The Wonderful Wanderings of Wiremu Double-you Weka

Forest and Bird, Issue 106, 1 November 1952, Page 15

The Wonderful Wanderings of Wiremu Double-you Weka

By

E. H. C.

Chapter 10. A RACE WITH DEATH W7IREMU ran. and ran. Mile after mile he ran ” till his legs felt heavy as lead and he could hardly drag them over the ground. All around him the bush folk were on the run; overhead, Pipiwharauroa, the shining cuckoo, flew side by side with Riroriro, the grey warbler; Karearea, the bush. hawk and Ruru, the owl, flew unmolested and unmolesting, in the midst of a flock of smaller birds; beside him ran rat and weasel, all fears and enmities forgotten in the one great fear that embraced them all, the fear of fire. On and on he ran; he ran till the bush was left behind. He found himself ploughing up a hillside of bracken; springy bracken that bounced under his already unsteady feet; stiff bracken that caught and tore him as he passed; and behind him ever closer came the red fire monster. Nearer and nearer it came, its breath, thick like breath on a cold morning, swirled around him in great suffocating clouds. It choked him so that he could not breathe; it stung his eyes so that he could not see; it grew hotter and hotter every minute, and with it came sparks and red hot fragments that singed and burnt his feathers. But still he ran on stumbling at every step.

Water! Water would kill it. Sydney had said that water would kill it. Wiremu lifted his head as he ran, questing for water; but it was no good, all around him was that stifling blanket of smoke. And then he fell—caught his foot in the bracken stems and fell. He fell and lay still, all his strength gone; he had not even enough to rise; he just lay. Too tired now to care, he lay waiting for the fire that crept closer, ever closer. Closer and closer, foot by foot, till within a few yards of him the monster reared up crackling and leaping as if in a diabolical dance of triumph. Wiremu waited dully for it to pounce, waited and waited; then slowly the glazed look in his eyes gave place to one of hope, then one of joy. What was this ? A miracle had happened. It did not pounce ! With a frightful roar of frustrated fury it turned and fled back the way it had come, growing smaller and smaller as it went,' till it disappeared altogether, and all that was left was the thick grey smoke-breath hanging over a blackened ruin to show where it had been. Wiremu sighed a great sigh, his head flopped forward and he knew no more, he slept! Just in time the wind had changed, the fire had died, and Wiremu was safe. (To be continued.)