GOLDEN FLOWER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19413, 23 August 1926, Page 16

GOLDEN FLOWER.

(A HEW ZEALAND ROMANCE.)

CHAPTER XVII. —(Convened). And now Sunshine was ncrt to he „.»M on. she had not r»PPW» J ® top of tho log-wall, and theie U boen a sound after tho first, d ; Somehow, little Sunshine had been hur in her fall. And there was only mary to help. It seemed to her ZL A. were in .. nightm.rc-.ve »■ direction. Louia miu i . „ , t l —U,o°.igMctod S Yonched at last. nrSa.ras of hospitality mm bo met L .11 oosts. Rosemary knew that some, how she must rescue 'ishme and return her as safely as nught be to tho rel wes who were waiting out there in tne peace ful evening, whore there was no smoke, no cruel roaring flames leaping gleefully Pe S r TZlo™T wild prayer ascended und beat against the gates of Heaven. "Please God help me to save her. Dear God give mo the courage to st&y {, " her and tin? her out to safe y Help Le to find her and get her safety over th lnsUnt fires were leaping nearer. Soon, there, would be no escape possible, with thi3 rising win fanning tho cruel flames to madness. And then God answered prayer as He has always answered prayer since tune began. Through the mists tha. cbuded Rosemary's memory—through the mad panic which chained her helpless—there tstolo a sudden thought. cnTn „ riTlp Somewhere tnere had been someone else who had suffered through fire tor the sake of a young girl! . ' Rosemary could not remember dearly who it was, nor whom the girl had been. Bho only felt that somehow he would know if she failed him—and that to fail him was unthinkable. What he had done she could do. So Rosemary re-climbed the wall! „ , Tho spacg between the log-wall atid tho hanging curtain of A'ines that led to Arcadia was filled with a woolly cloud of suffocating smoke. Rosemary's eyes streamed with painful tears as she groped her way along at the foot of the wall nnd presently stumbled over the child for whom she was seeking. Sunshine lay in a little crumpled heap where sho had fallen. llor head was still resting on the gnarled root which had stunned lier, and her brave brown eyes were closed. Out of tno smoke, as Rosemary stooped' to gather the thm litllfl form up into her arms, a -small snake of flame came licking, crawling along the dry grass till it was dreadfully close to the small brown hand that was ■so cruelly burnt already. It was tho one thing necessary to dispel the last fragment of Rosemary's fear. Those who knew her best, going over the track that site had taken, when the fire had burnt itself out and ruined the loveliest patch of native bush for many miles, looked at the height' of the log-wall—the difficulties of the steepsided gully—and wondered how so Blight a girl as Rosemary could possibly have managed to complete ' the journey in safety with the tremendous handicap of the unconscious child that she "carried in her arms.'

It seemed to the girl herself that she stumbled on for hours, and once an ember from a blazing tree dropped into the ■waving mass <}f Sunshine's hair, and a thick tress blazed up, and' had to be crushed out with hasty band, and once Rosemary's own thin summer dress caught fire and flared wildly, as the girl tore it fiercely from her, gathered up the unconscious little figure again, and Btaggered on once more. She stumbled '.nit at last into the blessed open spaces jshere the fire had not yet reached. Hero there was calm; the roar and rush of the fire was still some distance awayall around was peace and cool evening shadows. For a moment Rosemary stood up very straight and slim in. her little Bilk princess petticoat. " Oh! Thank you, God!" she said with heartfelt gratitude, "Dear God! I have done my best. Let them find her toon. > Let them come before the fire reaches us, please, dear God!" She laid Sunshine down very gently on a mossy slope, and gavo one long,' Shuddering look round before she sank down beside the child in a pitiful little heap from which all torturing thoughts slipped mercifully away for a space. And that was how they found them, lying side by side, with Rosemary's ami . thrown protectingly across the child who had done for her what nobody else had been able to do. the child whose need for succour had pierced the mists which had darkened her rescuer's life. They stood and looked down at v the unconscious figures for a moment—Jim Dene, and half-a-dozen men from the township whom he had hastily summoned as soon as old Bride had arrived at Gerard's with the two children; and told the broken story of how her mistress and Sunshine, were to have followed her, but in some strange way had failed to do so. And with them came the Hawk, racing home on the big untamed, black thoroughbred, as soon as he heard that tile precious patch of bush was on fire. " There seems to have been an accident!" Jim said, ".Unless the smoke overcame the two of;them—but then they could never have got away put here if it had been that." iV'-* " Ah—look at the kiddy's hand—that's as nasty a burn as I want to see!" one of the men interrupted, "and look at the bump on her head. She lias been hurt somehow, The young lady must have carried her here." • He looked curiously at Rosemary, lying so still in her silk petticoat, "We must take them home!" said the Hawk curtly, looking across at Jim. Then lie turned and gave a, Jong glance at the burning bush. "Man—you couldn't !" Jim interrupted, l-eading the other's thoughts. " You would never get there. She wouldn't live through it—there may not even be a house left by this time, v Come back to Gerard's with me. Flower will never .forgive you if you don't." The grey eyes and the black ones looked deep into each other, and then the Hawk said slowly: "Yes! I will bring her there." Jim stooped and lifted his little sister into his arms, and Brian took off his coat and wrapped it carefully round Rosemary's shoulders before he her from the ground, and turjied to follow Jim across the uneven mossy paddock. " Would one of you be good enough to lead my horse back for me?" he asked, but steadfastly refused alt offers of help .with the burden in his arms. And so they came to the end of their journey, and Flower and Ailsa, meeting them at the door, cried out in horror at sight of the two still faces. "Bring her in here!" Flower said quickly, opening the door of her own room as Brian approached, his face very stern and set, " Oh—poor girl—what in the world has happened to her?" i

"We do not know yet!" the man answered very gently, " but I think she has only fainted from fatigue and. fright. Sunshine has been hurt somehow, and Rosemary seems to have been carrying her. As you see, she lias no dress on, but she. started with one, I am sure." He laid the unconscious girl gently tlown on the bed, and for a moment his black head was very close to the bigger-brown waves on the pillow. " The only person in the world ho cares for more than he does for Dawn!" Flower reminded herself, with a fierce pain at her heart. " Wei!, she is very lovely, and she must be very brave." Aloud she only said " I will get some V.-ater. We must try to bring her round," tmd went hastily out of the room. Br.ian remained standing by the side of the bed, staring moodily down at the white face on the pillow, and all at once the brown eyes'trembled open, and Rosemary smiled wanly at the. down-bent handsome face. " Oh, Boy of _ the World !" she murmured weakly, "I saw vrmr poor eyes P-H the tima. I ain so thankful that did not. lflt me disgrace you."

BY DULCE CARMAN (Mrs. D. Drummond)

(COPYRIGHT).

She spoke no more, but seemed to drift away into unconsciousness again, and when flower came back into the room she wondered just what had happened to so completely change the expression of the young man's face. But he did not enlighten her as to tho cause of the change, only thanked her very briefly for ail that she was doing, and preparing to do, and Suggested tjhat Bride should be summoned to care for her nursling. "Bride understands her best!" he said, "Rosemary would like best to find .Bride with her when she—wakes up! I ■ft-ill stay till she is all rights and then I will go and see if Fate has left us a home or not." ** But you would never be able to get thr.wgh, objected Flower, with wide eyes of surprise. " The wind has cone down, but Jim says the whole bush is alight 'from one end to the other. You would never manage to get there—and what citmld you do if you did?" The Hawk gave a little reckless laugh. " Very little lam afraid. Nothing, probably, except satisfy my own curiosity. But I should get through all right. Golden Flower. Don't you know that it is only th&se whom the gods lord who die young ? They turned their faces from me some years ago." The girl flushed uncomfortably at some strange quality sn the tense look he gave her, some vibration in his musical voice. «• I—will call JBride!" she murmured hastily, and left the room on her errand, while the Hawk tui,ned once again to the still form on the bA,d. CHAPTER XVm. LIFTING Off THE?; SHADOWS. You never would turn .your ey«« to the ground, ... ~ From the Heaven-sent they once had seen, . , , , So—ready and waiting will you be found. "When the angels bring you your might-have-been. ... , —Author unknown. "Christmas Eve!" said Sunshine ecstatically, " Oh! I never dreamed that Christmas could be so lovely did you, Denis?" "No!" answered the small youth in a rather subdued tone. He had thrown a new respect and deference to his sister ever since the day—two or three past now —when the doctor had been summoned to dress the burn in the palm of her little hand. By virtue of the white surgical dressing 1 which hid most of the brown little hand from view, Sunshine had risen into an exalted position in her small brother's eyes.

"Everything in the world is perfect!" chanted the child, full of her own thought. "You are getttog ever so much fatter since you have had dinner over at Flower's—you know you are, Denis. And it won't be long before Ailsa i 3 living over here with us, and then we can have dinner at home again. And we shall have Dawn to go and see, and play with. Wasn't it good of God to make the wind turn round the other way just before the fire reached Arcadia ? It didn't even spoil the whole of Rosemary's garden, but the Hawk said it burnt the Wondertree. Poor little baby tree. But we got all the lovely presents off it first. Wasn't God good?" "You bet he was," agreed Denis enthusiastically, remembering the mouthorgan, and the gun, and the trumpet with green stripes that were all still waiting for him safely in the leaf-brown dining room of the bungalow in the bush. "It is an awful pity that the bush is all spoilt!" Sunshine went on regretfully. "But Jim says that a lot of the trees are only scorched, and the saplings and vines will soon spring up again. Hawk wants it to be a little bit green before Rosemary goes home." "Isn't it funny that she has been ill all these days ?" Denis demanded. "Don't you remember what happened to her, Sunshine ?"

"No!" confessed the little girl. " Only that I put my hand on to some burning Wood by. mistake, and it hurt so much that I fell off the wall. I didn't know anything else at all until I woke up at Flower's, with Jim and Ailsa bending over mo." " You missed a lot!" the " small youth said gloatingly. "The fires were right up to the path most of the way. .It was some hot, I can tell you, and the smoke was "awful. Bride and Dawn were as frightened as anything. I don't know 'what they would have done if they hadn't had a man with them." " They were lucky!" agreed Sunshine, with an irresistible little smile. " But it must have been dreadful for poor Rosemary. I'm so heavy—and she isn't big and strong like—like Miss Donnell. She had to carry me such a long, long way." "It was just like a girl to go and fall off the wall!" Denis said disgustedly. /" I wouldn't have done that. I'd have grabbed - the wall , with the other . hand, and kept right on coming over." . " Well—-we can't all be boys!" objected Sunshine, a little sadly. " You are awfully lucky to be a boy, Denis. And I hope Rosemary will soon be quite well again. The doctor said she:was, suffering from strain, and I asked Bride if'it was because I had been too heavy to carry. And Bride said that it hadn't anything to do with ma at all, except that they thought having to carry me all that long way through the fire, did Rosemary, more good than anything else they had" tried. She hasn't talked to them at all for days, but they think that when she does she will be quite well again, and not have to dream all the time any longer. Wouldn't it be lovely if sho could remember things, like' everybody else?" " Rosemary is all right!" Denis maintained stoutly. " I've a lot of time for Rosemary. Whether she remembers or not, she is one of the best." " I wish I could see what she is doing now!" Sunshine sighed. " They haven't let me see her once." At that particular minute, Rosemary was lying very still in Flower's own bed, gazing through the wide-open window to the sun-flecked reach of the Kiwi flowing silently down between her fern-clad banks.

Ever since she had waked from a long and refreshing sleep—a dreamless sleep that paved the way for complete restoration of the wracked nerves—she had lain so, while Bride sat silently beside her, sowing busily, at one of the dainty little frocks that made Dawn so picturesque a small person. The child was perfectly happy with Flower and Ailsa, and with Sunshine and Denis coming over every day to play long, delightful games with her. The Hawk rode over once a day from Arcadia, and now and then Bride carried her in to peep at and kiss the silent mother lying so white and still in the dainty bedroom that overlooked the river. Even now, as Rosemary lay looking out of the window, the child danced into view, chasing Flower's Persian kitten, which was having a merry, game with some crisp leaves that rustled delightfully when patted with an exploring paw. " The child is very happy!" Rosemary said suddenly, and the Words cut the silence as with a knife. Bride quite jumped; they \yere so unexpected. " She has always been a happy, little thing!" was all the old woman said, quietly. " She is just yourself ' over again as you were when -you were a tiny child, honey." Rosemary smiled a little. "In her ways she is like me!" she assented. " I have noticed it often. And in some things she is wonderfully like Brian. But I think she is like her father most. ]. wonder that Ailsa never noticed it." Old Bride caught her breath with a quick sob. " Honey—honey— do you know what you art- saying ? Has the good God taken all the mists away at last?" Again Rosemary smiled, this time very sadiy. "Yes, Bride! He has given me back the power to remember—and to suffer.'' "You are not the only one, dearie!" disclaimed the old woman swiftly. "Somebody else has suffered too." (To bit continued daily.)