“A REGULAR BOOK ADVENTURE.”

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

“A REGULAR BOOK ADVENTURE.”

(Concluded from last week,). "I do hope the fruit-salad is safe. I’d like you to have some, ’cos now I I’m quite sorry I wanted It to make . you sick!” At last Jack pitched the axe Into the car. “Sheila,” he directed, “get in and set her running while I push. Gently—put her half over. That’s it 1” 'He caught at the hent-up lamp standards, bracing himself against a tree. Betty and Sheila also pushed. The prospector got to his feet and tried to help. When thrown out he had been able to do little more than stop the engine, and his efforts to adjust the “jack” against a stump resulted in his temporary collapse. “Now 1 Switch her full on!" jerked Cousin' Jack. Sheila obeyed. The engine roared until Betty was almost frightened. The big machine seemed to stagger beneath the united effort. Then all in an instant the grinding wheels bit, and the car lurched free! 'Glass from the windscreen was everywhere; the radiator was badly crushed, and water ran from it in

steaming trickles. Sheila's cousin, with a set face, motioned Betty and Vera to the back seats, and then hoisted the prospector on to the floor of the car at their feet, spreading the man’s blanket, which was heavy and woollen, over the three of them as far ns it *.’ould reach. .Tack was obliged to drive backwards for several minutes before if was possible to turn; the narrowness of the track proving conclusively that Ihe prospector had turned back to their •aid.

With the windscreen gone. Sbeila and Jack in the front bad no protection from 1 lie flying sparks. Betty, looking out over the edge of that stilling blanket, saw that these were driving all about the ear in a glowing rain, blistering the enamel whore they fell upon it, and smoking upon the blanket or upholstery. She tried to knock the nearest ones away, holding lightly the while lo ihc canvas cover of the hood for the car was rocking, wildly with the irregularities of the track. 'll was neck or nothing now. and Jack put the car at a speed which was terrific. The gum Irecs Hushed past in a continuous whirl—through that whirl, Betty saw that they were naming. . , Once a blazing’tree fell ng.it Across the track, almost, under them it appeared. Betty tried to hold \eia with her free hand, for she expected they would he flung out. But .lack declutched willi the speed of thought, braked, and, skidding the flying ear aside In among the flaming grass, twisted back into the straight again—all in the moment, it looked. An overheated lyre hurst with a frightful report. Again the car skidded Jack saved an overturn willi a lightning piece of steering, while Betti lost her hold on the hood-cover. When she regained it she saw lhal the cover was alight. She tried to heat it out

(By J. H, Byron Lewis-)

with her hat, and Shelia looked round and shouted something which she did not catch. Jack knew they were almost done: the crushed radiator was obliterated in steam, while the reek of charred oil grew ever more pungent, even through the smoke. For seconds at a time ho oould only guess .the whereabouts of the track. With a swift movement Sheila swept smuts and glass splinters from the facier-board with her sleeve. But perhaps it was Just as well that neither sire nor her cousin could read what the oil-guage may have tried to indicate. The deep-toned roar of the engine changed to a harsh snarl of sound. Ahead, another tree crashed over In an up-flung curtain of spark-fringed flame. The hot air, driving aside the smoke, showed to the left a wide sweep In the track, and Sheila recognised it. She got to her feet and fanned the sparks away. “The Split I” she cried. Her cousin snatched her down beside him as a tongue of flame reached out across the car. On they rushed — the harsh grind' of the engine merging into a sudden knocking rattle.

The walls of limestone bluff had shut away the fire I On through the smoke, down the steep cleCle, hedged with those blossoming cork trees Sheila so wanted Betty to sec. And through the smoko showed a glimpse of the lake. Sheila reached over > and pulled away the prospector’s blanket; it was smouldering in a dozen bright-edged rings.

Right down the sloping shore into ’the lake Jack drove the car, then, when water submerged 'the petrol, ho braked.

It, was' when the entire party, smoke-grimed to an appalling degree, were sampling the viands Which Vera expected never again, to have seen, that Cousin Jack hoped Betty “wouldn’t get the idea that bush country Australia was always so thrilling." But, obligingly. Sheila’s new chum was perfectly satisfied. "I was in no end of n funk,” she enlightened, "only, now It’s ended happily, I think it was —just—just a regular book adventure." i

Jack laughed, and looked across at Ihe prospector. “P’raps so," he answered Betty, “but if Pete, here, hadn't turned back—well, it wouldn't have ended like a book one!" Jackson’s store has never owned Prospector Pete as factotum. Pete accepted the Vickers' united hospitality for three days; then, with Ills wrist still in splints, he begged to be "took on." Sheila’s father was known to “have a way with animals—and men", and lie thought that the good in Pete would prevail—which, up to now, it has. Perhaps Pete is one of those beings who can’t run straight by themselves! THE END,