The Secret Dog (17 page)

Josh shook his head. Bobby was drifting closer to Reggae, to have a friendly sniff. Josh watched with trepidation. Reggae growled deep in her throat.

‘No Reggae,’ he said quickly, bending over to grab her collar. He hurriedly pulled the lead from his rucksack and attached it. Josh looked around him, feeling sick with worry now. More and more men and their dogs were arriving. What if Reggae decided every dog was her enemy? How could he have overlooked this?

‘All gather round,’ the vet was shouting. ‘We need to get started. Long day ahead.’

Josh bent and held Reggae’s collar as the area around the vet become tightly crowded with men and dogs. Kneeling made him feel even smaller, a boy amongst men. Every time Reggae started to growl, he pulled her collar tighter. But he couldn’t do this all day. She had to be free to roam.

A man Josh didn’t know said, ‘She’s an aggressive little one, isn’t she?’

Josh’s first impulse was to defend Reggae. He stood up. Even though the man wasn’t taller than him, he felt like a bamboo stem next to a stout oak. He searched for something to say. Then he realised the man was smiling. He’d meant it as a compliment.

‘She’s not used to having so many other dogs around,’ Josh replied.

The man bent over and tickled Reggae under the ear. ‘Borders can be like that. Lovely dog. Young, isn’t she?’

‘Just over a year.’ Josh said.

‘Calum’s boy?’ the man asked, trying to place Josh.

From his tone of voice, the man was obviously fond of Calum. Josh remembered the note he’d left for his uncle. He imagined Calum finding it, wondering what it meant
 . . .

He nodded. ‘Josh,’ he said, extending his hand.

The man shook his hand firmly. ‘Hamish.’

The vet shouted, so that he could be heard over the crowd and the dogs barking and growling. ‘Gather round.’

Josh watched as Yvonne handed her father the clipboard and pointed to a place on the paper.

The vet continued. ‘Three dogs for each hill, top, middle and bottom. We’ll start at the Hay’s End and drive them to the pens here at Romesdal. I’ve got the assignments here. Pay attention. I’m not going to read these out again.’

Josh’s name was the first on the list. Without thinking, he shouted out, ‘Present.’ A number of the men chuckled. He’d answered as if he were at school! Everyone was looking at him. He wished he could disappear

The vet had put him on the Old Road. He listened to see who he’d be working with. Mr Sampson! The two of them would be responsible for driving the sheep who’d come off the hill down the road towards the pen.

Who would be on the hills around them, driving the sheep down to the road? His heart sank as he heard the vet announce Dunham’s name.

Why did he have to put him together with Dunham? Then Josh realised Yvonne wouldn’t have told her father what had happened, because she would have had to admit her part in the rescue.

* * *

‘We’ll start here,’ Dunham said, taking charge of the group of eight. He stared at Josh. ‘Mr White may think it’s a joke to have a boy pretending to be a man. I don’t.’ Reggae growled at Dunham. Josh held her collar tight.

A second man agreed. ‘The vet’s taking the piss, giving us a toddler and his pet. And on the road too!’

Encouraged, Dunham went further. ‘I don’t want to see any of the ewes I’ve driven down to the road wandering off. Otherwise, your Gathering will end today.’

Josh knew no one could help him now. He’d betrayed how young he was once. He couldn’t afford to again. He forced himself to look Dunham in the eye. He took a deep breath and drew himself up to his full height. ‘I know I, and my dog, are young,’ he said. ‘But I’ve always heard crofters judge people by the weight they carry.’

Dunham flushed. He didn’t like Josh talking back to him. An older man, who seemed familiar to Josh somehow, didn’t say anything, but smiled encouragingly at Josh.

‘I like his spirit,’ one of the other crofters said approvingly.

And another echoed. ‘He’s a big lad. Let’s see if he can do a man’s work before we judge him.’

Dunham’s dark eyes glowered. He muttered, ‘We’ll see what weight the toddler carries
 . . .
’

Chapter 28

They had just arrived at the beginning of the Old Road. Mr Sampson’s phone rang. He took the call, and then moved away from Josh to talk privately. Josh scanned the area around. All the men were climbing up the hills, to get into position.

He had a moment to himself. He knelt, and took Reggae’s head gently in his hands. He looked into her soft, eager eyes. ‘It’s pretty amazing we’re here at all. Just show them what you can do.’ She licked his face, her tail wagging furiously.

Josh unhooked the lead from her collar. Reggae looked off to their right. The first group of sheep was coming down the hill.

‘This is it,’ Josh thought.

‘Away!’ Reggae raced off to his left to get behind the sheep, just as he’d trained her.

* * *

The men on the hills were taking a lunch break. They’d all brought sandwiches and thermos flasks with tea. In the rush to get out, Josh had completely forgotten about food, though he’d remembered water and biscuits for Reggae. It was no different from a normal school ‘lunch’, he consoled himself.

But he soon realised that while it was easy enough for the men on the hills to take a break, it was different for him and Mr Sampson. There were already more than a hundred sheep on the Old Road. It was their job to keep them there, and not let them disperse. This was even more difficult now that they’d stopped moving the sheep forward while the other men had lunch.

When Josh had stopped for a moment to fill up Reggae’s water dish, ten sheep had made a dash for freedom, heading back up the hill. He’d had to send Reggae racing to bring them back. He could see that Mr Sampson’s hands, and Bobby’s feet, were similarly full.

Eventually, Josh managed to get some water, and a couple of treats, into Reggae. But she was definitely beginning to flag. She was used to a long nap in the middle of the day while he was at school. No chance of that today.

In a rare quiet moment, he wondered why the vet had put them on the road. It must be the most testing of all the positions. Maybe that was it. He was giving Josh a chance to prove himself to the crofters. He looked at Reggae, who was still gamely bringing sheep down the hill and keeping them together on the road. He hoped it wasn’t too much for her.

* * *

The day had passed quickly, in a blur of sending Reggae off to get sheep, and working with her and Mr
Sampson on keeping the sheep on the road. Now they were nearing the pens where the sheep would be held. Several dogs from the hill had joined Reggae to keep the large group of sheep together. Josh and Reggae had stayed at the back, to prevent stragglers. This was no easy task, as every few feet a ewe would find a patch of grass very interesting, or a group of lambs would head off up the hill to play with one another.

So far, the day had gone well. They’d managed to avoid any contact with Dunham and his dogs. Now, he was coming down from his position halfway up the hill. He passed close to Josh.

‘Your pet,’ he spoke quietly, so that only Josh could hear, ‘looks like she’s on her last legs. She’ll die of a heart attack before the day’s over’.

Reggae growled at Dunham, but he just strolled over to the front of the flock, where he started rolling a cigarette and speaking to a friend.

Josh watched as Reggae raced around, trying to keep the sheep moving forward. She
had
looked really tired earlier in the afternoon. Could Dunham be right?

Then he reminded himself that Borders had been bred to run all day. And Reggae’s tail was wagging constantly. Surely she wouldn’t be having a whale of a time if she were near death
 . . . 
He relaxed.

The area they were passing through was one they knew well, as it was on the way to the second valley where they’d trained. Patches of bramble alternated with sharp outcrops of rock.

Reggae barked once. She was staring up the hill, at the area Dunham had left. At first, Josh thought
that Reggae was just excited at recognising a place she knew. But then he saw a slight movement in a patch of bramble. Dunham’s dogs had missed one of the sheep.

Josh shouted to attract Dunham’s attention. But he was too far away, and too involved in his conversation, to hear. Josh didn’t want to leave a single sheep behind. And besides, this was a chance for Reggae to shine.

‘Do you think you can get her? You’ll have to move fast because we don’t want to lose any of these.’

Reggae’s eyes were eager. ‘Away then.’ Reggae streaked up the hill.

The older man who was working near Josh, watched smiling as Reggae headed off. ‘She’s seen a rabbit, I bet. The young ones can’t contain themselves all day.’ He called his dog to take Reggae’s place at the back of the sheep. His Border was eight, old for this kind of work. ‘She’s done well. A real natural dog.’

Josh was sure he’d seen this man before – where was it? That’s right! He was in the charity shop talking to the owner when he was buying Reggae’s bed and bowl. He’d bought Reggae her first bone!

‘I don’t think it’s a rabbit.’

Then several things happened at once. Reggae flushed the sheep out of the bramble patch, and started moving her down the hill. The man talking to Dunham looked back and saw this. He said something to Dunham, who turned and then threw his cigarette to the ground, furious. He shouted at his dogs, who streaked off after Reggae and the ewe.

Then everything went into slow motion: One of Dunham’s dogs got between Reggae and the sheep. Reggae growled to warn him off. Dunham’s dog attempted to nip Reggae, but she dodged past him. The ewe, suddenly surrounded by three dogs, froze with fear. Everyone, it seemed was watching the drama on the hill.

‘That’ll do,’ Josh shouted. Reggae immediately retreated from the ewe, to give it space. But Dunham’s dogs, caught up in the excitement and their master’s anger, ran towards the ewe. One jumped up on her back, just like it had done to his uncle’s sheep in the secret valley. Terrified, the ewe started back up the hill. Then she disappeared from view.

It seemed everyone was shouting at once. Had Josh blown it? Just as he was on the verge of success? He didn’t have time to think. All the noise had disturbed the sheep on the road. Smaller groups started moving away. Josh called Reggae back, to help keep them together. She obeyed instantly. Reggae and the old man’s dog settled the sheep, while two other crofters and their dogs brought in the ewe that Reggae had found. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured.

But the arguments about what had happened on the hill continued until the sheep arrived at the pens. Josh kept silent, not wanting to make the situation worse. In any case, he suspected no one would listen to a twelve-year-old boy.

* * *

After all the sheep had been penned for the night, the vet called a meeting. Yvonne was standing with her dad, looking worried. Josh was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything wrong. But Dunham was well known and much feared. Who would speak up for him?

‘We all want to get home for dinner,’ Neill said. ‘But we need to sort out what happened on the Old Road.’

Dunham snarled, ‘The boy was out of order. His stupid little pet was working my patch. If that ewe had been hurt it would have been down to him.’ He addressed the vet. ‘You shouldn’t have let a boy work the Gathering. He shouldn’t be back tomorrow.’

Several of Dunham’s mates muttered agreement. Josh sensed that others disagreed, but were afraid to speak against Dunham. But if no one spoke soon, the vet might think it had been Josh’s fault!

After a brief silence, it was Mr Sampson who spoke up. ‘Mr Redlin is just plain wrong. Before he sent his dog off, Josh tried to get his attention – but he was too busy smoking and talking to his friend to notice.’

Josh was grateful Mr Sampson had said something. But he could see that his words didn’t carry much weight – he was just a teacher after all, not a crofter. Josh needed someone with more authority to speak for him. Otherwise, everything would be lost.

Dunham looked around at the assembled crofters with an intimidating look. Then he smiled. Everything was going his way. He was going to get his revenge on Josh.

Then the old man who had worked near Josh at
the end entered the circle. ‘I was watching the boy and his dog all day,’ he said in his soft voice. ‘The young dog did a great job with the sheep. I was right there when she spotted the stray.’

Everyone seemed to be listening intently to the old man, as if he were some kind of VIP on the island. Josh was puzzled. If he was so important, how come Josh didn’t know about him?

‘As Mr Sampson said, the boy called to Dunham. But he wasn’t paying attention. It was only then the boy sent his dog off. He was right to do that. If he’d left the ewe out there, and it was infected with the parasite we’re going to treat, she could have reinfected the whole herd.

The old man turned to face Dunham.

‘People miss sheep on the hill all the time. That young dog had control of it. It’s no pet. You were wrong to make it personal. You almost hurt a good dog and a good ewe.’

Josh could see Dunham didn’t like being addressed like this. But he liked what the old man said next even less.

‘But maybe you can help me. That ewe your dogs brought in. It had an unusual wound on it, two bite marks near the bottom of the spinal cord.’

That’s a strange way to speak about a ewe’s rump, Josh thought, as he listened intently.

‘The boy’s dog never got near the ewe. But your dog
 . . .
’ he didn’t finish the sentence. Then he went on, ‘I’ve noticed quite a few of the sheep we’ve brought in have similar wounds.’

A crofter Josh knew only vaguely spoke up. ‘Some of
my
sheep escaped onto the commons for a couple of days. Two of them had a wound like that.’

Everyone’s eyes turned on Dunham. Josh’s ‘offence’ had been totally forgotten.

Dunham looked hard at the crofter who’d just spoken, and then at the old man. ‘What kind of crazy rumour are you trying to start? There’s all kind of wild animals on the commons that could have done that
 . . . 
Nobody has ever seen my dogs hurt any sheep.’