Dear Plutocrat Read online

  'Could be,' scoffed Lin, glancing down and frowning at the growth of weeds at her feet. 'But highly unlikely. Why you must keep on making excuses for that man I can't for the life of me make out. But don't! Not in my hearing!'

  'Nor mine,' put in Kate, looking again at the shack in which the old man had ended his days. 'Mark Copeland could have done something—with all his servants and all his men. The place is so close—a mere three miles from his own house.' Kate shook her head. 'No, there's not a scrap of kindness in Mark Copeland, and whatever he did here was with the expectancy of gain. If the truth were known we'd discover that he was hoping for the old man to leave this to him. He needs it badly, so that his lands can be joined, and he's been wooing Mr. Gleaves with this hope of inheritance in view—although I for one would have been glad if he had inherited the property, instead of me,' Kate thought to add as it occurred to her, all her dejection flooding in again. 'What on earth are we going to do with it?' No one seemed to have any idea and Kate said, 'I'll let him have it if he'll give me enough to pay our fares home.' She glanced from Cherry to Lin and added, 'This meets with your approval?'

  'I personally don't feel like going back so quickly as all that,' said Lin after a pause. 'What is everyone going to think? We'll only be making laughing-stocks of ourselves—especially me, who's always saying people who emigrate never give themselves time to get acclimatized to their new country.' She looked at Cherry. 'Do you want to go back?'

  Cherry shook her head, casting a surreptitious glance away in the direction of High Creek Downs.

  'No, I don't feel like going back.' She turned to smile at Kate. 'I suggested we settle in before making any decisions. Let's keep to that. We're all tired anyway, and humiliated—'

  'You were never showing any signs of being humiliated,' Lin had to put in. 'In fact, you seemed to get on like a house on fire with the man!'

  'As I was saying,' continued Cherry, flushing a little but otherwise unaffected by the interruption, 'we're tired. And we've had a nasty experience into the bargain, making fools of ourselves like that. In addition there's the more important matter of Kate's disappointment—and ours for that matter because we both expected to be basking in luxury,' she added, and a laugh rippled, clearing the air like a ray of sunlight after rain. It lightened all their spirits and without affording Cherry the opportunity of finishing what she was saying Lin said they had better take a look inside, as she was sure there was no electricity, and they had to unpack before the sun went down and they were left in the dark.

  'There is electricity,' began Kate in surprise as they entered, but on pressing down the switch nothing happened. 'No such luck!'

  'Must have been electricity at one time,' said Cherry. 'They make their own here, so we'll investigate that tomorrow.'

  'What a dreadful dump!' declared Kate, deaf to Cherry's optimistic intentions of making some endeavour to provide them with an electricity supply. 'We can't live in this!' Her eyes filled up again. What must they both be thinking? True, they did not show their feelings and emotions, and they never would, but they must be feeling just as unhappy as she. 'I must sell, Lin.' The smell of damp did not help, and of course it was growing dark and as the walls were painted in a colour shading between brown and grey the whole picture was as depressing as a fog in June.

  'It'll look different in the morning,' said Cherry, trying to appear bright even though the place gave her the creeps, so dim and dank it was. 'What is this place?' She was standing in the doorway between the room into which they had stepped from outside, and another, larger room. 'It'll do for a bedroom. Shall we share it for tonight?'

  'Good idea,' applauded Lin, suddenly becoming brisk. 'Come on, then, let's unload the beds and sleeping bags. Kate, wake up! If you can't be a member of the noble squatocracy after all then at least you can be a pioneer! And they all began as those—at least, their ancestors did.'

  Kate turned, the choking sensation in her throat preventing speech. They were wonderful, these two… and she suddenly owned that she was rich in spite of the bitter disappointment and dejection that engulfed her despite the efforts of her friends to dispel it.

  At no time do misfortunes hang so heavily as at night, and as Cherry had prophesied, it all looked different the following morning and in consequence the dejection lifted and was even replaced by an eagerness to make the best of a bad job.

  'You know,' said Cherry when after breakfast they made a thorough examination of the house, 'this place can be made very comfortable.'

  'I'm inclined to agree,' from Lin in thoughtful tones. 'Kate, what say you if we give it a trial?'

  'But… are you sure?' Kate was also of the opinion that something could be made of the place, but on the other hand she was ever conscious of what her friends were losing financially. She mentioned this, and the reply from Cherry was that Kate also was losing financially.

  'But,' she added, 'we spent our money, remember. It wasn't as if we could save much at all, except to provide ourselves with a holiday. Here, we won't be earning much—'

  'Not anything,' Kate felt impelled to warn them, but this was ignored. 'On the other hand, we won't be spending much, because there isn't anything to spend money on. What we lose in one way we shall gain in another, besides adding enormously to our experience of life and to our education.'

  'What about the farm, though?' Kate said. 'It isn't only the house we have to think about; we must make some money out of the property.'

  Cherry's eyes were glistening with laughter as she looked at Lin, who was poking about in a corner with her shoe, bringing down a mass of cobwebs and dust.

  'You won't be riding the range after all, on your magnificent charger—or taking a siesta under the shade of the coolibah tree chewing your blade of spinifex grass as you listen to the kookaburras in the wattles.'

  'Bitch!' snapped Lin, then added, as an afterthought, 'What about these 'ere two cows Mark Copeland mentioned?' Vaguely she looked through the grimy window. 'There's one! By Jove, he looks quite presentable. I like his tawny-cum-russet coat.'

  'It's a she,' said Cherry, and with a glance at Kate, 'It looks very much to me as if it's milking time.'

  'Does it?' said Kate, feigning ignorance.

  'It was you who said anyone can milk a cow, remember?'

  'I did say that, yes.'

  'And you also declared emphatically that you'd had experience on a farm. Well, Kate, my pet, here's your chance to acquire more practice. I noticed a bucket somewhere—ah, yes, under the sink.'

  'Is it clean?' Kate wanted to know, playing for time and racking her brain to recall what a farmer had once said about handling a cow gently, maintaining that it would not always give milk if it didn't like the person milking it.

  'I'll soon have it clean,' promised Cherry, and she did. Kate took it from her, managed a grin, and disappeared from the house.

  'There,' she was exclaiming triumphantly when a short while later she brought in the milk. 'We shan't starve! You can live on milk.'

  'Well, well, what about that, then?' Lin stared, not quite able to believe her eyes. 'You can show me at the next milking time. I want to have a go at this.'

  'I've also let the hens out,' said Kate, 'and I collected five eggs!'

  'You—? We do have some hens, then?' Cherry glanced through the window. 'Is that where they sleep?'

  'In that rickety shed, yes. The roof wants repairing.'

  'Repair the roof and the rest'll fall around your ears while you're about it,' prophesied Lin darkly. 'No, we'll build another.'

  'Don't be silly!'

  'Look here. If we were three men what would we be doing about this—er—cattle station?'

  'I wonder where the other cow is?' murmured Cherry without much expression.

  'Probably strayed into our neighbour's field—or is it run? Yes, I hope it has, actually,' Lin added. 'It'll save our pasture.'

  'He might milk it, though,' said Kate with a frown.

  'Can't see the Boss of that outfit milki
ng a cow,' returned Lin, and this brought a laugh from both Kate and Cherry.

  'I meant—he might have it milked, along with his own.

  'Could do. I expect he has a few milking cows, just for his own use. But never mind him; let's get back to this idea that we're all men—'

  'I don't particularly like the idea of being a man,' interrupted Cherry. 'I rather like myself as I am.'

  'Cut out the frivolity! If we were three men we'd immediately set about repairing this dump— Er, this holding.'

  'You were right the first time,' from Kate in deprecating tones. 'Don't apologize, or retract. I know exactly what I'm saddled with.'

  'Sorry all the same. If we were three men—'

  'What, again?' Kate picked up a piece of polythene which had been wrapped round a blanket and placed over the pail of milk. 'All right, we're three men. Carry on from there.'

  'We'd repair everything—paint it and make it like new—well,' she amended on seeing the expressions appearing on the faces of the other two, 'make it presentable. We'd then look to the farm, building that up into a prosperous business.'

  'It seems to me,' said Kate musingly, 'that the farm comes first, because we must have some money. If we improved our stock then we could sell something.'

  'Who to?' asked Cherry with interest.

  'Who to? Well—er—there surely must be someone who buys the produce from these farms…' Kate allowed her voice to trail away into a rather frightened little silence as Cherry began shaking her head.

  'There aren't any farms. All you have around here are the big cattle stations, and their owners send the cattle away at certain times of the year for beef.'

  'I wonder how this little place got here?' Lin looked for inspiration at the dust-laden cobwebs above ha head. 'It must have been here first—before these two stations of Mark Copeland's, I mean.'

  'Probably. But never mind that. How the dickens are we to make any money if we can't sell anything?' Kate was frowning heavily. 'It's no use, we'll have to sell out to Mark Copeland.'

  'Time enough to think of that when we're unable to eat. Meanwhile, we're not quite destitute. For one thing we have a little money, and for another, we can sell that car. That should keep us in the bare necessities for quite a time. We're not going to buy anything we can produce ourselves, remember.' Lin gazed at the festoonery above her again. 'I'm going to enjoy this, girls! Let's get started—allocating the work. Are we all agreed that Kate looks after the poultry and the cattle?'

  'I wonder where that other cow is?' said Cherry again, then ducked as Lin made a swipe at her.

  'Yes, I'll look to the livestock,' agreed Kate, but went on to say she would also work in the house, as there wasn't sufficient work outside for her, not until they began to think of growing their own vegetables.

  However, although they allocated the tasks the girls soon found themselves working together; Lin and Cherry milked the cow and fed the hens now and then while all three worked furiously in the house, utilizing every minute between dawn and dusk, when they would sit and have a meal by the log fire in what they intended to be their sitting-room.

  'I wish I could do something about that electricity,' said Cherry on the fifth day of their occupation of High Creek. 'We should be able to make it, but of course you have to have an engine—or something.'

  'A fat lot you know about it,' said Lin, scraping away at the walls of the sitting-room. 'We'll get some oil lamps when we go into town.'

  This they intended doing on the following Monday, having made a long list of all the things they needed. Topping the list were such things as paint brushes and paint, and furniture polish. The furniture had turned out to be rather good—after Kate had removed, carefully with warm soapy water, the dirt and grime collected over many years without a woman's care. Now, it only required polishing, and the small repairs necessary to the upholstery of the chairs and couch.

  'I'd better fetch some water,' said Kate, who was scrubbing the door in preparation of the painting soon to take place.

  'I'll go for it,' offered Cherry, picking up a container which they had brought as part of their camping equipment.

  'We'll both go,' decided Kate. 'We can carry twice as much then.' She collected another container and they went off in the direction of the bore trough some distance from the house.

  'I wonder how much land we have?' said Cherry. 'It's quite a lot, comparing it to our farms in England.'

  'But a tiny strip in comparison to the stations here,' returned Kate a trifle bitterly. 'It's going to be such hard work for us all.'

  'Do you really mind, Kate?'

  'Not for myself.' She hesitated. 'As a matter of fact, Cherry, I'm beginning to enjoy it enormously; it's the opportunity of creating that gets you. But I always remember that I've let you and Lin down and so it rather spoils it, as you can see.'

  'Don't think of us,' said Cherry, and Kate knew for sure that she spoke sincerely when she went on to say that neither she nor Lin had any regrets. 'We would do the same again,' she ended, and that was the last that was to be mentioned about regrets. 'These trees are really delightful,' Cherry said, changing the subject. 'They go through on to Mark Copeland's land, I think.'

  'They do; our land ends there, at the fence.' Kate looked vaguely around her. 'I don't know where the fence is at the other side. We must have a walk round some time and take stock of what we've got.'

  'Talking about fences,' said a masculine voice from somewhere among the trees, 'yours requires mending. Your animals are grazing our runs.'

  'Who's that?' whispered Kate as she and Cherry stopped dead in their tracks. 'This is the Cunya River Downs side.'

  'How do you do?' The man, emerging from the grove of trees, came on to Kate's land. 'Only two of you? Mark told me there were three.'

  The girls stared, then looked at one another.

  'You must be Mr. Copeland's brother,' said Kate, but she again stared at him, and so did Cherry.

  'You're twins,' she stated, 'but not identical—not quite.'

  'Right. You've met the elder, so now meet Paul.' He extended a hand to Kate first. She put hers into it, feeling its strength and warmth as his fingers curled round hers. 'Mark beat me to it by seven minutes, so he's the Boss. Nevertheless, we get along fine. What's your name?' Kate told him, then introduced Cherry.

  'The other one, Lindsay Goddard, is in the house,' Kate then added in answer to his previous query. She could not take her eyes off him, still stunned by the likeness to his brother. Of the same height and build, and with the same colouring of hair and eyes, he differed from Mark only in that his features were etched in softer lines and his smile lacked the satirical and rather arrogant qualities so noticeable in his brother. He was more friendly too, and more expansive, Kate and Cherry soon learning that he managed Cunya River Downs, and lived there, while Mark's main concern was High Creek Downs.

  'But your brother gave Cunya River Downs as his address,' said Kate after a small discussion on the mistake that had been made, and Paul had expressed his sympathy—unlike his brother who had merely been amused by it.

  'He sometimes does. Perhaps he was staying with me at the time. We often swop about—what I mean is, there are times when I stay with him and other times when he stays with me. You see, there's a distance of twelve miles between the two homesteads, because of your land coming in between. And if we've visited one another, and stayed late, we sometimes don't bother to go home.'

  'Twelve miles?' Kate looked puzzled. 'You mean of course that you have to go round my land. But that wouldn't add much to the mileage.'

  'It does. You've about three miles of rough scrub down there—' He flicked a hand, indicating another area of trees which stretched in a very narrow line towards a small hill in the distance. 'We have to go all round that, which adds about six miles on to the distance. Not that six miles is anything here,' he added with a laugh, 'but it would have been convenient if we'd been able to make a road right through this land-up at the top there, where your
house is.' His eyes were on Kate, plainly appreciative, and she blushed faintly and an unfamiliar shyness crept over her. He was nice, she thought, and naturally compared him with that disagreeable Mark. Twins they might be, and similar in appearance—but there the likeness ended. In character they were vastly different.

  'So Kate's land covers quite a large area,' Cherry was saying. 'We realized it was a fair size by our standards, but we didn't know that it included that stretch of scrub.'

  Paul nodded, but went on to say that the scrub was no good to them unless it was cleared and then they gave an application of nitrogen to the soil.

  'We'll not be able to do that,' declared Kate emphatically, adding that it wouldn't profit them if they were, since they had no money to buy more cattle. 'You said something about our animals grazing on your land,' she added as the thought occurred to her. 'You mean our other cow, I suppose?'

  'Cow and calf. The addition came yesterday, so one of my stockmen told me.' He smiled, and the blue eyes lit with amusement—but somehow, decided Kate, this amusement was far more attractive than that displayed by his brother. 'You now have two cows and a bull calf.'

  Kate's eyes had lit up immediately he mentioned the calf and she said delightedly:

  'We must bring them over. I shall be thrilled to own a dear little calf!'

  At that Paul threw back his head and laughed.

  'You're rather cute,' he said, allowing his eyes to run over her again, taking in the slender lines and attractive curves. 'No matter what Mark says, I personally am glad you decided to come.' The whinnying of a horse from somewhere in the trees caused him to turn his head. 'Cracker's tethered in there,' he explained.

  'What did your brother say?' ventured Kate, after a small hesitation, because despite his open manner of friendliness she had a shrewd suspicion that Paul would refuse to utter one word that might savour of disloyalty to his brother. And she was right, colouring up when he said, the smile fading both from his lips and eyes: