With much difficulty the teacher got one of the boys to show him the way to the school. They had to cross Dead Finish Creek fourteen times to get there. Regarding the youngster as his first scholar, Mr Cruppy endeavoured to detain him, but with a yell he fled down the mountain; and, figuratively, the fiery cross was sent round.
Each day the teacher went up and waited in vain. No one came near the school. Then he essayed a journey of remonstrance from farm to farm, got bushed, was out for two nights, and would have been left out altogether only that Mandy Brown, who pitied him, went away and brought him in after running his tracks for a whole day. Then he simply sat down and waited despairingly. Then the Inspector came back from his holiday and visited Dead Finish, expecting to find everything in full swing. In his wrath he took out summonses against the whole settlement. No notice was taken of these until four troopers paid it a visit. Then it went into [67] ]Tuberville in a body, and was promptly fined and admonished. Returning, it sent its children to school—a horde of young barbarians, unkempt, unwashed, almost unclad, but stout and sturdy. And it was the time of the pulling of the corn! Therefore the elders had to work double tides to make up for the lost labour of their offspring, stolidly glaring at poor Cruppy as he tried to beat into their shock heads the mystery of A B C.
Amanda Brown was eighteen, buxom, bare-footed, curly-haired, red-cheeked, could ride as she put it ‘anythin’ with hair on,’ use an axe like a Canadian, and was reckoned the best hand at breaking in a young bullock to the team of anyone about. And she, since her finding of Cruppy in the ranges, leech-infested and draggled, had taken him under her protection. But even she was powerless to influence the feeling of public indignation, daily growing stronger, against the Inspector, the teacher, and the ‘Gov’ment,’ and which ended in Cruppy being requested to clear out from Brown’s. As the latter put it, ‘Mister,’ said he, ‘it ain’t no good shenaneckin’!
I dussent keep you no longer. It’s as much ’s our lives is wuth. Brombee an’ them’s gittin’ madder an’ madder. Ef you won’t slither complete, you’ll ’ave to go an’ camp in the schoolhouse up yonder. We’ll sell you a pot an’ a bit o’ ration, an’ ye’ll have to do the best ye can.’ So Cruppy went, seeing nothing else for it, and Mr Brown once more held up his head amongst his fellows.
Despite his lack of physique, Cruppy had a certain amount of stubborn resistance and endurance within [68] ]him, often observable in red-headed people. He was, in short, plucky, and unwilling to give in. And Mandy, out of the largeness of her heart, helped him all she knew how.
For instance, when Tom O’Brien (eldest son of ‘Brombee’) made his intention known of scaring the teacher out of Dead Finish, from Mandy came the few words of warning and the present of the old gun and some ammunition. Thus it happened that one night, when awakened by eerie yells from his lonely slumber, the teacher looked out and saw a wild figure clad in skins, and with a pair of bullock’s horns spreading from its head, he felt no whit dismayed. Capering and shouting round the hut under the dim moonlight went the weird thing, enough in that desolate spot to make even a brave man shudder with the uncanny grotesqueness of it.
[But presently there was a report—a cloud of smoke], and a flash out of the little window, and with a scream the thing dropped, then got up again, and ran swiftly out of sight.
‘Caught him fair smack, ye did,’ said Mandy, afterwards. ‘Them pellets o’ coarse salt touched ’im up properly. He don’t set down now without lookin’ fer pillers. Tom won’t try no more gammonin’ to be a yahoo. He’s full ’s a tick ov sich sport, he is.’
Other attempts were from time to time made to frighten Cruppy out of the district, but they were of no avail. The holidays were approaching, and he had made [69] ]up his mind to hold out at least until then in hopes of getting a shift from Dead Finish.
But one night, in melancholy mood, watching a piece of salt beef boil, and leaning over every now and again to take the scum off the pot, he heard the tramp of horses outside. Opening the door cautiously, he saw Mandy riding her own pony en cavalier, and leading another one ready saddled.