Page 4 of Stockman's Stowaway

At least she was safe while that police car was in the pub’s car park.

But then it moved, the officer driving off with a wave to the stockman he’d been talking to.

The stockman checked over the large cage on the back of his mustard-coloured Toyota ute. It was old, and full of cattle dogs. ‘Back in five…’

A bird whistled nearby.

Mia clasped a hand over her mouth to stop her squeal, squeezing her eyes shut, forcing out the tears. Her heart ka-thumped heavily in her chest, but the pulse pounding in her ears made it almost impossible to listen for footsteps.

It felt like it took forever to find the courage to look around her. She had ten metres of empty space to get to the car park. The pub was even further.

Behind her stood a barren field with nothing to hide behind. She’d been lucky to have the trees and long grasses filling the roadside ditch as a cover to get her this far.

But where was he?

She craned her neck to peer through the hole in the corrugated iron that made up the stables. There were assorted chunky utes and trucks parked in the pub’s dusty car park, but she couldn’t see any people.

She took her shot. Crouched low, with her backpack to her chest, her steel-capped workboots scuffed over the dust as she weaved between the large four-wheel-drive work utes. Her breath ragged, the adrenaline coursing through her, she was almost there. She was going to make it.

Then she heard male voices.

Mia dropped and rolled under the nearest truck tray. A string of sharp stones dug through her shirt. Dirt clung to her hair as a pesky ant crawled over her hand. She didn’t move, except to keep her eyes glued on the two sets of boots walking right past her. They were cattleman’s boots, not miner’s boots, and thankfully not the pair she was hiding from. But she couldn’t risk it.

Mia wriggled along the shady underbelly of the truck, through to the other side.

Nearby stood the mustard-coloured Toyota, belonging to the stockman who’d been talking to the policeman like mates. It gave her hope.

Mia crept up slowly. ‘Shh…’ she said to the dogs through the cage’s wide mesh. One of them sniffed at her. Then another. Then another.

She then did the most daring thing in her life, and slid back the latch, opened the cage, and climbed inside.

‘It’s okay, puppies, it’s okay, I just need a ride out of town.’ She slid the latch shut, then squeezed against the cab to hide behind the large bags of dog food.

And the dogs never made a sound, except to sniff at her tears and blood.

Three

The Tojo bounced along the dirt track as Cap changed its gears to enter the deep floodway bearing the signLeviathan Creek. Large rocks made up the wide creek bed, where towering ghost gums lined the banks. ‘Have you ever seen this causeway flooded?’ he asked Charlie.

‘Plenty of times.’ Charlie leaned his elbow on the passenger door and poked his head out of the window. ‘There’s a spring around the bend, you can let the dogs take a dip.’

‘Could be crocs in that.’

‘Them snapping handbags are everywhere, it’s why I don’t swim, but in the dry it’s clear enough to see the bottom. Bree lets our stockhorses swim there.’

Cap pushed the accelerator and the old ute chugged up the hill, never missing a beat as it made the slight incline. Hitting one of the deep ruts, the Tojo bounced, the dogs barked, and something screamed in the back.

He glanced at the rear-view mirror.‘What the fates!?’

Cap slammed on the brakes. The red dust swirled around them as he peered through the back window to the cage meant to hold only the dogs.

‘Is that a girl?’ Charlie rubbed at his hat. ‘Cor blimey, she’s gotta have guts of forged steel to climb in there with all those dogs.’

‘What are you doing?’ Cap asked the stowaway hiding in the dog cage, as he opened its back door.

‘Trying not to die.’ On her hands and knees the woman crawled to the door. ‘That last bump was a killer.’

‘Sorry—No, wait. Why are you in the back with my dogs?’ He held his hand out to help her climb free. Her tiny hands were filthy, but her grip was strong.

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