The Bullock Track

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22435, 23 June 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

The Bullock Track

CHAPTER 111 In chapters I and U Roddy Hayman goes with Jill and Tommy Lawton to look for Bob Lawton, who has gone up the mysterious and frightening Bullock Track to look for keas. Roddy has his new horse. Fiery Bill, with him. The children cross the narrow bridge over the deep gorge at the entrance to the Bullock Track. Soon they hear the sound of an axe cutting into timber; they rush back to find that the bridge has been chopped away, and that they are alone with a madman, who lays violent hands on Roddy’s shoulders. Roddy felt himself whirled round and sent spinning. He stumbled over a log and fell headlong among the ferns. And as he lay there the madman bent oyer him and pinned him down. Roddy had dropped his manuka stick as he fell, and he knew that his unaided strength could do nothing against the terrible force of his assailant He lay still. "That’s right,” , said Long Jim, lowering his voice almost ,to a whisper, “That’s right. Best not to struggle. I know what you’re here for. You’ve come to rob me, like the other boy who came yesterday. I always knew they’d hear about the gold sooner or later.” “What gold?” asked Roddy in a shaky voice. “That’s just what the other youngster said. What gold! As if you didn’t know I’d struck .it rich at last! And when I saw he was pretending not to know anything about it I persuaded him to go along with me to the hut. I talked to him quietly—just like this. For I knew that boys don’t come into these places on their own. He said there wasn’t anyone else; but when I tied him up he grew frightened. Then he said that if he didn’t go home there’d be someone out to look for him. It had me worried all'night—thinking what to do. And then this morning I thought of the bridge. I took my axe and came out to break it down; but I was just a little too late to stop you from coming across. There won’t be any more visitors, though. I’ll get rid of the lot of you, and then I’ll be able to work my claim in peace and hide away the gold. Everything will be beautifully quiet once more.” Roddy was terribly frightened. He felt the grip tighten on his shoulders, and saw. a look of cruelty in the fever-bright eyes. He made a. sudden ’ effort to wriggle free; but the madman only held him the more tightly. It was then that Roddy was able to see Jill creeping into the glade. Her face was white, but very determined. and she was shaking her head as if her hair were streaming in a high wind. There was a large hole in one of her stockings. Roddy codld not help noticing it as he saw her stoop do\vn to pick up his own manuka stick. He watched her hopefully, and yet unbelievingly. It did not seem possible that she would have strength and courage enough to use the stick. But she crept a little closer. Her large eyes were fixed intently on the madman. ■ “So you thought you’d come looking for my gold!” -exclaimed Long Jim. He lifted his hands and clutched at Roddy's throat. Roddy struggled violently, but had almost given up hope when he heard a cry of pain and rage. He saw then that Jill had struck the man a smart blow across the arm. The pressure had gone

(By Monte Holcroft)

from Roddy’s throat, and he could see Long Jim struggling to his feet. This was all the chance that Roddy needed. He leaped to his feet and made a rush for the track. Jill was already flying ahead of him, her little print dress twinkling among the trees. How they ran! Tommy was standing in the middle of the track, and they gathered him up in their stride. Roddy seized one arm, and Jill the other. Between them they rushed him along at a surprisingpate. He was &hort and plump, and his little fat legs had to work very hard indeed. But he was too frightened to protest.' On they went, brushing the » ferns and treading down the long grass in the middle of the track. Birds rose fluttering from the trees at the sound of their flight. The whole bush seemed to be suddenly full of sound and movement.

At last Tommy uttered a wail, and when Jill saw the extreme red-, ness and dampness of his face she stopped running and allowed him to collapse exhausted on the ground. Roddy looked back along the path, which lay in view for about 100 yards. There was no sign of Long Jim. 1 “Looks as if we’ve got away from him all right.” He turned to Jill. “That was a hefty rap you gave him with the stick. I didn’t think you had the nerve.” Jill tried not to look pleased. “Somebody had to do something. But I’m sorry I hurt him.” • “Served him right. He was after me, all right. Gee," he added in a low voice, “I wonder what would have happened if you’d knocked him over the head.” Jill didn’t know; and, what was more, she , didn’t want to know. She was relieved when a new thought turned Roddy’s attention elsewhere. “Hullo,” he said suddenly. “Where’s Fiery Bill?” Jill looked at him blankly. “I don’t know. He wasn't on the track when we started running.” Tommy had recovered his breath. “He went away,”, he said. “I saw him go.” .

“Why didn’t you stop him?” asked Roddy, in disgusts “All you had to do was stand in front of him find wave your arms.” Tommy looked sullen. “If you say anything more to him,” said Jill severely, “he’ll cry. I can see it coming.” “That’s not going to help us. And what are we going to do about Fiery Bill?” “We can’t do anything. He must have wandered da the track just far enough to be out of sight when we started to run. We’ll find him on the way back.” But this reminded Roddy of other and more serious problems. “How can we go back with Long Jim -waiting tor us?” They all looked back the way they had come; track was still empty. * “We ought to find a hide-out,” said Jill sensibly. “Then we can make our plans.” . It seems easy enough to talk of hide-outs in the bush; but when you step aside from a track there is always the danger of losing your way. Supplejacks twine themselves

round you lovingly, and when you’ve escaped from these you find yourselves caught among the branches of old trees. Twigs crack and break as you try to pull yourself up the hillside, and the soft earth crumbles- underfoot. The *sky is hidden by crowding tree-tops, the bush becomes more like a jungle at every step; and the wanderer comes to feel vaguely surprised that he sees no hot eyes glaring at him from the shadows. Anyway, that was how Roddy felt as he led his little party in from the track. He tried to pick an easy way for them under the vines; but he was afraid of losing his sense of direction, and he . was secretly relieved when Tommy sat down in open rebellibn and refused to move a step further. He had just been flicked in the face by a supplejack, and on top of an empty stomach this was more than he could stand. “I’m hungry,” he said, in a voice of despair. Roddy looked round, and at this moment was able to see. at a distance of a few paces up the hillside, something that looked like the mouth of a cave. He, climbed a little nearer and saw that the entrance was screened by a solid undergrowth.

“Come on, kids!” he called to thefV. others. “I’ve found a hide-out. Let’s take possession, and have a i. council of war.” They hoisted Tommy up- the hillside and pushed him into the cave. The light was dim, and there was a smell of damp leaves and earthmould. ' But a new feeling of security came upon them as they sat near the entrance and looked down v towards the track. “Anyway.” said Roddy, "we can' :■ stop worrying about Bob. He hasn’t got a broken leg, or anything; and we know where he is.” He told Jill what he had heard from the madman. But when she knew that her brother was lying bound in Long Jim's hut she began to look more worried than ever.. “He’s-not a bit safe,” she said. “Long Jim’s out of his mind; and when a man’s like that he does the most dreadful things." She ■ looked desperately at Roddy. “There’s no one else who can do a thing for ' Bob. We’re all alone; nobody even knows that wecame along the. Bullock Track. And now the bridge is down.” "And we’ve got nothing to eafc” added Tommy, brooding about his stomach. They were both looking at Roddy, who had taken out a pocket-knife, and was aimlessly opening and shutting the blade. “I don’t see what-I can do about it,” he said, closing the knife with a snap. “I’ve had one brush with Long Jim, and I don’t want another.” “But Long Jim may, be out In the bush. We haven’t seen him go back this way. and if you could reach the hut before he does you’d be able to set Bob free.” Roddy knew that this was true. But he suspected that Long Jim kept off the track as much as possible. Already he might have returned to the hut. But Jill continued to look at Roddy hopefully. * “All right,” he said • abruptly, ; “I’ll see what I can do." He stood up and looked down at JUI. “You’ll have to stay here with Tommy. I’ll mark a tree down at the track, so that I’ll know where to look for the cave.” Jill nodded. . Her eyes looked very large as she watched Roddy go down the hillside. A moment * later he was out of sight; but she - could hear the bushes crackling as 4 he went on his way. Then there /. was silence, She looked at Tommy. ' She would have to soothe her little brother as best she could; and it was not going to be easy. The : time would pass with a dreadful slowness. She wrinkled her brow and wondered what her mother would have done. “Listen, Tommy,” she said. “Did I ever tell you that story about Deerfoot and the prairie fire?” < - “No,”, said Tommy, looking In- t terested. “You can tell me now. ; if you like.” Meanwhile Roddy was on his way. He walked quickly, and with backward glances to see if he were being followed. But the Bullock Track seemed to have fallen back into its everyday stillness. Only the birds were noisy. Roddy began to think of the track as something that led on to the ends of the world. •, He was tired and hungry, and it is not easy to be courageous on an . empty stomach. He would have r, been glad to give up the search. ’ But he knew that Jill had put all j her hopes in him. He had to go on. At last there was a glimpse of , blue smoke. It hung almost ’ motionless above the tree-tops. Roddy crept onwards to a bend in. the track and found himself looking into a shallow basin among f . the hills. It was really a rough

plateau, scooped by the rains ol many centuries—and perhaps by' an. earthquake or two —from the hillside, and ending against a cliff which fell away into the misty depths of a gorge* A small hut with a tin chimney stood where the track ended, and a trickle of water down a rock face on the edge of the bush had , been made to feed a roughly-built - tailrace. There were all the signs that somebody had been mining Tor gold. But the shaft was shallow, and a shovel which lay nearby, warf thickly coated with rust. Roddy crept forward to the hut. The door was open, and a smell of cooking food drifted out tor his eager nostrils. He could see someone moving about, and there was a table bearing a tin plate, a knife and fork, and other simple preparations for a meal. Roddy moved found to the back of the hut. There was a glassless window across which had been nailed a strip of thin sacking. He found an empty box near the tail-race, and carried it under the window. When he was standing on this and had lifted a corner of-the sacking, he was able to see clearly into the hut. . .

ADDRESSES M. ; Krishnasamy, 18 Canal road, Leluk Anson, Perak, Federated Malay States, who is 15 years old, and his class mates of the Anglo-Chinese school at Leluk Anson, would like to correspond with girls and boys in New Zealand. He is interested .' in postcards, stamps, and photographs. Irwin Few and Don Steele, Moosomin, Sask,, Canada, would like to exchange stamps with .New Zealanders. ; Margaret D. Duchak,. 47 Home street, East, Moose Jaw, Sask., Canada, would also like some pen*friends in New Zealand. She-col-lects stamps and is almost 18 years old. " ;■