Another Find
Leilah hung the second wash on the line and pondered her options. When Hector hadn’t returned within a few hours, she scribbled him a note and put a hastily created plan into play. Donning her trainers and grabbing the torch, she walked to the dog kennel and opened Moss’ section. Patch stood and wagged her tail, stretching in anticipation of more nocturnal wandering. “Sorry girl.” Leilah pushed her fingers through the wire and let the bitch sniff them. “Dad worked you today with the cattle. I can’t cope with you both after the other night’s antics and I left him a note so he knows I’ve borrowed the pup.” Moss sprang through the gap with an energetic bounce and then stretched, chest low and backside in the air. He gave an excited sneeze and his tail wagged like an antenna. “Enjoy the peace.”
She hooked a tattered length of rope through the pup’s collar, pulling it tight as he bounced on the spot. His ears flicked up and down and his mouth hung open in a giant smile of glee. Leilah led him to the carport and tied him up while she lifted her blue bra off her bedroom floor. He and Patch set up a whining duet while she was gone and the sound echoed off the mountain.
Outside, Leilah untied the dog and offered him the bra. He mouthed it and she snatched it back, offering it again when he seemed happy just to gather a scent. “Right,” she said, stuffing it into her pocket and opening the gate into the first paddock, “let’s see if you’re better at tracking than you are at mustering.”
Hector found Moss as a tiny pup and rescued him from a dustbin bag on the side of the road. Lively and eager, the dog found a home with the horse trainer, but showed himself fearful of the sharp cloven feet of the cattle and their unpredictable behaviour. Leilah wondered if the other breed hidden in the Huntaway’s genes included Spaniel. “Find,” she told him at intervals, her suspicions confirmed as he put his nose to the ground and swept from right to left. She grinned in satisfaction that her instincts proved correct. The dog led her a merry dance. Leilah grew puffed on the uphill run as the dog weaved back and forth. Just as she decided he’d made a fool of her, he halted, nose pressed into the grass. Nearby cattle moved away from their activity and Moss flinched in their presence. Distraction made him lose the scent and he fought to get it back again. Then he set off at speed, taking a straight course through the first paddock and into the second.
Leilah clambered over the fence, but Moss went under, tangling himself with rope and wood and letting out a yip of frustration. Leilah sorted out the mess, panting and wiping sweat from her brow as the dog set off again. The bush canopy loomed ahead and he faltered, picking up his quarry before scrabbling under the fence. Leilah followed and again sorted out the rope. A sinister air hung within the shade of the trees and she shivered, rubbing her free hand over the prickling gooseflesh on her other arm. Undeterred, the dog pressed on, not heading towards the gully but uphill, towards the rocky outcrops of the mountain.
Moss grew excited as they climbed, tongue brushing the ferns and undergrowth as he skirted supplejack and bush lawyer. Leilah’s bare arms and legs tore on the hooked barbs and a nasty gash on her ankle wept into her sock. The dropping of the sun behind the range signified the sudden descent of the evening into night and panic began to rise in her chest. Remembering the torch, she scrabbled to pull the wristband free and aimed it at her feet and the dog’s thin tail waving ahead.
The going became easier almost without Leilah realising. The dog followed a narrow track worn into the undergrowth, its width little more than a footstep. With a bark of excitement, he flung himself into a bush and disappeared at the bottom of a rock wall. Shining her torch upwards, Leilah saw an outcrop of precarious grey-wacky soaring overhead. She took a second to gulp at the likelihood of it falling before the tautness of the rope sent her plunging forward and down at a dizzying speed.