In the early hours, a thunderous crashing woke Chopper with a start.
He jumped out of bed and raced from the house, flicking the outside lights on as he went.
Gutsy had broken the fence and escaped from the sties. The sows and piglets were squealing and barging at their enclosures, attempting to break out and follow him. The others, woken by the ruckus bolted outside.
“Gutsy’s destroyed his sty,” he growled when they arrived.
“Looks like we have a job on our hands,” Clyde stated.
Chopper, shaken by his boys escape, roared, “Guuutsssyyy, you jealous bastard get home,”
“What’s he on about?” Jordie asked.
“The wild pigs group in the desert basin when they’re mating,” Clyde told him,
“We’ll have to get after him,” Chopper said, “if he gets into a tussle with a couple of wild Boars anything could happen,”
“We’ll set the Ute up with the net,” Clyde suggested, then added, “I’ll call Denny Dennison to lend a hand,”
“Good thinkin’,” Chopper nodded, “he’s a good bloke ta have along,”
They had a crane mounted onto the Ute by sunrise. It had a winch with a load control disc brake that locked automatically for safety. It rotated three sixty degrees, and extended out about a metre with a net attached to a wire rope to drop over Gutsy.
“Can we help with the hunt?” Jordie asked when the set up was finished.
“Too right, we need all hands on deck,” Chopper replied.
He escorted them to a shed at the side of the house. Parked inside was a bright yellow two seat dune buggy, with wide chromed wheels and roll bars.
“There ya go boys,”
“This is great,” Jordie nudged Mitch, “A pig hunt, how coool is that,”
Mitch jumped into the passenger’s seat; Jordie hopped into the drivers, fired up the engine and drove it out of the shed and parked beside the Ute.
They were waiting for the hunt to begin when a silver trail bike with an iridescent blue trim pulled up beside them. Astride it was a dense looking bloke, wearing a large white Stetson, grey dustcoat, black leather pants, and snazzy cowboy boots. His eyes, covered with goggle were direct and challenging.
“Howdy fellas, Denny Dennison at your service, I’m here ta lend a hand,”
Jordie & Mitch nodded hello to the weird looking bloke.
“You fellas think ya gonna catch old Gutsy?' he sniggered.
“Maybe,” the boys shrugged.
“Ya won’t have much luck in that,” he laughed, then revved the bike, “ya need something that can get through the Mallee scrub... besides I’m the best trail bike rider n pig hunter in the district n I got my mark on him,” he bragged and tapped his hand on a lasso that was attached to his handlebars.
“Wouldn’t ya be better with a horse?” Jordie joked at his get up.
“This is better than a ‘orse. It’s got more power, speed, endurance, and don’t kick ta boot.” he slipped it into gear, released the clutch and roared off performing a daring wheel stand, “hi ho away I go,” he yelled.
The front wheel kicked higher than Denny would have liked. His hand was forced back, and he unwillingly increased power. He slid off, and when his feet hit the ground, his legs pumped like high-powered pistons as he zigzagged along and disappeared into some nearby scrub.
“Looks like it has plenty of kick to me,” Mitch laughed, as they heard the cracking of branches, the revving of the engine and Denny’s painful screams.
With everything organised Chopper and Clyde wandered back to the Ute with the dogs in tow. Both men were eating a slice of hogs head cheese off a plate Chopper had gotten from the house.
“I see Denny is tryin’ ta get a head start,” Chopper swallowed a good chunk.
“Clever boy, if anyone can flush him out, he will,” Clyde added and threw a piece of cheese to each dog. After they scoffed it down, he ordered them onto the back of the Ute, then climbed into the passenger’s seat.
Before Chopper got into the Ute, he offered a slice of hogs head cheese to the boys; they forced a thank you smile, but shook their heads, saying they weren’t hungry.
“Suit yaself,” he muttered, then quickly ate their share, before jumping into the driver’s seat, and tossing the empty plate onto the floor. He fired up the engine, felt a sudden increase of stomach gas and forced a croaking burp.
Glad to be rid of it, he yelled, “follow me boys, we’ll catch Gutsy, an’ be back in plenty of time for the party.” he accelerated… and the search for Gutsy began.