Moving her feet was as hard a thing as she had ever done. She forced herself to appear unconcerned as she moved closer to the trailer, but every time the crash of hooves came from inside the silver metal cage, her heart missed a beat.
Then Justin was at her side.
‘He begged me to save it,’ she said. ‘The least I can do is look.’ She glanced at Justin’s face. It was rigid with concern. Concern for her.
At last, he nodded. ‘Just remember, Ken has a gun, if that’s the right thing to do.’
The trailer was lying on its side, the rear third overhanging the ditch. Only the big car still attached to the front was stopping it from sliding all the way down. But each time the animal inside moved, the trailer shuddered and threatened to fall further. The thrashing inside stopped as Anna moved closer. She clenched her jaw tightly as she crouched down to peer through the gaps in the trailer’s metal sides. She saw a dark chestnut shape, its sides heaving. She saw blood, but not a lot of it. And she saw a large dark eye, ringed with white and full of pain and fear.
It took all her courage not to leap away and tell Ken to shoot the injured animal. But now she’d seen it, she couldn’t do that. She must try to save it. After all, this was clearly a stud animal, valuable, used to handling and far safer than a rodeo bull. The injured man, Paul, had called the animal his father’s legacy. She couldn’t let that be taken away without trying to help. She kept moving around the stricken trailer, looking through the gaps in the metal sides.
‘Well?’ Justin asked when she stepped back.
‘As far as I can tell, he hasn’t broken any legs,’ she said.
Ken looked relieved. ‘So I don’t have to …?’
‘No. At least, not yet. He’s got a couple of big gashes and has lost some blood, but not enough to be life-threatening, if we can get him stitched up fairly soon.’
Ben said, ‘When I spoke to the stud, they said they would bring a trailer. But how are we going to get it from where it is now onto another trailer?’
Another round of kicking and some roaring from the trailer halted the conversation.
‘Are you going to tranquillise him?’ Ken asked when the noise level dropped.
‘I want to. I don’t have a tranq gun.’
Ken looked surprised at this.
‘I do horses, alpacas and small animals,’ Anna went on. ‘Not cattle. I could hit him with some horse painkiller and tranquilliser. I have a blow gun that I can use in an emergency.’
‘A blow gun? Like … a bit of bamboo?’
Ben seemed so shocked, she had to smile. ‘That worked for a lot of people before guns came along. But in this case, it’s a bit more sophisticated.’
‘And that’ll … what? Put him to sleep?’
‘I hope not. That would make him harder to get out. He’s halter trained and he’s got a nose ring. That might be enough to keep him still while I give him a painkiller. Then we can try to get him out of there and into the new trailer when it arrives.’
A minute later, it did, with an anxious lad of about nineteen behind the wheel.
‘I’m Rick,’ he said breathlessly, looking in horror at the wreck. ‘How’s my dad?’
‘He should be at the hospital by now. He’ll be all right, I think,’ Justin said calmly.
The youth breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Mum is on her way there now.’
‘Your dad asked me to do anything I can to save this bull,’ Anna said. ‘Are you going to be all right to help me?’
Rick darted over to the damaged trailer. Anna heard the bull moving again as the youth climbed on the side to peer at his injured animal. Anna could hear him talking to the bull before he joined them.
‘Thank you for not putting him down. He’s my dad’s pride and joy. If he lost him …’ Rick looked pleadingly at Anna. ‘He’s not too bad, is he?’
‘Nothing broken that I can see,’ Anna said. ‘But we need to stop that bleeding. Then somehow get him out of there and back to my surgery.’
‘I brought a tranq gun. You know, just in case.’
Relief washed over Anna. ‘Good thinking. But we have to be careful not to put him out. We’ll never drag him out of there if he’s down. If I can give him a painkiller—’
