Free Brumby Plains by Joanne Van Os Page A

found out. But he had to go back to the cave; it was something he felt both compelled and afraid to do.
    They walked along at a steady pace, chatting idly, enjoying the early morning coolness and the freshness of the air after the night’s rain. Corellas and cockatoos screeched from the trees above them, interspersed with raucous kookaburras and softly cooing doves. Time was stretching out like a long rubber band. Sam felt as if he had been rolling along on his horse for centuries, as if he was walking back into history, and he wasn’t surprised when the old black man stepped out from behind a tree as he rounded the next bend, holding out his hand with the coloured stone in it. As Sam leant over to take the stone from him, the old man grabbed his arm and jerked him hard –
    â€˜Whoah, Sam! Are you okay? You looked like you were falling off!’
    Tess’s face swam into view as Sam blinked and shook his head. He was seated on Saxon still, Tess had hold of his arm, and the old man was nowhere to be seen. A black and white bird flew into the branches of a nearby tree.
    â€˜Jeez, I must’ve dozed off. I’m pretty tired – didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.’
    Tess frowned at him and leaned towards him. ‘You’re not getting sick, are you? You look a bit pale. Do you want to go home?’
    â€˜No way! I’m fine. I just got a bit sleepy, that’s all. Come on, let’s go.’
    He nudged Saxon into a walk again, and shook his head. Why did he keep dreaming about this old man and the stone? It was all really strange.
    Tess looked at him doubtfully, but rode along beside him. George and Darcy had overtaken them and were a few hundred metres further ahead. They ambled along for another hour or so, then angled off the road onto a track that wound through bushes and trees until it abruptly crested a hill and the lake was below them, a slab of silver glass in a green frame. A gate barred their way.
    â€˜Where’s all the buffalo?’ asked Darcy as George opened the gate to let them ride through. ‘Aren’t they usually hanging around this lake?’
    â€˜We fenced it off a couple of months ago. Dad said they were muddying it up too much, so now we pump the water into a trough outside the fence.He said that way the wildlife and the birds can still get a drink.’ George made a face. ‘Stinkin’ Jerry next door said we were just wasting money, that the buffalo were more important than a bunch of wallabies and parrots. Reckons he could show us how to run a buffalo station properly. I’d like to show him something one day …’ and he kicked the gatepost.
    At the lake they unsaddled the sweating horses and let them drink, and then tethered them in the shade. George and Darcy lit a fire, and they boiled a billy to make some tea. They sat in the shade for a while, talking and eating and drinking tea from pannikins.
    â€˜Let’s walk around the lake,’ said Tess. ‘I haven’t been here for so long, I’d forgotten how pretty it is.’ She stood up, picking up her hat, and Darcy and George joined her.
    â€˜Come on, Sam!’
    â€˜Nah, I’m going to have a sleep. I’m stuffed.’
    And Sam pulled his hat over his face and lay back in the shade on the grass. The others wandered off, and Sam listened to their voices receding as he faded off to sleep.
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    â€˜Sam! Sam, wake up!’
    Sam was jerked from a deep and dreamless sleep by Tess shaking him.
    â€˜Where’s Darcy?’
    â€˜Darcy? He went off with you guys, didn’t he?’ Sam struggled to sit up, rubbing his face and blinking at her.
    â€˜That was ages ago,’ said George. ‘He didn’t want to go all the way round the lake with us. Didn’t he come back here?’
    Sam got to his feet. ‘I’ve been asleep since you left.’ He stared around at the bush, the lake, their backpacks on the ground, the