The judge cleared his throat, but Justin cut off any speech he might have made. 'It doesn't look as if Octavian Augustus the Fourth has come to any harm. I'll have something to say to you two gentlemen in due course.' His voice was dry and bitter, and didn't brook any argument. He turned to Kelly. 'The search must be called off immediately. Where is your telephone?'
'Just behind you.' She pointed to the wall beside the door where the instrument hung above a handy cupboard surface where messages could be written.
They all watched him lift the receiver down, fearfully wondering what explanation he would give for the ram's presence in Michael O'Reilly's kitchen.
He dialled the number with sharp, incisive movements. It gave the impression he would gladly have jabbed the telephone through the wall. He rapped out instructions with machine-gun rapidity. He made no elaboration on the flat statement that Octavian Augustus the Fourth had been found. The ram would be held at Michael O'Reilly's home until collection could be arranged. The whys and wherefores were not entered into.
He put down the telephone and turned around, a cold, merciless pride stamped on his face. His eyes sliced at all three of them. 'Well, it's a fine conspiracy we have here,' he said in a biting tone. 'Two old men hiding behind a girl.'
The judge's face went red. 'That's preposterous…' he blustered.
'Kelly didn't know a thing about it until she came home from Dapto,' her grandfather interrupted strongly. 'What we did, we did for ourselves. Because what you were doing was wrong. So don't you take it out on her. That ram belongs to this country. So does its progeny. Just because you own it…'
'The reason I'm involved with the foreign sheep breeding programme is entirely on humanitarian grounds,' Justin said with steely emphasis. 'It has the support of our government…'
'I'm against them, too.'
'Grandpa… please,' Kelly begged, recognising the truculent look on his face and desperate to stop him from stubbornly digging his own grave.
'Reckon we've done enough interfering, Michael,' the judge put in with hasty wisdom. ' If Mr St John takes back Octavian Augustus the Fourth, and that is the end of the matter…' he shot a hard, meaningful look at his friend '… I'm ready to forgive and forget.'
'Ah…yes,' Michael O'Reilly murmured, and his face visibly brightened.
The hairs on the back of Kelly's neck prickled. She knew her grandfather and Judge Moffat too well not to sense some hidden understanding behind their words. Had they committed some other crazy mischief as well?
'I wouldn't be wanting to upset Kelly any more,' her grandfather said decisively. 'So I'll say no more. Even though there's a lot more I could say.'
'Thank you.' Justin sliced a mocking look at Kelly. 'I trust my future wife will keep you to your word.'
'Wife?' Judge Moffat echoed in bewilderment. Then his jaw dropped open as Justin slid his arm possessively around Kelly's shoulders.
To her intense mortification, Kelly blushed to the roots of her hair. In her emotional confusion at Justin's blunt announcement, she forgot all about her suspicion that the judge and her grandfather had been up to something else besides taking the ram.
'Kelly!' her grandfather squawked in horror. 'You can't marry a man for a sheep! Not even one like Octavian Augustus…'
'I'm not doing that, Grandpa,' she denied hotly.
He looked confused. 'You're not marrying him?'
'Yes, I am,' she corrected. 'I want to,' she added hurriedly as his face stormed into disapproval.
'I won't have it! I don't care what he does or who he is! I won't have you… you…' He glared at Justin St John as if he were the purveyor of all evil. Before more words came to mind, his expression of rank condemnation changed to one of searching suspicion. 'I know you. I never forget a face. I'm not too good at remembering names any more, but I've met you somewhere before. Where was it?'
'Sixteen years ago you accompanied Henry Lloyd to a hospital room,' Justin acknowledged, a bitter irony threading his voice. 'You came to thank me for saving your granddaughter's life.'
Michael O'Reilly looked thunderstruck. Judge Moffat shook his head as if the whole situation had got completely beyond him.
The charged silence was broken by the sound of vehicles arriving, doors slamming, footsteps pounding up the veranda steps.
'I'll handle this,' Justin stated with calm authority. 'It will be much better if you say nothing at all. Any of you.'
No one questioned his command. All three of them stood dumbly by as Justin effected Octavian Augustus the Fourth's recovery with a minimum of fuss. The ram was taken away. The men who had come departed. Whatever Justin told them apparently satisfied them. The case of the missing ram was closed.
'Well… uh…' the judge rumbled when Justin returned to the kitchen. 'I think I'd better be getting home. All's well that ends well
. We must be philosophical about these matters. Leave these young people to their… uh… more private affairs.'
He shot a beetling look at his old friend. 'I'll come around on Monday night, Michael. For our chess game. You can keep me fully informed then.'