The Lost Man(21)

Katy had turned off the water in the sink and was paying attention.

‘He was part of a gang,’ Nathan went on. ‘They saw all this space and all the absent property owners back then, and saw the chance to make a few bucks. It was nothing too flash, pretty much keeping off the main tracks, and rounding up any loose cattle that came their way. When they had as many as they could handle, they’d walk them down to Adelaide. Disguise the branding if they could, sell them cheap if they couldn’t.’

He stopped.

‘Then one day, the horses went nuts,’ Bub prompted.

‘Yeah, thanks, mate.’ Nathan frowned. ‘So yeah, one day they’re up in these parts and they all start having trouble with the horses. Skittish, you know, difficult to control, like they were spooked. So the stockman’s horse is the worst and it gets to the point where he can barely keep up. So he calls it a day and stays behind to set up the group camp while the others get the cattle sorted for the night.’ Nathan paused. ‘The story goes that he was alone for no more than an hour. When they got back, his swag was rolled out and a campfire had been lit.’

‘The kettle was strung over but had boiled itself dry,’ Bub jumped in. He lowered his voice meaningfully. ‘But there was no sign of the stockman.’

The backpackers looked back to Nathan, who shrugged. ‘Like Bub says. No sign of the bloke, no sign of a struggle. His horse was still tied up, but barely. She was pulling and thrashing, like they do when they want to run. So his mates split up, ride around, can’t find him. They search until dark, but nothing. They wait the next day, but he never comes back and eventually they have to move on ’cause they’ve got all these cattle still. Anyway, two days later, they run into this family of travellers coming north up the track and ask if they’ve seen any sign of their mate. The family seems a bit uneasy, then takes them around to look in one of their carts. In the back, all wrapped up in a blanket, is the body of the stockman. The family reckons they found him dead by the side of the track three days earlier and a hundred kilometres further south. They were taking him to the nearest town to see if anyone knew who he was. Apparently, his body was lying by the side of the road, no injuries, no water or supplies or anything with him.’

‘But if they were telling the truth, he was found dead the same day he disappeared.’ Bub leaned back in his chair. ‘And too far away for him to walk, or even ride, so how did he get there?’

Simon glanced up at Katy, who held out her rubber-gloved hands and shrugged. Simon shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’

‘No, well, none of those guys knew either,’ Nathan said. ‘So they panicked a bit, buried him right there where they were, and that would have been the end of it. But there’s always talk and suddenly there were all these sightings of the dead stockman up and down the track, people claiming they’d seen him walking at night and things. Eventually workers started refusing to come here, saying it was haunted. There were a few accidents. Serious ones, a couple of people died. Anyway, it got so bad that eventually the landowner here at the time was forced to put the headstone up, to try to lay the whole ghost thing to rest and put a stop to the rumours. Didn’t really work though. The story goes that if you dig, there’s nothing under that headstone. That the grave is empty.’

The only sound was kitchen clock ticking. Both the backpackers were staring at Nathan.

‘Bullshit,’ Simon whispered.

‘Yeah, of course,’ Nathan said. ‘It’s only a bloody story.’

‘Still. That’s quite weird. Him vanishing then appearing like that miles away.’

‘Yeah. Well, don’t lose any sleep, it’s not true –’ Nathan started to say, but his words were lost as Ilse stood up suddenly, her chair scraping against the floor. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then snapped it shut, turned and walked out of the room.

There was a silence.

Bub’s chair creaked as he leaned back, shaking his head. ‘Good one, Nathan.’





Chapter 8



Dinner was well and truly over after that. Simon got up to help Katy, the pair muttering to each other as the family dispersed. Nathan saw Simon whisper something to Katy and they both looked at him, then away.

‘Your mum’s put Xander in your old room again so I suppose it’s up to you where you want to sleep,’ Harry said to Nathan as he got up to leave. ‘The staff block’s empty but the air con’s broken in there.’

The staff accommodation would be like being locked in a tin can. ‘I’ll take the couch.’ Nathan peered into the fridge in search of a beer.

‘There’re some in the coolroom if they’re not in there,’ Harry said.

‘Shit.’ Nathan stood up and shut the fridge.

‘What?’

‘Nothing. I just remembered something.’

Nathan’s own coolroom had been on the blink for a while, and after several weeks of waiting, the repair contractor was in the area. He’d been due, finally, at Nathan’s place that day, Nathan remembered now as he pulled open the heavy door to the large family coolroom built off the kitchen. The contractor would have let himself in, no problem with that, but Nathan had expected to be there. He’d try to call him.

There was no problem with this coolroom at least, he thought as he walked in, goosebumps immediately rising on his skin. He stood for a minute among the industrial quantities of frozen food, enjoying the temperature, before extracting a beer from a tower of slabs.