“ A REGULAR BOOK ADVENTURE.”

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19759, 14 December 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

“ A REGULAR BOOK ADVENTURE.”

(Continued from last week.)

The first quarter of an hour passed in comparative comfort; perhaps the two gallons of water so unexpectedly supplied added to the mental assurance of the party, >slnee nothing appears to provoke either hunger or thirst more than the knowledge that one "hasn't any.” Betty so far forgot the urgency un- . derlying the situation as to pluck a bush-flower or two as she went along, until Sheila's cousin advised her not to do so. Ho knew how much they must ultimately need every particle of endurance. Even Wait-a-while with its lake, was not the Vickers’ station; it marked only » -frontier of their territory. Only a quarter of an hour on their way; the gum trees failed temporarily, as though better to show the endless curving of the traok; and all in a moment, as Jack said afterwards, "the judgments began." •Betty thought It was she who first notlocd It, though probably her bushIralned companions were before her. The broeze had veered shortly before the prospector’s flight, and now came from the left. Across a less thickly wooded stretch of bush, the taller gums on the . horizon showed dimly against a line of dark blue cloud. The visibility was oddly dull that way, too. " "Sheila, is that how thunderstorms begin in the hush?" Inquired Betty, with Interest. She told herself that up-country Australia was satisfactorily thrilling for anybody; and in spite of the fact that she didn’t quite relish a *• climatic “bust up," hero, In this great i out-of-doors she couldn’t help congrat- j ulating herself that the fates seemed 1 ■laying themselves out to show a new) chum what things could manage to | happen In this wonderful hush which j Sheila so loved. | “Lot’s hurry on a hit farther,” Jack j put in decisively, before his cousin | could answer Betty's query. He-tied his own and the prospector’s handkerchiefs to the handle of the petrol can and, slipping his, arms through both loops, hoisted the can on to his hack like a rucksack, then, taking Betty and Vera each by a hand, he started sprinting in a fashion that soon had Betty panting. Seeing this, Sheila took her other hand, and In a spread-out line they ran on. Betty wondered a little that nobody

enlarged about the storm which Jack „ seemed so anxious they should not be overtaken by it Just herp. Wondered, also, that she heard no thunder; for In' one glance which she took past Jack’s queerly set profile, she saw that sparkling points of light were twinkling about Ihe trees through the deepening bluy of that strange low cloud. Betty would have asked questions had she had any breath to spare. She shot a glance at Sheila—Sheila, 100, was looking unaccountably grave. Their eyes met, and Sheila’s strong fingers lightened on Betty’s in a swift, squeeze All at once Betty realised that it wasn’t just a storm from which they wero running: it was . . .She snatched another glance at that disconcerting blackness. The little flashes of light still sparkled from out of it; below them, a bright line, like a red-hot poker, flowed across the bush on that side. The breeze was dreadfully hot, and heavy with a reek which wasn’t only eucalyptus. "Sorry, Betty,” said Jack. “It’s a bit of a bush fire. Keep running,” he added. "There’s an open space away on. We've got to get to It." Two or three minutes passed. Vegc- ' lalion was thicker again on each side of ihc track: gums, evergreens, and brilliant-tinted flowering tilings. Less than ten minutes ago Betty would have thought them lovely; now, their crowding shapes only spelt the peril they as yet hid. All among them the little peoples of the bush were darting in a panic. In the air all about was a sound like that which the sea makes before it becomes rough. .Tack cast an anxious look among the vegetation to the left. But he could not detect the actual fire, yet it was near, of this (hero could be no doubt. 'Pile sunlight grew dull in the smoke-mist, a mist mingled with Healing spooks of fine white ash; hero and there among them, sparks glowed. The staccato cracks of burning sticks came faintly from out the smoke. Jack tried to increase his pace, and felt Betty begin to lurch more heavily. He put his arm round her as he had done for Vera a few moments earlier And all the while they struggled on. ; He knew grimly, as perhaps did Sheila, that though the Arc might not touch

(By J. H. Byron Lewis.)

them if they ever reached the open, a miracle only could save them from the heat and smoke.

/or several hundred yards -they struggled gamely on. And now Hack was seized by a demoralising doubt; where was that open patch on the right for whloh they were making? Had they passed it in the smoke? They couldn’t keep on much longer. Jack was nearly carrying Betty now; and Betty realised it as far as she could now realise anything, with the bush track seeming to rise up as though it would hit her, or -straightening out —like a rug when you shake It, Everything had a red haze before it, too, except when the haze turned black as it, was doing now. . . . Betty lurched extra badly, and hoped dully that she hadn’t frightened the others, for at that moment both Jack and Sheila gave vent to choky sort of shouts. The dreadful effort to run on subsided, as Jack put her down, and as somebody—it was Sheila —dabbed a wet hanky in her face, the blackness changed again to smokehaze. What had happened? Sheila’s cousin was some yards away, bending over a huddled figure lying along near the runningboard of a car—a car that was tilted horribly to one side, and was buried nearly to its shattered windscreen in the frondy debris of some young feum trees smashed down with the impact of a great skid. “It’s the prospector I” shouted Jack. “He must have turned bapk when ho saw the fire would get us, had a smash, and got tipped out. There’s just a chance ”

I-Ie did not finish, but flung himself into the car and switched on the engine. The machine roared, shuddering, the wheels throwing out an eruption of earth. Sheila hurried forward and pushed valiantly. Betty got to her feet with Vera and was going to join her, when she noticed the prospector —he looked desperately ill beneath Hie smoke which was griming everyone. lie was beckoning feebly with his left hand, and Betty knelt to hear what he wished to say. “Son won’t shift her that way," he said faintly. “Tried myself—them tree stumps There’s a axe in me blanket—l broke me wrist and couldn’t cut ’em.”

“Oh, poor man!" commiserated Betty in great dismay. She called to Jack. "He says there’s an axe with his things, and you must cut away the stumps first!” Sheila whipped open the car door snatched the prospector’s small axe. Jack jumped out and began cutting into the mass of debris about the bonnet. Sheila’s cousin had won prizes for his skill in tree cutting, and, despite the fact that at least three of the slumps were most awkwardly lodged beneath the front springs, he showered cuts upon them at a speed the eye could scarcely follow. Sheila worked at clearing away branches and loose earth from about the big wheels. 'Betty turned back to the prospector. The can of water was on the ground where Sheila had left it after her ministrations in first-aid to her sister and chum. Betty offered the man a drink, while Vera, who was looking on, remarked: (To he continued next week.)