. Barton said that only odd prospectors and casual explorers had ever gone through there. It was wild, untouched country.

Barton told me —'

`Well . . .' Jason said with a grin. 'Anyone can hate the mine — just because it's a mine, you know. But it was Westerly-Ann's geologists who found that nice patch of grazing country back of the range. The very place for certain special breeds of cattle!'