White Dog

7

‘The breedin,’ said Harry Strang. ‘People talk like they know what they’re gettin. Breedin’s a lottery, thank the Lord.’

‘Better than pulling the parents out of a hat,’ I said. ‘I suppose.’

‘Dunno,’ said Harry. ‘That can work. Take Steel Orchid. He comes of a mistake, sendin the wrong mare to the stud, ends up winnin a couple of big ones. Could’ve been much more, broke down at Rosehill. When was that?’

‘Seventy-four,’ said Cameron Delray.

‘Right. Knew it was around when Whitlam got the arse.’

We were in deepest Gippsland, on a road climbing the front slope of the Dividing Range, a wet morning, trees dripping, the world green, a feeling of being under water. Cam was driving the four-wheel-drive, a machine designed to encourage men’s fantasies of power and domination. So what if I was once Vernon the School Weed, pinned beneath the buttocks of bigger boys in the playground, crushed and starved of air, farted upon? When you look up at me now from your lowly conveyance, you will know that I am Vernon the Omnipotent, the Breaker of Worlds aka Vernon the Hammer. I am also a brilliant financial analyst, married to my former secretary, Wendy, who sits beside me: Wendy the Earthmother, upon whose rippling thighs even Vernon the Hammer is tossed like a keelless dhow in a storm. Behind us, you see Princess Emily…

A buffer stop for this train of thought.

‘This creature,’ I said. ‘Seven years old, I understood Cam to say. Two wins, two places from sixteen outings.’

‘Blood’s excellent,’ said Harry. ‘Can’t fault it.’

‘Fault its attitude without doing scientific tests. You’re thinking of buying it?’

‘Well,’ said Harry, ‘someone’s thinkin of buyin him.’

We rounded a bend, Cam slowing the brute machine, he was looking for something. This was country without signs. We had left behind the side roads with their small encampments of mailboxes made from oil drums, milk cans, hollowed-out tree stumps, welded up from bits of rusty scrap metal. Sarah Longmore could do an interesting mailbox, something the rural postie would approach with trepidation, use a spade to insert the mail.

‘Like horses,’ said Harry, looking out of the window. ‘Always did, from a young fella. Never saw a jock any good didn’t like horses. Well, with notable bloody exception. That prick Crombie, he hated em, loved givin em the stick. Ride though, the little bastard. Glue on his boots. Always had the balance. Why’d the Lord give him that? Makes no sense.’

‘An imponderable for many believers, I’m sure,’ I said. ‘This horse.’

‘Next one,’ said Cam. ‘Must be.’ He was rough trade today — unshaven, old corduroys, scuffed boots, a quilted jerkin. His usual out-of-town wear was a dark suit worn with a waistcoat.

We slowed, rounded another tight bend, didn’t pick up speed. Cam was looking right, found what he was seeking. We turned right, no mailboxes to mark this intersection, took a downhill track, grass on the hump, grass growing in the ruts, weeds invading from both sides.

A few hundred metres from the road, the track reached a gate, an agricultural affair made of gum saplings in a bolted frame. I got out, the cold a shock, raw in the nose and mouth. The gate had a homemade latch, a sensible one, not the usual rural skinbreaker.

‘Good with a farm gate, Jack,’ said Harry when I was back in the warmth. ‘Never touch the bloody things myself.’

‘Damn right,’ said Cam, expressionless. ‘Got somebody does gates.’

It was a long way to the farmhouse, a steep, winding descent through dense bush and then, suddenly, you were on level cleared land, a broad terrace, two or three small paddocks hacked from the forest. The homestead you saw from afar: a slab hut with a lean-to, a big corrugated-iron shed, half open. Closer, you saw the split firewood stacked to the shed roof, five or six years of firewood, a horse yard with a rabbit-fenced enclosure beside it, possibly a vegetable garden. They also grew more exotic things in these misty hills.

In the near paddock, two rugged-up horses had heard the vehicle from a long way away and were waiting to greet us. With them — a friend but standing apart — was a patrician Anglo-Nubian goat. Cam parked outside the shed, beside an old Dodge horse truck, red once, now the colour of rust, dents inside bigger dents. Apart from the firewood and half-a-dozen galvanised feed bins, the open shed had a rack with four saddles riding single file. They were as old as the truck but gleaming. Horse tackle and coiled ropes hung from wire strung across the space above head height, and against the side wall stood a rugged workbench with a blacksmith’s leg vice. Tools were laid out on the bench like a museum display.

‘The animal’s here?’ I said.

No reply. They got out, I got out. A keen wind was coming from far away, crossing Ninety Mile Beach from Bass Strait, coming from Antarctica. Harry made himself comfortable in his garments, adjusted them, a herringbone tweed jacket, thick grey flannels. ‘Tidy,’ he said. ‘Man keeps a grip on things.’

A door in the shed opened and a cattledog came out, behind him a man in moleskins and a checked shirt. The dog stood still, eyes fixed on us.

The man walked over to Cam, some stiffness in a leg, and punched him under the collarbone, a medium-hard hit. ‘Mongrel,’ he said. He was tall and stooped, any age from fifty, boxer’s shoulders, long nose, self-administered haircut.

They shook hands. The dog relaxed, embarked on a sniffing spree.

‘Hurts,’ said Cam, rubbing his chest. ‘Harry, this’s Chink.’

They shook hands.

‘Know ya,’ said Chink. ‘That Derby, read that.’

He was talking about Harry winning the English Derby in the late 1950s, a famous ride, Harry seeming to lift Ceasefire’s head with both hands to edge out Pride of Shannon by nostrils. The photograph was on the wall in Harry’s study, not big, not in pride of place. The first time I saw it, I was struck by Harry’s hands — his long, powerful fingers.

Cam waved at me. ‘Jack, Chink.’

We shook hands. Chink didn’t have the air of someone who wanted to hurt but he could have clamped two leaf springs flat.

‘Want some tea?’ said Chink. He was looking at Harry.

Harry shook his head. ‘Need to keep this short,’ he said. ‘How far?’

‘Just down the track. Forty.’

‘Before we go,’ said Harry, looking around, scratching the cleft in his chin, ‘seen the papers?’

‘Nah.’

‘Could be bullshit?’

‘Bloke at the pub’s seen the papers.’

Harry didn’t seem impressed by this authentication. ‘The bloke at the pub told you,’ he said.

Chink understood Harry. ‘Know him,’ he said. He waited, then pointed a thumb at Cam. He seemed to be saying he trusted the man as he trusted Cam.

Harry nodded, satisfied. ‘Spotted the animal in the paddock, did you?’

Chink took the weight off his lesser leg. ‘Come by there one day,’ he said. ‘He took a run, rug rottin on him. Knew him for a thorough.’

‘How’s that?’ said Harry.

Chink looked at Harry for a while, unblinking. ‘Bit to do with horses,’ he said. ‘Fifty year.’

‘No offence,’ said Harry. ‘And then?’

‘Asked around. Got the name.’

Harry nodded. ‘Lost Legion.’

‘Yeah. Membered it. Funny old world.’

‘This bloke, he’s the owner?’

‘Reckon. He got left the property, everything. More brains in a tinny.’

‘We’ll follow you,’ said Harry.

We remounted and watched Chink and the dog walk towards the paddock gate. The horses and the goat moved to meet them. Chink opened the gate a crack, the goat shot through. Chink found something in his shirt pocket for the horses, they put their noses in his big hand. The trio came back, the goat walking behind Chink, butting him, the dog third, nipping at the goat.

‘Like one of them kids’ stories,’ said Harry.

Chink opened the back of the truck. The goat was waiting like someone in a bank queue. Chink picked it up as if it were weightless and loaded it, closed the door, latched it.

We followed the Dodge back to the road. The dog’s head poked out of the window, barking at the world. Its colour matched the truck’s bodywork. We turned right and, after a while, took a side road to the right, going downhill again, the country opening up.

Harry and Cam had an exchange, incomprehensible to me.

‘Can I join this universe of knowledge?’ I said. ‘Who’s Chink?’

‘Hardest man alive, Chink,’ said Cam.

‘The goat likes him,’ I said.

‘Hunted brumbies with Chink,’ said Cam. ‘In the Snowies, Tumut, up around there. All uphill, cold as buggery, snows any time, snows at Christmas.’

‘And now?’

‘No Chink, no horse. The thing’s a killer.’

‘Say no more. I understand perfectly. We’ve driven hundreds of kilometres into the wilderness for you to buy a killer horse.’

‘You, Jack,’ said Harry.

‘Me?’

‘I want you to buy it. Supposin we do.’

I studied the big, lumpy piece of Gippsland that had come into view, more settled here, the odd weatherboard farmhouse smoking under a low, troubled sky, eroded creeks, leaning sheds, rugged-up horses, some signs of agriculture.

When the land was almost flat, the Dodge, dog riding shotgun for the left flank, turned right. We followed, went through a belt of trees, down a back road for a kilometre or two. The truck pulled into a driveway. We stopped behind it. All humans got out.

A horse was in the paddock, in the middle, twenty metres away, a tatter of a rug on its back. It looked at us, a glance, put its head down. If this was the horse, I could not see how the animal could be identified as a thoroughbred.

We walked to join Chink. He was standing at the fence, hands in his pockets.

‘Small,’ said Harry.

Chink didn’t say anything. He made a clicking noise. The horse raised its head. Chink clicked again. The horse looked at us, moved its head as if easing a strain, looked away in a deliberate manner.

We waited. The horse shifted, one eye looked at us.

‘Thin,’ said Cam.

Chink turned his back on the horse, looked down the valley. Cam and Harry turned. Not to be outdone, I turned.

‘Earnin a quid around here,’ said Harry. ‘What’s the secret?’

‘They don’t tell me,’ said Chink.

A sound behind us, the horse. He was three metres away, looking at us: eyes interested but not sharp, small movements of his head.

‘No mongrel,’ said Harry. ‘Bit of wear on the legs.’

Now I noticed the scar tissue on the horse’s forelegs.

Harry looked at Chink. ‘Let’s see him move,’ he said.

Chink depressed the top strand of the fence by half a metre and made to swing a leg over. The horse took off over the wet, pitted paddock, rug flapping, ran twenty or thirty metres, stopped and looked backed at us, breathing hard.

‘Nothing,’ said Cam. ‘Chink?’

‘Sound,’ said Chink. ‘Decent tucker, bit of work.’

‘Okay,’ said Harry, ‘where’s this bloke?’

At the pub, a peeling single-storey structure at a T-junction, two utes and three dogs outside, we pulled up beside Chink. Cam got out, lit a Gitane, went around the bonnet and spoke to Chink, foot on the running board, looking up, wind erasing the smoke from his lips. He came back, flicked the cigarette, got in.

Harry looked at him.

‘The bloke’s a bit bombed, apparently,’ said Cam. ‘Also even bombed these woops can see keen coming in the dark.’

Harry turned and looked at me, the dry eyes, no lack of alertness here. He gave me an envelope. ‘Here’s the form,’ he said. ‘And Jack, the point’s not the stiff paper. I just don’t want any talk.’

I sighed and left the warm container. Chink got out of the truck, fell in with me, pushed in the dirty door. The room was overheated, cruel fluorescent light, smelling of cigarette smoke, beer-sogged carpet, old frying oil. Two men were playing pool, the one on strike showing us a deep cleft between pimply buttocks. Another man was talking to the woman behind the bar. We went over to customer number four, in the corner, a fat bearded man wearing a filthy, sagging jumper and a baseball cap. He appeared to be impaled on his stool.

‘Den, this’s Jack,’ said Chink. ‘It’s about the horse.’

Chink left, moved down the bar.

Den looked at me, the turn of head took effort, screwed-up red eyes. His nose had sores on it and it was running. He didn’t move to shake hands. I looked at his hand on a beer glass and I was glad that he didn’t.

He drank. ‘Bloody racehorse, mate,’ he said. ‘Not your bloody…’ He didn’t finish, put a hand up his fetid jumper, hand-knitted if I was any judge, and scratched himself, a task for which one hand was clearly inadequate. Then he reached down to the floor, groaned at the effort, and produced a plastic bag.

I put my back against the bar.

Den looked into the bag, dug out a small plastic-covered brown book with a window on the cover.

‘Lookit this,’ he said, opening it.

I took it gingerly and looked. It was Lost Legion’s official history. The most recent owner was given as Dennis James Chaffee. The writing was legible although a fluid had stained the pages. Some things are best left unspeculated upon.

‘Dennis James Chaffee is you?’

‘Yup. Me uncle. Left it to me. My bloody horse.’

‘Very nice,’ I said. ‘How much?’

‘Well,’ Den said, his face concertinaed. ‘Bloody up to you, mate. Gimme’n offer. Fuckin racehorse. Class, not your…’

‘A hundred,’ I said.

Den pushed back the baseball cap. Grey scalp and sparse spiral strands of greasy hair came into view. ‘Stickit up ya arse, mate,’ he said. ‘Fuckin hundred, thing’s worth… fuckin six hundred.’

I put the horse’s book on the counter. ‘Just an idea I had,’ I said. ‘I can buy the kid a well-trained old horse for three. Nice to meet you.’

I was near the door when Den shouted, hoarse voice, ‘Did I fuckin say no?’

I turned. A beckoning movement from Den, an awful hand urging me back. I returned.

‘Four,’ he said. His eyes were sliding around the room. ‘Fuckin bargain. Lucky I need the money.’

‘Take a cheque?’

Now he looked at me. ‘Fuuuck,’ he said, shaking his head.

‘No?’

‘Fuckin no’s right.’

‘Know how to transfer ownership?’

He shook his head. ‘Me old lady done that.’

I got out Harry’s envelope. Den winced, for a moment he thought something police-related was happening to him. Lost Legion’s new owner was going to be A. J. Aldridge. Mrs Aldridge, cook extraordinaire, Harry’s English housekeeper of forty-odd years.

I took the book and filled out the transfer of ownership form. Then I wrote out a receipt.

‘A receipt for two hundred,’ I said. ‘Chink’ll deliver the other two when they send the book.’

I went out to the brute vehicle. Harry’s window descended as I approached. ‘Two hundred now, two more when it’s registered,’ I said.

Harry nodded, not unhappy, looked at Cam. Cam found an envelope in some dashboard cavity, removed notes, passed the envelope to me.

I went back. Den had new drinks — another beer and a shot glass of something dark. Rum it would be.

‘Two hundred cash,’ I said. ‘Sign here.’

Den signed the form and the receipt. He might just as well have made crosses: Den, His Mark. ‘Listen,’ he said, uneasy, eyes floating, ‘I’m not helpin you load the thing. Don’t go near it, fuckin thing’s lucky I don’t drill it.’

‘Chink will load it. When the time comes.’

I caught Chink’s eye. He came over.

‘I’m buying this horse,’ I said. ‘Should be able to pick it up inside a week.’

Chink nodded. To Den he said, ‘I’m puttin a goat in with it. Don’t let anythin happen to that goat.’

‘Don’t need no fuckin goat,’ said Den. ‘Got me own root.’ He laughed, the sound wild pigs make.

On the way back, in a Latrobe Valley coal town waiting in the drive-through lane to buy Harry’s snacks, I said, ‘Good day’s work. Rose early. Travelled for hours. Enjoyed hand-combat with the man they call Mr Talkative. Then I met Gippsland’s most wanted sperm donor and snapped up a gentle riding pony for Mrs Aldridge. Bargain price, too.’

‘Well,’ said Harry, leaning across Cam to study the menu, ‘the Lord could smile on us for savin the beast. Run two thousand faster than nature intended.’

‘No one mentioned speed,’ I said.

‘Outback Burger?’ said Harry. ‘New that. Whaddya reckon?’

‘Roadkills,’ said Cam. ‘Find flattened kangaroos, wombats, grind em up, add sixteen secret bush spices…’

‘Two Big Macs,’ said Harry. ‘Jack?’

I was thinking of home, of a quiet whisky and soda, followed by beef and pork sausages, cooked in the oven in red wine, accompanied by mustard mash and glazed carrots.

‘No thanks,’ I said. ‘I’m on a food diet.’