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diff --git a/7047.txt b/7047.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78082c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/7047.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8863 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Back To Billabong, by Mary Grant Bruce + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Back To Billabong + +Author: Mary Grant Bruce + +Release Date: June 6, 2006 [EBook #7047] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACK TO BILLABONG *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +BACK TO BILLABONG + + +By Mary Grant Bruce + + + +1921 + + + + + "Beyond the distant sky-line + (Now pansy-blue and clear), + We know a land is waiting, + A brown land, very dear: + A land of open spaces, + Gaunt forest, treeless plain: + And if we once have loved it + We must come back again." + + (Dorothea Mackellar.) + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + +I. LANCASTER GATE, LONDON, W + +II. THE RAINHAMS + +III. PLAYING TRUANT + +IV. COMING HOME + +V. THE TURN OF FORTUNE'S WHEEL + +VI. SAILING ORDERS + +VII. THE WATCH DOGS + +VIII. HOW TOMMY BOARDED A STRANGE TAXI + +IX. THE WELCOME OF AUSTRALIA + +X. BILLABONG + +XI. COLONIAL EXPERIENCES + +XII. ON INFLUENZA AND FURNITURE + +XIII. THE HOME ON THE CREEK + +XIV. THE CUNJEE RACES + +XV. HOW WALLY RODE A RACE + +XVI. BUILDING UP AGAIN + + + + +BACK TO BILLABONG + + + +CHAPTER I + +LANCASTER GATE, LONDON, W + + +"Do the beastly old map yourself, if you want it. I shan't, anyhow!" + +"Wilfred!" + +"Aw, Wil-fred!" The boy at the end of the schoolroom table, red-haired, +snub-nosed and defiant, mimicked the protesting tone. "I've done it +once, and I'm blessed if I do it again." + +"No one would dream that it was ever meant for Africa." The young +teacher glanced at the scrawled and blotted map before her. "It--it +doesn't look like anything earthly. You must do it again, Wilfred." + +"Don't you, Wilf." Wilfred's sister leaned back in her chair, tilting it +on its hind legs. + +"You have nothing to do with Wilfred's work, Avice. Go on with your +French." + +"Done it, thanks," said Avice. "And I suppose I can speak to my own +brother if I like." + +"No, you can't--in lesson time," said the teacher. + +"Who's going to stop me?" + +Cecilia Rainham controlled herself with an effort. + +"Bring me your work," she said. + +She went over the untidy French exercise with a quick eye. When she had +finished it resembled a stormy sky--a groundwork of blue-black, blotted +writing, lit by innumerable dashes of red. Cecilia put down her red +pencil. + +"It's hopeless, Avice. You haven't tried a bit. And you know it isn't +hard--you did a far more difficult piece of translation without a +mistake last Friday." + +"Yes, but the pantomime was coming off on Saturday," said Wilfred, with +a grin. "Jolly little chance of tickets from Bob if she didn't!" + +"You shut up!" said Avice. + +"Be quiet, both of you," Cecilia ordered, a spot of red in each pale +cheek. "Remember, there will be other Saturdays. Bob will do nothing for +you if I can't give him a decent report of you." It was the threat she +hated using, but without it she was helpless. And the red-haired pair +before her knew to a fraction the extent of her helplessness. + +For the moment the threat was effective. Avice went back to her seat, +taking with her the excited-looking French exercise, while Wilfred +sullenly recommenced a dispirited attack upon the African coastline. +Cecilia leaned back in her chair, and took up a half-knitted sock--to +drop it hastily, as a long-drawn howl came from a low chair by the +window. + +"Whatever is the matter, Queenie?" + +"I per-ricked my finger," sobbed the youngest Miss Rainham. She stood +up, tears raining down her plump cheeks. No one, Cecilia thought, ever +cried so easily, so copiously, and so frequently as Queenie. As she +stood holding out a very grubby forefinger, on which appeared a minute +spot of blood, great tears fell in splashes on the dark green linoleum, +while others ran down her face to join them, and others trembled on her +lower eyelids, propelled from some artesian fount within. + +"Oh, dry up, Queenie!" said Wilfred irritably. "Anyone 'ud think you'd +cut your silly finger off!" + +"Well--it'th bleed-in'!" wailed Queenie. She dabbed the injured member +with the pillow case she was hemming, adding a scarlet touch in pleasant +contrast to its prevailing grime. + +"Well--you're too big a girl to cry for a prick," said Cecilia wearily. +"People who are nearly seven really don't cry except for something +awfully bad." + +"There--I'll tell the mater you said awfully!" Avice jeered. "Who bites +our heads off for using slang, I'd like to know?" + +"You wouldn't have much head left if I bit for every slang word you +use," retorted her half-sister. "Do get on with your French, Avice--it's +nearly half-past twelve, and you know Eliza will want to lay the table +presently. Come here, Queenie." She took the pillow case, and unpicked +a few stitches, which clearly indicated that the needle had been taking +giant strides. "Just hem that last inch or two again, and see if you +can't make it look nice. I believe the needle only stuck into your +finger because you were making it sew so badly. Have you got a +handkerchief?--but, of course, you haven't." She polished the fat, +tear-stained cheek with her own. "Now run and sit down again." + +Queenie turned to go obediently enough--she was too young, and possibly +too fat, to plan, as yet, the deliberate malice in which her brother and +sister took their chief pleasure. Unfortunately, Wilfred arrived at the +end of Africa at the wrong moment for her. He pushed the atlas away from +him with a jerk that overturned the ink bottle, sending a stream of ink +towards Avice--who, shoving her chair backwards to escape the deluge, +cannoned into Queenie, and brought her headlong to the floor. Howls +broke out anew, mingled with a crisp interchange of abuse between the +elder pair, while Cecilia vainly sought to lessen the inky flood with a +duster. Upon this pleasant scene the door opened sharply. + +"A nice way you keep order at lessons," said Mrs. Mark Rainham acidly. +"And the ink all over the cloth. Well, all I can say is, you'll pay for +a new one, Cecilia." + +"I did not knock it over," said Cecilia, in a low tone. + +"It's your business to look after the children, and see that they do not +destroy things," said her stepmother. + +"The children will not obey me." + +"Pouf!" said Mrs. Rainham. "A mere question of management. High-spirited +children want tact in dealing with them, that is all. You never +trouble to exercise any tact whatever." Her eyes dwelt fondly on her +high-spirited son, whose red head was bent attentively over Africa +while he traced a mighty mountain range along the course of the Nile. +"Wilfred, have you nearly finished your work?" + +"Nearly, Mater," said the industrious Wilfred, manufacturing mountains +tirelessly. "Just got to stick in a few more things." + +"Say 'put,' darling, not 'stick.' Cecilia, you might point out those +little details--that is, if you took any interest in their English." + +"Thethilia thaid 'awfully' jutht now," said Queenie, in a shrill pipe. + +"I don't doubt it," said Mrs. Rainham, bitterly. "Of course, anyone +brought up in Paris is too grand to trouble about English--but we think +a good deal of these things in London." A little smile hovered on +her thin lips, as Cecilia flushed, and Avice and her brother grinned +broadly. The Mater could always make old Cecilia go as red as a +beetroot, but it was fun to watch, especially when the sport beguiled +the tedium of lessons. + +A clatter of dishes on a tray heralded the approach of Eliza. + +"It is time the table was clear," Mrs. Rainham said. "Wilfred, darling, +I want you to post a letter. Put up your work and get your cap. Cecilia, +you had better try to clean the cloth before lunch; it is ruined, of +course, but do what you can with it. I will choose another the next time +I am in London. And just make sure that the children's things are all in +order for the dancing lesson this afternoon. Avice, did you put out your +slippers to be cleaned?" + +"Forgot all about it, Mater," said Avice cheerfully. + +"Silly child--and it is Jackson's day off. Just brush them up for her, +Cecilia. When the children have gone this afternoon, I want you to see +to the drawing-room; some people are coming in to-night, and there are +fresh flowers from Brown's to arrange." + +Cecilia looked up, with a sudden flush of dismay. The children's dancing +lesson gave her one free afternoon during the week. + +"But--but I am going to meet Bob," she stammered. + +"Oh, Bob will wait, no doubt; you need not keep him long, if you hasten +yourself. Yes, Eliza, you can have the table." Mrs. Rainham left the +room, with the children at her heels. + +Cecilia whisked the lesson books hastily away; Eliza was waiting with a +lowering brow, and Eliza was by no means a person to be offended. Maids +were scarce enough in England in the months after the end of the +war; and, even in easier times, there had been a dreary procession +of arriving and departing servants in the Rainham household--the +high-spirited characteristics of the children being apt to pall quickly +upon anyone but their mother. In days when there happened to be no +Eliza, it was Cecilia who naturally inherited the vacant place, adding +the duties of house-maid to those of nurse, governess, companion and +general factotum; all exacting posts, and all of them unpaid. As Mrs. +Rainham gracefully remarked, when a girl was not earning her own living, +as so many were, but was enjoying the comfort of home, the least she +could do was to make herself useful. + +"Half a minute, Eliza." She smiled at the slatternly girl. "Sorry to +keep you waiting; there's a river of ink gone astray here." She placed +the soaked cloth on the waste-paper basket and polished the top of the +table vigorously. + +"I'll bet it worn't you wot spilt it--but it's you wot 'as the cleanin' +up," muttered Eliza. "Lemme rub that up now, Miss." She put down her +tray and took the cloth from Cecilia's hand. + +"Thanks, ever so, Eliza--but you've got plenty to do yourself." + +"Well, if I 'ave, I ain't the on'y one wot 'as," said Eliza darkly. +Her wizened little face suddenly flushed. "Lor, Miss," she said +confidentially, "you doan't know wot a success that 'at you trimmed for +me is. It's a fair scream. I wore it larst night, an' me young man--'im +wot's in the Royal Irish--well, it fair knocked 'im! An' 'e wants me to +go out wiv 'im next Benk 'Oliday--out to 'Ampstead 'Eath. 'E never got +as far as arstin' me that before. I know it was that 'at wot done it." + +"Not it, Eliza," Cecilia laughed. "It was just your hair under the hat. +I told you how pretty it would be, if you would only brush it more." + +"Well, I never 'ad no brush till you give me your old one," said Eliza +practically. "I did brush it, though, a nundred times every night, till +Cook reckoned I was fair cracked. But 'air's on'y 'air, an' anyone 'as +it--it's not every one 'as an 'at like that." She clattered plates upon +the table violently. "You goin' out this awfternoon, Miss?" + +"As soon as I can, Eliza." Cecilia's face fell. "I must arrange flowers +first." + +"I'll 'ave the vawses all ready wiv clean water for you," said Eliza. +"An' don't you worry about the drorin'-room--I'll see as it's nice." + +"Oh, you can't, Eliza--you have no time. I know it's silver-cleaning +afternoon." + +"Aw, I'll squeeze it in some'ow." Eliza stopped suddenly, at a decided +footstep in the passage, and began to rattle spoons and forks with a +vigour born of long practice. Cecilia picked up the inky cloth, and went +out. + +Her stepmother was standing by the hall-stand, apparently intent on +examining Wilfred's straw hat. She spoke in a low tone as the girl +passed her. + +"I wish you did not find so much pleasure in gossiping with servants, +Cecilia. It is such a bad example for Avice. I have spoken about it to +you before." + +Cecilia did not answer. She went upstairs with flaming cheeks, and +draped the cloth across the hand basin in the bathroom, turning the tap +vengefully. A stream of water flowed through the wide stain. + +"There's more real kindness in that poor little Cockney's finger than +there is in your whole body!" Cecilia whispered, apparently addressing +the unoffending cloth--which, having begun life as a dingy green and +black, did not seem greatly the worse for its new decoration. "Hateful +old thing!" A smile suddenly twitched the corners of her mouth. +"Well, she can't stop the money for a new cloth out of this quarter's +allowance, because I've just got it. That's luck, anyhow. I'll give it +to Bob to keep, in case she goes through my desk again." She poured some +ammonia upon the stain, and rubbed gingerly, surveying the result with a +tilted nose. It was not successful. "Shall I try petrol? But petrol's +an awful price, and I've only got the little bottle I use for my gloves. +Anyhow, the horrible old cloth is so old and thin that it will fall to +pieces if I rub it. Oh, it's no use bothering about it--nothing will +make it better." She squeezed the water from the cloth and spread the +stained area over a chair to dry, looking disgustedly at her own dyed +finger-nails. "Now for Avice's shoes before I scrub my hands." + +Avice's shoes proved a lengthy task, since the younger Miss Rainham had +apparently discovered some clay to walk through in Regent's Park on her +way home from the last dancing lesson; and well-hardened clay resists +ordinary cleaning methods, and demands edged tools. The luncheon bell +rang loudly before Cecilia had finished. She gave the shoes a final +hurried rub, and then fell to cleansing her hands; arriving in the +dining-room, pink and breathless, some minutes later, to find a dreary +piece of tepid mutton rapidly congealing on her plate. + +"I think you might manage to be down in time for meals, Cecilia," was +Mrs. Rainham's chilly greeting. + +Cecilia said nothing. She had long realized the uselessness of any +excuses. To be answered merely gave her stepmother occasion for further +fault-finding--you might, as Cecilia told Bob, have a flawless defence +for the sin of the moment, but in that case Mrs. Rainham merely changed +her ground, and waxed eloquent about the sin of yesterday, or of last +Friday week, for which there might happen to be no defence at all. It +was so difficult to avoid being a criminal in Mrs. Rainham's eyes that +Cecilia had almost given up the attempt. She attacked her greasy +mutton and sloppy cabbage in silence, unpleasantly conscious of her +stepmother's freezing glance. + +Mrs. Rainham was a short, stout woman, with colourless, rather pinched +features, and a wealth of glorious red hair. Some one had once told her +that her profile was classic, and she still rejoiced in believing it, +was always photographed from a side view, and wore in the house loose +and flowing garments of strange tints, calculated to bring out the +colour of her glowing tresses. Cecilia, who worshipped colour with every +bit of her artist soul, adored her stepmother's hair as thoroughly as +she detested her dresses. Bob, who was blunt and inartistic, merely +detested her from every point of view. "Don't see what you find to rave +about in it," he said. "All the warmth of her disposition has simply +gone to her head." + +There was certainly little warmth in Mrs. Rainham's heart, where her +stepdaughter was concerned. She disapproved very thoroughly of Cecilia +in every detail--of her pretty face and delicate colouring, of the fair +hair that rippled and curled and gleamed in a manner so light-hearted as +to seem distinctly out of place in the dingy room, of the slender grace +that was in vivid contrast to her own stoutness. She resented the very +way Cecilia put on her clothes--simple clothes, but worn with an air +that made her own elaborate dresses cheap and common by comparison. It +was so easy for her to look well turned out; and it would never be easy +to dress Avice, who bade fair to resemble her mother in build, and had +already a passion for frills and trimmings, and a contempt for plain +things. Mrs. Rainham had an uneasy conviction that the girl who bore all +her scathing comments in silence actually dared to criticize her in +her own mind--perhaps openly to Bob, whose blue eyes held many unspoken +things as he looked at her. Once she had overheard him say to Cecilia: +"She looks like an over-ornamented pie!" Cecilia had laughed, and Mrs. +Rainham had passed on, unsuspected, her mind full of a wild surmise. +They would never dare to mean her--and yet--that new dress of hers was +plastered with queer little bits of purposeless trimmings. She never +again wore it without that terrible sentence creeping into her mind. +And she had been so pleased with it, too! An over-ornamented pie. If she +could only have been sure they meant her! + +She thought of it again as she sat looking at Cecilia. The new dress was +lying on her bed, ready to be worn that afternoon; and Cecilia was going +to meet Bob--Bob, who had uttered the horrible remark. Well, at least +there should be no haste about the meeting. It would do Bob no harm to +cool his heels for a little. She set her thin lips tightly together, as +she helped the rice pudding. + +The meal ended, amidst loud grumbles from Wilfred that the pudding was +rice; and Cecilia hurried off to find the flowers and arrange them. The +florist's box was near the vases left ready by the faithful Eliza; she +cut the string with a happy exclamation of "Daffodils!" as she lifted +the lid. Daffodils were always a joy; this afternoon they were doubly +welcome, because easy to arrange. She sorted them into long-necked vases +swiftly, carrying each vase, when filled, to the drawing-room--a painful +apartment, crowded with knick-knacks until it resembled a bazaar stall, +with knobby and unsteady bamboo furniture and much drapery of a would-be +artistic nature. It was stuffy and airless. Cecilia wrinkled her pretty +nose as she entered. Mrs. Rainham held pronounced views on the subject +of what she termed the "fresh-air fad," and declined to let London +air--a smoky commodity at best--attack her cherished carpets; with the +result that Cecilia breathed freely only in her little attic, which had +no carpet at all. + +The lady of the house rustled in, in her flowing robe, as Cecilia put +the last vase into position on the piano--finding room for it with +difficulty amid a collection of photograph frames and china ornaments. +She carried some music, and cast a critical eye round the room. + +"This place looks as if it had not been properly dusted for a week," +she remarked. "See to it before you go, Cecilia." She opened the +piano. "Just come and try the accompaniment to this song--it's rather +difficult, and I want to sing it to-night." + +Cecilia sat down before the piano, with woe in her heart. Her +stepmother's delusion that she could sing was one of the minor trials of +her life. She had been thoroughly trained in Paris, under a master who +had prophesied great things for her; now her hours at the Rainhams' +tinkly piano, playing dreary accompaniments to sentimental songs with +Mrs. Rainham's weak soprano wobbling and flattening on the high notes, +were hours of real distress, from which she would escape feeling her +teeth on edge. Her stepmother, however, had thoroughly enjoyed herself +since the discovery that no accompaniment presented any difficulty to +Cecilia. It saved her a world of trouble in practising; moreover, when +standing, it was far easier to let herself go in the affecting passages, +which always suffered from scantiness of breath when she was sitting +down. Therefore she would stand beside Cecilia, pouring forth song after +song, with her head slightly on one side, and one hand resting lightly +on the piano--an attitude which, after experiment with a mirror, she had +decided upon as especially becoming. + +The song of the moment did make some demands upon her attention. It +had a disconcerting way of changing from sharps to flats; trouble being +caused by the singer failing to change also. Cecilia took her through it +patiently, going over and over again the tricky passages, and devoutly +wishing that Providence in supplying her stepmother with boundless +energy, a tireless voice and an enormous stock of songs, had also +equipped her with an ear for music. At length the lady desisted from her +efforts. + +"That's quite all right," she said, with satisfaction. "I'll sing it +to-night. The Simons will be here, and they do like to hear what's new. +Go on with your dusting; I'll just run through a few pieces, and you can +tell me if I go wrong." + +Cecilia hesitated, glancing at the clock. + +"It is getting very late," she said. "Eliza told me she could dust the +room." + +"Eliza!" said Mrs. Rainham. "Why, it's her silver day; she had no +business to tell you anything of the sort--and neither had you, to ask +her to do it. Goodness knows it's hard enough to make the lazy thing do +her own work. Just get your duster, and make sure as you come down that +the children are properly dressed for the dancing class." She broke into +a waltz. + +Cecilia ran. Sounds of woe greeted her as she neared Avice's room, +and she entered, to find that damsel plunged in despair over a missing +button. + +"It was on all right last time I wore the beastly dress," wailed she. +"If you'd look after my clothes like Mater said you had to, I wouldn't +be late. Whatever am I to do? I can't make the old dress shut with a +safety pin." + +"No, you certainly can't," said her half-sister. "Never mind; there are +spare buttons for that frock, and I can sew one on." She accomplished +the task with difficulty, since Avice appeared quite unable to stand +still. + +"Now, are you ready, Avice? Shoes, hat, gloves--where are your gloves? +How do you ever manage to find anything in that drawer?" She rooted +swiftly in a wild chaos, and finally unearthed the gloves. "Yes, you'll +do. Now, where's Wilfred?" Search revealed Wilfred, who hated dancing, +reading a "penny dreadful" in his room--ready to start, save for the +trifling detail of having neglected to wash an extremely dirty face. +Cecilia managed to make him repair the omission, after a struggle, +and saw them off with a thankful heart--which sank anew as she heard +a neighbouring clock strike three. Three--and already she should be +meeting Bob in Hyde Park. She fled for a duster, and hurried to the +drawing-room. Eliza encountered her on the way. + +"Now, wotcher goin' to do wiv that duster, Miss?" she inquired. "I told +yer I'd do it for yer." + +"Mrs. Rainham is waiting for me to do it, Eliza. I'm sorry." + +"Ow!" Eliza's expression and her tilted nose spoke volumes. "Suppose +she finks I wouldn't clean 'er old silver proper. Silver, +indeed!--'lectrer-plyte, an' common at that. Just you cut and run as +soon as she's out of the 'ouse, Miss; I know she's goin', 'cause 'er +green and yaller dress is a-airin' on 'er bed." + +"It's not much good, Eliza. I ought to be in the Park now." Cecilia +knew she should not allow the girl to speak of her mistress so +contemptuously. But she was disheartened enough at the moment not to +care. + +"Lor!" said Eliza. "A bloomin' shyme, I calls it!" + +Cecilia found her stepmother happily engaged upon a succession of wrong +notes that made her wince. She dusted the room swiftly, aware all the +time of a watchful eye. Occasionally came a crisp comment: "You didn't +dust that window-sill." "Cecilia, that table has four legs--did you only +notice two?"--the effort to speak while playing generally bringing the +performer with vigour upon a wrong chord. The so-called music became +almost a physical torment to the over-strained girl. + +"If she would only stop--if she would only go away!" she found herself +murmuring, over and over. Even the thought of Bob waiting in Hyde Park +in the chill east wind became dim beside that horrible piano, banging +and tinkling in her ear. She dusted mechanically, picking up one cheap +ornament after another--leaving the collection upon the piano until the +last, in the hope that by the time she reached it the thirst for +music would have departed from the performer. But Mrs. Rainham's tea +appointment was not yet; she was thoroughly enjoying herself, the charm +of her own execution added to the knowledge that Cecilia was miserable, +and Bob waiting somewhere, with what patience he might. She held on +to the bitter end, while the girl dusted the piano's burden with a set +face. Then she finished a long and painful run, and shut the piano with +a bang. + +"There--I've had quite a nice practice, and it isn't often the +drawing-room gets really decently dusted," she remarked. "Nothing like +the eye of the mistress; I think I must practise every day while you are +dusting, Cecilia. Oh, and, Cecilia, give the legs of the piano a good +rubbing. Dear me, I must go and dress." + +Cecilia dragged herself upstairs a few minutes later. All the spring was +gone out of her; it really did not seem to matter much now whether she +met Bob or not; she was too tired to care. This was only a sample of +many days; so it had been for two years--so it would be for two more, +until she was twenty-one, and her own mistress. But it did not seem +possible that she could endure through another two years. + +She reached her own room, and was about to shut the door, when the harsh +voice rasped upwards. + +"Cecilia! Cecilia! Come here a minute." + +The girl went down slowly. Mrs. Rainham was standing before her mirror. + +"Just come and hook my dress, Cecilia. This new dressmaker has a knack +of making everything hard to fasten. There--see that you start with the +right hook and eye." + +At the moment, physical contact with her stepmother was almost the last +straw for the girl. She obeyed in silence, shrinking back as far as she +could from the stout, over-scented body and the powdered face with the +thin lips. Mrs. Rainham watched her with a little smile. + +"Yes, that's all right," she said. "Now, my hat, Cecilia--it's in the +bandbox under the bed. I can't stoop in this dress, that's the worst +of it. And my gloves are in that box on the chest of drawers--the white +pair. Hurry, Cecilia, my appointment is for four o'clock." + +"Mine was for three o'clock," said the girl in a low voice. + +"Oh, well, you should manage your work better. I always tell you that. +Nothing like method in getting through every day. However, Bob is only +your brother--it would be more serious if it was a young man you were +meeting. Brothers don't matter much." + +Cecilia flamed round upon her. + +"Bob is more to me than anyone in the world," she cried. "And I would +rather keep any other man waiting." + +"Really? But I shouldn't think it very likely that you'll ever have to +trouble about other young men, Cecilia; you're not the sort. Too thin +and scraggy." Mrs. Rainham surveyed her own generous proportions in the +glass, and gathered up her gloves with a pleased air. For the moment she +could not possibly believe that anyone could have referred to her as "an +over-ornamented pie." "Good-bye, Cecilia; don't be late for tea." She +sailed down the stairs. + +Even the bang of the hall door failed to convey any relief to Cecilia. +For the second time she toiled upstairs, to the bare freshness of her +little room. Generally, it had a tonic effect upon her; to-day it seemed +that nothing could help her. She leaned her head against the window, +a wave of homesick loneliness flooding all her soul. So deep were its +waters that she did not hear the hall door open and close again, and +presently swift feet pounding up the stairs. Someone battered on her +door. + +"Cecilia! Are you there?" + +She ran to open the door. Bob stood there, a short, muscular fellow, in +Air Force blue, with twinkling eyes. She put out her hands to him with a +little pitiful gesture. + +"Don't say that horrible name again," she whispered. "If anyone else +calls me Cecilia I'll just go mad." + +Bob came in, and flung a brotherly arm round her shoulders. + +"Has it been so beastly?" he said. "Poor little Tommy. Oh, Tommy, I saw +the over-ornamented pie sailing down the street, and I dived into a side +alley until she'd gone out of range. I guessed from her proud and happy +face that you'd been scarified." + +"Scarified!" murmured Cecilia. But Bob was not listening. His face was +radiant. + +"I couldn't wait in the park any longer," he said. "I had to come and +tell you. Tommy, old thing--I'm demobilized!" + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE RAINHAMS + + +It was one of Mrs. Mark Rainham's grievances that, comparatively late +in her married life, she should suddenly find herself brought into +association with the children of her husband's first marriage. They were +problems that Fate had previously removed from her path; she found it +extremely annoying--at first--that Fate should cease to be so tactful, +casting upon her a burden long borne by other shoulders. It was not +until she had accepted Mark Rainham, eleven years before, that she found +out the very existence of Bob and Cecilia; she resented the manner of +the discovery, even as she resented the children themselves. Not that +she ever dreamed of breaking off her engagement on their account. She +was a milliner in a Kensington shop, and to marry Mark Rainham, who +was vaguely "something in the city," and belonged to a good club, and +dressed well, was a distinct step in the social scale, and two unknown +children were not going to make her draw back. But to mother them was +quite another question. + +Luckily, Fate had a compassionate eye upon the young Rainhams, and was +quite willing to second their stepmother's resolve that they should come +into her life as little as possible. Their father had never concerned +himself greatly about them. A lazy and selfish man, he had always been +willing to shelve the care of his small son and daughter--babies were +not in his line, and the aunt who had brought up their mother was only +too anxious to take Bob and Cecilia when that girl-mother had slipped +away from life, leaving a week-old Cecilia and a sturdy, solemn Bob of +three. + +The arrangement suited Mark Rainham very well. Aunt Margaret's house +at Twickenham was big enough for half a dozen babies; the children went +there, with their nurse, and he was free to slip back into bachelor +ways, living in comfortable chambers within easy reach of his club and +not too far, with a good train service, from a golf links. The regular +week-end visits to the babies suffered occasional interruptions, and +gradually grew fewer and fewer, until he became to the children a vague +and mysterious person named Papa, who dropped from the skies now +and then, asked them a number of silly questions, talked with great +politeness to Aunt Margaret--who, they instinctively felt, liked him +no better than they did--and then disappeared, whereupon every one +was immensely relieved. Even the fact that he generally brought them a +packet of expensive sweets was as nothing beside the harrowing knowledge +that they must kiss him, thereby having their faces brushed with a large +and scrubby moustache. Aunt Margaret and nurse did not have to endure +this infliction--which seemed to Bob and Cecilia obviously unfair. But +the visits did not often happen--not enough to disturb seriously an +existence crammed with interesting things like puppies and kittens, the +pony cart, boats on the river that ran just beyond the lawn, occasional +trips to London and the Zoo, and delirious fortnights at the seaside +or on Devonshire moors. Cecilia had never known even Bobby's shadowy +memories of their own mother. Aunt Margaret was everything that +mattered, and the person called Papa was merely an unpleasant incident. +Other little boys and girls whom they knew owned, in their houses, +delightful people named Daddy and Mother; but Cecilia and Bob quite +understood that every one could not have the same things, for possibly +these fortunate children had no puppies or pony carts. Nurse had pointed +out this, so that it was perfectly clear. + +It was when Cecilia was eight and Bob eleven, that their father married +again. To the children it meant nothing; to Aunt Margaret it was a bomb. +If Mark Rainham had happened to die, or go to the North Pole, she would +have borne the occurrence calmly; but that he should take a step which +might mean separating her from her beloved babies shook her to her +foundations. Even when she was assured that the new Mrs. Rainham +disliked children, and had not the slightest intention of adding Bob and +Cecilia to her household, Aunt Margaret remained uneasy. The red-haired +person, as she mentally labelled her, might change her mind. Mark +Rainham was wax in her hands, and would always do as he was told. Aunt +Margaret, goaded by fear, became heroic. She let the beloved house at +Twickenham while Mr. and Mrs. Rainham were still on their honeymoon; +packed up the children, her maids, nurse, the parrot and most of the +puppies; and kept all her plans a profound secret until she was safely +established in Paris. + +To the average Londoner, Paris is very far off. There are, of course, +very many people who run across the Channel as easily as a Melbourne man +may week-end in Gippsland or Bendigo, but the suburban section of +London is not fond of voyaging across a strip of water with unpleasant +possibilities in the way of choppiness, to a strange country where most +of the inhabitants have the bad taste not to speak English. Neither Mark +Rainham nor his new wife had ever been in France, and to them it seemed, +as Aunt Margaret had shrewdly hoped it would, almost as though the +Twickenham household had gone to the North Pole. A great relief fell +upon them, since there could now be no question of assuming duties +when those duties were suddenly beyond their reach. And Aunt Margaret's +letter was convincing--such a good offer, suddenly, for the Twickenham +house; such excellent educational opportunities for the children, in +the shape of semi-English schools, where Bob and Cecilia might mix with +English children and retain their nationality while acquiring Parisian +French. If Mark Rainham felt any inward resentment at the summary +disposal of his son and daughter, he did not show it; as of old, it was +easier to let things slide. Aunt Margaret was given a free hand, save +that at fourteen Bob returned to school in England; an arrangement that +mattered little, since all his holidays were spent at the new home at +Fontainebleau--a house which, even to the parrot, was highly reminiscent +of Twickenham. + +Bob and Cecilia found life extremely interesting. They were cheery, +happy-go-lucky youngsters, with an immense capacity for enjoyment; and +Aunt Margaret, while much too shrewd an old lady to spoil children, +delighted in giving them a good time. They found plenty of friends in +the little English community in Paris, as well as among their French +neighbours. Paris itself was full of fascination; then there were +wonderful excursions far afield--holidays in Brussels, in the South +of France, even winter sporting in Switzerland. Aunt Margaret was +determined that her nurselings should miss nothing that she could give +them. The duty letters which she insisted on their writing, once a +month, to their father told of happenings that seemed strangely remote +from the humdrum life of London. "By Jove, the old lady gives those +youngsters a good time!" Mark Rainham would comment, tossing them across +the table to his wife. He did not guess at the dull rage that filled her +as she read them--the unreasoning jealousy that these children should +have opportunities so far beyond any that were likely to occur for her +own, who squabbled angrily over their breakfast while she read. + +"She seems to have any amount of money to spend on gadding about," she +would say unpleasantly. + +"Oh, pots of money. Wish to goodness I had some of it," her husband +would answer. Money was always scarce in the Rainham household. + +When the thunderbolt of war fell upon the world, Aunt Margaret, after +the first pangs of panic, stiffened her back, and declined to leave +France. England, she declared, was not much safer than anywhere else; +and was it likely that she and Cecilia would run away when Bob was +coming back? Bob, just eighteen, captain of his school training corps, +stroke of its racing boat, and a mighty man of valour at football, slid +naturally into khaki within a month of the outbreak of war, putting +aside toys, with all the glad company of boys of the Empire, until such +time as the Hun should be taught that he had no place among white men. +Aunt Margaret and Cecilia, knitting frantically at socks and mufflers +and Balaclava helmets, were desperately proud of him, and compared his +photograph, in uniform, with all the pictures of Etienne and Henri and +Armand, and other French boys who had played with him under the trees at +Fontainebleau, and had now marched away to join him at the greater game. +It was difficult to realize that they were not still little boys in +blouses and knickerbockers--difficult even when they swooped down from +time to time on short leave, filling the quiet houses with pranks and +laughter that were wholly boyish. Even when Bob had two stars on +his cuff, and wore the ribbon of the Military Cross, it would have +astonished Aunt Margaret and Cecilia very much had anyone suggested that +he was grown up. + +Indeed, Aunt Margaret was never to think of him as anything but "one of +the children." Illness, sudden and fierce, fell upon her after a long +spell of duty at the hospital where she worked from the first few months +of the war--working as cook, since she had no nursing experience, and +was, she remarked, too old to learn a new trade. Brave as she was, there +was no battling for her against the new foe; she faded out of life after +a few days, holding Cecilia's hand very tightly until the end. + +Bob, obtaining leave with much difficulty, arrived a few days later, to +find a piteous Cecilia, white-faced, stunned and bewildered. She pleaded +desperately against leaving France; amidst all the horror and chaos that +had fallen upon her, it seemed unthinkable that she should put the sea +between herself and Bob. But to remain was impossible. Aunt Margaret's +English maids wanted to go back to their friends, and a girl of +seventeen could scarcely stay alone in a country torn by two years of +war. Besides, Aunt Margaret's affairs were queerly indefinite; there +seemed very little money where there had formerly been plenty. There was +no alternative for Cecilia but England--and England meant the Rainham +household, and such welcome as it might choose to give her. + +She was still bewildered when they made the brief journey across the +Channel--a new Channel, peopled only with war-ships of every kind, from +grim Dreadnoughts to submarines; with aircraft, bearing the red, white +and blue circles of Britain, floating and circling overhead. Last time +Cecilia had crossed, it had been with Aunt Margaret on a big turbine +mail boat; they had reached Calais just as an excursion steamer from +Margate came up, gay with flags and light dresses, with a band playing +ragtime on the well-deck, and people dancing to a concertina at the +stern. Now they zig-zagged across, sometimes at full speed, sometimes +stopping dead or altering their course in obedience to the destroyer +nosing ahead of them through the Channel mist; and she could see the +face of the captain on the bridge, strained and anxious. There were +so few civilians on board that Cecilia and the two old servants were +greeted with curious stares; nearly all the passengers were in uniform, +their boots caked with the mud of the trenches, their khaki soiled with +the grime of war. It was all rather dream-like to Cecilia; and London +itself was a very bad dream; darkened and silent, with the great beams +of searchlights playing back and forth over the black skies in search of +marauding Zeppelins. And then came her father's stiff greeting, and the +silent drive to the tall, narrow house in Lancaster Gate, where Mrs. +Rainham met her coldly. In after years Cecilia never could think without +a shudder of that first meal in her father's house--the struggle to +eat, the lagging talk round the table, with Avice and Wilfred, frankly +hostile, staring at her in silence, and her stepmother's pale eyes +appraising every detail of her dress. It was almost like happiness again +to find herself alone, later; in a dingy little attic bedroom that smelt +as though it had never known an open window--a sorry little hole, but +still, out of the reach of those unblinking eyes. + +For the first year Cecilia had struggled to get away to earn her own +living. But a very few weeks served to show Mrs. Rainham that chance +had sent her, in the person of the girl whose coming she had sullenly +resented, a very useful buffer against any period of domestic stress. +Aunt Margaret had trained Cecilia thoroughly in all housewifely virtues, +and her half-French education had given her much that was lacking in +the stodgy damsels of Mrs. Rainham's acquaintance. She was quick +and courteous and willing; responding, moreover, to the lash of the +tongue--after her first wide-eyed stare of utter amazement--exactly as a +well-bred colt responds to a deftly-used whip. "I'll keep her," was Mrs. +Rainham's inward resolve. "And she'll earn her keep too!" + +There was no doubt that Cecilia did that. Wilfred and Avice saw to it, +even had not their mother been fully capable of exacting the last ounce +from the only helper she had ever had who had not the power to give her +a week's notice. Cecilia's first requests to be allowed to take up work +outside had been shelved vaguely. "We'll find some nice war-work for +you presently". . . and meanwhile, the household was short-handed, Mrs. +Rainham was overstrained--Cecilia found later that her stepmother was +always "overstrained" whenever she spoke of leaving home--and duties +multiplied about her and hemmed her in. Mrs. Rainham was clever; the net +closed round the girl so gradually that she scarcely realized its meshes +until they were drawn tightly. Even Bob helped. "You're awfully young +to start work on your own account," he wrote. "Can't you stick it for +a bit, if they are decent to you?" And, rather than cause him any extra +worry, Cecilia decided that she must "stick it." + +Of her father she saw little. He was, just as she remembered him in her +far-back childhood at Twickenham, vague and colourless. Rather to her +horror, she found that the ordeal of being kissed by his large and +scrubby moustache was just as unpleasant as ever. Cecilia had no idea +of how he earned his living--he ate his breakfast hurriedly, concealed +behind the Daily Mail, and then disappeared, bound for some mysterious +place in the city--the part of London that was always full of mystery to +Cecilia. Golf was the one thing that roused him to any enthusiasm, and +golf was even more of a mystery than the city. Cecilia knew that it +was played with assorted weapons, kept in a bag, and used for smiting +a small ball over great expanses of country, but beyond these facts her +knowledge stopped. Mrs. Rainham had set her to clean the clubs one day, +but her father, appearing unexpectedly, had taken them from her hands +with something like roughness. "No, by Jove!" he said. "You do a good +many odd jobs in this house, but I'm hanged if you shall clean my golf +sticks." Cecilia did not realize that the assumed roughness covered +something very like shame. + +Money matters were rather confusing. A lawyer--also in the city--paid +her a small sum quarterly--enough to dress on, and for minor expenses. +Bob wrote that Aunt Margaret's affairs were in a beastly tangle. An +annuity had died with her, and many of her investments had been hit by +the war, and had ceased to pay dividends--had even, it seemed, ceased to +be valuable at all. There was a small allowance for Bob also, and some +day, if luck should turn, there might be a little more. Bob did not say +that his own allowance was being hoarded for Cecilia, in case he "went +west." He lived on his pay, and even managed to save something out of +that, being a youth of simple tastes. His battalion had been practically +wiped out of existence in the third year of the war, and after a +peaceful month in a north country hospital, near an aerodrome, the call +of the air was too much for him--he joined the cheerful band of flying +men, and soon filled his letters to Cecilia with a bewildering mixture +of technicalities and aviation slang that left her gasping. But he +got his wings in a very short time, and she was prouder of him than +ever--and more than ever desperately afraid for him. + +The children's daily governess, a down-trodden person, left after +Cecilia had been in England for a few months, and the girl stepped +naturally into the vacant position until some one else should be found. +She had no idea that Mrs. Rainham made no effort at all to discover any +other successor to Miss Simpkins. Where, indeed, Mrs. Rainham +demanded of herself, would she be likely to find anyone with such +qualifications--young, docile, with every advantage of a modern +education, speaking French like a native, and above and beyond all else, +requiring no pay? It would be flying in the face of Providence to ignore +such a chance. Wherefore Cecilia continued to lead her step-sisters +and brother in the paths of learning, and life became a thing of utter +weariness. For Mrs. Rainham, though shrewd enough to get what she +wanted, in the main was not a far-sighted woman; and in her unreasoning +dislike and jealousy of Cecilia she failed to see that she defeated her +own ends by making her a drudge. Whatever benefit the girl might have +given the children was lost in their contempt for her. She had no +authority, no power to enforce a command, or to give a punishment, +and the children quickly discovered that, so long as they gave her the +merest show of obedience in their mother's presence, any shortcomings in +education would be laid at Cecilia's door. Lesson time became a period +of rare sport for the young Rainhams; it was so easy to bait the new +sister with cheap taunts, to watch the quick blood mount to the very +roots of her fair hair, to do just as little as possible, and then to +see her blamed for the result. Mrs. Rainham's bitter tongue grew more +and more uncontrolled as time went on and she felt the girl more fully +in her power. And Cecilia lived through each day with tight-shut lips, +conscious of one clear thing in her mist of unhappy bewilderment--that +Bob must not know: Bob, who would probably leave his job of skimming +through the air of her beloved France after the Hun, and snatch an hour +to fly to England and annihilate the entire Rainham household, returning +with Cecilia tucked away somewhere in his aeroplane. It was a pleasant +dream, and served to carry her through more than one hard moment. But it +did not always serve; and there were nights when Cecilia mounted to her +attic with dragging footsteps, to sit by her window in the darkness, +gripping her courage with both hands, afraid to let herself think of the +dear, happy past; of Aunt Margaret, whose very voice was love; least of +all of Bob, perhaps even now flying in the dark over the German lines. +There was but one thing that she could hold to: she voiced it to +herself, over and over with clenched hands, "It can't last for ever! It +can't last for ever!" + +And then, after the long years of clutching anxiety, came the Armistice, +and Cecilia forgot all her troubles in its overwhelming relief. No one +would shoot at Bob any longer; there were no more hideous, squat guns, +with muzzles yawning skywards, ready to shell him as he skimmed high +overhead, like a swallow in the blue. Therefore she sang as she went +about her work, undismayed by the laboured witticisms of Avice +and Wilfred, or by Mrs. Rainham's venom, which increased with the +realization that her victim might possibly slip from her grasp, since +Bob would come home, and Bob was a person to be reckoned with. Certainly +Bob had scarcely any money; moreover, Cecilia was not of age, and, +therefore, still under her father's control. But Mrs. Rainham felt +vaguely uneasy, and visions floated before her of the old days when +governesses and maids had departed with unpleasant frequency, leaving +her to face all sorts of disagreeable consequences. She set her thin +lips, vowing inwardly that Cecilia should remain. + +Nevertheless it was a relief to her that early demobilization did +not come for Bob. At the time of the Armistice he was attached to an +Australian flying squadron, and for some months remained abroad; then he +was sent back to England, and employed in training younger fliers at a +Surrey aerodrome. This had its drawbacks in Mrs. Rainham's eyes, since +he was often able to run up to London, and, to Bob, London merely meant +Cecilia. It was only a question of time before he discovered something +of what life at Lancaster Gate meant--his enlightenment beginning upon +an afternoon when, arriving unexpectedly, and being left by Eliza to +find Cecilia for himself, he had the good fortune to overhear Mrs. +Rainham in one of her best efforts--a "wigging" to which Avice and +Wilfred were listening delightedly, and which included not only +Cecilia's sin of the moment, but her upbringing, her French education, +her "foreign fashion of speaking," and her sinful extravagance in +shoes. These, and other matters, were furnishing Mrs. Rainham with +ample material for a bitter discourse when she became aware of another +presence in the room, and her eloquence faltered at the sight of Bob's +astonished anger. + +Mrs. Rainham did not recall with any enjoyment the interview which +followed--Cecilia and the children having been brushed out of the way +by the indignant soldier. Things which had been puzzling to Bob +were suddenly made clear--traces of distress which Cecilia had often +explained away vaguely, the children's half-contemptuous manner towards +her, even Eliza's tone in speaking of her--a queer blend of anger and +pity. Mrs. Rainham held her ground to some extent, but the brother's +questions were hard to parry, and some of his comments stung. + +"Well, I'll take her away," he stormed at length. "It's evident that she +does not give you satisfaction, and she certainly isn't happy. She had +better come away with me to-day." + +"Ah," said his stepmother freezingly, "and where will you take her?" + +Bob hesitated. + +"There are plenty of places--" he began. + +"Not for a young girl alone. Cecilia is very ignorant of England; +you could not be with her. Your father would not hear of it. You must +remember that Cecilia is under his control until she is twenty-one." + +"My father has never bothered about either of us," Bob said bitterly. +"He surely won't object if I take her off your hands." + +"He will certainly not permit any such thing. Whatever arrangement he +made during your aunt's lifetime was quite a different matter. If you +attempt to take Cecilia from his control you commit an illegal action," +said Mrs. Rainham--hoping she was on safe ground. To her relief Bob did +not contradict her. English law and its mysteries were beyond him. + +"I don't see that that matters," he began doubtfully. His stepmother cut +him short. + +"You would very soon find that it matters a good deal," she said coldly. +"It would be quite simple for your father to get some kind of legal +injunction, forbidding you to interfere with your sister. Home training +is what she needs, and we are determined that she shall get it. You will +only unsettle and injure her by trying to induce her to disobey us." + +The hard voice fell like lead on the boy's ears. He felt very helpless; +if he did indeed snatch his sister away from this extremely unpleasant +home, and their father had only to stretch out a long, legal tentacle +and claw her back, it was clear that her position would be harder than +ever. He could only give in, at any rate, for the present, and in his +anxiety for the little sister whom Aunt Margaret had always trained him +to protect, he humbled himself to beg for better treatment for her. "No +one ever was angry with her," he said. "She'll do anything for you if +you're decent to her." + +"She might give less cause for annoyance if she had had a little +more severity," said Mrs. Rainham with an unspoken sneer at poor Aunt +Margaret. "You had better advise her to do her best in return for the +very comfortable home we give her." With which Bob had to endeavour +to be content, for the present. He went off to find Cecilia, with a +lowering brow, leaving his stepmother not nearly so easy in her mind as +she seemed. For Bob had a square jaw, and was apt to talk little and do +a good deal; and his affection for Cecilia was, in Mrs. Rainham's eyes, +little short of ridiculous. + +Thereafter, the brother and sister took counsel together and made great +plans for the future, when once the Air Force should decide that it had +no further wish to keep Captain Robert Rainham from earning his living +on terra firma. What that future was to be for Bob was very difficult to +plan. Aunt Margaret had intended him for a profession; but the time for +that had gone by, even had the money been still available. "I'm half +glad that it isn't," Bob said; "I don't see how a fellow could go back +to swotting over books after being really alive for nearly five years." +There seemed nothing but "the land" in some shape or form; they were +not very clear about it, but Bob was strenuously "keeping his ears +open"--like so many lads of his rank in the early months of 1919, +when the future that had seemed so indefinite during the years of war +suddenly loomed up, very large and menacing. Cecilia had less anxiety; +she had a cheerful faith that Bob would manage something--a three-roomed +cottage somewhere in the country, where he could look after sheep, or +crops, or something of the kind, while she cooked and mended for +him, and grew such flowers as had bloomed in the dear garden at +Fontainebleau. Sheep and crops, she was convinced, grew themselves, in +the main; a person of Bob's ability would surely find little difficulty +in superintending the process. And, whatever happened, nothing could be +worse than life in Lancaster Gate. + +Neither of them ever thought of appealing to their father, either for +advice or for help. He remained, as he had always been to them, utterly +colourless; a kind of well-bred shadow of his wife, taking no part in +her hard treatment of Cecilia, but lifting not a finger to save her. He +did not look happy; indeed, he seldom spoke--it was not necessary, +when Mrs. Rainham held the floor. He had a tiny den which he used as a +smoking-room, and there he spent most of his time when at home, being +blessed in the fact that his wife disliked the smell of smoke, and +refused to allow it in her drawing-room. Nobody took much notice of him. +The younger children treated him with cool indifference; Bob met him +with a kind of strained and uncomfortable civility. + +Curiously enough, it was only Eliza who divined in him a secret +hankering after his eldest daughter--Cecilia, who would have been very +much astonished had anyone hinted at such a thing to her. The sharp eyes +of the little Cockney were not to be deceived in any matter concerning +the only person in the house who treated her as if she were a human +being and not a grate-cleaning automaton. + +"You see 'im foller 'er wiv 'is eyes, that's all," said Eliza to +Cook, in the privacy of their joint bedroom. "Fair 'ungry he looks, +sometimes." + +"No need for 'im to be 'ungry, if 'e 'ad the sperrit of a man," said +Cook practically. "Ain't she 'is daughter?" + +"Well, yes, in a manner of speakin'," said Eliza doubtfully. "But there +ain't much of father an' daughter about them two. I'd ruther 'ave my +ole man, down W'itechapel way; 'e can belt yer a fair terror, w'en 'e's +drunk, but 'e'll allers tike yer out an' buy yer a kipper arterwards. +Thet's on'y decent, fatherly feelin'." + +"Well, Master don't belt 'er, does 'e?" + +"No; but 'e don't buy 'er the kipper, neither. An' I'd ruther 'ave the +beltin' from my ole man, even wivout no kipper, than 'ave us allers +lookin' at each other as if we was wooden images. Even a beltin' shows +as 'ow a man 'as some regard for 'is daughter." + +"It do," said Cook. "Pity is, you ain't 'ad more of it, that's the only +thing!" + + + +CHAPTER III + +PLAYING TRUANT + + +"Demobilized! Oh, Bob--truly?" + +"Truly and really," said Bob. "At least, I shall be in twenty-seven +days. Got my orders. Show up for the last time on the fifteenth of next +month. Get patted on the head, and told to run away and play. That's the +programme, I believe, Tommy. The question is--What shall we play at?" + +Cecilia brushed the hair from her brow. + +"I don't know," she said vaguely. "It's too big to think of; and I can't +think in this awful house, anyhow. Take me out, quick, please, Bobby." + +"Sure," said Bob, regarding her with an understanding eye. "But you want +to change or something, don't you, old girl?" + +"Why, yes, I suppose I do," said Cecilia, with a watery smile, looking +at her schoolroom overall. "I forgot clothes. I've had a somewhat packed +morning." + +"You look as if this had been your busy day," remarked Bob. "Right-oh, +old girl; jump into your things, and I'll wait on the mat. Any chance of +the she-dragon coming back?" + +"No; she's gone out to tea." + +"More power to her," said Bob cheerfully. "And the dragon puppies?" + +"Oh, they're safely out of the way. I won't be five minutes, Bob. Don't +shut the door tight--you might disappear before I opened it." + +"Not much," said Bob, through the crack of the door. "I'm a fixture. +Want any shoes cleaned?" + +"No, thanks, Bobby dear. I have everything ready." + +"From what the other fellows say about their sisters, I'm inclined to +believe that you're an ornament to your sex," remarked Bob. "When you +say five minutes, it really does mean not more than five and a half, as +a rule; other girls seem to mean three-quarters of an hour." + +"I get all my things ready the night before when I'm going to meet you," +said Cecilia. "Catch me losing any time on my one day out. You can come +back again--my coat's on the hanger there, Bobby." He put her into it +deftly, and she leaned back against him. "If you knew how good it is +to see you again--and you smell of clean fresh air and good tobacco and +Russia leather, and all sorts of nice things." + +"Good gracious, I'll excite attention in the street!" grinned Bob. "I +didn't imagine I was a walking scent-factory!" + +"Neither you are--but everything in this house smells of coal-smoke and +cabbage-water and general fustiness, and you're a nice change, that's +all," said Cecilia. They ran downstairs together light-heartedly, and +let themselves out into the street. + +"Do we catch a train or a 'bus?" + +"Oh, can't we walk?" Cecilia said. "I think if I walked hard I might +forget Mrs. Rainham." + +"I'd hate you to remember her," Bob said. "Tell me what she has been +doing, anyhow, and then we won't think of her any more." + +"It doesn't sound much," Cecilia said. "There never is anything very +much. Only it goes on all the time." She told him the story of her day, +and managed to make herself laugh now and then over it. But Bob did not +laugh. His good-humoured young face was set and angry. + +"There isn't a whole lot in it, is there?" Cecilia finished. "And no +one would think I was badly off--especially when the thing that hit me +hardest of all was just dusting that awful drawing-room while she plays +her awful tunes. Yes, I know I shouldn't say awful, and that no lady +says it--that must be true because Mrs. Rainham frequently tells me +so--but it's such a relief to say whatever I feel like." + +"You can say what you jolly well please," said Bob wrathfully. "Who's +she, I'd like to know, to tell us what to say? And she kept you there +all the afternoon, when she knew you were due to meet me!--my hat, she +is a venomous old bird! And now it's half-past four, and what time does +she expect you back?" + +"Oh--the usual thing; the children's tea-time at six. She told me not to +be late." + +Bob set his jaw. + +"Well, you won't be late, because you won't be there," he said. "No +going back to tea for you. We'll have dinner at the Petit Riche in Soho, +and then we'll do a theatre, and then I'll take you home and we'll face +the music. Are you game?" + +Cecilia laughed. + +"Game? Why, of course--but there will be awful scenes, Bobby." + +"Well, what can she do to you?" asked Bob practically. "You're too big +to beat, or she'd certainly do it; she can't stop your pay, because you +don't get any; and as you have your meals with the youngsters, she can't +dock your rations. That doesn't leave her much beside her tongue. Of +course, she can do a good deal with that; do you think you can stand +it?" + +"Oh, yes," said Cecilia. "You see, I generally have it, so it really +doesn't matter much. But if she forbids me to go out with you again, +Bobby?" + +Bob pondered. + +"Well--you're nineteen," he said. "And the very first minute I can, I'm +going to take you away from her altogether. If you were a kid I wouldn't +let you defy her. But, hang it all, Tommy, I'm not going to let her +punish you as though you were ten. If she forbids you to meet me--well, +you must just take French leave, that's all." + +"Oh, Bob, you are a satisfying person!" said Cecilia, with a sigh. + +"Well, I don't know--it's you who will have to stand the racket," said +Bob. "I only wish I could take my share, old girl. But, please goodness, +it won't be for long." + +"Bob," said Cecilia, and paused. "What about that statement of +hers--that it would be illegal for you to take me away? Do you think +it's true?" + +"I've asked our Major, and he's a bit doubtful," said Bob. "All the +other fellows say it's utter nonsense. But I'm going to ask the old +lawyer chap who has charge of Aunt Margaret's money--he'll tell me. We +won't bother about it, Tommy; if I can't get you politely, I'll steal +you. Just forget the she-dragon and all her works." + +"But have you thought about what you are going to do?" + +"I don't think of much else, and that's the truth, Tommy," said her +brother ruefully. "You see, there's mighty little in sight. I could get +a clerkship, I suppose. I could certainly get work as a day labourer. +But I don't see much in either of those possibilities towards a +little home with you, which is what I want. I'm going to answer every +advertisement I can find for fellows wanted on farms." He straightened +his square shoulders. "Tommy, there must be plenty of work for any chap +as strong as an ox, as I am." + +"I'm sure there's work," said Cecilia. "But the men who want jobs don't +generally advertise themselves as 'complete with sister.' I'm what's +technically known as an encumbrance, Bob." + +"You!" said Bob. "You're just part of the firm, so don't you forget it. +Didn't we always arrange that we should stick together?" + +"We did--but it may not be easy to manage," Cecilia said, doubtfully. +"Perhaps we could get some job together; I could do inside work, or +teach, or sew." + +"No!" said Bob explosively. "If I can't earn enough for us both, I ought +to be shot, Aunt Margaret didn't bring you up to work." + +"But the world has turned upside down since Aunt Margaret died," said +Cecilia. "And I have worked pretty hard for the last two years, Bob; and +it hasn't hurt me." + +"It has made you older--and you ought to be only a kid yet," said Bob +wistfully. "You haven't had any of the fun girls naturally ought to +have. I don't want you to slave all your time, Tommy." + +"Bless you!" said his sister. "But I wouldn't care a bit, as long as it +was near you--and not in Lancaster Gate." + +They had turned across Hyde Park, where a big company of girl guides +was drilling, watched by a crowd of curious on-lookers. Across a belt of +grass some boy scouts were performing similar evolutions, marching with +all the extra polish and swagger they could command, just to show the +guides that girls were all very well in their way, but that no one with +skirts could really hope to do credit to a uniform. Cecilia paused to +watch them. + +"Thank goodness, the children can come and drill in the park again!" she +said. "I hated to come here before the armistice--soldiers, soldiers, +drilling everywhere, and guns and searchlight fixings. Whenever I saw a +squad drilling it made me think of you, and of course I felt sure you'd +be killed!" + +"I do like people who look on the bright side of life!" said Bob +laughing. "And whenever you saw an aeroplane I suppose you made sure I +was crashing somewhere?" + +"Certainly I did," said his sister with dignity. + +"Women are queer things," Bob remarked. "If you had these unpleasant +beliefs, how did you manage to write as cheerfully as you did? Your +letters were a scream--I used to read bits of 'em out to the fellows." + +"You had no business to do any such thing," said Cecilia, blushing. + +"Well, I did, anyhow. They used to make 'em yell. How did you manage +them?" + +"Well, it was no good assuring you you'd be killed," said Cecilia +practically. "I thought it was more sensible to try to make you laugh." + +"You certainly did that," said Bob. "I fancied from your letters that +life with the she-dragon was one huge joke, and that Papa was nice and +companionable, and the kids, sweet little darlings who ate from your +hand. And all the time you were just the poor old toad under the +harrow!" + +"I'm not a toad!" rejoined his sister indignantly. "Don't you think you +could find pleasanter things to compare me to?" + +"Toads aren't bad," said Bob, laughing. "Ever seen the nice old fellow +in the Zoo who shoots out a tongue a yard long and picks up a grub every +time? He's quite interesting." + +"I certainly never had any inclination to do any such thing," Cecilia +laughed. + +They had turned into Piccadilly and were walking down, watching the +crowded motor traffic racing north and south. Suddenly Bob straightened +up and saluted smartly, as a tall staff officer, wearing a general's +badges, ran down the steps of a big club, and nearly cannoned into +Cecilia. + +"I beg your pardon!" he said--and then, noticing Bob--"How are you, +Rainham?" He dived into a waiting taxi, and was whisked away. + +"Did he bump you?" inquired Bob. + +"No--though it would be almost a privilege to be bumped by anyone as +splendid as that!" Cecilia answered. "He knows you, too!--who is he, +Bobby?" + +"That's General Harran, the Australian," said Bob proudly. "He's a great +man. I've run into him occasionally since I've been with the Australians +in France." + +"He looks nice." + +"He is nice," replied Bob. "Awful martinet about duty, but he treats +every one under him jolly well. Never forgets a face or a name, and he's +always got a decent word for everybody. He's had some quite long talks +to me, when we were waiting for some 'plane or other to come back." + +"Why wouldn't he?" asked Cecilia, who considered it a privilege for +anyone to talk to her brother. + +Bob regarded her in amazement. + +"Good gracious!" he ejaculated. "Why, he's a major-general; I can tell +you, most men of his rank haven't any use for small fry like me--to talk +to, that is." + +Cecilia had a flash of memory. + +"Isn't he the general who was close by when you brought that German +aeroplane down behind our lines? Didn't he say nice things to you about +it?" + +"Oh, that was only in the way of business," said Bob somewhat confused. +"The whole thing was only a bit of luck--and, of course, it was luck, +too, that he was there. But he is just as nice to fellows who haven't +had a chance like that." + +Out of the crowd two more figures in Air Force uniform came, charging at +Bob with outstretched hands. + +"By Jove, old chap! What luck to meet you!" + +They shook hands tumultuously, and Bob made them known to +Cecilia--comrades he had not seen for months, but with whom he had +shared many strange experiences in the years of war. They fell into +quick talk, full of the queer jargon of the air. The newcomers, it +appeared, had been with the army of occupation in Germany; there seemed +a thousand things they urgently desired to tell Bob within the next +few minutes. One turned to Cecilia, presently, with a laughing +interpretation of some highly technical bit of slang. + +"Oh, you needn't bother to translate to Tommy," Bob said. "She knows all +about it." + +The other boys suddenly gave her all their attention. + +"Are you Tommy? But we know you awfully well." + +"Me?" Cecilia turned pink. + +"Rather. We used to hear your letters." + +The pink deepened to a fine scarlet. + +"Bob!" said his sister reproachfully. "You really shouldn't." + +"Oh, don't say that," said the taller boy, by name Harrison. "They were +a godsend--there used to be jolly little to laugh about, pretty often, +and your letters made us all yell. Didn't they, Billy?" + +"They did," said Billy, who was small and curly-haired--and incidentally +a captain, with a little row of medal ribbons. "Jolliest letters ever. +We passed a vote of thanks to you in the mess, Miss Tommy, after old Bob +here had gone. Some one was to write and tell him about it, but I don't +believe anyone ever did. I say, you must have had a cheery time--all the +funny things that ever happened seemed to come your way." + +Cecilia stammered something, her scarlet confusion deepening. A rather +grim vision of the war years swept across her mind--of the ceaseless +quest in papers and journals, and wherever people talked, for "funny +things" to tell Bob; and of how, when fact and rumour gave out, she used +to sit by her attic window at night, deliberately inventing merry jests. +It had closely resembled a job of hard work at the time; but apparently +it had served its purpose well. She had made them laugh; and some one +had told her that no greater service could be rendered to the boys who +risked death, and worse than death, during every hour of the day and +night. But it was extremely difficult to talk about it afterwards. + +Bob took pity on her. + +"I'll tell you just what sort of a cheery time she had, some time or +other," he remarked. "What are you fellows doing this evening?" + +"We were just going to ask you the same thing," declared Billy. "Can't +we all go and play about somewhere? We've just landed, and we want to be +looked after. Any theatres in this little town still?" + +"Cheer-oh!" ejaculated Billy. "Let's all go and find out." + +So they went, and managed very successfully to forget war and even +stepmothers. They were all little more than children in enjoyment of +simple pleasures still, since war had fallen upon them at the very +threshold of life, cutting them off from all the cheery happenings that +are the natural inheritance of all young things. The years that would +ordinarily have seen them growing tired of play had been spent in grim +tasks; now they were children again, clamouring for the playtime they +had lost. They found enormous pleasure in the funny little French +restaurant, where Madame, a lady whose sympathies were as boundless +as her waist, welcomed them with wide smiles, delighting in the +broken French of Billy and Harrison, and deftly tempting them to fresh +excursions in her language. She put a question in infantile French to +Bob presently, whereupon that guileless youth, with a childlike smile, +answered her with a flood of idiomatic phrases, in an accent purer than +her own--collapsing with helpless laughter at her amazed face. After +which, Madame neglected her other patrons to hover about their table +like a stout, presiding goddess, guiding them gently to the best dishes +on the menu, and occasionally putting aside their own selection with a +hasty, "Mon-non; you vill not like that one to-day." She patted Cecilia +in a motherly fashion at parting, and their bill was only about half +what it should have been. + +They found a musical comedy, and laughed their way through it--Billy and +Harrison had apparently no cares in the world, and Bob and Cecilia were +caught up in the whirl of their high spirits, so that anything became +a huge joke. The evening flew by on airy wings, when Billy insisted +on taking them to supper after the theatre. Cecilia allowed herself a +fleeting vision of Mrs. Rainham, and then, deciding that she might as +well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, followed gaily. And supper was so +cheery a meal that she forgot all about time--until, just at the end, +she caught sight of the restaurant clock. + +"Half-past eleven! Oh, Bobby!" + +"Well, if it is--you poor little old Cinderella," said Bob. + +But he hurried her away, for all that, amid a chorus of farewells and +efforts, on the part of Billy and Harrison, to arrange further meetings. +They ran to the nearest tube station, and dived into its depths; and, +after being whisked underground for a few minutes, emerged into the cool +night. Cecilia slipped her arm through her brother's as they hurried +along the empty street. + +"Now, you keep your nose in the air," Bobby told her. "You aren't +exactly a kid now, and she can't really do anything to you. Oh, by +Jove--I was thinking, in the theatre, she might interfere with our +letters." + +"She's quite equal to it," said Cecilia. + +"Just what she'd revel in doing. Well, you can easily find out. I'll +write to you to-morrow, and again the next day--just ordinary letters, +with nothing particular in them except an arrangement to meet next +Saturday. If you don't get them you'll know she's getting at the mail +first." + +"What shall I do, then?" + +"Drop me a line--or, better still, wire to me," said Bob. "Just say, +'Address elsewhere.' Then I'll write to you at Mr. M'Clinton's; the old +solicitor chap in Lincoln's Inn; and you'll have to go there and get the +letters. You know his address, don't you?" + +"Oh, yes. I have to write to him every quarter when he sends me my +allowance. You'll explain to him, then, Bob, or he'll simply redirect +your letters here." + +"Oh, of course. I want to go and see the old chap, anyhow, to talk over +Aunt Margaret's affairs. I might as well know a little more about them. +Tommy, the she-dragon can't actually lock you up, can she?" + +"No--it couldn't be done," said Cecilia. "Modern houses aren't built +with dungeons and things. Moreover, if she tried to keep me in the house +she would have to take the children out for their walks herself; and she +simply hates walking." + +"Then you can certainly post to me, and get my letters, and I'll be up +again as soon as ever I can. Buck up, old girl--it can't be for long +now." + +They turned in at the Rainhams' front gate, and Cecilia glanced up +apprehensively. All the windows were in darkness; the grey front of the +house loomed forbiddingly in the faint moonlight. + +"You're coming in, aren't you?" she asked, her hand tightening on his +arm. + +"Rather--we'll take the edge off her tongue together." Bob rang the +bell. "Wonder if they have all gone to bed. The place looks pretty +dark." + +"She's probably in the little room at the back--the one she calls her +boudoir." + +"Horrible little den, full of bamboo and draperies and pampas grass--I +know," nodded Bob. "Well, either she's asleep or she thinks it's fun to +keep us on the mat. I'll try her again." He pressed the bell, and the +sound of its whirring echoed through the silent house. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COMING HOME + + +The bolt grated, as if grudgingly, and slowly the door opened as far as +the limits of its chain would permit, and Mrs. Rainham's face appeared +in the aperture. She glared at them for a minute without speaking. + +"So you have come home?" she said at last. The chain fell, and the door +opened. "I wonder you trouble to come home at all. May I ask where you +have been?" + +"She has been with me, Mrs. Rainham," Bob said cheerfully. "May I come +in?" + +Mrs. Rainham did not move. She held the door half open, blocking the +way. + +"It is far too late for me to ask you in," she answered frigidly. +"Cecilia can explain her conduct, I presume." + +"Oh, there's really nothing to explain," Bob answered. "It was so late +when she got out this afternoon that I kept her--why, it was after +half-past four before she was dressed." + +"I told her to be in for tea." + +"Yes; but I felt sure you couldn't realize how late she was in getting +out," said Bob in a voice of honey. + +"That was entirely her own mismanagement--" began the hard tones. + +"Oh, no, Mrs. Rainham; really it wasn't," said Cecilia mildly. "Your +accompaniments, you remember--your dress--your music," she stopped, +in amazement at herself. It was rarely indeed that she answered any +accusation of her stepmother's. But to be on the mat at midnight, with +Bob in support, seemed to give her extraordinary courage. + +"You see, Mrs. Rainham, there seems to have been quite a number of +little details that Cecilia couldn't mismanage," said Bob, following +up the advantage. It was happily evident that his stepmother's rage was +preventing her from speaking, and, as he remarked later, there was no +knowing when he would ever get such a chance again. "She really needed +rest. I'm sure you'll agree that every one is entitled to some free +time. Of course, you couldn't possibly have realized that it was a week +since she had been off duty." + +"It's her business to do what I tell her," said Mrs. Rainham, finding +her voice, in an explosive fashion that made a passing policeman glance +up curiously. "She knew I had company, and expected her help. I had +to see to the children's tea myself. And how do I know where she's +been?--gallivanting round to all sorts of places! I tell you, young +lady, you needn't think you're going to walk in here at midnight as if +nothing was the matter." + +"I never expected to," said Cecilia cheerfully. "But it was worth it." + +Bob regarded her in solemn admiration. + +"I don't think we gallivanted at all reprehensibly," he said. "Just +dinner and a theatre. I haven't made much claim to her time during the +last four years, Mrs. Rainham; surely I'm entitled to a little of it +now." + +"You!" Mrs. Rainham's tone was vicious. "You don't give her a home, do +you? And as long as I do, she'll do what I tell her." + +"No; I don't give her a home--yet," said Bob very quietly. "But I very +soon will, I assure you; and meanwhile, she earns a good deal more than +her keep in her father's house. You can't treat her worse than your +servants--" + +Cecilia suddenly turned to him. + +"Ah, don't, Bob darling. It doesn't matter--truly--not a bit." With the +end of the long penance before her, it seemed beyond the power of the +angry woman in the doorway to hurt her much. What she could not bear was +that their happy evening should be spoiled by hard and cruel words at +its close. Bob's face, that had been so merry, was sterner than she +had ever seen it, all its boyishness gone. She put up her own face, and +kissed him. + +"Good night--you mustn't stay any longer. I'll be all right." She +whispered a few quick words of French, begging him to go, and Bob, +though unwillingly, gave in. + +"All right," he said. "Go to bed, little 'un. I'll do as I promised +about writing." He saluted Mrs. Rainham stiffly. "You'll remember, +Mrs. Rainham, that she stayed out solely at my wish--I take full +responsibility, and I'll be ready to tell my father so." The door closed +behind Cecilia, and he strode away down the street, biting his lip. He +felt abominably as though he had deserted the little sister--and yet, +what else could he do? One could not remain for ever, brawling on a +doorstep at midnight--and Tommy had begged him to go. Still-- + +"Hang it!" he said viciously. "If she were only a decent Hun to fight!" + +In the grim house in Lancaster Gate Cecilia was facing the music alone. +She listened unmoved, as she had listened many times before, to +the catalogue of her sins and misdeeds--only she had never seen her +stepmother quite so angry. Finally, a door above opened, and Mark +Rainham looked out, his dull, colourless face weakly irritable. + +"I wish you'd stop that noise, and let the girl go to bed," he said. +"Come here, Cecilia." + +She went to him hesitating, and he looked at her with a spark of +compassion. Then he kissed her. + +"Good night," he said, as though he had called her to him simply to say +it, and not to separate her from the furious woman who stood looking +at them. "Run off to bed, now--no more talking." Cecilia ran upstairs +obediently. Behind her, as she neared her attic, she heard her +stepmother's voice break out anew. + +"Just fancy Papa!" she muttered. Any mother sensations were lost in +wonder at her father's actually having intervened. The incredible thing +had happened. For a moment she felt a wave of pity for him, left alone +to face the shrill voice. Then she shrugged her shoulders. + +"Ah, well--he married her," she said. "I suppose he has had it many a +time. Perhaps he knows how to stop it--I don't!" She laughed, turning +the key in the lock, and sitting down beside the open window. The +glamour of her happy evening was still upon her; even the scene with her +stepmother had not had power to chase it away. The scene was only to be +expected; the laughter of the evening was worth so every-day a penalty. +And the end of Mrs. Rainham's rule was nearly in sight. Not even to +herself for a moment would she admit that there was any possibility of +Bob failing to "make good" and take her away. + +She went downstairs next morning to an atmosphere of sullen resentment. +Her father gave her a brief, abstracted nod, in response to her +greeting, and went on with his bacon and his Daily Mail; her +stepmother's forbidding expression checked any attempt at conversation. +The children stared at her with a kind of malevolent curiosity; they +knew that a storm had been brewing for her the night before, and longed +to know just how thoroughly she had "caught it." Eliza, bringing +in singed and belated toast, looked at her with pity, tinged with +admiration. Cook and she had been awakened at midnight by what was +evidently, in the words of Cook, "a perfickly 'orrible bust-up," and +knowing Cecilia to have been its object, Eliza looked at her as one may +look who expects to see the scars of battle. Finding none, but receiving +instead a cheerful smile, she returned to the kitchen, and reported to +Cook that Miss Cecilia was "nuffink less than a neroine." + +But as that day and the next wore on, Cecilia found it difficult to be +cheerful. That she was in disgrace was very evident, Mrs. Rainham said +no more about her sins of the night before; instead, she showed her +displeasure by a kind of cold rudeness that gave a subtle insult to her +smallest remark. The children were manifestly delighted. Cecilia was +more or less in the position of a beetle on a pin, and theirs was the +precious opportunity of seeing her wriggle. Wherefore they adopted +their mother's tone, openly defied her, and turned school-hours into a +pandemonium. + +Cecilia at last gave up the attempt to keep order. She opened her desk +and took out her knitting. + +"Well, this is all very pleasant," she said, calmly. "You seem +determined to do no work at all, so I can only hope that in time you +will get tired of being idle. I can't attempt to teach you any more. I +am quite ready, however, if you bring your lessons to me." + +"You'll get into a nice row from the Mater," jeered Wilfred. + +"Very possibly. She may even punish me by finding another governess," +said Cecilia, with a twinkle. "However that may be, I do not feel +compelled to talk to such rude little children as you any more. When +you are able to speak politely you may come to me for anything you +want; until then, I shall not answer you." She bent her attention to the +mysteries of heel-turning. + +The children were taken aback. To pinprick with rudeness a victim who +answered back was entertaining; but there was small fun in baiting +anybody who sat silently knitting with a half-smile of contempt at the +corners of her mouth. They gave it up after a time, and considered the +question of going out; a pleasant thing to do, only that their mother +had laid upon them a special injunction not to leave Cecilia, and she +was in a mood that made disobedience extremely dangerous. Cecilia quite +understood that she was being watched. No letters had yet come from Bob, +and she knew that her stepmother had been hovering near the letter-box +whenever the postman had called. Mrs. Rainham had accompanied them on +their walk the day before; a remark of Avice's revealed that she meant +to do so again to-day. + +"It's all so silly," the girl said to herself. "If I chose to dive into +a tube station or board a motor-bus she couldn't stop me; and she can't +go on watching me and intercepting my letters indefinitely. I suppose +she will get tired of it after a while." But meanwhile she found the +spying rather amusing. Avice popped up unexpectedly if she went near the +front door; Wilfred's bullet head peeped in through the window whenever +she fancied herself alone in the schoolroom. Only her attic was +safe--since to spy upon it would have required an aeroplane. + +The third day brought no letter from Bob. Cecilia asked for her mail +when she went down to breakfast, and was met by a blank stare from her +stepmother--"I suppose if there had been any letters for you they would +be on your plate." She flushed a little under the girl's direct gaze, +and turned her attention to Queenie's table manners, which were at all +times peculiar; and Cecilia sat down with a faint smile. It was time to +obey orders and telegraph to Bob. + +She planned how to do it, during a long morning when the children +actually did some work--since to be rude or idle meant that their +teacher immediately retired into her shell of silence, and knitted, and +life became too dull. To employ Eliza was her first thought--rejected, +since it seemed unlikely that Eliza would be able to get time off to go +out. If Mrs. Rainham's well-known dislike for walking proved too strong +for her desire to watch her stepdaughter, it would be easy enough to +do it during the afternoon; but this hope proved vain, for when she +appeared in the hall with her charges at three o'clock the lady of the +house sailed from the drawing-room, ready for the march. They moved off +in procession; Mrs. Rainham leading the way, with Avice and Wilfred, +while Cecilia brought up the rear, holding Queenie's podgy hand. + +She had telegraph forms in her desk, and the message, already written, +and even stamped, was in the pocket of her coat. There was nothing for +it but to act boldly, and accordingly, when they entered a street in +which there was a post office, she let Queenie lag until they were +a little distance behind the others. Then, as they reached the post +office, she turned sharply in. + +"Wait a minute, Queenie." + +She thrust her message across the counter hurriedly. The clerk on duty +was provokingly slow; he finished checking a document, and then lounged +across to the window and took the form, running over it leisurely. + +"Oh, you've got the stamps on. All right," he said, and turned away just +as quick steps were heard, and Mrs. Rainham bustled in, panting. + +"What are you doing?" + +Cecilia met her with steady eyes. + +"Nothing wrong, I assure you." She had had visions of covering her real +purpose by buying stamps--but rejected it with a shrug. + +"Thethilia gave the man a pieth of paper!" said Queenie shrilly. + +"What was it? I demand to know!" cried Mrs. Rainham. She turned to the +clerk, who stood open-mouthed, holding the telegram in his hand. "Show +me that telegram. I am this young lady's guardian." + +The clerk grinned broadly. The stout and angry lady made no appeal to +him, and Cecilia was a pretty girl, and moreover her telegram was for +a flying captain. The clerk wore a returned soldier's badge himself. He +fell back on Regulations. + +"Can't be done, ma'am. The message is all in order." + +"Let me see it." + +"Much as my billet's worth, if I did," said the clerk. "Property of the +Postmaster-General now, ma'am. Couldn't even give it back to the young +lady." + +"I'll report you!" Mrs. Rainham fumed. + +"Do, ma'am. I'll get patted on the head for doin' me duty." The clerk's +grin widened. Cecilia wished him good afternoon gravely, and slipped out +of the office, pursued by her stepmother. + +"What was in that telegram?" + +"It was to my brother." + +"What was in it?" + +"It was to Bob, and that is guarantee that there was nothing wrong in +it," Cecilia said steadily. "It was on private business." + +"You have no right to have any business that I do not know about." + +Cecilia found her temper rising. + +"My father may have the power to say that--I do not know," she said. +"But you have none, Mrs. Rainham." + +"I'll let you see whether I have the right!" her stepmother blazed. "For +two pins, young lady, I'd lock you up." + +Cecilia laughed outright. + +"Ah, that's not done now," she said. "You really couldn't, Mrs. +Rainham--especially as I have done nothing wrong." She dropped her +voice--passers-by were looking with interest at the elder woman's +face. "Why not let me go? You do not approve of me--let me find another +position." + +"You'll stay in your father's house," Mrs. Rainham said. "We'll see what +the law has to say to your leaving with your precious Bob. Your +father's your legal guardian, and in his control you stay until you're +twenty-one, and be very thankful to make yourself useful. The law will +deal with Bob if he tries to take you away--you're a minor, and it'd +be abduction." The word had a pleasantly legal flavour; she repeated it +with emphasis. "Abduction; that's what it is, and there's a nice penalty +for it. Now you know, and if you don't want to get Bob into trouble, +you'd best be careful." + +Cecilia had grown rather white. The law was a great and terrible +instrument, of which she knew nothing. It seemed to have swallowed up +Aunt Margaret's money; it might very well have left her defenceless. Her +stepmother seemed familiar with its powers, and able to evoke them at +will; and though she did not trust her, there was something in her glib +utterance that struck fear into the girl's heart. She did not answer, +and Mrs. Rainham followed up her advantage. + +"We'll go home," she said. "And you make up your mind to tell me what +was in that telegram, and not to have any secrets from me. One thing I +can tell you--until you decide to behave yourself--Bob shan't show his +nose in my house, and you shan't go out to meet him, either. He only +leads you into mischief; I don't consider he has at all a good influence +over you. The sooner he's away somewhere, earning his own living in a +proper manner, the better for every one; and it'll be many a long day +before he can give you as good a home as you've got now." She paused +for breath. "Anyhow, he's not going to have the chance," she finished +grimly. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE TURN OF FORTUNE'S WHEEL + + +"Is Mr. M'Clinton in?" + +The clerk, in a species of rabbit hutch, glanced out curiously at the +young flying officer. + +"Yes; but he's very busy. Have you an appointment?" + +"No--I got leave unexpectedly. Just take him my card, will you?" + +The clerk handed the card to another clerk, who passed it to an +office-boy, who disappeared with it behind a heavy oaken door. He came +back presently. + +"Mr. M'Clinton will see you in ten minutes, if you can wait, sir." + +"I'll wait," said Bob, sitting down upon a high stool. "Got a paper?" + +"To-day's Times is here, sir." He whisked off, to return in a moment +with the paper, neatly folded. + +"You'll find a more comfortable seat behind the screen, sir." + +"Thanks," said Bob, regarding him with interest--he was so dapper, so +alert, so all that an office-boy in a staid lawyer's establishment ought +to be. "How old might you be?" + +"Fourteen, sir." + +"And are you going to grow into a lawyer?" + +"I'm afraid I'll never do that, sir," said the office-boy gravely. "I +may be head clerk, perhaps. But--" he stopped, confused. + +"But what?" + +"I'd rather fly, sir, than anything in the world!" He looked +worshippingly at Bob's uniform. "If the war had only not stopped before +I was old enough, I might have had a chance!" + +"Oh, you'll have plenty of chances," Bob told him consolingly. "In five +years' time you'll be taking Mr. M'Clinton's confidential papers across +to Paris in an aeroplane--and bringing him back a reply before lunch!" + +"Do you think so, sir?" The office-boy's eyes danced. Suddenly he +resumed his professional gravity. + +"I must get back to my work, sir." He disappeared behind another +partition; the office seemed to Bob to be divided into water-tight +compartments, in each of which he imagined that a budding lawyer or head +clerk was being brought up by hand. It was all rather grim and solid and +forbidding. To Bob the law had always been full of mystery; this grey, +silent office, in the heart of the city, was a fitting place for it. +He felt a little chill at his heart, a foreboding that no comfort could +come of his mission there. + +The inner door opened, after a little while, and a woman in black came +out. She passed hurriedly through the outer office, pulling down her +veil over a face that showed traces of tears. Bob looked after her +compassionately. + +"Poor soul!" he thought. "She's had her gruel, evidently. Now I suppose +I'll get mine." + +A bell whirred sharply. The alert office-boy sprang to the summons, +returning immediately. + +"Mr. M'Clinton can see you now, sir." + +Bob followed him through the oaken door, and along a narrow passage to a +room where a spare, grizzled man sat at a huge roll-top desk. He rose as +the boy shut the door behind his visitor. + +"Well, Captain Rainham. How do you do?" + +Bob gripped the lean hand offered him--it felt like a claw in his great +palm. Then he sat down and looked uncomfortably at the lawyer. + +"I had thought to have seen you here before, Captain." + +"I suppose I should have shown up," said Bob--concealing the fact that +the idea had never occurred to him. "But I've been very busy since I've +been back to England." + +"And what brings you now?" + +"I'm all but demobilized," Bob told him, "and I'm trying to get +employment." + +"What--in this office?" + +"Heavens, no!" ejaculated Bob, and at once turned a fine red. "That +is--I beg your pardon, sir; but I'm afraid I'm not cut out for an +office. I want to get something to do in the country, where I can +support my sister." + +"Your sister? But does not your father support her? She is an inmate of +his house, is she not?" + +"Very much so," said Bob bitterly. "She's governess, and lady-help, and +a good many other things. You couldn't call it a home. Besides, we have +always been together. I want to take her away." + +"And what does your father say?" + +"He says she mustn't go. At least, that's what my stepmother says, so my +father will certainly say it too." + +"Your sister is under age, I think?" + +"She's just nineteen--I'm over twenty-two. Can my father prevent her +going with me, sir?" + +"Mph," said the lawyer, pondering. "Do I gather that the young lady is +unhappy?" + +"If she isn't, it's because she has pluck enough for six people, and +because she always hopes to get away." + +"And do you consider that you could support her?" + +"I don't know," said Bob unhappily. "I would certainly have thought +I could, but there seems mighty little chance for a fellow whose only +qualification is that he's been fighting Huns for nearly five years. +I've answered advertisements and interviewed people until my brain +reels; but there's nothing in it, and I can't leave Tommy there." + +"Tommy?" queried the lawyer blankly. + +Bob laughed. + +"My sister, I mean, sir. Her name's Cecilia, but, of course, we've never +called her that. Even Aunt Margaret called her Tommy." + +Mr. M'Clinton made no reply. He thought deeply for a few moments. Then +he looked up, and there was a glint of kindness in his hard grey eyes. + +"I think you had better tell me all about it, Captain Rainham. Would it +assist you to smoke?" + +"Thanks awfully, sir," said Bob, accepting the proffered cigarette. +He plunged into his story; and if at times it was a trifle incoherent, +principally from honest wrath, yet on the whole Cecilia's case +lost nothing in the telling. The lawyer nodded from time to time, +comprehendingly. + +"Aye," he said at last, when Bob paused. "Just so, just so. And why did +you come to me, Captain?" + +"I want your advice, sir," Bob answered. "And I should like to know +something about my aunt's property--if I can hope for any help from that +source. I should have more chance of success if I had a little capital +to start with. But I understand that most of it was lost. My father +seemed very disappointed over the small amount she left." He hesitated. +"But apart from money, I should like to know if I am within the law in +taking my sister away." + +Mr. M'Clinton thought deeply before replying. + +"I had better speak frankly to you, Captain Rainham," he said. "Your +aunt, as you probably know, did not like your father. I am not sure that +she actually distrusted him. But she considered him weak and indolent, +and she recognized that he was completely under the thumb of his second +wife. Your late aunt, my old friend, had an abhorrence for that lady +that was quaint, considering that she had scarcely ever seen her." He +permitted himself the ghost of a smile. "She was deeply afraid of any of +her property coming under the control of your father--and through him, +of his wife. And so she tied up her money very carefully. She left +direct to you and your sister certain assets. The rest of her property +she left, in trust, to me." + +"To you, sir?" + +"Aye. Very carefully tied up, too," said Mr. M'Clinton, with a twinkle. +"I can't make ducks and drakes of it, no matter how much I may wish to. +It is tied up until your sister comes of age. Then my trust ceases." + +"By Jove!" Bob stared at him. "Then--do we get something?" + +"Certainly. Unfortunately, many of your aunt's investments were very +hard hit through the war. Certain stocks which paid large dividends +ceased to pay altogether; others fell to very little. The sum left to +you and your sister for immediate use should have been very much larger, +but all that is left of it is the small allowance paid to you both. +I imagine that a smart young officer like yourself found it scarcely +sufficient for tobacco." + +"I've saved it all," said Bob simply. "A bit more, too." + +"Saved it!" said the lawyer in blank amazement. "Do you tell me, now? +You lived on your pay?" + +"Flying pay's pretty good," said Bob. "And there was always Tommy to +think of, you know, sir. I had to put something away for her, in case I +crashed." + +"Dear me," said Mr. M'Clinton. "Your aunt had great confidence in you +as a boy, and it seems she was justified. I'm very glad to hear this, +Captain, for it enables me to do with a clear conscience something which +I have the power to do. There is a discretionary clause in your aunt's +will, which gives me power to realize a certain sum of money, should you +need it. I could hand you over about three thousand pounds." + +"Three thousand!" Bob stared at him blankly. + +"Aye. And I see no reason why I should not do it--provided I am +satisfied as to the use you will make of it. As a matter of form I +should like a letter from your commanding officer, testifying to your +general character." + +"That's easy enough," said Bob. "But--three thousand! My hat, what a +difference it will make to Tommy and me! Poor old Aunt Margaret--I might +have known she'd look after us." + +"She loved you very dearly. And now, Captain, about your sister." + +"She's the big thing," said Bob. "Can I kidnap her?" + +"It's rather difficult to say just how your father might act. Left +to himself, I do not believe he would do anything. But urged by your +stepmother, he might make trouble. And the good lady is more likely +to make trouble if she suspects that there is any money coming to your +sister." + +"That's very certain," Bob remarked. "I wish to goodness I could get her +right out of England, sir. How about Canada?" + +The lawyer pondered. + +"Do you know any one there?" + +"Not a soul. But I suppose one could get introductions. And one can +always get Government expert advice there, I believe, to prevent one +chucking away one's money foolishly." + +Mr. M'Clinton nodded approvingly. + +"I don't know, but you might do worse," he said. "I believe in these +new countries for young people; the old ones are getting overcrowded +and worn out. And your relations are likely to give trouble if you +are within their reach. A terrible woman, that stepmother of yours; a +terrible woman. She came to see me with your father; he said nothing, +but she talked like a mill-race. Miss Tommy has my full sympathy. +A brawling woman in a wide house, as the Scripture says. I reproach +myself, Captain, that I did not inquire personally into Miss Tommy's +well-being. She told you nothing of her trials, you say, during the +war?" + +"Not a word. Wrote as if life were a howling joke always. I only found +out for myself by accident a few months ago." + +"A brave lassie. Well, I'll do what I can to help you, Captain. +I'll keep a lookout for a likely land investment for your money, and +endeavour to prepare a good legal statement to frighten Mrs. Rainham +if she objects to your taking your sister away. Much may be done by +bluffing, especially if you do it very solemnly and quietly. So keep a +good heart, and come and see me next time you're in London. Miss Tommy +will be in any day, I presume, after the telegram you told me about?" + +"Sure to be," said Bob. "She'll be anxious for her letters. I'm leaving +one for her, if you don't mind, and I'll write to her again to-night." +He got up, holding out his hand. "Good-bye--and I don't know how to +thank you, sir." + +"Bless the boy--you've nothing to thank me for," said the lawyer. "Just +send me that letter from your commanding officer, and remember that +there's no wild hurry about plans--Miss Tommy can stand for a few weeks +longer what she has borne for two years." + +"I suppose she can--but I don't want her to," Bob said. + +The brisk office-boy showed him out, and he marched down the grey +streets near Lincoln's Inn with his chin well up. Life had taken a +sudden and magical turn for the better. Three thousand pounds!--surely +that meant no roughing it for Tommy, but a comfortable home and a +chance of success in life. It seemed a sum of enormous possibilities. +Everything was very vague still, but at least the money was certain--it +seemed like fairy gold. He felt a sudden desire to get away somewhere, +with Tommy, away from crowded England to a country where a man could +breathe; his heart rejoiced at the idea, just as he had often exulted +when his aeroplane had lifted him away from the crowded, buzzing camp, +into the wide, free places of the air. Canada called to him temptingly. +His brain was seething with plans to go there when, waiting for a chance +to cross a crowded thoroughfare, he heard his own name. + +"Asleep, Rainham?" + +Bob looked up with a start. General Harran, the Australian, was beside +him, also waiting for a break in the crawling string of motor-buses and +taxi-cabs. He was smiling under his close-clipped moustache. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," stammered the boy, coming to the salute +stiffly. "I was in a brown study, I believe." + +"You looked it. I spoke to you twice before you heard me. What is +it?--demobilization problems?" + +"Just that, sir," said Bob, grinning. "Most of us have got them, I +suppose--fellows of my age, anyhow. It's a bit difficult to come down to +earth again, after years spent in the air." + +"Very difficult," Harran agreed gravely. He glanced down with interest +at the alert face and square-built figure of the boy beside him. There +were so many of them, these boys who had played with Death for years. +They have saved their country from horror and ruin, and now it seemed +very doubtful if their country wanted them. They were in every town in +England, looking for work; their pitiful, plucky advertisements greeted +the eye in every newspaper. The problem of their future interested +General Harran keenly. He liked his boys; their freshness and pluck and +unspoiled enthusiasm had been a tonic to him during the long years of +war. Now it hurt him that they should be looking for the right to live. + +"I'm just going to lunch, Rainham," he said. "Would you care to come +with me?" + +Bob lifted a quaintly astonished face. + +"Thanks, awfully, sir," he stammered. + +"Then jump on this 'bus, and we'll go to my club," said the General, +swinging his lean, athletic body up the stairs of a passing motor-'bus +as he spoke. Bob followed, and they sped, rocking, through the packed +traffic until the General, who had sat in silence, jumped up, threaded +his way downstairs, and dropped to the ground again from the footboard +of the hurrying 'bus--with a brief shake of the head to the conductor, +who was prepared to check the speed of his craft to accommodate a +passenger with such distinguished badges of rank. Bob was on the ground +almost as quickly, and they turned out of the crowded street into +a quieter one that presently led them into a silent square, where +dignified grey houses looked out upon green trees, and the only traffic +was that of gliding motors. General Harran led the way into one of the +grey houses, up the steps of which officers were constantly coming +and going. A grizzled porter in uniform, with the Crimean medal on his +tunic, swung the door open and came smartly to attention as they passed +through. The General greeted him kindly. + +"How are you, O'Shea? The rheumatism better?" + +"It is, sir, thank you." They passed on, through a great hall lined with +oil-paintings of famous soldiers, and trophies of big game from all +over the world; for this was a Service club, bearing a proud record of +soldier and sailor members for a hundred years. Presently they were in +the dining-room, already crowded. The waiter found them a little table +in a quiet corner. + +There was a sprinkling of men whom Bob already knew; he caught several +friendly nods of recognition us he glanced round. Then General Harran +pointed out others to him--Generals, whose names were household words in +England--a notable Admiral, and a Captain with the V.C. ribbon--earned +at Zeebrugge. He seemed to know every one, and once or twice he left his +seat to speak to a friend--during which absence Bob's friends shot him +amazed glances, with eyebrows raised in astonishment that he should be +lunching with a real Major-General. Bob was somewhat tongue-tied with +bewilderment over the fact himself. But when their cold beef came, +General Harran soon put him at his ease, leading him to talk of himself +and his plans with quiet tact. Before Bob fairly realized it he had +unfolded all his little story--even to Tommy and her hardships. The +General listened with interest. + +"And was it Tommy I saw you with on Saturday?" + +"Yes, sir. She was awfully interested because it was you," blurted Bob. +"You see, she and I have always been pals. I'm jolly keen to get some +place to take her to." + +"And you think of Canada. Why?" + +"Well--I really don't know, except that it would be out of reach of +England and unpleasantness," Bob answered. "And my money would go a lot +further there than here, wouldn't it, sir? Three thousand won't buy much +of a place in England--not to make one's living by, I mean." + +"That's true. I advise every youngster to get out to one of the new +countries, and, of course, a man with a little capital has a far greater +chance. But why Canada? Why not Australia?" + +"There's no reason why not," said Bob laughing. "Only it seems further +away. I don't know more of one country than the other--except the sort +of vague idea we all have that Canada is all cold and Australia all +heat!" + +General Harran laughed. + +"Yes--the average Englishman's ideas about the new countries are pretty +sketchy," he said. "People always talk to me about the fearfully hot +climate of Australia, and seem mildly surprised if I remark that we have +about a dozen different climates, and that we have snow and ice, and +very decent winter sports, in Victoria. I don't think they believe me, +either. But seriously, Rainham, if you have no more leaning towards one +country than the other, why not think of Australia? I could help you +there, if you like." + +"You, sir!" Bob stammered. + +"Well, I can pull strings. I dare say I could manage a passage out for +you and your sister--you see, you were serving with the Australians, +and you're both desirable immigrants--young and energetic people with +a little capital. That would be all right, I think, especially now that +the first rush is over. And I could give you plenty of introductions in +Australia to the right sort of people. You ought to see something of the +country, and what the life and work are, before investing your money. +It would be easy enough to get you on to a station or big farm--you to +learn the business, and your sister to teach or help in the house. She +wouldn't mind that for about a year, with nice people, would she?" + +"Not she!" said Bob. "It was her own idea, in fact; only I didn't want +to let her work. But I can see that it might be best. Only I don't know +how to thank you, sir--I never imagined--" + +General Harran cut him short. + +"Don't worry about that. If I can help you, or any of the flying boys, +out of a difficulty, and at the same time get the right type of settlers +for Australia--she needs them badly--then I'm doing a double-barrelled +job that I like. But see here--do I understand that what you really +want to do is to take your sister without giving your father warning? To +kidnap her, in short?" + +"I don't see anything else to do, sir. I spoke to him a while ago about +taking her away, and he only hummed and hawed and said he'd consult Mrs. +Rainham. And my stepmother will never let her go as long as she can keep +her as a drudge. We owe them nothing--he's never been a father to us, +and as for my stepmother--well, she should owe Tommy for two years' hard +work. But honestly, to all intents and purposes, they are strangers +to us--it seems absolutely ridiculous that we should be controlled by +them." + +"You say your aunt's family lawyer approves?" + +"Yes, or he wouldn't let me have the money. I could get him to see you, +sir, if you like; though I don't see why you should be bothered about +us," said Bob flushing. + +"Give me his address--I'll look in on him next time I'm in Lincoln's +Inn," said the General. "Your own, too. Now, if I get you and your +sister passages on a troopship, can you start at short notice--say +forty-eight hours?" + +Bob gasped, but recovered himself. After all, his training in the air +had taught him to make swift decisions. + +"Any time after the fifteenth, sir. I'll be demobilized then, and a free +agent. I'll get my kit beforehand." + +"Don't get much," counselled the General. "You can travel in +uniform--take flannels for the tropics; everything you need in Australia +you can get just as well, or better, out there. Most fellows who go out +take tons of unnecessary stuff. Come into the smoking-room and give me a +few more details." + +They came out upon the steps of the club a little later. Bob's head was +whirling. He tried to stammer out more thanks and was cut short, kindly +but decisively. + +"That's all right, my boy. I'll send you letters of introduction to +various people who will help you, and a bit of advice about where to go +when you land. Tell your sister not to be nervous--she isn't going to a +wild country, and the people there are much the same as anywhere else. +Now, good-bye, and good luck"; and Bob found himself walking across the +Square in a kind of solemn amazement. + +"This morning I was thinking of getting taken on as a farm hand in +Devonshire, with Tommy somewhere handy in a labourer's cottage," he +pondered. "And now I'm a bloated capitalist, and Tommy and I are going +across the world to Australia as calmly as if we were off to Margate +for the day! Well, I suppose it's only a dream, and I'll wake up soon. +I guess I'd better go back and tell Mr. M'Clinton; and I've got to see +Tommy somehow." He bent his brows over the problem as he turned towards +Lincoln's Inn. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SAILING ORDERS + + +"Are you there, miss?" + +The sepulchral whisper came faintly to Cecilia's ears as she sat in her +little room, sewing a frock of Queenie's. The children were out in the +garden at the back of the house. Mrs. Rainham was practising in the +drawing-room. The sound of a high trill floated upwards as she opened +the door. + +"What is it, Eliza?" + +"It's a letter, miss. A kid brought it to the kitchen door--a bit of a +boy. Arsked for me as if 'e'd known me all 'is life--called me Elizer! +'E's waitin' for an answer. I'll wait in me room, miss, till you calls +me." The little Cockney girl slipped away, revelling in furthering any +scheme to defeat Mrs. Rainham and help Cecilia. + +Cecilia opened the letter hurriedly. It contained only one line. + +"Can you come at once to Lincoln's Inn? Important.--BOB." + +Cecilia knitted her brows. It was nearly a month since the memorable +evening when she and Bob had revolted; and though she was still made +to feel herself in disgrace, and she knew her letters were watched, the +close spying upon her movements had somewhat relaxed. It had been +too uncomfortable for Mrs. Rainham to keep it up, since it made heavy +demands upon her own time, and interfered with too many plans; moreover, +in spite of it, Cecilia had slipped away from the house two or three +times, going and coming openly, and replying to any questions by the +simple answer that she had been to meet Bob. Angry outbreaks on the part +of her stepmother she received in utter silence, against which the waves +of Mrs. Rainham's wrath spent themselves in vain. + +Indeed, the girl lived in a kind of waking dream of happy anticipation, +beside which none of the trials of life in Lancaster Gate had power to +trouble her. For on her first stolen visit to Mr. M'Clinton's office the +wonderful plan of flight to Australia had been revealed to her, and the +joy of the prospect blotted out everything else. Mr. M'Clinton, watching +her face, had been amazed by the wave of delight that had swept over it. + +"You like it, then?" he had said. "You are not afraid to go so far?" + +"Afraid--with Bob? Oh, the farther I can get from England the better," +she had answered. "I have no friends here; nothing to leave, except the +memory of two bad years. And out there I should feel safe--she could not +get a policeman to bring me back." There was no need to ask who "she" +was. + +Cecilia had made her preparations secretly. She had not much to do--Aunt +Margaret had always kept her well dressed, and the simple and pretty +things she had worn two years before, and which had never been unpacked +since she put on mourning for her aunt, still fitted her, and were +perfectly good. It had never seemed worth while to leave off wearing +mourning in Lancaster Gate--only when Bob had come home had she unpacked +some of her old wardrobe. Much was packed still, and in store under Mr. +M'Clinton's direction, together with many of Aunt Margaret's personal +possessions. It was as well that it was so, since Mrs. Rainham had +managed to annex a proportion of Cecilia's things for Avice. To +Lancaster Gate she had only taken a couple of trunks, not dreaming of +staying there more than a short time. So packing and flitting would be +easy, given ordinary luck and the certain co-operation of Eliza. Her few +necessary purchases had been made on one of her hurried excursions with +Bob; she had not dared to have the things sent home, and they had been +consigned in a tin uniform case to Bob's care. + +She pondered over his note now, knitting her brows. It would be easy +enough to act defiantly and go at once; but if this meant that the +final flight were near at hand she did not wish to excite anew her +stepmother's anger and suspicion. Then, as she hesitated, she heard a +heavy step on the stairs, and she crushed the note hurriedly into her +pocket. + +Mrs. Rainham came into the room without the formality of knocking--a +formality she had never observed where Cecilia was concerned. The +afternoon post had just come, and she carried some letters in her hand. + +"Cecilia, I want you to put on your things and go to Balding's for me," +she said, her voice more civil than it had been for a month. "I'm asked +up to Liverpool for a few days; my sister there is giving a big At +Home--an awfully big thing, with the Lady Mayoress and all the Best +People at it--and she wants me to go up. I suppose she'll want me to +sing." + +"That is nice," said Cecilia, speaking with more truth than Mrs. Rainham +guessed. "What will you wear?" + +"That's just it," said her stepmother eagerly. "My new evening dress +isn't quite finished--we ran short of trimming. I can't go out, because +the Simons are coming in to afternoon tea; so you just hurry and go over +to Balding's to match it. I got it there, and they had plenty. Here's +a bit." She held out a fragment of gaudy sequin trimming. "I think you +could finish the dress without me getting in the dressmaker again--she's +that run after she makes a regular favour of coming." + +"Very well," said Cecilia--who would, at the moment, have agreed to sew +anything or everything that might hasten her stepmother's journey. "When +do you go?" + +"The day after to-morrow. I'll stay there a few days, I suppose; not +worth going so far for only one evening. Mind, Cecilia, you're not to +have Bob here while I'm away. When I come back, if I'm satisfied with +you, I'll see about asking him again." + +"That is very good of you," said the girl slowly. + +"Well, that's all right--you hurry and get ready; there's always a +chance they may have sold out, because it was a bargain line, and if +they have you'll have to try other places. I don't know what on earth +I'll do if you can't match it." She turned to go, and then hesitated. "I +was thinking you might take Avice with you--but you'll get about quicker +alone, and she isn't ready. The tubes and buses are that crowded it's +no catch to take a child about with you." In moments of excitement +Mrs. Rainham's English was apt to slip from her. At other times +she cultivated it carefully, assisted by a dramatic class, which an +enthusiastic maiden lady, with leanings towards the stage, conducted +each winter among neighbouring kindred souls. + +Cecilia had caught her breath in alarm, but she breathed a sigh of +relief as the stout, over-dressed figure went down the narrow stairs, +with a final injunction to hurry. There was, indeed, no need to give +Cecilia that particular command. She scribbled one word, "Coming," on +Bob's note, thrust it into an envelope and addressed it hastily, and +then tapped on the wall between the servants' room and her own. + +Eliza appeared with the swiftness of a Jack-in-the-box, full of +suppressed excitement. + +"Lor! I fought she was never goin'," she breathed. "Got it ready, Miss? +The boy'll fink I've gorn an' eloped wiv it." She took the envelope and +pattered swiftly downstairs. + +A very few moments saw Cecilia flying in her wake--to Balding's first, +as quickly as tube and motor-bus could combine to take her, since +she dared not breathe freely until Mrs. Rainham's commission had been +settled. Balding's had never seemed so huge and so complicated, and when +she at length made her way to the right department the suave assistant +regretted that the trimming was sold out. It was Cecilia's face of blank +dismay that made him suddenly remember that there was possibly an odd +length somewhere, and a search revealed it, put away in a box of odds +and ends. Cecilia's thanks were so heartfelt that the assistant was +mildly surprised. + +"For she don't seem the sort to wear ghastly stuff like that," he +pondered, glancing after the pretty figure in the well-cut coat and +skirt. + +Outside the great shop Cecilia glanced up and caught the eye of a +taxi-driver who had just set down a fare. + +"I'll be extravagant for once," she thought. She beckoned to the man, +and in a moment was whirring through the streets in the peculiar comfort +a motor gives to anyone in a hurry in London--since it can take +direct routes instead of following the roundabout methods of buses and +underground railways. She leaned back, closing her eyes. If this summons +to Bob indeed meant that their sailing orders had come, she would need +all her wits and her coolness. For the first time she realized what her +stepmother's absence from home might mean--a thousandfold less plotting +and planning, and no risk of a horrible scene at the end. Cecilia +loathed scenes; they had not existed in Aunt Margaret's scheme of +existence. Since Bob's plans had become at all definite, she had looked +forward with dread to a final collision with Mrs. Rainham--it was untold +relief to know that it might not come. + +She hurried up the steps of Mr. M'Clinton's office. The alert office +boy--who had been Bob's messenger to Lancaster Gate--met her. + +"You're to go straight in, miss. The Captain's there." + +Bob was in the inner sanctum with Mr. M'Clinton. They rose to meet her. + +"Well--are you ready, young lady?" the old man asked. + +"Is it--are we to sail soon?" + +"Next Saturday--and this is Monday. Can you manage it, Tommy?" Bob's +eyes were dancing with excitement. + +"Oh, Bobby--truly?" She caught at his coat sleeve. "When did you hear?" + +"I had a wire from General Harran this morning. A jolly good ship, too, +Tommy; one of the big Australian liners--the Nauru. You're all ready, +aren't you?" + +"Oh, yes. And there's the most tremendous piece of luck, Bobby--Mrs. +Rainham's going away on Wednesday!" + +"Going away! How more than tactful!" ejaculated Bob. "Where is she +going?" + +"To Liverpool." + +"Liverpool? Oh, by Jove!" Bob ended on a low whistle, while his face +assumed a comical expression of dismay. He turned to the lawyer. "Did +you ever hear of anything so queer?" + +"Queer? Why?" demanded Cecilia. + +"Well, it looks as if she wanted to see the last of you, that's all. The +Nauru sails from Liverpool." + +"Bobby!" Cecilia's face fell. "I thought we went from Gravesend or +Tilbury, or somewhere." + +"So did I. But the General's wire says Liverpool, so it seems we don't," +said Bob. "And that she-dragon is going there too!" + +"I don't think you need really worry," Mr. M'Clinton said drily. +"Liverpool is not exactly a village. The chances are that if you went +there, trying to meet some one, you would hunt for him for a week in +vain. And you'll probably go straight from the train to the docks, so +that you won't be in the least likely to encounter Mrs. Rainham." + +"Why, of course, we'd never run into her in a huge place like +Liverpool," Bob said, laughing. "Don't be afraid, Tommy--you'll have +seen the last of her when you say good-bye on Wednesday." + +"It seems too good to be true," said Cecilia solemnly. "I remember how +I felt once before, when she went away to visit her sister in Liverpool; +the beautiful relief when one woke, to think that not all through the +day would one even have to look at her. It's really very terrible to +look at her often; her white face and hard eyes seem to fascinate one. +Oh, I don't suppose I ought to talk like that, especially here." She +looked shamefacedly at Mr. M'Clinton, and blushed scarlet. + +Both men laughed. + +"The good lady had something of the same effect on me," Mr. M'Clinton +admitted. "I found her a very terrible person. Cheer up, Miss Tommy, +you've nearly finished with her. And, now, what about getting you away?" + +Cecilia turned to her brother. + +"What am I to do, Bob?" + +"We'll have to go to Liverpool on Friday," Bob replied promptly. "I +can't find out the Nauru's sailing time, and it isn't safe to leave it +until Saturday. There's a train somewhere about two o'clock that gets up +somewhere about seven or eight that evening. Mr. M'Clinton and I don't +want to leave it to the last moment to get your luggage away from +Lancaster Gate. Can you have it ready the night before?" + +"It would really be safer to take it in the afternoon," Cecilia said +after a moment's thought. "Mrs. Rainham's absence will make that quite +easy, for I know I can depend upon Eliza and Cook. I can get my trunks +ready, leave them in my room, and tell Eliza you will be there to call +for them, say, at four o'clock. Then I take the three children out for a +walk, and when we return everything is gone. Will that do?" + +"Perfectly," said Bob, laughing. "And four o'clock suits me all right. +Then you'll saunter out on Friday morning with an inoffensive brown +paper parcel containing the rest of your worldly effects, and meet me +for lunch at the Euston Hotel. Is that clear?" + +"Quite. I suppose I had better put no address on my trunks?" + +"Not a line--I'll see to that. And don't even mention the word +'Australia' this week, just in case your eye dances unconsciously, and +sets people thinking! I think you'd better cultivate a downtrodden look, +at any rate until Mrs Rainham is out of the house; at present you look +far too cheerful to be natural--doesn't she, sir?" + +"You have to see to it that she does not look downtrodden again, after +this week," said Mr. M'Clinton. "Remember that, Captain--she's going a +long way, and she'll have no one but you." + +"I know, sir. But, bless you, it's me that will look downtrodden," said +Bob with a grin. "She bullies me horribly--always did." He slipped his +hand through her arm, and they looked up at him with such radiant faces +that the old man smiled involuntarily. + +"Ah, I think you'll be all right," he said. "Remember, Miss Tommy, I'll +expect to hear from you--fairly often, too. I shall not say good-bye +now--you'll see me on Friday at luncheon." + +They found themselves down in the grey precincts of Lincoln's Inn, +which, it may be, had rarely seen two young things prancing along so +dementedly. In the street they had to sober down, to outward seeming; +but there was still something about them, as they hurried off to find a +teashop to discuss final details, that made people turn to look at +them. Even the waitress beamed on them, and supplied them with her +best cakes--and London waitresses are a bored race. But at the moment, +neither Cecilia nor Bob could have told you whether they were eating +cakes or sausages. + +"The money is all right," Bob said. "It'll be available at a Melbourne +bank when we get there; and meanwhile, there's plenty of ready money, +with what I've saved and my war gratuity. So if you want anything, +Tommy, you just say so, and don't go without any pretties just because +you think we'll be in the workhouse." + +"Bless you--but I don't really need anything," she told him gratefully. +"It would be nice to have a little money to spend at the ports, but I +think we ought to keep the rest for Australia, don't you, Bob?" + +"Oh, yes, of course; but you're not to go without a few pounds if you +want 'em," said Bob. "And, Tommy, don't leave meeting me on Friday until +lunch time. I'll be worrying if you do, just in case things may have +gone wrong. Make it eleven o'clock at the Bond Street tube exit, and if +you're not there in half an hour I'll jolly well go and fetch you." + +"I'll be there," Cecilia nodded. "You had better give me the half-hour's +grace, though, in case I might be held up at the last moment. One never +knows--and Avice and Wilfred are excellent little watchdogs." + +"Anyhow, you won't have the she-dragon to reckon with, and that's a +big thing," Bob said. "I don't see how you can have any trouble--Papa +certainly will not give you any." + +"No, he won't bother," said Cecilia slowly. "It's queer to think how +little he counts--our own father." + +"A pretty shoddy apology for one, I think," Bob said bitterly. "What has +he ever done for us? But I'd forgive him that when I can't forgive him +something else--the way he has let you be treated these two years." + +"He hasn't known everything, Bobby." + +"He has known quite enough. And if he had the spirit of a man he'd have +saved you from it. No; we don't owe him any consideration, Tommy; and +he saw to it years ago that we should never owe him any affection. So +we really needn't worry our heads about him. By the way, there are to be +some Australians on the Nauru who General Harran says may be of use to +us--I don't remember their names, but he's going to give me a letter +to them. And probably there will be some other flying people whom I may +know. I think the voyage ought to be rather good fun." + +"I think so, too. It will be exciting to be on a troopship," Cecilia +said. "But, then, anything will be heavenly after Lancaster Gate!" + +She hurried home, as soon as the little meal was over, knowing that +Mrs. Rainham would be impatiently awaiting her. Luckily, her success in +matching the trimming made her stepmother forget how long she had been +away; and from that moment until a welcome four-wheeler removed the +mistress of the house on Wednesday, she sewed and packed for her +unceasingly. Her journey excited Mrs. Rainham greatly. She talked +almost affably of her sister's grandeur, and of the certainty of meeting +wealthy and gorgeously dressed people at her party. + +"Not that I'll be at all ashamed of my dress," she added, looking at +the billowy waves on which Cecilia was plastering yet more trimming. +"Unusual and artistic, that's what it is; and it'll show off my hair. +Don't forget the darning when I'm gone, Cecilia. There's a tablecloth to +mend, as well as the stockings. I'll be home on Saturday night, unless +they persuade me to stay over the week-end." + +Cecilia nodded, sewing busily. + +"And just see if you can't get on a bit better with the children. You've +got to make allowances for their high spirits, and treat them tactfully. +Of course you can't expect them to be as obedient to you as they would +be to a regular governess, you being their own half-sister, and not so +much older than Avice, after all. But tact does wonders, especially with +children." + +"Yes," said Cecilia, and said no more. + +"Well, just bear it in mind. I don't suppose you'll see much of your +father, so you needn't worry about him. But don't let Eliza gossip and +idle; she never does any work if she's not kept up to it, and you know +you're much too familiar with her. Always keep girls like her at a +distance, and they'll work all the better, that's what I say. Treat her +as an equal, and the next thing you know she'll be trying on your hats!" + +"I haven't caught Eliza at that yet," said Cecilia with the ghost of a +smile. + +"It'll come, though, if you're not more stand-offish with her--you mark +my words. Keep them in their place--that's what I always do with my +servants and governesses," said Mrs. Rainham without the slightest idea +that she was saying anything peculiar. "Now, I'll go and put my things +out on my bed, and as soon as you've finished that you can come up and +pack for me." + +Cecilia stood at the hall door that afternoon to watch her go--bustling +into the cab, with loud directions to the cabman, her hard face full of +self-importance and satisfaction. The plump hand waved a highly scented +handkerchief as the clumsy four-wheeler moved off. + +"To think I'll never see you again!" breathed the girl. "It seems too +good to be true!" + +A kind of wave of relief seemed to have descended upon the house. The +children were openly exulting in having no one to obey; an attitude +which, in the circumstances, failed to trouble their half-sister. Eliza +went about her work with a cheery face; even Cook, down in the basement, +manifested lightness of heart by singing love songs in a cracked soprano +and by making scones for afternoon tea. Mark Rainham did not come home +until late--he had announced his intention of dining at his club. Late +in the evening he sauntered into the dining-room, where Cecilia sat +sewing. + +"Still at it?" he asked. He sat down and poked the fire. "What are you +sewing?" + +"Just darning," Cecilia told him. + +He sat looking at her for a while--at the pretty face and the +well-tended hair; and who shall say what thoughts stirred in his dull +brain? + +"You look a bit pale," he said at last. "Do you go out enough?" + +"Oh, yes, I think so," Cecilia answered in astonishment. Not in two +years had he shown so much interest in her; and it braced her to a +sudden resolve. She had never been quite satisfied to leave him without +a word; whatever he was, he was still her father. She put her darning on +her knee, and looked at him gravely. + +"You know Bob is demobilized, don't you, Papa?" + +"Yes--he told me so," Mark Rainham answered. + +"And you know he wants to take me away?" + +Her father's eyes wavered and fell before her. + +"Oh, yes--but the idea's ridiculous, I'm afraid. You're under age, and +your stepmother won't hear of it." He poked the fire savagely. + +"But if Bob could make a home for me! We have always been together, you +know, Papa." + +"Oh, well--wait and see. Time enough when you're twenty-one, and your +own mistress; Bob will have had a chance to make good by then. I--I +can't oppose my wife in the matter--she says she's not strong enough to +do without your help." + +"But she never seems satisfied with me." + +Mark Rainham rose with an irritably nervous movement. + +"Oh, no one is ever perfect. I suspect, if each of you went a little +way to meet the other, things would be better. Your stepmother says her +nerves are all wrong, and I'm sure you do take a great deal of trouble +off her shoulders." + +"Then you won't let me go?" The girl's low voice was relentless, and +her father wriggled as though he were a beetle and she were pinning him +down. + +"I--I'm afraid it's out of the question, Cecilia. I should have to be +very satisfied first that Bob could offer you a home--and by that time +he'll probably be thinking of getting married, and won't want you. Why +can't you settle down comfortably to living at home?" + +"There isn't any home for me apart from Bob," said the girl. + +"Well, I can't help it." Mark Rainham's voice had a hopeless tone. He +walked to the door, and then half turned. "If you can make my wife agree +to your going, I won't forbid it. Good night." + +"Good night," said Cecilia. The slow footsteps went up the stairs, and +she turned to her darning with a lip that curled in scorn. + +"Well, that let's me out. I don't owe you anything--not even a good-bye +note on my pincushion," she said presently; and laughed a little. She +folded a finished pair of socks deliberately, and, rising, stretched +her arms luxuriously above her head. "Two more days," she whispered. She +switched off the light, and crept noiselessly upstairs. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WATCH DOGS + + +"Well, if you ask me, she's up to something," said Avice with +conviction. + +"How d'you mean?" Wilfred looked up curiously. + +"Lots of things. She looks all different. First of all--look how red she +is all the time, and the excited look in her eyes." + +"That's all look--look!" jeered her brother. "Girls always have those +rotten ideas about nothing at all. Just because Cecilia's got a bit +sunburnt, and because she's havin' an easy time 'cause Mater's away--" + +"Oh, you think because you're a boy, you know everything," retorted his +sister hotly. "You just listen, and see if I've got rotten ideas. Did +you know, she's kept her room locked for days?" + +"Well--if she has? That's nothing." + +"You shut up and let me go on. Yesterday she forgot, and left it open +while she was down talking to Cook, and I slipped in. And there was +one of her great big trunks, that she always keeps in the box room, +half-packed with her things. I nicked this necklace out of it, too," +said Avice with triumph, producing a quaint string of Italian beads. + +"Good business," said Wilfred with an appreciative grin. "Did she catch +you?" + +"Not she--I can tell you I didn't wait long, 'cause she always comes +upstairs as quick as lightning. She did come, too, in an awful hurry, +and locked up the room--I only got out of the way just in time. And +every minute she could, yesterday, she was up there." + +"Well, I don't see much in that." + +"No, but look here, I got another chance of looking into her room this +morning, and that trunk was gone!" + +"Gone back to the box-room," said Wilfred with superiority. + +"No, it wasn't--I went up and looked. And her other trunk's not there, +either." + +"Oh, you're dreaming! I bet she'd just pushed it under her bed." + +"Pooh!" said Avice. "That great big trunk wouldn't go under her bed--you +know she's only got a little stretcher-bed. And I tell you they'd both +gone. I bet you anything she's going to run away." + +"Where'd she run to?" + +"Oh, somewhere with Bob." + +"Well, let her go." + +"Yes, and Mater 'd have to spend ever so much on a new governess; and +most likely she'd be a worse beast than Cecilia. And no governess we +ever had did half the things Mater makes Cecilia do to help in the +house. Why she's like an extra servant, as well as a governess. Mater +told me all about it. I tell you what, Wilfred, it's our business to see +she doesn't run away." + +"All right," said Wilfred, "I suppose we'd better watch out. When do you +reckon she'd go? People generally run away at night, don't they?" + +"Well, anyone can see she's just taking advantage of Mater being away. +Yes, of course she'd go at night. She might have sent her boxes away +yesterday by a carrier--I bet that horrid little Eliza would help her. +Ten to one she means to sneak out to-night--she knows Mater will be home +to-morrow." + +"What a sell it will be for her if we catch her!" said Wilfred with +glee. "I say, what about telling Pater?" + +Avice looked sour. + +"I did tell him something yesterday, and he only growled at me. At +least, I said, 'Do you think Cecilia would ever be likely to run away?' +And he just stared at me, and then he said, 'Not your business if she +does.' So I'm not going to speak to him again." + +"Well, we'd better take it in turns to watch her," Wilfred said. "After +dark's the most likely time, I suppose, but we'd better be on the +look-out all the time. Where's she now, by the way?" + +"Why, I don't know. I say, she's been away a long time--I never +noticed," said Avice, in sudden alarm. "She said we were to go on with +our French exercises--and that's ages ago." + +"Come on and see," said Wilfred jumping up. + +Outside the room he caught Avice by the arm. + +"Kick off your shoes," he said. "We'll sneak up to her room." + +They crept up silently. The door of Cecilia's room was ajar. Peeping in, +they saw her standing before her tiny looking-glass, pinning on her +hat. A small parcel lay upon her bed, with her gloves and parasol. The +children were very silent--but something struck upon the girl's tightly +strung nerves. She turned swiftly and saw them. + +"What are you doing?" she demanded. "How dare you come into my room?" + +"Why, we thought you were lost," said Avice. "We finished our French +ages ago. Where are you going?" + +"I am going out," said Cecilia. "I'll set you more work to do while I'm +away." + +"But where are you going?" + +"That has nothing to do with you. Come down to the schoolroom." + +Avice held her brother firmly by the arm. Together they blocked the way. + +"Mater wouldn't let you go out in lesson time. I believe you're going to +run away!" + +A red spot flamed in each of Cecilia's white cheeks. + +"Stand out of my way, you little horrors!" she said angrily. She caught +up her things and advanced upon them. + +"I'm hanged if you're going," said Wilfred doggedly. He pushed her back +violently, and slammed the door. + +The attic doors in Lancaster Gate, like those of many London houses, +were fitted with heavy iron bolts on the outside--a precaution against +burglars who might enter the house by rooms ordinarily little used. It +was not the first time that Cecilia had been bolted into her room by her +step-brother. When first she came, it had been a favourite pastime to +make her a prisoner--until their mother had made it an offence carrying +a heavy penalty, since it had often occurred that Cecilia was locked up +when she happened to need her. + +But this time Cecilia heard the heavy bolt shoot home with feelings of +despair. It was already time for her to leave the house. Bob would +be waiting for her in Bond Street, impatiently scanning each crowd of +passengers that the lift shot up from underground. She battered at the +door wildly. + +"Let me out! How dare you, Wilfred? Let me out at once!" + +Wilfred laughed disagreeably. + +"Not if we know it--eh, Avice?" + +"Rather not," said Avice. "What d'you think Mater'd say to us if we let +you run away?" + +"Nonsense!" said Cecilia, controlling her voice with difficulty. "I was +going to meet Bob." + +There was silence, and a whispered consultation. Then Avice spoke. + +"Will you give us your word of honour you weren't going to run away?" + +Words of honour meant little to the young Rainhams. But they knew that +Cecilia held it as a commonplace of decent behaviour that people did not +tell lies. They had, indeed, often marvelled that she preferred to "take +her gruel" rather than use any ready untruth that would have shielded +her from their mother's wrath. Avice and Wilfred had no such scruples on +their own account: but they knew that they could depend upon Cecilia's +word. They were, indeed, just a little afraid of their own action in +locking her up; their mother might have condoned it as "high spirits," +but their father was not unlikely to take a different view. So they +awaited her reply with some anxiety. + +Cecilia hesitated. Never in her life had she been so tempted. Perhaps +because the temptation was so strong she answered swiftly. + +"No--I won't tell you anything of the kind. But look here--if you will +let me out I'll give you each ten shillings." + +Ten shillings! It was wealth, and the children gasped. Wilfred, indeed, +would have shot back the bolt instantly. It was Avice who caught at his +arm. + +"Don't you!" she whispered. "It'll cost heaps more than that to get +a new governess--and we'll make Mater give us each ten shillings for +keeping her. I say, we'll have to get the Pater home." + +"How?" Wilfred looked at her blankly. + +"Easy. You go to the post office and telephone to him at his office. +Tell him to come at once. I'll watch here, in case Eliza lets her out. +Run--hard as you can. Mater'll never forgive us if she gets away." + +Wilfred clattered off obediently, awed by his sister's urgency. Avice +sat down on the head of the stairs, close to the bolted door; and when +Cecilia spoke again, repeating her offer, she answered her in a voice +unpleasantly like her mother's: + +"No, you don't, my fine lady. Wilfred's gone for the Pater--he'll be +here presently. You just stay there quietly till he comes." + +"Avice!" The word was a wail. "Oh, you don't know how important it +is--let me out. I'll give you anything in the world." + +"So'll Mater if I stop your little game," said Avice. "You just keep +quiet." + +Eliza's sharp little face appeared at the foot of the flight of stairs. + +"Wot's up, Miss Avice? Anyfink wrong with Miss 'Cilia?" + +"Nothing to do with you," said Avice rudely. "I'm looking after her." +But Cecilia's sharp ears had caught the new voice. + +"Eliza! Eliza!" she called. + +The girl came up the stairs uncertainly. Avice rose to confront her. + +"Now, you just keep off," she said. "You're not coming past here. The +master'll be home directly, and till he comes, no one's going up +these stairs." She raised her voice, to drown that of Cecilia, who was +speaking again. + +Eliza looked at her doubtfully. She was an undersized, wizened little +Cockney, and Avice was a big, stoutly-built girl--who held, moreover, +the advantage of a commanding position on the top step. In an encounter +of strength there was little doubt as to who would win. She turned +in silence, cowed, and went down to the kitchen, while Avice sang a +triumphant song, partly as a chant of victory, and partly to make sure +that no one would hear the remarks that Cecilia was steadily making. She +herself had caught one phrase--"Tell my brother"--and her sharp little +mind was busy. Did that mean that Bob would be coming, against its +mistress's orders, to Lancaster Gate. + +In the kitchen Eliza poured out a frantic appeal to Cook. + +"She's got Miss 'Cilia locked up--the little red-'eaded cat! An' Master +Wilfred gorn to fetch the Master! Oh, come on, Cookie darlin', an' we'll +let 'er out." + +Cook shook her head slowly. + +"Not good enough," she said. "I got a pretty good place. I ain't goin' +to risk it by 'avin' a rough-an'-tumble with the daughter of the 'ouse +on the hattic stairs. You better leave well alone, Liza. You done your +bit, 'elpin' 'er git them trunks orf yes'day." + +"Wot's the good of 'avin the trunks off if she can't go, too?" demanded +Eliza. + +"Oh, she'll git another chance. Don't worry your 'ead so much over other +people's business. If the Master comes 'ome an' finds us scruffin' 'is +daughter, 'e'll 'and us both over to the police for assault--an' then +you'll 'ave cause for worry. Now you git along like a good gel--I got to +mike pastry." Cook turned away decisively. + +Wilfred had come home and had raced up the stairs. + +"Did you get him?" Avice cried. + +"No--he was out. So I left a message that he was to come home at once, +'cause something was wrong." + +"That'll bring him," said Avice with satisfaction. "Now, look here, +Wilf--I believe Bob may come. You go and be near the front door, to +block Eliza, if he does. Answer any ring." + +"What'll I say if he comes?" + +"Say she's gone out to meet him--if he thinks that, he'll hurry back to +wherever they were to meet. Don't give him a chance to get in. Hurry!" + +"Right," said Wilfred, obeying. He sat down in a hall chair, and took +up a paper, with an eye wary for Eliza. Half an hour passed tediously, +while upstairs Cecilia begged and bribed in vain. Then he sprang to his +feet as a ring came. + +Bob was at the door; and suddenly Wilfred realized that he had always +been afraid of Bob. He quailed inwardly, for never had he seen his +half-brother look as he did now--with a kind of still, terrible anger in +his eyes. + +"Where's Cecilia?" + +"Gone out," said the boy. + +"Where?" + +"Gone to meet you." + +"Did she tell you so?" + +"Yes, of course--how'd I know if she didn't?" + +"Then that's a lie, for she wouldn't tell you. Let me in." + +"I tell you, she's gone out," said Wilfred, whose only spark of +remaining courage was due to the fact that he had prudently kept the +door on the chain. "And Mater said you weren't to come in here." + +From the area below a shrill voice floated upwards. + +"Mr. Bob! Mr. Bob! Daon't you believe 'im. They got Miss 'Cilia locked +up in 'er room." + +"By Jove!" said Bob between his teeth. "Bless you, Eliza! Open that +door, Wilfred, or I'll make it hot for you." He thrust a foot into the +opening, with a face so threatening that Wilfred shrank back. + +"I shan't," he said. "You're not going to get her." + +"Am I not?" said Bob. He leaned back, and then suddenly flung all his +weight against the door. The chain was old and the links eaten with +rust--it snapped like a carrot, and the door flew open. Bob brushed +Wilfred out of his way, and went upstairs, three at a time. + +Avice blocked his path. + +"You aren't coming up." + +"Oh, yes, I think so," Bob said. He stooped, with a quick movement, +and picked her up, holding her across his shoulder, while she beat and +clawed unavailingly at his back. So holding her, he thrust back the bolt +of Cecilia's door and flung it open. + +"Did you think they had got you, Tommy?" + +She could only cling to his free arm for a moment speechless. Then she +lifted her face, her voice shaking, still in fear. + +"We must hurry, Bob. They've sent for Papa." + +"Have they?" said Bob, with interest. "Well, not a regiment of papas +should stop you now, old girl. Got everything?" + +Cecilia gathered up her things, nodding. + +"Then we'll leave this young lady here," said Bob. He placed Avice +carefully on Cecilia's bed, and made for the door, having the pleasure, +as he shot the bolt, of hearing precisely what the younger Miss +Rainham thought of him and all his attributes, including his personal +appearance. + +"A nice gift of language, hasn't she?" he said. "Inherits it from +her mamma, I should think." He put his arm round Cecilia and held her +closely as they went downstairs, his face full of the joy of battle. +Wilfred was nowhere to be seen, but by the door Eliza waited. Bob +slipped something into her hand. + +"I expect you'll lose your place over this, Eliza," he said. "Well, +you'll get a better--I'll tell my lawyer to see to that. He'll write to +you--by the way, what's your surname? Oh, Smithers--I'll remember. And +thank you very much." + +They shook hands with her, and passed out into the street. Cecilia was +still too shaken to speak--but as Bob pulled her hand through his arm +and hurried her along, her self-control returned, and the face that +looked up at his presently was absolutely content. Bob returned the look +with a little smile. + +"Didn't you know I'd come?" he asked. "You dear old stupid." + +"I knew you'd come--but I thought Papa would get there first," Cecilia +answered. "Somehow, it seemed the end of everything." + +"It isn't--it's only the beginning," Bob answered. + +There was a narrow side street that made a short cut from the tube +station to the Rainhams' home; and as they passed it Mark Rainham came +hurrying up it. Bob and Cecilia did not see him. He looked at them for +a moment, as if reading the meaning of the two happy faces--and then +shrank back into an alley and remained hidden until his son and daughter +had passed out of sight. They went on their way, without dreaming that +the man they dreaded was within a stone's throw of them. + +"So it was that," said Mark Rainham slowly, looking after them. "Out of +gaol, are you--poor little prisoner! Well, good luck to you both!" He +turned on his heel, and went back to his office. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HOW TOMMY BOARDED A STRANGE TAXI + + +"We're nearly in, Tommy." + +Cecilia looked up from her corner with a start, and the book she had +been trying to read slipped to the floor of the carriage. + +"I believe you were asleep," said Bob, laughing. "Poor old Tommy, are +you very tired?" + +"Oh, nothing, really. Only I was getting a bit sleepy," his sister +answered. "Are we late, Bob?" + +"Very, the conductor says. This train generally makes a point of being +late. I wish it had made a struggle to be on time to-night; it would +have been jolly to get to the ship in daylight." Bob was strapping up +rugs briskly as he talked. + +"How do we get down to the ship, Bob?" + +"Oh, no doubt there'll be taxis," Bob answered. "But it may be no end of +a drive--the conductor tells me there are miles and miles of docks, and +the Nauru may be lying anywhere. But he says there's always a military +official on duty at the station--a transport officer, and he'll be able +to tell me everything." He did not think it worth while to tell the +tired little sister what another man had told him, that it was very +doubtful whether they would be allowed to board any transport at night, +and that Liverpool was so crowded that to find beds in it might be an +impossibility. Bob refused to be depressed by the prospect. "If the +worst came to the worst, there'd be a Y.W.C.A. that would take in +Tommy," he mused. "And it wouldn't be the first time I've spent a night +in the open." Nothing seemed to matter now that they had escaped. But, +all the same, there seemed no point in telling Tommy, who was extremely +cheerful, but also very white-faced. + +They drew into an enormous station, where there seemed a dense crowd +of people, but no porters at all. Bob piled their hand luggage on +the platform, and left Cecilia to guard it while he went on a tour of +discovery. He hurried back to her presently. + +"Come on," he said, gathering up their possessions. "There's a big +station hotel opening on to the platforms. I can leave you sitting in +the vestibule while I gather up the heavy luggage and find the transport +officer. I'm afraid it's going to take some time, so don't get worried +if I don't turn up very soon. There seem to be about fifty thousand +people struggling round the luggage vans, and I'll have to wait my turn. +But I'll be as quick as I can." + +"Don't you worry on my account," Cecilia said. "This is ever so +comfortable. I don't mind how long you're away!" She laughed up at him, +sinking into a big chair in the vestibule of the hotel. There were heavy +glass doors on either side that were constantly swinging to let people +in or out; through them could be seen the hurrying throng of people +on the station, rushing to and fro under the great electric lights, +gathered round the bookstall, struggling along under luggage, or--very +occasionally--moving in the wake of a porter with a barrow heaped with +trunks. There were soldiers everywhere, British and Australian, and +officers in every variety of Allied uniform. + +An officer came in with a lady and two tiny boys--Cecilia recognized +them as having been passengers on their train. With them came an old +Irish priest, who had met them, and the officer left them in his +care while he also went off on the luggage quest. The small boys were +apparently untired by their journey; they immediately began to use the +swinging glass doors as playthings to the imminent risk of their own +necks, since they were too little to be noticed by anyone coming in +or out, and were nearly knocked flat a dozen times by the swing of the +doors. The weary mother spent a busy time in rescuing them, and was not +always entirely successful--bumps and howls testified to the doors being +occasionally quicker than the boys. Finally, the old priest gathered +up the elder, a curly-haired, slender mite, into his arms and told him +stories, while his plump and solemn brother curled up on his mother's +knee and dozed. It was clearly long after their bed-time. + +The procession of people came and went unceasingly, the glass doors +always aswing. In and out, in and out, men and women hurried, and just +beyond the kaleidoscope of the platforms moved and changed restlessly +under the glaring arc lights. Cecilia's bewildered mind grew weary of it +all, and she closed her eyes. It was some time later that she woke with +a start, to find Bob beside her. + +"Sleepy old thing," he said. "Oh, I've had such a wild time, Tommy; to +get information of any kind is as hard as to get one's luggage. However, +I've got both. And the first thing is we can't go on board to-night." + +"Bob! What shall we do?" + +"I was rather anxious about that same thing myself," said Bob, "since +everyone tells me that Liverpool is more jammed with people than even +London--which is saying something. However, we've had luck. I went to +ask in here, never imagining I had the ghost of a chance, and they'd +just had telegrams giving up two rooms. So we're quite all right; and so +is the luggage. I've had all the heavy stuff handed over to a carrier to +be put on the Nauru to-morrow morning." + +"You're the great manager," said Cecilia comfortably. "Where is the +Nauru, by the way?" + +"Sitting out in the river, the transport officer says. She doesn't come +alongside until the morning; and we haven't to be on board until three +o'clock. She's supposed to pull out about six. So we really needn't have +left London to-day--but I think it's as well we did." + +"Yes, indeed," said Cecilia, with a shiver. "I don't think I could have +stood another night in Lancaster Gate. I've been awake for three nights +wondering what we should do if any hitch came in our plans." + +"Just like a woman!" said Bob, laughing. "You always jump over your +hedges before you come to them." He pulled her gently out of her chair. +"Come along; I'll have these things sent up to our rooms, and then we'll +get some dinner--after which you'll go to bed." It was a plan which +sounded supremely attractive to his sister. + +Not even the roar and rattle of the trains under the station hotel kept +Cecilia awake that night. She slept, dreamlessly at first; then she had +a dream that she was just about to embark in a great ship for Australia; +that she was going up the gangway, when suddenly behind her came her +father and her stepmother, with Avice, Wilfred and Queenie, who all +seized her, and began to drag her back. She fought and struggled with +them, and from the top of the gangway came Mr. M'Clinton and Eliza, who +tugged her upwards. Between the two parties she was beginning to think +she would be torn to pieces, when suddenly came swooping from the clouds +an areoplane, curiously like a wheelbarrow, and in it Bob, who leaned +out as he dived, grasped her by the hair, and swung her aboard with him. +They whirred away over the sea; where, she did not know, but it did not +seem greatly to matter. They were still flying between sea and sky when +she woke, to find the sunlight streaming into her room, and some one +knocking at her door. + +"Are you awake, Tommy?" It was Bob's voice. "Lie still, and I'll send +you up a cup of tea." + +That was very pleasant, and a happy contrast to awakening in Lancaster +Gate; and breakfast a little later was delightful, in a big sunny room, +with interesting people coming and going all the time. Bob and Cecilia +smiled at each other like two happy children. It was almost unbelievable +that they were free; away from tryanny and coldness, with no more +plotting and planning, and no more prying eyes. + +Bob went off to interview the transport officer after breakfast, and +Cecilia found the officer's wife with the two little boys struggling to +attend to her luggage, while the children ran away and lost themselves +in the corridors or endeavoured to commit suicide by means of the lift. +So Cecilia took command of them and played with them until the harassed +mother had finished, and came to reclaim her offspring--this time with +the worry lines smoothed out of her face. She sat down by Cecilia and +talked, and presently it appeared that she also was sailing in the +Nauru. + +"Indeed, I thought it was only wives who were going," she said. "I +didn't know sisters were permitted." + +"I believe General Harran managed our passages," Cecilia said. "He has +been very kind to my brother." + +"Well, you should have a merry voyage, for there will be scarcely any +young girls on board," said Mrs. Burton, her new friend. "Most of the +women on the transports are brides, of course. Ever so many of our men +have married over here." + +"You are an Australian?" Cecilia asked. + +"Oh, yes. My husband isn't. He was an old regular officer, and returned +to his regiment as soon as war broke out. I don't think there will be +many women on board: the Nauru isn't a family ship, you know." + +"What is that?" Cecilia queried. + +"Oh, a ship with hundreds of women and children--privates' wives and +families, as well as officers'. I believe they are rather awful to +travel on--they must be terrible in rough weather. The non-family ships +carry only a few officers' wives, as a rule: a much more comfortable +arrangement for the lucky few." + +"And we are among the lucky few?" + +"Yes. I only hope my small boys won't be a nuisance. I've never been +without a nurse for them until last night. However, I suppose I'll soon +get into their ways." + +"You must let me help you," Cecilia said. "I love babies." She stroked +Tim's curly head as she spoke: Dickie, his little brother, had suddenly +fallen asleep on his mother's knee. + +Mrs. Burton smiled her thanks. + +"Well, it is pleasant to think we shan't go on board knowing no one," +she said. "I hope our cabins are not far apart. Oh, here is my husband; +I hope that means all our luggage is safely on board." + +Colonel Burton came up--a pleasant soldierly man, bearing the +unmistakable stamp of the regular officer. They were still chatting +when Bob arrived, to be introduced--a ceremony which appeared hardly +necessary in the case of the colonel and himself. + +"We've met at intervals since last night in various places where they +hide luggage," said the colonel. "I'm beginning to turn faint at the +sight of a trunk!" + +"It's the trunks I can't get sight of that make me tremble," grinned +Bob. "One of mine disappeared mysteriously this morning, and finally, +after a breathless hunt, turned up in a lamp-room--your biggest +Saratoga, Tommy! Why anyone should have put it in a lamp-room seems to +be a conundrum that is going to excite the station for ever. But there +it was." + +"And have they really started for the ship?" asked Cecilia. + +"Well--I saw them all on a lorry, checked over my list with the +driver's, and found everything right, and saw him start," said Bob, +laughing. "More than that no man may say." + +"It would simplify matters if we knew our cabin numbers," said Colonel +Burton. "But we don't; neither does anyone, as far as I can gather, +since cabins appear to be allotted just as you go on board--a peculiar +system. Can you imagine the ghastly heap of miscellaneous luggage that +will be dumped on the Nauru, with frenzied owners wildly trying to sort +it out!" + +"It doesn't bear thinking of," said Bob, laughing. "Come along, Tommy, +and we'll explore Liverpool." + +They wandered about the crowded streets of the great port, where may, +perhaps, be seen a queerer mixture of races than anywhere in England, +since ships from all over the world ceaselesly come and go up and down +the Mersey. Then they boarded a tram and journeyed out of the city, +among miles of beautiful houses, and, getting down at the terminus, +walked briskly for an hour, since it would be long before there would +be any land for them to walk on again. They got back to the hotel rather +late for lunch, and very hungry; and afterwards it was time to pack up +their light luggage and get down to the docks. General Harran had warned +them to take enough hand-baggage to last them several nights, since +it was quite possible that their cabin trunks would be swept into the +baggage room, and fail to turn up for a week after sailing. + +A taxi whisked them through streets that became more and more crowded. +The journey was not a long one; they turned down a slope presently, and +drew up before a great gate across the end of a pier where two policemen +were on duty to prevent the entrance of anyone without a pass. Porters +were there in singular numbers--England had grown quite used to being +without them; and Bob had just transferred their luggage to the care of +a cheerful lad with a barrow when Cecilia gave a little start of dismay. + +"Bob, I've left my watch!" + +"Whew!" whistled her brother. "Where?" + +"I washed my hands just before I left my room," said the shamefaced +Cecilia. "I remember slipping it off my wrist beside the basin." + +"Well, there's no need to worry," said Bob cheerfully. "Ten to one it's +there still. You'll have to take the taxi and go back for it, Tommy: +I can't leave the luggage, and I may be wanted to show our papers, +besides; but you won't have any difficulty. Come along, and I'll see +that the policeman lets you through when you come back." + +The constable was sympathetic. He examined Cecilia's passport, declared +that he would know her anywhere again, and that she had no cause for +anxiety. + +"Is it time? Sure, ye'll be tired of waitin' on the ould pier hours +afther ye get back," he said cheerfully. "I know thim transports. Why, +there's not one of the throops marched in yet. There comes the furrst +lot." + +A band swung round the turn of the street playing a quickstep: behind +it, a long line of Australian soldiers, marching at ease, each man with +his pack on his shoulder. A gate with a military sentry swung wide to +admit them, and they passed on to where a high overhead bridge carried +them aboard a great liner moored to the pier. + +"'Tis the soldiers have betther treatment than the officers whin it +comes to boardin' transports," said the friendly policeman. "They get +marched straight on board. The officers and their belongin's has to wait +till they've gone through hivin knows what formalities. So you needn't +worry, miss, an' take your time. The ould ship'll be there hours yet." + +The taxi driver appeared only too glad of further employment, and +Cecilia, much cheered, though still considerably ashamed of herself, +leaned back comfortably in the cab as they whisked through the streets. +At the hotel good fortune awaited her, for a chambermaid had just found +her watch and had brought it to the office for safe keeping. Cecilia +left her thanks, with something more substantial, for the girl, and +hurried back to the cab. + +The streets seemed more thronged than ever, and presently traffic was +blocked by a line of marching men--more "diggers" on their way to the +transport. Cecilia's chauffeur turned back into a side street, evidently +a short cut. Half-way along it the taxi jarred once or twice and came to +a standstill. + +The chauffeur got out and poked his head into the bonnet, performing +mysterious rites, while Cecilia watched him, a little anxiously. +Presently he came round to the door. + +"I'm awful sorry, miss," he said respectfully. "The old bus has broke +down. I'm afraid I can't get another move out of 'er--I'll 'ave to get +'er towed to a garage." + +"Oh!" said Cecilia, jumping out. "Do you think I can find another near +here?" + +"You oughter pick one up easy in the street up there," said the +chauffeur. "Plenty of 'em about 'ere. Even if you shouldn't, miss, you +can get a tram down to the docks--any p'liceman 'll direct you. You +could walk it, if you liked--you've loads of time." He touched his cap +as she paid him. "Very sorry to let you down like this, miss--it +ain't my fault. All the taxis in England are just about droppin' to +pieces--it'll be a mercy when repair shops get goin' again." + +"It doesn't matter," Cecilia said cheerfully. She decided that she would +walk; it would be more interesting, and the long wait on the pier would +be shortened. She set off happily towards the main street where the tram +lines ran, feeling that short cuts were not for strangers in a big city. + +Even in the side street the shops were interesting. She came upon a +fascinating curio shop, and stopped a moment to look at the queer medley +in its window; such a medley as may be seen in any port where sailor-men +bring home strange things from far countries. She was so engrossed +that she failed to notice a woman who passed her, and then, with an +astonished stare, turned back. A heavy hand fell on her wrist. + +"Cecilia!" + +She turned, with a little cry. Mrs. Rainham's face, inflamed with sudden +anger, looked into her own. The hard grasp tightened on her wrist. + +"What are you doing here, you wicked girl? You've run away." + +At the moment no speech was possible to Cecilia. She twisted her arm +away fiercely, freeing herself with difficulty, and turning, ran, with +her stepmother at her heels. Once, Mrs. Rainham gasped "Police!" after +which she required all the breath to keep near the flying girl. The +street was quiet; only one or two interested passers-by turned to +look at the race, and a street urchin shouted: "Go it, red 'ead--she's +beatin' yer!" + +It follows naturally, when one person pursues another through city +streets, that the pursued falls under public suspicion and is liable to +be caught and held by any officious person. Cecilia felt this, and her +anxiety was keen as she darted round the corner into the next street, +looking about wildly for a means of escape. A big van, crawling across +the road, held Mrs. Rainham back for a moment, giving her a brief +respite. + +Just in front of her, a block in the traffic was beginning to move. A +taxi was near her. She held up her hand desperately, trying to catch the +driver's eye. He shook his head, and she realized that he was already +engaged--there was a pile of luggage beside him with big labels, and +a familiar name struck her--"H.M.T. Nauru." A girl, leaning from the +window of the taxi, met her glance, and Cecilia took a sudden resolve. +She sprang forward, her hand on the door. + +"I am a passenger by the Nauru. Could you take me in your car?" she +gasped. + +"Why, of course," said the other girl. "Plenty of room, isn't there, +dad?" + +"Yes, certainly," said the other occupant of the cab--a big, grizzled +man, who looked at the new-comer in blank amazement. He had half risen, +but there was no time for him to assist his self-invited guest; she had +opened the door and jumped in before his daughter had finished speaking. +Leaning forward, Cecilia saw her stepmother emerge from the traffic, +crimson-faced, casting wild and wrathful glances about her. Then her +wandering eye fell upon Cecilia, and she began to run forward. Even as +she did the chauffeur quickened his pace, and the taxi slid away, until +the running, shouting figure was lost to view. + +Cecilia sat back with a gasp, and began to laugh helplessly. The others +watched her with faces that clearly showed that they began to suspect +having entertained a lunatic unawares. + +"I do beg your pardon," said Cecilia, recovering. "It was inexcusable. +But I was running away." + +"So it seemed," said the big man, in a slow, pleasant voice. "I hope it +wasn't from the police?" + +"Oh no!" Cecilia flushed. "Only from my stepmother. My own taxi had just +broken down, and she found me, and she would have made a scene in the +street--and scenes are so vulgar, are they not? When I saw Nauru on your +luggage, you seemed to me to have dropped from heaven." + +She looked at them, her pretty face pink, her eyes dancing with +excitement. There was something appealing about her, in the big childish +eyes, and in the well-bred voice with its faint hint of a French accent. +The girl she looked at could hardly have been called pretty--she was +slender and long-limbed, with honest grey eyes and a sensitive mouth +that seemed always ready to break into smiles. A little smile hovered at +its corners now, but her voice held a note of protection. + +"I don't think we need bother you to tell us," she said. "In our country +it's a very ordinary thing to give anyone a lift, if you have a seat to +spare. Isn't it, daddy?" + +"Of course," said her father. "And we are to be fellow-passengers, so it +was very lucky that we were there in the nick of time." + +Cecilia looked at them gratefully. It might have been so different, she +thought; she might have flung herself on the mercy of people who would +have been suspicious and frigid, or of others who would have treated her +with familiarity and curious questioning. These people were pleasantly +matter-of-fact; glad to help, but plainly anxious to show her that they +considered her affairs none of their business. There was a little catch +in her throat as she answered. + +"It is very good of you to take me on trust--I know I did an +unwarrantable thing. But my brother, Captain Rainham, will explain +everything, and he will be as grateful to you as I am. He is at the ship +now." + +"Then we can hand you over to his care," said her host. "By the way, +is there any need to guard against the--er--lady you spoke of? Is she +likely to follow you to the docks?" + +"She doesn't know I'm going," said Cecilia, dimpling. "Of course, if +it were in a novel she would leap into a swift motor and bid the driver +follow us, and be even now on our heels--" + +"Goodness!" said the other girl. She twisted so that she could look out +of the tiny window at the back; turning back with a relieved face. + +"Nothing near us but a carrier's van and a pony cart," she said. "I +shouldn't think you need worry." + +"No. I really don't think I need. My stepmother did see me in the +taxi, but her brain doesn't move very swiftly, nor does she, for that +matter--and I'm sure she wouldn't try to follow me. She knows, too, that +if she found me she couldn't drag me away as if I were two years old. +Oh, I'm sure I'm safe from her now," finished Cecilia, with a sigh of +relief. + +"At any rate, if she comes to the docks she will have your brother to +deal with," said the big man. "And here we are." + +They got out at the big gate where the Irish policeman greeted Cecilia +with a friendly "Did ye find it now, miss?" and beamed upon her when she +held up her wrist, with her watch safely in its place. He examined her +companions' passports, but let her through with an airy "Sure, this +young lady's all right," which made Cecilia feel that no further proof +could be needed of her respectability. Then Bob came hurrying to meet +her. + +"I was just beginning to get uneasy about you," he said. "Did you have +any trouble?" + +"My taxi broke down," Cecilia answered. "But this lady and gentleman +most kindly gave me a seat, and saved me ever so much trouble. I'll tell +you my story presently." + +Bob turned, saluting. + +"Thanks, awfully," he said. "I wasn't too happy at letting my little +sister run about alone in a strange city, but it couldn't be helped." + +"I'm very glad we were there," said the big man. "Now, can you tell me +where luggage should go? My son and a friend are somewhere on the pier, +I suppose, but it doesn't seem as though finding them would be an easy +matter." + +The pier, indeed, resembled a hive in which the bees have broken loose. +Beside it lay the huge bulk of the transport, towering high above all +the dock buildings near. Already she swarmed with Australian soldiers, +and a steady stream was still passing aboard by the overhead gangway to +the blare and crash of a regimental march. The pier itself was crowded +with officers, with a sprinkling of women and children--most of them +looking impatient enough at being kept ashore instead of being allowed +to seek their quarters on the ship. Great heaps of trunks were stacked +here and there, and a crane was steadily at work swinging them aboard. + +"We can't go aboard yet, nobody seems to know why," Bob said. "An +individual called an embarkation officer, or something of the kind, has +to check our passports; he was supposed to be here before three +o'clock, but there's no sign of him yet, and every one has to wait his +convenience. It's hard on the women with little children--the poor mites +are getting tired and cross. Luggage can be left in the care of the +ship's hands, to be loaded; I'll show you where, sir, if you like. Is +this yours?" His eye fell on a truck-load of trunks, wheeled up by a +porter, and lit up suddenly as he noticed the name on their labels. + +"Oh--are you Mr. Linton?" he exclaimed. "I believe I've got a letter for +you, from General Harran." + +"Now, I was wondering where I'd heard your name before, when your sister +happened to say you were Captain Rainham," said the big man. "How stupid +of me--of course, I met Harran at my club this week, and he told me +about you." He held out his hand, and took Bob's warmly; then he turned +to his daughter. "Norah, it's lucky that we have made friends with Miss +Rainham already, because you know she's in our care, after a fashion." + +Norah Linton turned with a quick smile. + +"I'm so glad," she said. "I've been wondering what you would be like, +because we didn't know of anyone else on board." + +"General Harran told my brother that you would befriend us, but I did +not think you would begin so early," Cecilia said. "Just fancy, Bob, +they rescued me almost from the clutches of the she-dragon!" + +Bob jumped. + +"You don't mean to say you met her?" + +"I did--as soon as my cab broke down. And I lost my head and ran from +her like a hare, and jumped into Mr. Linton's car!" + +Bob regarded her with solemn amazement. + +"So this is what happens when I let you go about alone!" he ejaculated. +"Why, you might have got yourself into an awful mess--it might have been +anybody's car--" + +"Yes, but it wasn't," said his sister serenely. "You see, I looked at +Miss Linton first, and I knew it would be all right." + +The Lintons laughed unrestrainedly. + +"That's your look of benevolent old age, Norah," said her father. "I've +often noticed it coming on." + +"I wish you'd mention it to Wally," Norah said. "He might treat me with +more respect if you did." + +"I doubt it; it isn't in Wally," said her father. "Now, Rainham, shall +we see about this luggage?" + +They handed it over to the care of deck hands, and watched it loaded, +with many other trunks, into a huge net, which the crane seized, swung +to an enormous height and then lowered gently upon the deck of the +Nauru. Just as the operation was finished two figures threaded their way +through the crowd towards them; immensely tall young officers, with the +badge of a British regiment on their caps. + +"Hullo, dad," said the taller--a good-looking grave-faced fellow, with a +strong resemblance to Norah. "We hardly expected you down so early." + +"Well, Norah and I had nothing to do, so we thought we might as well +come; though it appears that we would have been wiser not to hurry," +said Mr. Linton. "Jim, I want to introduce you to two courageous +emigrants--Miss Rainham, Captain Rainham--my son." + +Jim Linton shook hands, and introduced his companion, Captain Meadows, +who was dark and well built, with an exceedingly merry eye. + +"We've been trying to get round the powers that be, to make our way on +board," he said. "The chief difficulty is that the powers that be +aren't there; everything is hung up waiting for this blessed official. I +suppose the honest man is sleeping off the effects of a heavy lunch." + +"If he knew what hearty remarks are being made about him by over two +hundred angry people, it might disturb his rest," said Wally Meadows. +"Come along and see them--you're only on the fringe of the crowd here." + +"Wally's been acting as nursemaid for the last half hour," Jim said, as +they made their way along the pier. "He rescued a curly-haired kid from +a watery grave--at least, it would have been in if he hadn't caught it +by the hind leg--and after that the kid refused to let him go." + +"He was quite a jolly kid," said Wally. "Only he seems to have +quicksilver in him, instead of blood. I'm sorry for his mother--she'll +have a packed time for the next five weeks." He sighed. "Hide me, +Norah--there he is now!" + +The curly-haired one proved to be little Tim Burton, who detached +himself from his mother on catching sight of Wally, and trotted across +to him with a shrill cry of "There's mine officer!"--whereat Wally swung +him up on his shoulder, to his infinite delight. Mrs. Burton hurried up +to claim her offspring, and was made known to every one by Cecilia. + +"It's such an awful wait," she said wearily. "We came here soon after +two o'clock, thinking we would get the children on board early for their +afternoon sleep; now it's after four, and we have stood here ever since. +It's too tantalizing with the ship looking at us, and the poor babies +are so tired. Still, I'm not the worst off. Look at that poor girl." + +She pointed out a white-faced girl who was sitting in a drooping +attitude on a very dirty wooden case. She was dainty and refined in +appearance; and looking at her, one felt that the filthy case was the +most welcome thing she had found that afternoon. Her husband, an officer +scarcely more than a boy, stood beside, trying vainly to hush the cries +of a tiny baby. She put up her arms wearily as they looked at her. + +"Oh, give her to me, Harry." She took the little bundle and crooned over +it; and the baby wailed on unceasingly. + +"Oh!" said Norah Linton. She took a quick stride forward. They watched +her accost the young mother--saw the polite, yet stiff, refusal on the +English girl's face; saw Norah, with a swift decided movement stoop down +and take the baby from the reluctant arms, putting any protest aside +with a laugh. A laugh went round the Linton party also. + +"I knew she'd get it," said Jim. + +"Rather!" his friend echoed. "But she hasn't arms enough for all the +babies who want mothering here." + +There were indeed plenty of them. Tired young mothers stood about +everywhere, with children ranging from a few months to three or four +years, all weary by this time, and most of them cross. Harassed young +husbands, unused to travelling with children--unused, indeed, to +anything but War--went hither and thither trying to hasten the business +of getting on board--coming back, after each useless journey, to try and +soothe a screaming baby or restrain a tiny boy anxious to look over the +edge of the pier. It was only a few minutes before Cecilia had found a +mother exhausted enough to yield up her baby without much protest; and +Jim and Wally Meadows and Bob "adopted" some of the older children, and +took them off to see the band; which diversions helped to pass the time. +But it was after five o'clock before a stir went round the pier, and a +rush of officers towards a little wooden room at the foot of the gangway +told that the long-waited-for official had arrived. + +"Well, we won't hurry," said Mr. Linton. "Let the married men get on +first." + +There were not many who did not hurry. A few of the older officers kept +back; the majority, who were chiefly subalterns, made a dense crowd +about the little room, their long-pent impatience bursting out at +last. Passports examined, a procession began up the gangway; each man +compelled to halt at a barrier on top, where two officers sat allotting +cabins. It was difficult to see why both these preliminaries could not +have been managed before, instead of being left until the moment +of boarding; the final block strained every one's patience to +breaking-point. + +The Lintons and the Rainhams were almost the last to board the ship, +having, not without thankfulness, relinquished their adopted babies. The +officers allotting berths nodded comprehendingly on hearing the names of +the two girls. + +"Oh yes--you're together." He gave them their number. + +"Together--how curious!" said Cecilia. + +"Not a bit; you're the only unmarried ladies on board. And they're +packed like sardines--not a vacant berth on the ship. Over two thousand +men and two hundred officers, to say nothing of wives and children." He +leaned back, thankful that his rush of work was over. "Well, when I make +a long voyage I hope it won't be on a trooper!" + +"Well, that's a bad remark to begin one's journey on," said Jim +Linton, following the girls up the gangway. "Doesn't it scare you, Miss +Rainham?" + +"No," she said, with a little laugh. "Nothing would scare me except not +going." + +"Why, that's all right," he said. His hand fell on his sister's +shoulder. "And what about you, Nor?" + +The face she turned him was so happy that words were hardly needed. + +"Why--I'm going back to Billabong!" she said. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WELCOME OF AUSTRALIA + + +A path of moonlight lay across the sea. Into it drifted a great ship, +her engines almost stopped, so that only a dull, slow throb came up from +below, instead of the swift thud-thud of the screw that had pounded for +many weeks. It was late; so late that most of the ship's lights were +extinguished. But all through her was a feeling of pulsating life, of +unrest, of a kind of tense excitement, of long-pent expectation. +There were low voices everywhere; feet paced the decks; along the port +railings on each deck soldiers were clustered thickly, looking out +across the grey, tossing sea to a winking light that flashed and +twinkled out of the darkness like a voice that cried "Greeting!" For it +was the Point Lonsdale light, at the sea gate of Victoria; and the men +of the Nauru were nearly home. + +There was little sleep for anyone on board on that last night. Most of +the Nauru's great company were to disembark in Melbourne; the last two +days had seen a general smartening up, a mighty polishing of leather and +brass, a "rounding-up" of scattered possessions. The barber's shop had +been besieged by shaggy crowds; and since the barber, being but human, +could not cope with more than a small proportion of his would-be +customers, amateur clipping parties had been in full swing forward, +frequently with terrifying results. Nobody minded. "Git it orf, that's +all that matters!" was the motto of the long-haired. + +No one knew quite when the Nauru would berth; it was wrapped in mystery, +like all movements of troopships. So every one was ready the night +before--kit bags packed, gear stowed away, nothing left save absolute +necessaries. Then, with the coming of dusk, unrest settled down upon +the ship, and the men marched restlessly, up and down, or, gripping +pipe stems between their teeth, stared from the railings northwards. And +then, like a star at first, the Point Lonsdale light twinkled out of the +darkness, and a low murmur ran round the decks--a murmur without words, +since it came from men whose only fashion of meeting any emotion is with +a joke; and even for a "digger" there is no joke ready on the lips, but +only a catch at the heart, at the first glimpse of home. + +Norah Linton had tucked herself away behind a boat on the hurricane +deck, and there Cecilia Rainham found her just after dusk. The two +girls had become sworn friends during the long voyage out, in the close +companionship of sharing a cabin--which is a kind of acid test that +generally brings out the best--and worst--of travellers. There was +something protective in Norah's nature that responded instantly to the +lonely position of the girl who was going across the world to a strange +country. Both were motherless, but in Norah's case the blank was +softened by a father who had striven throughout his children's lives to +be father and mother alike to them, while Cecilia had only the bitter +memory of the man who had shirked his duty until he had become less than +a stranger to her. If any pang smote her heart at the sight of Norah's +worshipping love for the tall grey "dad" for whom she was the very +centre of existence, Cecilia did not show it. The Lintons had taken them +into their little circle at once--more, perhaps, by reason of Cecilia's +extraordinary introduction to them than through General Harran's +letter--and Bob and his sister were already grateful for their +friendship. They were a quiet quartet, devoted to each other in their +undemonstrative fashion; Norah was on a kind of boyish footing with Jim, +the huge silent brother who was a major, with three medal ribbons to +his credit, and with Wally Meadows, his inseparable chum, who had been +almost brought up with the brother and sister. + +"They were always such bricks to me, even when I was a little scrap of a +thing," she had told Cecilia. "They never said I was 'only a girl,' and +kept me out of things. So I grew up more than three parts a boy. It was +so much easier for dad to manage three boys, you see!" + +"You don't look much like a boy," Cecilia had said, looking at the tall, +slender figure and the mass of curly brown hair. They were getting ready +for bed, and Norah was wielding a hair-brush vigorously. + +"No, but I really believe I feel like one--at least, I do whenever I +am with Jim and Wally," Norah had answered. "And when we get back +to Billabong it will be just as it always was--we'll be three boys +together. You know, it's the most ridiculous thing to think of Jim and +Wally as grown-ups. Dad and I can't get accustomed to it at all. And as +for Jim being a major!--a major sounds so dignified and respectable, and +Jim isn't a bit like that!" + +"And what about Captain Meadows?" + +"Oh--Wally will simply never grow up." Norah laughed softly. "He's like +Peter Pan. Once he nearly managed it--in that bad time when Jim was a +prisoner, and we thought he was killed. But Jim got back just in time to +save him from anything so awful. One of the lovely parts of getting Jim +again was to see the twinkle come back into Wally's eyes. You see, Wally +is practically all twinkle!" + +"And when you get back to Australia, what will you all do?" + +Norah had looked puzzled. + +"Why, I don't know that we've ever thought of it," she said. "We'll just +all go to Billabong--we don't seem to think further than that. Anyway, +you and Bob are coming too--so we can plan it all out then." + +Looking at her, on this last night of the voyage, Cecilia wondered +whether the unknown "Billabong" would indeed be enough, after the long +years of war. They had been children when they left; now the boys were +seasoned soldiers, with scars and honours, and such memories as only +they themselves could know; and Norah and her father had for years +conducted what they termed a "Home for Tired People," where broken and +weary men from the front had come to be healed and tended, and sent +back refitted in mind and body. This girl, who leaned over the rail and +looked at the Point Lonsdale light, had seen suffering and sorrow; the +mourning of those who had given up dear ones, the sick despair of young +and strong men crippled in the very dawn of life; and had helped them +all. Beside her, in experience, Cecilia felt a child. And yet the +old bush home, with its simple life and the pleasures that had been +everything to her in childhood, seemed everything to her now. + +Cecilia went softly to her side, and Norah turned with a start. + +"Hallo, Tommy!" she said, slipping her arm through the +new-comer's--Cecilia had become "Tommy" to them all in a very short +time, and her hated, if elegant, name left as a legacy to England. "I +didn't hear you come. Oh, Tommy, it's lovely to see home again!" + +"You can't see much," said Tommy, laughing. + +"No, but it's there. I can feel it; and that old winking eye on Point +Lonsdale is saying fifty nice things a minute. And I can smell the gum +leaves--don't you tell me I can't, Tommy, just because your nose isn't +tuned up to gum leaves yet!" + +"Does it take long to tune a nose?" asked Tommy, laughing. + +"Not a nice nose like yours." Norah gave a happy little sigh. "Do you +see that glow in the sky? That's the lights of Melbourne. I went to +school near Melbourne, but I never loved it much; but somehow, it seems +different now. It's all just shouting welcomes. And back of beyond that +light is Billabong." + +"I want to see Billabong," said the other girl. "I never had a home that +meant anything like that--I want to see yours." + +"And I suppose you'll just think it's an ordinary, untidy old place--not +a bit like the trim English places, where the woods look as though they +were swept and dusted before breakfast every morning. I suppose it is +all ordinary. But it has meant just everything I wanted, all my life, +and I can't imagine its meaning anything less now." + +"And what about Homewood--the Home for Tired People?" + +"Oh, Homewood certainly is lovely," Norah said. "I like it better than +any place in the world that isn't Billabong--and it was just wonderful +to be able to carry it on for the Tired People: dad and I will always be +thankful we had the chance. But it never was home: and now it's going to +run itself happily without us, as a place for partly-disabled men, with +Colonel Hunt and Captain Hardress to manage it. It was just a single +chapter in our lives, and now it is closed. But we're--all of us--parts +of Billabong." + +Some one came quietly along the deck and to the vacant place on her +other side. + +"Who's talking Billabong again, old kiddie?" Jim Linton's deep voice was +always gentle. Norah gave his shoulder a funny little rub with her head. + +"Ah, you're just as bad as I am, so you needn't laugh at me, Jimmy." + +"I wasn't laughing at you," Jim defended himself. "I expected to find +you ever so much worse. I thought you'd sing anthems on the very word +Billabong all through the voyage, especially in your bath. Of course I +don't know what Tommy has suffered!" + +"Tommy doesn't need your sympathy," said that lady. "However, she wants +to look her best for Melbourne, so she's going to bed. Don't hurry, +Norah; I know you want to exchange greetings with that light for hours +yet!" + +She slipped away, and Norah drew closer to Jim. Presently came Wally, on +her other side, and a few moments later a deep voice behind them said, +"Not in bed yet, Norah?"--and Wally made room for Mr. Linton. + +"I couldn't go to bed, dad." + +"Apparently most of the ship is of your mind--I didn't feel like bed +myself," admitted the squatter, letting his hand rest for a moment +on his daughter's shoulder. He gave a great sigh of happiness. "Eh, +children, it's great to be near home again!" + +"My word, isn't it!" said Jim. "Only it's hard to take in. I keep +fancying that I'll certainly wake up in a minute and find myself in +a trench, just getting ready to go over the top. What do you suppose +they're doing at Billabong now, Nor?" + +"Asleep," said Norah promptly. "Oh, I don't know--I don't believe +Brownie's asleep." + +"I know she's not," Wally said. He and the old nurse-housekeeper of +Billabong were sworn allies; though no one could ever quite come up to +Jim and Norah in Brownie's heart, Wally had been a close third from the +day, long years back, that he had first come to the station, a lonely, +dark-eyed little Queenslander. "She's made the girls scrub and polish +until there's nothing left for them to rub, and she's harried Hogg and +Lee Wing until there isn't a leaf looking crooked in all the garden, +and she and Murty have planned all about meeting you for the hundred and +first time." + +"And she's planning to make pikelets for you!" put in Norah. + +"Bless her. I wouldn't wonder. She's planning the very wildest cooking, +of course--do you remember what the table used to be the night we came +home from school? And now she's gone round all the rooms to make sure +she couldn't spend another sixpence on them, and she's sitting by her +window trying to see us all on the Nauru. 'Specially you, old Nor." + +"'Tis the gift of second sight you have," said Jim admiringly. "A +few hundred years ago you'd have got yourself ducked as a witch or +something." + +"Oh, Wally and Brownie were always twin souls; no wonder each knows what +the other is thinking of," Norah said, laughing. "It all sounds exactly +true, at any rate. Boys, what a pity you can't land in uniform--wouldn't +they all love to see you!" + +"Can't do it," Jim said. "Too long since we were shot out of the army; +any enterprising provost-marshal could make himself obnoxious about it." + +"I know--but I'm sorry," answered Norah. "Brownie won't be satisfied +unless she sees you in all your war paint." + +"We'll put it on some night for dinner," Jim promised. He peered +suddenly into the darkness. "There's a moving light--it's the pilot +steamer coming out for us." + +They watched the light pass slowly from the dim region that meant the +Heads, until, as the pilot boat swung out through the Rip to where the +Nauru lay, her other lights grew clear, and presently her whole outline +loomed indistinctly, suddenly close to them. She lay to across a little +heaving strip of sea, and presently the pilot was being pulled across +to them by a couple of men and was coming nimbly up the Nauru's ladder, +hand over hand. He nodded cheerily at his welcome--a fusillade of +greetings from every "digger" who could find a place at the railings, +and a larger number who could not, but contented themselves with +shouting sweet nothings from behind their comrades. A lean youngster +near Jim Linton looked down enviously at the retreating boat. + +"If I could only slide down into her, an' nick off to the old Alvina +over there, I'd be home before breakfast," he said. "Me people live at +Queenscliff--don't it seem a fair cow to have to go past 'em, right up +to Melbourne?" + +The pilot's head appeared above on the bridge, beside the captain's, and +presently the Nauru gathered way, and, slowly turning, forged through +the tossing waters of the Rip. Before her the twin lights of the Heads +opened out; soon she was gliding between them, and under the silent guns +of the Queenscliff forts, and past the twinkling house lights of the +little seaside town. There were long coo-ees from the diggers, with +shrill, piercing whistles of greeting for Victoria; from ashore came +faint answering echoes. But the four people from Billabong stood +silently, glad of each other's nearness, but with no words, and in David +Linton's heart and Norah's was a great surge of thankfulness that, out +of many perils, they were bringing their boys safely home. + +The Nauru turned across Port Phillip Bay, and presently they felt the +engines cease, and there came the rattle of the chain as the anchor shot +into the sea. + +"As the captain thought," said Jim. "He fancied they'd anchor us off +Portsea for the night and bring us up to Port Melbourne in the morning, +after we'd been inspected. Wouldn't it be the limit if some one +developed measles now, and they quarantined us!" + +"You deserve quarantining, if ever anyone did," said Norah, indignantly. +"Why do you have such horrible ideas?" + +"I don't know--they just seem to waft themselves to me," said Jim +modestly. "Anyhow, the quarantine station is a jolly little place for +a holiday, and the sea view is delightful." He broke off, laughing, and +suddenly flung his arm round her shoulders in the dusk of the deck. "I +think I'm just about insane at getting home," he said. "Don't mind me, +old kiddie--and you'd better go to bed, or you'll be a ghost in the +morning." + +They weighed anchor after breakfast, following a perfunctory medical +inspection--so perfunctory that one youth who, having been a medical +student, and knowing well that he had a finely-developed feverish +cold, with a high temperature, and not wishing to embarrass his +fellow-passengers, placed in his mouth the wrong end of the clinical +thermometer handed him by the visiting nurse. He sucked this gravely +for the prescribed time, reversing it just as she reappeared; and, being +marked normal and given a clean bill of health, returned to his berth +to shiver and perspire between huge doses of quinine. More than one such +hero evaded the searching eye of regulations; until finally the Nauru, +free to land her passengers, steamed slowly up the Bay. + +One by one the old, familiar landmarks opened out--Mornington, +Frankston, Mordialloc, while Melbourne itself lay hidden in a mist cloud +ahead. Then, as the sun grew stronger the mist lifted, and domes and +spires pierced the dun sky, towering above the jumbled mass of the grey +city. They drew closer to Port Melbourne, and lo! St. Kilda and all the +foreshore were gay with flags, and all the ships in the harbour were +dressed to welcome them; and beyond the pier were long lines of motors, +each beflagged, waiting for the fighting men whom the Nauru was bringing +home. + +"Us!" said a boy. "Why, it's us! Flags an' motors--an' a blessed band +playin' on the pier! Wot on earth are they fussin' over us for? Ain't it +enough to get home?" + +The band of the Nauru was playing Home, Sweet Home, very low and +tenderly, and there were lumps in many throats, and many a pipe went out +unheeded. Slowly the great ship drew in to the pier, where officers in +uniform waited, and messengers of welcome from the Government. Beyond +the barriers that held the general public back from the pier was a +black mass of people; cheer upon cheer rose, to be wafted back from +the transport, where the "diggers" lined every inch of the port side, +clinging like monkeys to yards and rigging. Then the Nauru came to rest +at last, and the gangways rattled down, and the march off began, to the +quick lilt of the band playing "Oh, it's a Lovely War." The men took +up the words, singing as they marched back to Victoria--coming back, as +they had gone, with a joke on their lips. So the waiting motors received +them, and rolled them off in triumphal procession to Melbourne, between +the cheering crowds. + +From the top deck the Lintons, with the Rainhams, watched the men +go--disembarkation was for the troops first, and not till all had gone +could the unattached officers leave the ship. The captain came to them, +at last a normal and friendly captain--no more the official master of +a troopship, in which capacity, as he ruefully said, he could make no +friends, and could scarcely regard his ship as his own, provided he +brought her safely from port to port. He cast a disgusted glance along +the stained and littered decks. + +"This is her last voyage as a trooper, and I'm not sorry," he said. +"After this she'll lie up for three months to be refitted; and then I'll +command a ship again and not a barracks. You wouldn't think now, to see +her on this voyage, that the time was when I had to know the reason why +if there was so much as a stain the size of a sixpence on the deck. Oh +yes, it's been all part of the job, and I'm proud of all the old ship +has done, and the thousands of men she's carried; and we've had enough +narrow squeaks, from mines and submarines, to fill a book. But I'm +beginning to hanker mightily to see her clean!" + +The Lintons laughed unfeelingly. A little mild grumbling might well be +permitted to a man with his record; few merchant captains had done finer +service in the war, and the decoration on his breast testified to his +cool handling of his ship in the "narrow squeaks" he spoke of lightly. + +"Oh yes. I never get any sympathy," said the captain, laughing himself. +"And yet I'll wager Miss Linton was 'house-proud' in that 'Home for +Tired People' of hers, and she ought to sympathize with a tidy man. You +should have seen my wife's face when she came aboard once at Liverpool, +and saw the ship; and she's never had the same respect for me since! +There--the last man is off the ship, and the gangways are clear; nothing +to keep all you homesick people now." He said good-bye, and ran up the +steps to his cabin under the bridge. + +It was a queer home-coming at first, to a vast pier, empty save for a +few officials and policemen--for no outsiders were allowed within the +barriers. But once clear of customs officials and other formalities +they packed themselves into cabs, and in a few moments were outside +the railed-off space, turning into a road lined on either side with +people--all peering into the long procession of cabs, in the hope of +finding their own returning dear ones. It was but a few moments before a +posse of uncles, aunts and cousins swooped down upon the Lintons, whose +cab prudently turned down a side street to let the wave of welcome +expend itself. In the side street, too, were motors belonging to the +aunts and uncles; and presently the new arrivals were distributed among +them, and were being rushed up to Melbourne, along roads still crowded +by the people who had flocked to welcome the "diggers" home. The +Rainhams found themselves adopted by this new and cheery band of +people--at least half of whose names they never learned; not that this +seemed to matter in the least. It was something new to them, and very +un-English; but there was no doubt that it made landing in a new country +a very different thing from their half-fearful anticipations. + +"And you really came out all alone--not knowing anyone!" said an aunt. +"Aren't you English people plucky! And I believe that most of you think +we're all black fellows--or did until our diggers went home, and proved +unexpectedly white!" + +"I don't think we're quite so bad as that!" Bob said, laughing. "But +certainly we never expected quite so kind a welcome." + +"Oh, we're all immensely interested in people who take the trouble to +come across the world to see us," said Mrs. Geoffrey Linton. "That is, +if they don't put on 'side'; we don't take kindly to being patronized. +And you have no idea how many new chums do patronize us. Did you know, +by the way, that you're new chums now?" + +"It has been carefully drilled into us on the ship," Bob said gravely. +"I think we know pretty well all we have to face--the snakes that creep +into new chums' boots and sleep under their pillows, the goannas that +bite our toes if we aren't watchful, and the mosquitoes that sit on the +trees and bark!" + +"Also the tarantulas that drop from everywhere, especially into food," +added Tommy, dimpling. "And the bush fires every Sunday morning, and the +blacks that rush down--what is it? Oh yes, the Block, casting boomerangs +about! There is much spare time on a troopship, Mrs. Linton, and all of +it was employed by the subalterns in telling us what we might expect!" + +"I can quite imagine it," Mrs. Geoffrey laughed. "Oh well, Billabong +will be a good breaking-in. Norah tells me you are going up there at +once?" + +"Well, not quite at once," Bob said. "We think it is only fair to let +them get home without encumbrances, and as we have to present other +letters of introduction in Melbourne, we'll stay here for a few days, +and then follow them." + +"Then you must come out to us," said Mrs. Geoffrey firmly. "No use to +ask my brother-in-law, of course; he has just one idea, and that is to +stay at Scott's, get his luggage through the customs, see his bankers as +quickly as possible, and then get back to his beloved Billabong. If we +get them out to dinner to-night, it's as much as we can hope for. But +you two must come to us--we can run you here and there in the car to see +the people you want." She put aside their protests, laughing. "Why, you +don't know how much we like capturing bran-new English people--and think +what you have done for our boys all these four years! From what they +tell us, if anyone wants to go anywhere or do anything he likes in +England, all he has to do is to wear a digger's slouched hat!" + +They stopped in Collins Street, and in a moment the new-comers, slightly +bewildered, found themselves in a tea-room; a new thing in tea-rooms +to Tommy and Bob, since it was a vision of russet and gold--brown wood, +masses of golden wattle and daffodils, and of bronze gum leaves; and +even the waitresses flitted about in russet-brown dresses. David Linton +hung back at the doorway. + +"It isn't a party, Winifred?" + +"My dear David, only a few people who want to welcome you back. Really, +you're just as bad as ever!" said his sister-in-law, half vexed. "The +children's school friends, too--Jim and Wally's mates. You can't expect +us to get you all back, after so long--and with all those honours, +too!--and not give people a chance of shaking hands with you." At which +point Norah said, gently, but firmly, "Dad, you mustn't be naughty," and +led him within. + +Some one grasped his hand. "Well, Linton, old chap!" And he found +himself greeting the head of a big "stock and station" firm. Some one +else clapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to meet his banker; +behind them towered half a dozen old squatter friends, with fellow +clubmen, all trying at once to get hold of his hand. David Linton's +constitutional shyness melted in the heartiness of their greeting. +Beyond them Norah seemed to be the centre of a mass of girls, one of +whom presently detached herself, and came to him. He said in amazement, +"Why, it's Jean Yorke--and grown up!" and actually kissed her, to the +great delight of Jean, who had been an old mate of Norah's. As for Jim +and Wally, they were scarcely to be seen, save for their heads, in +a cluster of lads, who were pounding and smiting them wherever space +permitted. Altogether, it was a confused and cheerful gathering, and, +much to the embarrassment of the russet-brown waitresses, the last thing +anybody thought of was tea. + +Still, when the buzz of greetings had subsided, and at length "morning +tea"--that time-honoured institution of Australia--had a chance to +appear, it was of a nature to make the new arrivals gasp. The last four +years in England had fairly broken people in to plain living; dainties +and luxuries had disappeared so completely from the table that every one +had ceased to think about them. Therefore, the Linton party blinked in +amazement at the details of what to Melbourne was a very ordinary tea, +and, forgetting its manners, broke into open comment. + +"Cakes!" said Wally faintly. "Jean, you might catch me if I swoon." + +"What's wrong with the cakes?" said Jean Yorke, bewildered. + +"Nothing--except that they are cakes! Jim!"--he caught at his chum's +sleeve--"that substance in enormous layers in that enormous slice is +called cream. Real cream. When did you see cream last, my son?" + +"I'm hanged if I know," Jim answered, grinning. "About four years ago, I +suppose. I'd forgotten it existed. And the cakes look as if they didn't +fall to pieces if you touched 'em." + +"What, do the English cakes do that?" asked a pained aunt. + +"Rather--when there are any. It's something they take out of the war +flour--what is it, Nor?" + +"Gluten, I think it's called," said Norah doubtfully. "It's something +that ordinarily makes flour stick together, but they took it all out of +the war flour, and put it into munitions. So everything you made with +war flour was apt to be dry and crumbly. And when you made cakes with +it, and war sugar, which was half full of queer stuff like plaster of +paris, and egg substitute, because eggs--when you could get them--were +eightpence halfpenny, and butter substitute (and very little of +that)--well, they weren't exactly what you would call cakes at all." + +"Butter substitute!" said the aunt faintly. "I could not live without +good butter!" + +"Bless you, Norah and dad hadn't tasted butter for nearly three years +before they came on board the Nauru," said Jim. "It was affecting to see +Nor greeting a pat of butter for the first time!" + +"But you had some butter--we read about it." + +"Two ounces per head weekly--but they put all their ration into the +'Tired People's food,'" said Wally. + +"It wasn't only dad and I," said Norah quickly. "Every soul we employed +did that--Irish maids, butler, cook-lady and all. And we hadn't to ask +one of them to do it. The Tired People always had butter. They used to +think we had a special allowance from Government, but we hadn't." + +"Dear me!" said the aunt. "It's too terrible. And meat?" + +"Oh, meat was very short," said Norah, laughing. "Of course we were +fairly well off for our Tired People, because they had soldiers' +rations; but even so, we almost forgot what a joint looked like. Stews +and hot pots and made dishes--you call them that because you make them +of anything but meat! We became very clever at camouflaging meat dishes. +Somehow the Tired People ate them all. But"--she paused, laughing--"you +know I never thought I could feel greedy for meat. And I did--I just +longed, quite often, for a chop!" + +"And could you not have one?" + +"Gracious, no!" Norah looked amazed. "Chops were quite the most +extravagant thing of all--too much bone. You see, the meat ration +included bone and fat, and I can tell you we were pretty badly worried +if we got too much of either." + +"To think of all she knows," said the aunt, regarding her with a tearful +eye. Whereat Norah laughed. + +"Oh, I could tell you lots of homely things," she said. "How we always +boiled bones for soup at least four times before we looked on them as +used up; and how we worked up sheep's heads into the most wonderful +chicken galantines; and--but would you mind if I ate some walnut cake +instead? It's making me tremble even to look at it." + +After which Jean Yorke and the russet-brown waitresses vied in plying +the new-comers with the most elaborate cakes, until even Jim and Wally +begged for mercy. + +"You ought to remember we're not used to these things," Wally protested, +waving away a strange erection of cream, icing and wafery pastry. "If +I ate that it would go to my head, and I'd have to be removed in an +ambulance. And the awful part of it is--I want to eat it. Take it out of +my sight, Jean, or I'll yield, and the consequences will be awful." + +"But it is too dreadful to think of all you poor souls have gone +through," said an aunt soulfully. "How little we in Australia know of +what war means!" + +"But if it comes to that, how little we knew!" Norah exclaimed, "Why, +there we were, only a few miles from the fighting--you could hear the +guns on a still day, when a big action was going on; and except for the +people who came directly in the way of air raids, England knew little or +nothing of war: I mean, war as the people of Belgium and Northern France +knew it. The worst we had to admit was that we didn't get everything we +liked to eat, and that was a joke compared to what we might have had. +Hardly anyone in England went cold or hungry through the war, and so +I don't think we knew much about it either." She broke off blushing +furiously, to find every one listening to her. "I didn't mean to make a +speech." + +"It's quite true, though," said her father, "even if you did make a +speech about it. There were privations in some cases, no doubt--invalids +sometimes suffered, or men used to a heavy meat diet, whose wives had +not knowledge--or fuel--enough to cook substitutes properly. On the +other hand, there was no unemployment, and the poor were better fed than +they had ever been, since every one could make good wages at munitions. +The death rate among civilians was very much lower than usual. People +learned to eat less, and not to waste--and the pre-war waste in England +was terrific. And I say--and I think we all say--that anyone who +grumbles about 'privations' in England deserves to know what real war +means--as the women of Belgium know it." + +He stopped, and Norah regarded him with great pride, since his remarks +were usually strictly limited to the fewest possible words. + +"Well, it's rather refreshing to hear you talk," remarked another +squatter. "A good many people have come back telling most pathetic tales +of all they had to endure. I suppose, though, that some were worse off +than you?" + +"Oh, certainly," David Linton said. "We knew one Australian, an +officer's wife, who was stranded in a remote corner of South Wales +with two servants and two babies; it was just at the time of greatest +scarcity before compulsory rationing began, when most of the food +coming in was kept in the big towns and the Midlands. That woman could +certainly get milk for her youngsters; but for three months the only +foods she and her maids were sure of getting were war bread, potatoes, +haricot beans and salt herrings. She was a good way from the nearest +town, and there was deep snow most of the time. There was no carting out +to her place, and by the time she could get into the town most of the +food shops would be empty." + +"And if you saw the salt herrings!" said Norah. "They come down from +Scotland, packed thousands in a barrel. They're about the length and +thickness of a comb, and if you soak them for a day in warm water and +then boil them, you can begin to think about them as a possible food. +But Mrs. Burton and her maids ate them for three months. She didn't seem +to think she had anything to grumble about--in fact, she said she still +felt friendly towards potatoes, but she hoped she'd never see a herring +or a bean again!" + +"She had her own troubles about coal, too," remarked Jim. "The only coal +down there is a horrible brownish stuff that falls into damp slack if +you look at it; it's generally used only for furnaces, but people had +to draw their coal allowance from the nearest supply, and it was all she +could get. The only way to use the beastly stuff was to mix it with wet, +salt mud from the river into what the country people call culm--then you +cut it into blocks, or make balls of it, and it hardens. She +couldn't get a man to do it for her, and she used to mix all her culm +herself--and you wouldn't call it woman's work, even in Germany. But she +used to tell it as a kind of joke." + +"She used to look on herself as one of the really lucky women," said +David Linton, "because her husband didn't get killed. And I think she +was--herrings and culm and all. And we're even luckier, since we've all +come back to Australia, and to such a welcome as you've given us." He +stood up, smiling his slow, pleasant smile at them all. "And now I +think I've got to go chasing the Customs, if I'm ever to disinter our +belongings and get home." + +The girls took possession of Norah and Tommy, who left their menfolk +to the drear business of clearing luggage, and thankfully spent the +afternoon in the Botanical Gardens, glad to have firm ground under +their feet after six weeks of sea. Then they all met at dinner at Mrs. +Geoffrey Linton's, where they found her son, Cecil, who greeted Norah +with something of embarrassment. There was an old score between Norah +and Cecil Linton, although they had not seen each other for years; +but its memory died out in Norah's heart as she looked at her cousin's +military badge and noted that he dragged one foot slightly. Indeed, +there was no room in Norah's heart for anything but happiness. + +The aunts and uncles tried hard to persuade David Linton to remain a few +days in Melbourne, but he shook his head. + +"I've been homesick for five years," he told them. "And it feels like +fifty. I'll come down again, I promise--yes, and bring the children, of +course. But just now I can't wait. I've got to get home." + +"That old Billabong!" said Mrs. Geoffrey, half laughing. "Are you going +to live and die in the backblocks, David?" + +"Why, certainly--at least I hope so," he said. "I suppose there must +be lucid intervals, now that Norah is grown up, or imagines she is--not +that she seems to me a bit different from the time when her hair was +down. Still I suppose I must bring her to town, and let her make her +curtsy at Government House, and do all the correct things--" + +Some one slipped a hand through his arm. + +"But when we've done them, daddy," said Norah cheerfully, "there will +always be Billabong to go home to!" + + + +CHAPTER X + +BILLABONG + + +"Will it be fine, Murty?" + +The person addressed made no answer for a moment, continuing to stare +at the western horizon with his eyes wrinkled and his face anxious. He +turned presently; a tall, grizzled man, with the stooping shoulders +and the slightly bowed legs that are the heritage of those who spend +nine-tenths of their time in the saddle. + +"Sorra a one of me knows," he said. "It's one of thim unchancy days that +might be annything. Have ye looked at the glass?" + +"It's mejum," replied the first speaker. She was a vast woman, with a +broad, kindly face, lit by shrewd and twinkling blue eyes, dressed, as +was her custom, in a starched blue print, with a snowy apron. "Mejum +only. But I don't feel comferable at that there bank of clouds, Murty." + +"I'd not say meself it was good," admitted Murty O'Toole, head stockman +on the Billabong run. He looked again at the doubtful sky, and then back +to Mrs. Brown. "Have ye no corns, at all, that 'ud be shootin' on ye if +rain was coming?" + +"Corns I 'ave, indeed," said Mrs. Brown, with the sigh of one who admits +that she is but human. "But no--they ain't shootin' worth speakin' +about, Murty. Nor me rheumatic knee ain't givin' tongue, as Master Jim +would say." + +"Yerra, that's all to the good," said the stockman, much cheered. "I'll +not look at the ould sky anny longer--leastways, not till I have that +cup of tea ye were speakin' about." + +"Come in then," said Mrs. Brown, leading the way into the kitchen--a +huge place so glittering with cleanliness and polish that it almost hurt +the eye. "Kettle's boilin'--I'll have it made in a jiffy. No, Murty, +you will not sit on that table. Pounds of bath-brick 'ave gone into me +tables this last week." + +"Ye have them always that white I do not see how ye'd want them to be +whiter," remarked Murty, gazing round him. "But I niver see anything to +aiqual the shine ye have on them tins an' copper. And the stove is that +fine it's a shame to be cookin' with it." He looked with respect at the +black satin and silver of the stove, where leaping flames glowed redly. +"Well, I'll always say there isn't a heartsomer place to come into than +the Billabong kitchen. And isn't it the little misthress that thinks +so?" + +"Bless her, she was always in and out of it from the time she could +toddle," said Mrs. Brown, pausing with the teapot in her hand. "And +she wasn't much more than toddlin' before she was at me to teach her +to cook. When she was twelve she could cook a dinner as well as anyone +twice her age. I never see the beat of her--handy as a man out on the +run, too--" + +"She was that," said Murty solemnly. "Since she was a bit of a thing I +never see the bullock as could get away from her. And the ponies she'd +ride! There was nothin' ever looked through a bridle that cud frighten +her." + +"Poof! Miss Norah didn't know what it was to be afraid," said Mrs. +Brown, filling the huge brown teapot. "Sometimes I've wished she was, +for me heart's been in me mouth often and often when I see her go +caperin' down the track on some mad-'eaded pony." + +"An' there was niver a time when they was late home but you made sure +the whole lot of 'em was killed," said Murty, grinning. "I'd come in +here an' find you wit' all the funerals planned, so to speak--" + +"Ah, go on! At least, I alwuz stayed at home when I was nervis," said +Mrs. Brown. "Who was it I've known catch an 'orse in the dark, an' go +off to look for 'em when they were a bit late? Not me, Mr. O'Toole!" She +filled his cup and handed it to him with a triumphant air. + +"Yerra, I misremember doin' any such thing," said Murty, slightly +confused. "'Tis the way I was most likely goin' afther a sick bullock, +or it might be 'possum shootin'." He raised his cup and took a deep +draught; then, with a wry face, gazed at its contents. "I dunno is this +a new brand of tea you're afther usin', now? Sure, it looks pale." + +Mrs. Brown cast a glance at the cup he held out, and gave a gasp of +horror. + +"Well, not in all me born days 'ave I made tea an' forgot to put the tea +in!" she exclaimed, snatching it from his hand. "Don't you go an' tell +Dave and Mick, Murty, or I'll never hear the end of it. Lucky there's +plenty of hot water." She emptied the teapot swiftly, and refilled it, +this time with due regard to the tea-caddy. + +"Now, Murty, don't you sit there grinnin' at me like a hyener--it isn't +every day I get Miss Norah home." + +"It is not," said Murty, taking his renewed cup and a large piece of +bread and butter. "Sure, I'd not blame ye if ye fried bacon in the +tea-pot--not this morning. I dunno, meself, am I on me head or me heels. +All the men is much the same; they've been fallin' over each other, +tryin' to get a little bit of extra spit-an'-polish on the whole place. +I b'lieve Dave Boone wud 'a' set to work an' whitewashed the paddock +fences if I'd encouraged him at all." + +"There's that Sarah," said Mrs. Brown. "Ornery days it takes me, an +alarum clock, an' Mary, to say nothin' of a wet sponge, to get her out +of bed. But bless you--these last three days she's up before the pair +of us, rubbin' an' polishin' in every corner. An' she an' 'Ogg at each +other's throats over flowers; she wantin' to pick every one to look +pretty in the 'ouse, an' 'Ogg wantin' every one to look pretty in the +garden." + +"Well, Hogg's got enough an' to spare," was Murty's comment. "No union +touch about his work. I reckon he's put in sixteen hours a day at that +garden since we heard they were comin'." + +"But there never was any union touch about Billabong," said Mrs. Brown. + +"Not much! We all know when we're well off," said Murty. "I'll bet no +union was ever as good a boss as David Linton." + +Two other men appeared at the kitchen door--Mick Shanahan and Dave +Boone--each wearing, in defiance of regulations, some battered remnant +of uniform that marked the "digger," while Mick, in addition, would walk +always with a slight limp. He was accustomed to say 'twas a mercy it +didn't hinder his profession--which, being that of a horsebreaker, freed +him, as a rule, from the necessity of much walking. Other men Billabong +had sent to the war, and not all of them had come back; the lonely +station had been a place of anxiety and of mourning. But to-day the +memories of the long years of fighting and waiting were blotted out in +joy. + +"Come in, boys," Mrs. Brown nodded at the men. "Tea's ready. What's it +going to be?" + +"Fine, I think," said Boone, replying to this somewhat indefinite +question with complete certainty as to the questioner's meaning. "I +seen you an' Murty pokin' your heads up at them clouds, but there ain't +nothin' in them." A smile spread over his good-looking, dark face. +"Bless you, it couldn't rain today, with Miss Norah comin' home!" + +"I don't believe, meself, that Providence 'ud 'ave the 'eart," said Mrs. +Brown. "Picksher them now, all flyin' round and gettin' ready to start, +and snatchin' a bite of breakfast--" + +"If I know Master Jim 'twill be no bite he'll snatch!" put in Mick. + +"Well, all I 'ope is that the 'otel don't poison them," said Mrs. +Brown darkly. "I on'y stopped in a Melbin' 'otel once, and then I got +pot-o'-mine poisoning, or whatever they call it. I've 'eard they never +wash their saucepans!" + +"No wonder you get rummy flavours in what you eat down there, if that's +so," said Dave. "Surprisin' what the digestions of them city people +learn to put up with. Well, I suppose you won't be addin' to their risks +by puttin' up much of a dinner for them to-day, Mrs. Brown." He grinned +wickedly. + +"You go on, imperence!" said the lady. "If I let you look into the +larder now (w'ich I won't, along of knowin' you too well), there'd be +no gettin' you out to work to-day. Murty, that turkey weighed +five-and-thirty pound!" + +"Sure he looked every ounce of it," said Murty. "I niver see his +aiqual--he was a regular Clydesdale of a bird!" + +"I rose him from the aig meself," said Mrs. Brown, "and I don't think +I could 'a' brung meself to 'ave 'im killed for anythink less than them +comin' 'ome. As it was, I feel 'e's died a nobil death. An' 'e'll eat +beautiful, you mark my words." + +"Well, it'll be something to think of the Boss at the head of his table, +investigatin' a Billabong turkey again," said Boone, putting down his +empty cup. "And as there's nothing more certain than that they'll all be +out at the stables d'reckly after dinner, wantin' to see the 'orses, you +an' I'd better go an' shine 'em up a bit more, Mick." They tramped out +of the kitchen, while Mrs. Brown waddled to the veranda and cast further +anxious glances at the bank of clouds lying westward. + +Norah was watching them, too. She was sitting in the corner of the +compartment, as the swift train bore them northward, with her eyes glued +to the country flying past. Just for once the others did not matter to +her; her father, Jim, and Wally, each in his own corner, as they had +travelled so many times in the past, coming back from school. Then she +had had eyes only for them; to-day her soul was hungry for the dear +country she had not seen for so long. It lay bare enough in the early +winter--long stretches of stone-walled paddocks where the red soil +showed through the sparse, native grass; steep, stony hillsides, with +little sheep grazing on them--pygmies, after the great English sheep; +oases of irrigation, with the deep green of lucerne growing rank among +weed-fringed water-channels; and so on and on, past little towns +and tiny settlements, and now and then a stop at some place of more +importance. But Norah did not want the towns; she was homesick for the +open country, for the scent of the gum trees coming drifting in through +the open window, for the long, lonely plains where grazing cattle raised +lazy eyes to look at the roaring engine, or horses flung up nervous +heads and went racing away across the grass--more for the fun of it than +from fear. The gum trees called to her, beckoned to her; she forgot the +smooth perfection of the English landscape as she feasted her eyes on +the dear, untidy trees, whose dangling strips of bark seemed to wave to +her in greeting, telling her she was coming home. They passed a great +team of working bullocks in a wagon loaded with an enormous tree trunk; +twenty-four monsters, roan and red and speckled, with a great pair of +polled Angus in the lead; they plodded along in their own dust, their +driver beside them with his immense whip over his shoulder. Norah +pointed them out to the others with a quick exclamation, and Jim and +Wally came to look out from her window. + +"By Jove, what a team!" said Jim. "Well, just at this moment I'd rather +see those fellows than the meet of the Coaching Club in Hyde Park--and I +had a private idea that that was the finest sight in the world!" + +"Aren't you a jungly animal!" quoth Wally. + +"Rather--just now," Jim rejoined. "Some day, I suppose, I'll be glad to +go back to London, and look at it all again. But just now there doesn't +seem to be anything to touch a fellow's own country--and that team of +old sloggers there is just a bit of it. Isn't it, old Nor?" She nodded +up at him; there was no need of words. + +The morning was drawing towards noon when they came in sight of their +own little station: Cunjee, looking just as they had left it years ago, +its corrugated iron roofs gleaming in the sunlight, its one street green +with feathery pepper trees along each side. The train pulled up, and +they all tumbled out hastily; presumably the express wasted no more time +upon Cunjee than in days gone by, when it was necessary to hustle out +of the carriage, and to race along to the van, lest the whistle should +sound and your trunks be whisked away somewhere down the line. + +There were many people on the platform, and, wonderful to relate, a band +was playing--Home Sweet Home; a little band, some of its musicians still +in the aprons in which they had rushed from their shop duties; with +instruments few and poor, and with not much training, so that the cornet +was apt to be half a bar ahead of the euphonium. The Lintons had heard +many bands since they had been away, and some had played before the King +himself; but no music had ever gripped at their heartstrings like the +music of the little backblocks band that stood on the gravelled platform +of Cunjee and played to welcome them home. + +Suddenly, as they stood bewildered, there seemed people all round them; +kindly, homely faces, gripping their hands, shouting greetings. Evans, +the manager of Billabong, showed a delighted face for a moment, said, +"Luggage in the van. I'll see to it; don't you bother," and was gone. +Little Dr. Anderson and his wife, friends of long years, were trying to +shake hands with all four at once. They were the centre of an excited +little crowd--and found it hard to believe that it was really for them. +The train roared away, unnoticed, and the station-master and the porter +ran up to add their voices to the chorus. Somehow they were outside the +station, gently propelled; and there was a great arch of gum leaves, +with a huge WELCOME in red letters, and beneath it were the shire +president and his councillors, and other weighty men, all with speeches +ready. But the speeches did not come to much, for the shire president +had lads himself who had gone to the war, and a lump came in his throat +as he looked at the tall boys from Billabong, whom he had known as +little children; so that half the fine things he had prepared were never +said--which did not matter, since he had it all written out and gave +it to the reporter of the local paper afterwards! Something of +speech-making there undoubtedly was, but no one could have told you much +about it--and suddenly it ended in some one calling for "Three cheers!" +which every one gave with a will, while the band played that they were +Jolly Good Fellows--and some of the band cheered while they played, with +very curious results. Then David Linton tried to speak, and that was a +failure also, as far as eloquence went; but nobody seemed to mind. So, +between hand grips and cheers, they made their way through the welcome +of Cunjee to where the big double buggy of Billabong stood, with three +fidgeting brown horses, each held by a volunteer. Beyond that was the +carry-all of the bush; an express wagon, with a grinning black boy at +the horses' heads--and Norah went to him with outstretched hands. + +"Why, Billy!" she said. + +Billy's grin expanded in a perfectly reckless fashion. + +"Plenty glad!" he stammered--and thereby doubled his usual output of +words. + +Willing hands were tossing their luggage into the wagon--unfamiliar +luggage to Cunjee, with its jumble of ship labels, Continental hotel +brands, and the names of towns all over England, Ireland and Scotland. +There were battered tin uniform cases of Jim and Wally's, bearing their +rank and regiment in half effaced letters: "Major J. Linton"; "Captain +W. Meadows"--it was hard to realize that they belonged to the two +merry-faced boys, who did not seem much changed from the days when +Cunjee had seen them arrive light-heartedly from school. Mr. Linton ran +his eye over the pile, pronouncing it complete. Then Evans was at his +side. + +"The motor you sent is ready at the garage in the township if you want +it," he said. "But you wired that I was to bring the buggy." + +"I did," said David Linton, with a slow smile. "I suppose for +convenience sake we'll have to shake down to using the motor. But I +drove the old buggy away from Billabong, and I'll drive home now. Jump +in, children." + +He gathered up the reins, sitting, erect and spare, with one foot on the +brake, while the brown horses plunged impatiently, and the volunteers +found their work cut out in holding them. Norah was by him, Evans on her +other hand; Jim and Wally "tumbled up" into the back seat, as they had +done so many times. David Linton looked down at the crowd below. + +"Thank you all again," he said. "We'll see you soon--it's not good-bye +now, only 'so-long.' Let 'em go, boys." + +The volunteers sprang back, thankfully. The browns stood on their hind +legs for a moment, endeavouring to tie themselves in knots; then the +whip spoke, and they came to earth, straightened themselves out with a +flying plunge, and wheeled out of the station yard and up the +street. Behind them cheers broke out afresh, and the band blared once +more--which acted as a further spur to the horses; they were pulling +double as the high buggy flashed along the street, where every house and +every shop showed smiling faces, and handkerchiefs waved in welcome. So +they passed through Cunjee, and wheeled to the right towards the open +country--the country that meant Billabong. + +There were seventeen miles of road ahead, but the browns made little of +them. They had come into the township the evening before, and had done +nothing since but eat the hotel oats and wish to be out of a close +stable and back in their own free paddocks. They took the hills at a +swift, effortless trot, and on the down slopes broke into a hand-gallop; +light-hearted, but conscious all the time of the hand on the reins, that +was as steel, yet light as a feather upon a tender mouth. They danced +merrily to one side when they met a motor or a hawker's van with +flapping cover; when the buggy rattled over a bridge they plainly +regarded the drumming of their own hoofs as the last trump, and fled +wildly for a few hundred yards, before realizing that nothing was really +going to happen to them. But the miles fled under their swift feet. The +trim villas near the township gave place to scattered farms. These in +their turn became further and further apart, and then they entered a +wide belt of timber, ragged and wind-swept gums, with dense undergrowth +of dogwood and bracken fern. The metalled road gave place to a hard, +earthern track, on which the spinning tyres made no sound; it curved in +and out among the trees, which met overhead and cast upon it a waving +pattern of shadows. Grim things had once happened to Norah in this belt +of trees, and the past came back to her as she looked at its gloomy +recesses again. + +They were all silent. There had been few questions to ask of Evans, a +few to be answered; then speech fled from them and the old spell of the +country held them in its power. Every yard was familiar; every little +bridge, every culvert, every quaint old skeleton tree or dead grey log. +Here Jim's pony had bolted at sight of an Indian hawker, in days long +gone, and had ended by putting his foot into a hole and turning a +somersault, shooting Jim into a well-grown clump of nettles. Here Norah +had dropped her whip when riding alone, and her fractious young mare had +succeeded in pulling away when she dismounted, and had promptly departed +post-haste for home; leaving her wrathful owner to follow as she might. +A passing bullock-wagon had given her a lift, and the somewhat anxious +rescue party, setting out from Billabong, had met its youthful mistress, +bruised from much bumping, but otherwise cheerful, progressing in slow +majesty towards its gates. Here--but the memories were legion, even to +the girl and the two boys. And David Linton's went further back, to the +day when he had first driven Norah's mother over the Billabong track; +little and dainty and merry, while he had been as always, silent, but +unspeakably proud of her. The little mother's grave had long been green, +and the world had turned topsy-turvy since then, but the old track was +the same, and the memory, and the pride, were no less clear. + +They emerged from the timber at last, and spun across a wide plain, +scattered with clumps of gum-trees. Then another belt of bush, a narrow +one this time; and they came out within view of a great park-like +paddock where Shorthorn bullocks, knee-deep in grass, scarcely moved +aside as the buggy spun past, with the browns pulling hard. The track +ran near the fence, and turned in at a big white gate glistening with +new paint. It stood wide open, and beside it was a man on a splendid bay +horse. + +"There's Murty, and he's on Garryowen," spoke Jim quickly. "The old +brick!" + +"I guess if anyone else had wanted to open the gate for you to-day, he'd +have had to fight Murty for the job," said Evans. "And Garryowen's been +groomed till he turns pale at the sight of a brush, Great horse he's +made, Mr. Jim." + +"He's all that," said his owner, leaning out to view him better, with +his eyes shining. He raised his voice in a shout as they swung in +through the gateway. "Good for you, Murty! Hurroo!" + +"Hurroo for ye all!" said Murty, and found to his amazement that his +voice was shaky. "Ah, don't shtop, sir, they're all waitin' on ye. I'll +be up as soon as ye." + +Norah had tried to speak, and had found that she had no voice at all. +She could only smile at him, tremulously--and be sure the Irishman did +not fail to catch the smile. Then, as they dashed up the paddock, her +hand sought for her father's knee under the rug, in the little gesture +that had been hers from babyhood. The track curved round a grove of +great pines, and suddenly they were within sight of Billabong homestead, +red-walled and red-roofed, nestled in the deep green of its trees. + +"By Jove!" said Jim, under his breath. "I thought once I'd never see the +old place again." + +They flashed through mighty red gums and box trees, Murty galloping +beside them now. There was a big flag flying proudly on Billabong +house--they found later that the household had unanimously purchased it +on the day they heard that Jim had got his captaincy. The gate of the +great sanded yard stood open, and near it, on a wide gravel sweep, were +the dear and simple and faithful people they loved. Mrs. Brown first, +starched and spotless, her hair greyer than it had been five years +before, with Sarah and Mary beside her--they had married during the war, +but nothing had prevented them from coming back to make Billabong ready. +Near them the storekeeper, Jack Archdale, and his pretty wife, with +their elfish small daughter; and Mick Shanahan and Dave Boone, with the +Scotch gardener, Hogg, and his Chinese colleague--and sworn enemy--Lee +Wing. They were all there, a little welcoming group--but Norah could see +them only through a mist of happy tears. The buggy stopped, and Evans +sprang out over the wheel; she followed him almost as swiftly, running +to the old woman who had been all the mother she had known. + +"Oh, Brownie--Brownie!" + +"My precious lamb!" said Brownie, and held her tightly. She had no hands +left for Jim and Wally, and they did not seem to mind; they kissed her, +patting her vast shoulders very hard. Then Mrs. Archdale claimed Norah, +and Brownie found herself looking mistily up at David Linton and he was +gripping her hand tightly, the other hand on her shoulder. + +"Why, old Brownie!" he said. "Dear old Brownie!" + +They were shaking hands all round, over and over again. Nobody made any +speeches of welcome--there were only disjointed words, and once or +twice a little sob. Indeed, Brownie only found her tongue when they had +drifted across the yard in a confused group, and had reached the wide +veranda. Then she looked up at Jim and seemed suddenly to realize his +mighty height and breadth. + +"Oh!" she said. "Oh! Ain't 'e grown big an' beautiful!" Whereat Wally +howled with laughter, and Jim, scarlet, kissed her again, and told her +she was a shameful old woman. + +No one on Billabong could have told you much of that day, after +the first wonderful moment of getting home. It was a day of blurred +memories. The new-comers had to wander through the house where every big +window stood open to the sunlight, and every room was gay with flowers; +and from every window it was necessary to look out at the view across +the paddocks and down at the gardens, and to follow the winding course +of the creek. The gong summoned them to dinner in the midst of it, and +Brownie's dinner deserved to be remembered; the mammoth turkey flanked +by a ham as gigantic, and somewhat alarming to war-trained appetites; +followed by every sweet that Brownie could remember as having been a +favourite. They drifted naturally to the stables afterwards, to find +their special horses, apparently little changed by five years, though +some old station favourites were gone, and the men spoke proudly of some +new young ones that were going to be "beggars to go," or "a caution to +jump." Then they wandered down to the big lagoon, where the old boat +yet lay at the edge of the reed-fringed water; and on through the home +paddock to look at the little herd of Jerseys that were kept for the +use of the house, and some great bullocks almost ready for the Melbourne +market. So they came back to the homestead, wandering up from the creek +through Lee Wing's rows of vegetables, and came to rest naturally in the +kitchen, where they had afternoon tea with Brownie, who beamed from ear +to ear at the sight of Jim and Wally again sitting on her table. + +"I used to think of you in them 'orrible trenches, an' wonder wot you +got to eat, an' if it was anything at all," she said tremulously. + +"We got something, but it was apt to be queer," said Jim, laughing. +"We used to think of sitting on the table here, Brownie, and eating hot +scones--like this. May I have another?" + +"My pore dears!" said Brownie, hastily supplying him with the largest +scone in sight. "Now, Master Wally, my love, ain't you ready for +another? Your appetite's not 'alf wot it used to be. A pikelet, now?" + +"I believe I've had six!" said Wally, defending himself. + +"An' wot used six pikelets to be to you? A mere fly in the ointment," +said Brownie, whose similes were always apt to be peculiar. "Just +another, then, my dear. An' I've got your fav'rite sponge cake, Miss +Norah--ten aigs in it!" + +"Ten!" said Norah faintly. "Hold me, daddy! Doesn't it make you feel +light-headed to think of putting ten eggs in one cake again?" + +"An' why not?" sniffed Brownie. "Ah, you got bad treatment in that old +England. I never could see why you should go short, an' you all 'elpin' +on the war as 'ard as you could." Brownie's indifference to national +considerations where her nurselings were concerned was well known, and +nobody argued with her. "Any'ow, the cake's there, an' just you try +it--it's as light as a feather, though I do say it." + +Once in the kitchen Norah and the boys went no further. They remained +sitting on the tables, talking, while presently David Linton went away +to his study, and, one by one, Murty and Boone and Mick Shanahan drifted +in. There was so much to tell, so much to ask about; they talked until +the dusk of the short winter afternoon stole into the kitchen, making +the red flames in the stove leap more redly. It was time to dress for +tea. They went round the wide verandas and ran upstairs to their rooms, +while old Brownie stood in the kitchen doorway listening to the merry +voices. + +"Ain't it just 'evinly to 'ear 'em again!" she uttered. + +"It is that," said Murty. "We've been quare an' lonesome an' quiet these +five years." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +COLONIAL EXPERIENCES + + +Cecilia--otherwise Tommy--and Bob Rainham came up to Billabong three +days later, and were met by Jim, who had ridden into Cunjee with Black +Billy, and released the motor from inglorious seclusion in the local +garage. Billy jogged off, leading Garryowen, and Jim watched them half +wistfully for a minute before turning to the car. Motors had their uses +certainly; but no Linton ever dreamed of giving a car the serious and +respectful consideration that naturally belonged to a horse. + +Nevertheless, it was a good car; a gift to Norah from an Irishman +they had known and loved; and Jim drove well, having developed the +accomplishment over Flemish roads that were chiefly a succession of +shell holes. He took her quietly up to the station, and walked on to the +platform as the train thundered in. + +Tommy and Bob were looking eagerly from their carriage window, and +hailed him with delight; they had been alone, for the first time since +leaving England, and had begun to feel that Australia was a large and +slightly populated country, and that they were inconsiderable atoms, +suddenly dumped into its vacant spaces. Jim was like a large and +friendly rock, and Australia immediately became less wide and desolate +in their eyes. He greeted them cheerily and helped Bob to pack their +luggage into the car. + +"Now, I could get you afternoon tea here," he said; "and I warn you, +it will be bad. Or I could have you home in well under an hour, and you +wouldn't be too late for tea there. Which is it to be, Tommy?" + +"Oh--home," said Tommy. "I don't care a bit about tea; and I want to see +this Billabong of yours. Do let's go, Jim." + +"I hoped you wouldn't choose tea here," said Jim, striding off to the +car. "Bush townships don't run to decent tea places, as a rule; the +hotel is the only chance, and though they can give you a fair dinner, +tea always seems to be a weak spot." He packed them in, and they moved +off down the winding street. + +"Do you know," Jim said, "that I never went down this street before +except on a horse, or behind one? It seems quite queer and unnatural +to be doing it in a car. I suppose I'll get used to it. Had a good trip +up?" + +"Oh, quite," Tommy told him. "Jim, how few people seem to be living in +Australia!" + +Jim gave a crack of laughter. + +"Well, you saw a good many in Melbourne, didn't you?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes. But Melbourne isn't Australia. It's only away down in a wee +little corner." Tommy flushed a little. "You see, I haven't seen much of +any country except France and the England that's near London," she said. +"And there isn't much waste space there." + +"No, there isn't," Jim agreed. "I suppose we'll fill up Australia some +day. But the people who come out now seem to have a holy horror of going +into the 'waste spaces,' as you call 'em, Tommy. They want to nestle up +to the towns, and go to picture theatres." + +"Well, I want to go and find a nice waste space," said Tommy. "Not too +waste, of course, only with room to look all round. And I'd like it +to be not too far from Norah, 'cause she's very cheering to a lone +new-chum. But don't you go planning to settle in one of those horrid +little tin-roofed towns, Bobby, for I should simply hate it." + +"Certainly, ma'am," said Bob cheerfully. "We'll get out into the open. I +can always run you about in an aeroplane, if you feel lonesome, provided +we make enough money to buy one, that is. Only new-chums don't always +make heaps of money, do they, Jim?" + +"Not at first, I'm afraid," Jim said. "The days of picking up fortunes +in Australia seem to be over; anyway, there's no more gold lying about. +Nowadays, you have to put your back into it extremely hard, if you've no +capital to start with; and even if you have, you can't loaf. How did you +get on in Melbourne? I hope you didn't buy a station without consulting +us." + +"Rather not," Bob answered. "We raced round magnificently in your aunt's +car and presented our letters, and had more invitations to sundry meals +than we could possibly accept. Every one was extraordinarily kind to us. +I've offers and promises of advice in whatever district we settle; three +squatters asked me up to their places, to stay awhile and study the +country; and one confiding man--I hadn't a letter to him at all, by the +way, only some one introduced us to him in Scott's--actually offered me +a job as jackeroo on a Queensland run. But he was a lone old bachelor, +and when he heard I had a sister he shied off in terror. I think he's +running yet." + +Jim shouted with laughter. + +"Poor old Tommy!" he said. + +"Yes, is it not unfair?" said Tommy. "I told Bob I was a mere +encumbrance, but he would bring me." + +"You wait until you've settled, and Bob wants some one to run his house, +and then see how much of an encumbrance you are," rejoined Jim. "Then +you'll suddenly stop being meek and get swelled head." + +"And not be half so nice," interjected Bob. + +"But so useful!" said Tommy demurely. "Only sometimes I become +afraid--for you seem always to kill a whole sheep or bullock up in the +bush, and how I am to deal with it I do not know!" + +"It sounds as if you preferred some one to detach an occasional limb +from the sheep as it walked about!" said Jim, laughing. + +"Much easier for me--if not for the sheep," said Tommy. + +"Well, don't you worry--the meat problem will get settled somehow," Jim +told her cheerfully. "All problems straighten out, if you give 'em time. +Now we're nearly home--that's the fence of our home-paddock. And there +are Norah and Wally coming to meet you." + +"Oh--where?" Tommy started up, looking excitedly round the landscape. +"Oh--there she is--the dear! And isn't that a beautiful horse!" + +"That's Norah's special old pony, Bosun," said Jim. "We're making her +very unhappy by telling her she's grown too big for him, but he really +carries her like a bird. A habit might look too much on him, but not +that astride kit. You got yours, by the way, Tommy, I hope?" + +"Oh yes. I look very strange in it," said Tommy. "And Bob thinks I might +as well have worn out his old uniforms. But I shall never ride like +that--as Norah does." + +She looked at Norah, who was coming across the paddock with Wally, at a +hard canter. Her pony was impatient, reefing and plunging in his desire +to gallop; and Norah was sitting him easily, her hands, well down, +giving to the strain on the bit, her slight figure, in coat and +breeches, swaying lightly to each bound. The sunlight rippled on Bosun's +glossy, bay coat, and on the big black horse Wally rode. They pulled +up, laughing, at the gateway, just as the car turned off the road. There +were confused and enthusiastic greetings, and the car dashed on up the +track, with an outrider on each side--both horses strongly resenting +this new and ferocious monster. The years had brought a good deal of +sober sense to Bosun and Monarch, but motors were still unfamiliar +objects on Billabong. Indeed, no car of the size of Norah's Rolls-Royce +had ever been seen in the district, and the men gaped at it open-mouthed +as Jim drove it round to the stable after unloading his passengers. + +"Yerra, but that's the fine carry-van," said Murty. "Is that the size +they have them in England, now?" + +"No, it isn't, Murty--not as a rule," Jim answered. "This was built +specially for a man who was half an invalid; he used to go for long +tours, and sleep in the car because he hated hotels. So it's a special +size. It used to be jolly useful taking out wounded men in England." + +"Sure, it would be," Murty said. "Only--somehow, it don't seem to fit +into Billabong, Mr. Jim!" + +"So big as that! I say, Murty!" + +"Yerra, there's room enough for it," grinned the Irishman. "Only, motors +and Billabong don't go hand in hand--we've always stuck to horses, +haven't we, Mr. Jim?" + +"We'll do that still," Jim said. "But it will be useful, all the same, +Murty." He laughed at the stockman's lugubrious face. "Oh, I know it's +giving you the sort of pain you had when dad had the telephone put on--" + +"Well, 'tis the quare onnatural little machine, an' I niver feel anyways +at home with it, Mr. Jim," Murty defended himself. + +"There's lots like you, Murty. But you'll admit that when we've got +to send a telegram, it's better to telephone it than make a man ride +thirty-four miles with it?" + +"I suppose it is," said the Irishman doubtfully. "I dunno, though--if +'twas that black imp of a Billy he'd as well be doing that as propping +up the stable wall an' smokin'!" + +Jim chuckled. + +"There's no getting round an Irishman when he makes up his mind," he +said. "And if you had to catch the eight o'clock train to Melbourne +I believe you'd rather get up at three in the morning and run up the +horses to drive in, than leave here comfortably in the car at seven." + +"Is it me to dhrive in it?" demanded Murty, in horror. "Begob, I'd lose +me life before I'd get into one of thim quare, sawed-off things. Give +me something with shafts, Mr. Jim, and a dacint horse in them. More by +token, I would not get up at three in the morning either, but dhrive in +aisy an' comfortable the night before." He beamed on Jim with so clear +a conviction that he was unanswerable that Jim hadn't the heart to +argue further. Instead he ran the car deftly into a buggy-shed whence +an ancient double buggy had been deposed to make room for her, and then +fell to discussing with Murty the question of building a garage, with +a turn-table and pit for cleaning and repairs. To which Murty gave +the eager interest and attention he would have shown had Jim proposed +building anything, even had it been an Eiffel Tower on the front lawn. + +Brownie came out through the box-trees to the stables, presently. + +"Now, Master Jim, afternoon tea's in these ten minutes." + +"Good gracious! I forgot all about tea!" Jim exclaimed. "Thanks awfully, +Brownie. Had your own?" He slipped his arm through hers as they turned +back to the house. + +"Not yet, my dear," said Brownie, beaming up at him. That this huge +Major, with four years of war service to his credit, was exactly the +same to her as the little boy she had bathed and dressed in years gone +by, was a matter of nightly thanksgiving in her prayers. "I was just +goin' to settle to it when it come over me that you weren't in--and the +visitors there an' all." + +"I'd come and have mine with you in the kitchen if they weren't there," +Jim told her. "Tea in your kitchen is better than anything else." He +patted her shoulders as he left her at the door of her domain, going off +with long strides to wash his hands. + +"We didn't wait for you," Norah said, as he came into the drawing-room; +a big cheery room, with long windows opening out upon the veranda, and a +conservatory at one end. A fire of red gum logs made it pleasantly +warm; the tea table was drawn near its blaze, and the arm-chairs made +a semicircle round it. "These poor people looked far too hungry to +wait--to say nothing of Wally and myself. How did the car go, Jimmy?" + +"Splendidly," Jim said, taking his cup, and retiring from the tea-table +with a scone. "Never ran better; that man in Cunjee knows his job, which +I didn't expect. Are you tired, Tommy?" + +"Tired?--no," said Tommy. "I was very hungry, but that is getting +better. And Norah is going to show me Billabong, so I could not possibly +dream of being tired." + +"If Norah means to show you all Billabong before dark, she'll have +to hurry," said Jim lazily. "Don't you let yourself be persuaded into +anything so desperate, Tommy." + +"Don't you worry; I'll give her graduated doses," Norah said. "I'll +watch the patient carefully, and see if there is any sign of strength +failing. When do you begin to teach Bob to run a station?" + +"I never saw anyone in such a hurry," said Jim. "Why, the poor beggar +hasn't had his tea yet--give him time." + +"But we are in a hurry," said Tommy. "We're burning to learn all about +it. Norah is to teach me the house side, while you instruct Bob how to +tell a merino bullock--is it not?--from an Ayrshire." Everybody ate with +suspicious haste, and she looked at them shrewdly. "Now, I have said +that all wrong, I feel sure, but it's just as well for you to be +prepared for that. Norah will have a busy time correcting my mistakes." + +"You aren't supposed to know anything about cattle and things like +that," said Norah. "And when it comes to the house side, I don't think +you'll find I can teach you much--if anyone brought up to know French +cooking and French housekeeping has much to learn from a backblocks +Australian, I'll be surprised." + +"In fact," said Mr. Linton, "I should think that the lessons will +generally end in the students of domestic economy fleeing forth upon +horses and studying how to deal with beef--on the hoof. Don't you, +Wally?" + +"Rather," said Wally. "And Brownie will wash up after them, and say, +'Bless their hearts, why would they stay in a hot kitchen!' And so poor +old Bob will go down the road to ruin!" + +"It's a jolly prospect," said Bob placidly. "I think we'll knock a good +deal of fun out of it!" + +They trooped out in a body presently on their preliminary voyage +of discovery; touring the house itself, with its big rooms and wide +corridors, and the broad balconies that ran round three sides, from +which you looked far across the run--miles of rolling plains, dotted +with trees and clumps of timber, and merging into a far line of low, +scrub-grown hills. Then outside, and to the stables--a massive red brick +pile, creeper-covered, where Monarch and Garryowen, and Bosun, and the +buggy ponies, looked placidly from their loose boxes, and asked for--and +got--apples from Jim's pockets. Tommy even made her way up the steep +ladder to the loft that ran the whole length of the stables--big enough +for the men's yearly dance, but just now crammed with fragrant oaten +hay. She wanted to see everything, and chatted away in her eager, +half-French fashion, like a happy child. + +"It is so lovely to be here," she told Norah later, when the keen +evening wind had driven them indoors from a tour of the garden. She was +kneeling on the floor of her bedroom, unpacking her trunk, while Norah +perched on the end of the bed. "You see, I am no longer afraid; and I +have always been afraid since Aunt Margaret died. In Lancaster Gate I +was afraid all the time, especially when I was planning to run away. +Then, on the ship, though every one was so kind, the big, unknown +country was like a wall of Fear ahead; even in Melbourne everything +seemed uncertain, doubtful. But now, quite suddenly, it is all right. I +just know we shall get along quite well." + +"Why, of course you will," Norah said, laughing down at the earnest +face. "You're the kind of people who must do well, because you are so +keen. And Billabong has adopted you, and we're going to see that you +make a success of things. You're our very own immigrants!" + +"It's nice to be owned by some one who isn't my step-mother," said Tommy +happily. "I began to think I was hers, body and soul--when she appeared +on that awful moment in Liverpool. I made sure all hope was over. Bob +says I shouldn't have panicked, but then Bob had not been a toad under +her harrow for two years." + +"I'm very glad you panicked, since it sent you straight into our arms," +said Norah. "If we had met you in an ordinary, stodgy way--you and Bob +presenting your letter of introduction, and we saying 'How do you do?' +politely--it would have taken us ages to get to know you properly. +And as it was, we jumped into being friends. You did look such a poor, +hunted little soul as you came dodging across that street!" + +"And you took me on trust, when, for all you know, the police might have +been after me," said Tommy. "Well, we won't forget; not that I suppose +Bob and I will ever be able to pay you back." + +"Good gracious, we don't want paying back!" exclaimed Norah, wrinkling +her nose disgustedly. "Don't talk such utter nonsense, Tommy Rainham. +And just hurry up and unpack, because tea will be ready at half-past +six." + +"My goodness!" exclaimed the English girl, to whom dinner at half-past +seven was a custom of life not lightly to be altered. "And I haven't +half unpacked, and oh, where is my blue frock? I don't believe I've +brought it." She sought despairingly in the trunk. + +"Yes, you have--I hung it up for you in the wardrobe ages ago," said +Norah. "And it doesn't matter if you don't finish before tea. There's +lots of time ahead. However, I certainly won't be dressed if I don't +hurry, because I've to see Brownie first, and then sew on a button for +Jim. You'll find me next door when you're ready." Tommy heard her go, +singing downstairs, and she sighed happily. This, for the first time for +two years, was a real home. + +The education of the new-chums began next morning, and was carried out +thoroughly, since Mr. Linton did not believe in showing their immigrants +only the pleasanter side of Australian life. Bob was given a few days of +riding round the run, spying out the land, and learning something about +cattle and their handling as he rode. Luckily for him, he was a good +horseman. The stockmen, always on the alert to "pick holes" in a +new-chum, had little fault to find with his easy seat and hands, and +approved of the way in which he waited for no one's help in saddling up +or letting go his horse; a point which always tells with the man of the +bush. + +"We've had thim on this run," said Murty, "as wanted their horses led +gently up to thim, and then they climb into the saddle like a lady. +And when they'd come home, all they'd be lookin' for 'ud be some one to +casht their reins to, the way they cud strowl off to their tay. Isn't +that so, Mick?" + +"Yairs," said Mick. He was riding an unbroken three-year-old, and had no +time for conversation. + +After a few days of "gentle exercise," Bob found himself put on to +work. He learned something of cutting out and mustering, both in cleared +country and in scrub; helped bring home young cattle to brand, and +studied at first hand the peculiar evilness of a scrub cow when +separated from her calf. They gave him jobs for himself, which +he accomplished fairly well, aided by a stock horse of superhuman +intelligence, which naturally knew far more of the work than its rider +could hope to do. Bob confided to Tommy that never had he felt so +complete a fool as when he rode forth for the first time to cut out a +bullock alone under the eyes of the experts. + +"Luckily, the old mare did all the work," he said. "But I knew less +about it than I did the first time I went up alone at the flying +school!" + +His teaching went on all the time. Mr. Linton and Jim were tireless in +pointing out the points of cattle, and the variations in the value of +feed on the different parts of the run, with all the details of bush +lore; and the airman's eyes, trained to observe, and backed by keen +desire to learn, picked up and retained knowledge quickly. Billabong +was, in the main, a cattle run, but Mr. Linton kept as well a flock of +high class sheep, with the usual small mob for killing for station use, +and through these a certain amount of sheep knowledge was imparted to +the new-chum. To their surprise, for all his instructors were heart and +soul for cattle, Bob showed a distinct leaning towards mutton. + +"They're easier to understand, I think," he said. "Possibly it's because +they're not as intelligent as cattle, and I don't think I am, either!" + +"Well, I know something about bullocks, but these woolly objects have +always been beyond me," said Jim. "Necessary evils, but I can't stand +them. I used to think there was nothing more hopeless than an old merino +ewe, until I met a battery mule--he's a shade worse!" + +"Wait till you've worked with a camel in a bad temper, Mr. Jim," said +Dave Boone darkly; he had put in a weary time in Egypt. "For downright +wickedness them snake-headed beggars is the fair limit!" + +"Yes, I've heard so," said Jim. "Anyhow, we haven't added mules and +camels to our worries in Victoria yet; sheep are bad enough for me. +Norah says turkey hens are worse, and she's certainly tried both; there +isn't much about the run young Norah doesn't know. But you aren't going +to make a living out of turkeys." + +"No--Tommy can run them as a side line," said Bob. "I fancy sheep will +give me all I want in the way of worry." + +"And you really think you'll go in for sheep, old man?" asked Jim with +pity. + +Bob set his lips obstinately. + +"I don't think anything yet," he said. "I don't know enough. Wait until +I've learned a bit more--if you're not sick of teaching such an idiot." + +"Yerra, ye're no ijit," said Murty under his breath. + +Education developed as the weeks went on. Wally had gone to Queensland, +to visit married brothers who were all the "people" he possessed; and +Jim, bereft of his chum, threw himself energetically into the training +of the substitute. Bob learned to slaughter a bullock and kill a +sheep--being instructed that the job in winter was not a circumstance to +what it would be in summer, when flies would abound. He never pretended +to like this branch of learning, but stuck to it doggedly, since it was +explained to him that the man who could not be his own butcher in the +bush was apt to go hungry, and that not one hired hand in twenty could +be trusted to kill. + +More to Bob's taste were the boundary riding expeditions made with Jim +to the furthest corners of the run; taking a pack horse with tucker and +blankets, and camping in ancient huts, of which the sole furniture was +rough sacking bunks, a big fireplace, and empty kerosene cases for +seats and tables. It was unfortunate, from the point of view of +Bob's instruction, that the frantic zeal of Murty and the men to have +everything in order for "the Boss" had left no yard of the Billabong +boundary unvisited not a month before. Still, winter gales were always +apt to bring down a tree or two across the wires, laying a few panels +flat; the creeks, too, were all in flood, and where a wire fence crossed +one, floating brushwood often damaged the barrier, or a landslip in +a water-worn bank might carry away a post. So Jim and his pupil found +enough occupation to make their trips worth while; and Bob learned to +sink post holes, to ram a post home beyond the possibility of moving, +and to strain a wire fence scientifically. He was not a novice with an +axe, though Jim's mighty chopping made him feel a child; still, when it +was necessary to cut away a fallen tree, he could do his share manfully. +His hands blistered and grew horny callouses, even as his muscles +toughened and his shoulders widened; and all the time the appeal of the +wide, free country called to his heart and drew him closer and closer to +his new life. + +"But he's too comfortable, you know," David Linton said to Jim one +night. "He's shaping as well as anyone could expect; but he won't always +have Billabong at his back." + +Jim nodded wisely. + +"I know," he said. "Been thinking of that. If you can spare me for a bit +we'll go over and lend ourselves as handy men to old Joe Howard." + +His father whistled. + +"He'll make you toe the mark," he said, laughing. "He won't have you +there as gentlemen boarders, you know." + +"Don't want him to," said Jim. + +So it came about that early on Monday morning Jim and Bob fixed swags +more or less scientifically to their saddles--Jim made his disciple +unstrap his three times before he consented to pass it--and rode away +from Billabong, amidst derisive good wishes from Norah and Tommy, who +kindly promised to feed them up on their return, prophesying that they +would certainly need it. They took a westerly direction across country, +and after two or three hours' riding came upon a small farm nestling at +the foot of a low range of hills. + +"That's old Howard's," Jim said. "And there's the old chap himself, +fixing up his windmill. You wait a minute, Bob; I'll go over and see +him." + +He gave Bob his bridle, and went across a small paddock near the house. +Howard, a hard-looking old man with a long, grey beard, was wrestling +with a home-made windmill--a queer erection, mainly composed of rough +spars with sails made from old wheat-sacks. He clambered to the ground +as Jim approached, and greeted him civilly. + +"I thought you'd have forgotten me, Mr. Howard," said Jim. + +"Too like your dad--an', anyhow, I know the horses," was the laconic +answer. "So you're back. Like Australia better'n fightin'?" + +"Rather!" said Jim. "Fighting's a poor game, I think, when you hardly +ever see the other fellow. Want any hands, Mr. Howard?" + +"No." The old man shook his head. "They want too much money nowadays, +an' they're too darned partickler about their tucker. Meat three times +a day, whether you've killed it or not. An' puddin'. Cock 'em up with +puddin'--a fat lot of it I ever saw where I was raised. An' off to the +township on Saturday afternoon, an' lucky if they get back in time for +milkin' nex' mornin'. No--the workin' man ain't what 'e was, an' the new +kind'll make precious little of Australia!" + +"That's about right, I'm afraid," said Jim, listening sympathetically to +this oration. "Well, will you take me and my friend as hands for a few +weeks, Mr. Howard?" + +"You!" The old man stared at him. "Ain't 'ad a quarrel with yer dad, +'ave yer? You take my tip, if yer 'ave--go back and make it up. Not many +men in this districk like yer dad." + +"I know that, jolly well," said Jim, laughing. "No--but my friend's +a new-chum, and I want to show him something of work on a place like +yours. We've been breaking him in on Billabong, but he'll have to take +a small place for himself, if he settles, and he'd better see what it's +like." + +The old man shook his head doubtfully. + +"English officer, I suppose?" + +"Yes." + +"I dunno," said Howard. "Too much of the fine gent about that sort, Mr. +Jim. I dunno 'ow I'd get down to orderin' the pair of yous about. An' I +ain't got no 'comodation for yous; an' the tucker's not what yous 'ave +bin used ter." + +"You needn't let any of that worry you," said Jim cheerfully. "He isn't +a bit of a fine gent, really, and we'll tackle any job that's going. +As for accommodation, we've brought our blankets, and, in case you were +short of tucker, we've a big piece of corned beef and some bread. I +wish you'd try it, Mr. Howard; we don't want pay, and we'll do no end of +work. Murty reckons you won't be sorry if you take on Captain Rainham." + +"Oh, Murty says that, does 'e?" asked the old man, visibly cheered. +"Well, Murty ain't the man to barrack for a useless new-chum." + +"Great Scott, do you think I am?" demanded Jim, laughing. "Or my +father?" + +"Yous cert'nly didn't ought to be," agreed Howard. "All the same"--he +pushed his hat back from his worried brow--"I dunno as I quite like it. +If I take on a chap I like 'im to step quick an' lively when I tell him +anything I want done; an' I don't make no guests of 'em either. They got +to do their own cookin', an' keep things clean an' tidy, too." + +"We'll take our share," said Jim. "As for stepping quick and lively, +we've both been trained to that pretty thoroughly during the last few +years. If you're worse than some of the Sergeant-majors I met when I was +training, I'll eat my hat." + +"I'm told they're 'ard," said Howard. "Well, I s'pose I'd better take +yous on, though it's a queer day when the son of Linton of Billabong +comes askin' old Joe Howard for a job. But, I say"--and anguish again +settled on his brow--"wot am I to call yous? I can't order you about as +Mr. Jim. It wouldn't seem to come natural." + +"Oh, call us any old thing," said Jim, laughing. + +The old man pondered. + +"Well, I'll call yous Major an' Captin," he declared, at length. +"That'll sound like a pair of workin' bullocks, an' I'll feel more at +'ome." + +"Right-o," said Jim, choking slightly. "Where shall we put our horses?" + +"Put 'em in the little paddock over there, an' stick yer saddles in the +shed," said his employer. "An' then bring in yer beef, an' we'll 'ave a +bit o' dinner. I ain't killed for a fortnight." + +Then began for Bob Rainham one of the most strenuous fortnights of his +existence. Once having agreed to employ them, old Joe speedily became +reconciled to the prospect of cheap labour, and worked his willing +guests with a devouring energy. Before dawn had reddened the eastern +sky a shout of "Hi, Captin! Time the cow was in!" drove him from his +blankets, to search in the darkness of a scrub-covered paddock for a +cow, who apparently loved a game of hide-and-seek, and to drive her in +and milk her by the fitful light of a hurricane lantern. Then came the +usual round of morning duties; chopping wood, feeding pigs, cleaning +out sheds and outhouses, before the one-time airman had time to think of +breakfast. By the time he came in Howard and Jim had generally finished +and gone out--the old man took a sly delight in keeping "Major" away +from "Captin"--and after cooking his meal, it was his job to wash up +and to clean out the kitchen, over which old Joe proved unexpectedly +critical. Then came a varied choice of tasks to tackle to while away the +day. Sometimes he would be sent to scrub cutting, which he liked best, +particularly as Jim was kept at it always; sometimes he slashed mightily +at a blackberry-infested paddock, where the brambles would have daunted +anyone less stout of heart--or less ignorant. Then came lessons in +ploughing on a dry hillside; he managed badly at first, and came in for +a good deal of the rough side of old Joe's tongue before he learned to +keep to anything approaching a straight line. Ploughing, Bob reflected, +was clearly an art which needed long apprenticeship before you learned +to appreciate it, and he developed a new comprehension and sympathy for +the ploughman described by Gray as "homeward plodding his weary way." He +also wondered if Gray's ploughman had to milk and get his own tea after +he got home. + +Other relaxations of the bush were open to him. Old Joe had a paddock, +once a swamp, which he had drained; it was free of water, but abounded +in tussocks and sword grass which "Captin" was detailed to grub out +whenever no duty more pressing awaited him. And sword grass is a +fearsome vegetable, clinging of root and so tough of stem that, if +handled unwarily, it can cut a finger almost to the bone; wherefore the +unfortunate "Captin" hated it with a mighty hatred, and preferred any +other branch of his education. There were stones to pick up and pile +in cairns; red stones, half buried in grass and tussocks, and weighing +anything from a pound to half a hundredweight. He scarred his hands and +broke his fingernails to pieces over them, but, on the whole, considered +it not a bad employment, except when old Joe took it into his head to +perch on the fence and spur him on to greater efforts by disparaging +remarks about England. Whatever his work, there was never any certainty +that old Joe would not appear, to sit down, light his short, black pipe, +and make caustic remarks about his methods or his country--or both. Bob +took it all with a grin. He was a cheerful soul. + +They used to meet for dinner--dinner consisting of corned beef and +potatoes until the corned beef ran out; then it became potatoes and +bread and jam for some days, until Joe amazed them by saddling an +ancient grey mare and riding into Cunjee, returning with more corned +beef--and more jam. He boiled the beef in a kerosene tin, and Bob +thought he had never tasted anything better. Appetites did not need +pampering on Howard's Farm. Work in the evening went on until there was +barely light enough to get home and find the cow; it was generally quite +dark by the time milking was finished, and Bob would come in with his +bucket to find Jim just in, and lighting the fire--"Major," not being +the milking hand, worked in the paddocks a little longer. Tea required +little preparation, since the only menu that occurred to old Joe seemed +to be bread and jam. Jim, being a masterful soul, occasionally took the +matter into his own hands and, aided by Bob, made "flap-jacks" in the +frying-pan; they might have been indigestible for delicately-constituted +people, but at least they had the merit of being hot and comforting on a +biting winter night. Old Joe growled under his breath at the "softness" +of people who required "cocking up with fal-lals." But he ate the +flap-jacks. + +After tea the "hands" divided the duties of the evening; taking it in +turn, one to wash up, while the other "set" bread. Joe's only baking +implement was a camp-oven, which resembles a large saucepan on three +legs; it could hold just enough for a day's supply, so that it was +necessary to set bread every night, and bake every morning. This wounded +their employer, who never failed to tell them, with some bitterness, +that when alone he had to bake only twice a week. However, he knew all +that there was to know about camp-oven baking, and taught them the art +thoroughly, as well as that of making yeast from potatoes. "That's an +extry," he remarked thoughtfully, "but I won't charge yer for it, yous +'avin' bin soldiers!" + +With the bread set, and rising pleasantly before the fire, under a bit +of old blanket, and the kitchen tidy, a period of rest ensued, when +"Major" and "Captin" were free to draw up chairs--seated with greenhide +with the hair left on, and very comfortable--and smoke their pipes. This +was the only time of the day when old Joe unbent. At first silent, he +would presently shift his pipe to the corner of his mouth and spin them +yarns of the early days, told with a queer, dry humour that kept his +hearers in a simmer of laughter. It was always a matter of regret to +poor "Captin" that he used to be the one to end the telling, since no +story on earth could keep him, after a while, from nodding off to sleep. +He would drag himself away to his blankets in the next room, hearing, +as sleep fully descended upon him, the droning voice still entertaining +Jim--whose powers of keeping awake seemed more than human! + +Saturday brought no slackening of work. Whatever his previous hired +men had done, old Joe was evidently determined that his present +"parlour-boarders" should not abate their efforts, and even kept them +a little later than usual in the paddocks, remarking that "ter-morrer +bein' Sunday, yous might as well cut a bit more scrub." The next morning +broke fine and clear, and he looked at them a little doubtfully after +breakfast. + +"Well, there ain't no work doin' on Sunday, I reckon. I can manage the +ol' keow to-night, if yous want to go home." + +The guests looked at each other doubtfully. + +"What do you say, Bob? Shall we ride over?" + +Bob pondered. + +"All one to me, o' course," said Joe, getting up and stumping out. He +paused at the door. "On'y if yous mean ter stick on 'ere a bit you'll +find comin' back a bit 'ard, onced yous see Billabong." + +"Just what I was thinking," said Bob, as the old man disappeared. +"I'm not going, Jim; I know jolly well I'd hate to come back +after--er--fleshpotting at your place. But look here, old chap--why +don't you go home and stay there? You've done quite enough of this, +especially as you've no earthly need to do it at all. You go home, and +I'll stay out my fortnight." + +"What, leave you here alone?" queried Jim. "Not much, Bobby." + +"But why not? I've Joseph, and we'd become bosom friends. And your +father must think it ridiculous for you to be kept over here, slaving--" + +"Don't you worry your old head about dad," said Jim cheerfully. "It's a +slack time, and he doesn't need me, and he's perfectly satisfied at my +being here. Bless you, it's no harm for me to get a bit of this sort of +life." + +"You'll never have to do it." + +"No one can tell that," said Jim. "The bottom has dropped out of land +in other countries, and it may happen here. Besides, if you've got to +employ labour it's just as well to know from experience what's a fair +thing to expect from a man as a day's work. For which reason, I have +desired our friend Joseph to take me off scrub-duty, which I feel I know +pretty well, and to detail me for assorted fatigues, like yours, next +week. And anyhow, my son, having brought you to this savage place, I'm +not going to leave you. Finally, we couldn't go anywhere, because this +is the day that we must wash." + +"I have washed!" said Bob indignantly. + +"I didn't mean your person, Bobby, but your clothes. The laundress +doesn't call out here." + +"Oh!" said Bob, and grinned. "Then I'd better put on a kettle." + +So they washed, very cheerfully, taking turns in the one bucket, which +was all Joe could offer as laundry equipment. He had an iron, but after +brief consultation, "Major" and "Captin" decided that to iron working +shirts would be merely painting the lily. Old Joe watched them with a +twinkle, saying nothing. But a spirit of festivity and magnificence must +have entered into him, for when the washermen went for a walk, after +disposing their damp raiment upon bushes, he entered the kitchen +hurriedly and dived for the flour-bag; and later, they found unwonted +additions to the corned beef and potatoes--the said additions being no +less than boiled onions and a jam tart. + +The week that followed was a repetition of the first, save for a day of +such rain that even old Joe had to admit that work in the paddocks was +out of the question. He consoled himself by making them whitewash the +kitchen. Large masses of soot fell down into the fireplace throughout +the day, seriously interfering with cooking operations, which suggested +to Joe that "Captin" might acquire yet another art--that of bush chimney +sweeping--which he accomplished next day, under direction, by the simple +process of tugging a great bunch of tea-tree up and down the flue. +"Better'n all them brushes they 'ave in towns," said Joe, watching his +blackened assistant with satisfaction. + +"Well, we're off to-morrow, Mr. Howard," said Jim on Saturday night. +They were seated round the fire, smoking. + +"I s'pose so. Didn't think yous'd stick it out as long," the old man +said. + +"We've had a very good time," said Bob; and was astonished to find +himself speaking truthfully. "Jolly good of you to have me; I know a +new-chum isn't much use." + +"Well, I wouldn't say as how you weren't," said old Joe deliberately. +"I ain't strong on new-chums, meself--some of them immy-grants they send +out are a fair cow to handle; but I will say, Captin, you ain't got no +frills, nor you don't mind puttin' your back into a job. I worked you +pretty 'ard, too." He chuckled deeply. + +"Did you?" asked Bob--and chuckled in his turn. + +"Well, I didn't see no points in spoon-feedin' you. If a man's goin' on +the land he may as well know wot 'e's likely to strike. There's lots'll +tell you you won't strike anythink 'arder than ol' Joe--an' p'raps you +won't," he added. "Any'ow, yous asked fer work, an' it was up ter me ter +see that yous got it. But don't go imaginin' you've learned all there is +ter know about farmin' yet." + +"If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that," said Bob a trifle +grimly. + +"That's right. I ain't got much of a farm, an' any'ow, it's winter. I +on'y showed yous a few of the odd jobs--an' wot it is to 'ave to batch +fer yerself, not comin' in like a lord to Billabong ter see wot Mrs. +Brown's been cookin' for yous. Nothin' like a bit o' batchin' ter teach +a cove. An' you mind, Captin--if you start anywhere on yer own, you +batch decent; keep things clean an' don't get into the way o' livin' +just any'ow. I ain't much, nor the meenoo ain't excitin'; but things is +clean." + +"Well--I have a sister," said Bob. "So I'm in luck. But I guess I know a +bit more about her side of the job now." + +"And that's no bad thing for Tommy," said Jim. + +"Oo's 'e?" demanded Joe. + +"Oh--that's his sister." + +"Rum names gals gets nowadays," said Joe, pondering. "Not on'y gels, +neither. 'S a chap on top of the 'ill 'as a new baby, an' 'e's called it +'Aig Wipers Jellicoe. 'Course, 'e did go to the war, but 'e ain't got +no need ter rub it into the poor kid like that." He paused to ram the +tobacco into the bowl of his pipe with a horny thumb. "One thing--I'd +like to pay you chaps somethin'. Never 'ad blokes workin' fer me fer +nothin', an' I don't much care about it." + +"No, thanks, Mr. Howard," said Jim. "We came for colonial experience." + +"You!" said old Joe, and permitted himself the ghost of a grin. "Well, +I ain't goin' ter fight yous about it, an' I'm not worryin' a mighty +lot about you, Major, 'cause your little bit o' country's ready made for +you. But Captin's different. We won't 'ave no fight about cash, Captin; +but that last year's calf of the ol' keow's goin' ter be a pretty decent +steer, an' when you gets yer farm 'e's goin' on it as yer first bit o' +stock. An' 'e'll get the best o' my grass till 'e goes." + +"Rubbish!" said Bob, much embarrassed. "Awfully good of you, Mr. Howard, +but that wasn't the agreement. I know I'm not worth wages yet." + +"Oh, ain't you?" Joe asked. "Well, there's two opinions about that. +Any'ow, 'e's yours, an' I've christened 'im Captin, so there ain't +no way out of it." He rose, cutting short further protests. "Too much +bloomin' argument about this camp; I'm off ter bed." + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ON INFLUENZA AND FURNITURE + + +"So you think he'll do, Jim?" + +"Yes, I certainly do," Jim answered. He was sitting with his father in +the smoking-room at Billabong, his long legs outstretched before the +fire, and his great form half-concealed in the depths of an enormous +leather armchair. "Of course he'll want guidance; you couldn't expect +him to know much about stock yet, though he's certainly picked up a good +bit." + +"Yes--so it seems. His great point is his quick eye and his keenness. I +haven't found him forget much." + +"No, and he's awfully ashamed if he does. He's a tiger for work, and +very quick at picking up the way to tackle any new job. That was one +of the things that pleased old Joe about him. I fancy the old chap had +suffered at the hands of other new-chums who reckoned they could +teach him how to do his work. 'Captin ain't orffered me not one bit of +advice,' he told me with relief." + +Mr. Linton laughed. + +"Yes, I've had them here like that," he said. "Full of sublime +enthusiasm for reforming Australia and all her ways. I don't say +we don't need it, either, but not from a new-chum in his first five +minutes." + +"Not much," agreed Jim. "Well, there's nothing of that sort about old +Bob. He just hoes in at anything that's going, and doesn't talk about +it. Joe says he must have been reared sensible. He's all right, dad. +I've had a lot of men through my hands in the last few years, and you +learn to size 'em up pretty quickly." + +David Linton nodded, looking at his big son. Sometimes he had a pang of +regret for Jim's lost boyhood, swallowed up in war. Then, when he was +privileged to behold him rough-and-tumbling with Wally, singing idiotic +choruses with Norah and Tommy, or making himself into what little Babs +Archdale ecstatically called "my bucking donkey," it was borne in upon +him that there still was plenty of the boy left in Jim--and that there +always would be. Nevertheless, he had great confidence in his judgment; +and in this instance it happened to coincide with his own. + +The door opened, and Bob Rainham came in, hesitating as he caught sight +of the father and son. + +"Come in, Bob," Mr. Linton said. "I was just wishing you would turn up. +We've been talking about you. I understand you've made up your mind to +get a place of your own." + +"If you don't think I'm insane to tackle it, sir," Bob answered. "Of +course, I know I'm awfully ignorant. But I thought I could probably get +hold of a good man, and if I can find a place anywhere in this district, +Jim says he'll keep an eye on me. Between the two, I oughtn't to make +very hopeless mistakes. And I might as well have my money invested." + +"Quite so. I think you're wise," the squatter answered. "As it happens, +I was in Cunjee yesterday, talking to an agent, and I heard of a little +place that might suit you very well--just about the price you ought to +pay, and the land's not bad. There's a decent cottage on it--you and +Tommy could be very comfortable there. It's four miles from here, so we +should feel you hadn't got away from us." + +"That sounds jolly," said Bob. "I'd be awfully glad to think Tommy was +so near to Norah. Is it sheep country, Mr. Linton?" + +"So it's to be sheep, is it? Well, I'd advise you to put some young +cattle on to some scrub country at the back, but you could certainly +run sheep on the cleared paddocks," Mr. Linton answered. "We could drive +over and look at it to-morrow, if you like. The terms are easy; you'd +have money over to stock it, or nearly so. And there's plenty to be done +in improving the place, if you should buy it; you could easily add a +good deal to its value." + +"That's what I'd like," Bob answered eagerly. "It doesn't take a whole +lot of brains to dig drains and cut scrub. I could be doing that while +the sheep turn into wool and mutton!" + +"So you could; though there's a bit more to be done to sheep than just +to watch them turn," said the squatter, with a twinkle. "I fancy Tommy +will be pleased if you get this place." + +"Tommy's mad keen to start," Bob said. "She says Norah has taught her +more than she ever dreamed that her head could contain, and she wants +to work it all off on me. I think she has visions of making me kill a +bullock, so that she can demonstrate all she knows about corning and +spicing and salting beef. I mentioned it would take two of us quite a +little while to work through a whole bullock, but she evidently didn't +think much of the objection." + +"I'll see you get none fat enough to kill," grinned Jim. "Norah says +Tommy's a great pupil, dad." + +"Oh, they have worked as if they were possessed," Mr. Linton answered. +"I never saw such painfully busy people. But Norah tells me she has +had very little to teach Tommy--in fact, I think the teaching has been +mutual, and they've simply swapped French and Australian dodges. At all +events they and Brownie have lived in each other's pockets, and they all +seem very content." + +"Are you all talking business, or may we come in?" demanded a cheery +voice; and Norah peeped in, with Tommy dimly visible in the background. + +"Come in--'twas yourselves we were talking about," Jim said, rising +slowly from the armchair; a process which, Norah was accustomed to say, +he accomplished yard by yard. "Sit here, Tommy, and let's hear your +views on Australia!" + +Tommy shook her head. + +"Too soon to ask me--and I've only seen Billabong," she said, laughing. +"Wait until I've kept house for Bob for a while, and faced life without +nice soft buffers like Norah and Mrs. Brown!" + +"I'm not a nice soft buffer!" said Norah indignantly. "Do I look like +one, Jimmy?" + +"Brownie certainly fits the description better," Jim said. "Never mind, +old girl, you'll probably grow into one. We'd be awfully proud of you if +you got really fat, Norah." + +"Then I hope you'll never have cause for pride," retorted his sister. +"I couldn't ride Bosun if I did, and that would be too awful to think +about. Oh, and Tommy's making a great stock-rider, Bob. She declared she +could never ride astride, but she's perceiving the error of her ways." + +"I thought I could never stick on without the moral support of the +pommels," said Tommy. "When you arrange yourself among pommels and horns +and things on a side-saddle, there seems no real reason why you should +ever come off, except of your own free will. But a man's saddle doesn't +offer any encouragement to a poor scared new-chum. I pictured myself +sliding off it whenever the horse side-stepped. However, somehow, it +doesn't happen." + +"And what happens when your steed slews around after a bullock?" asked +Jim. + +"Indeed, I hardly know," said Tommy modestly. "I generally shut my eyes, +and hold on to the front of the saddle. After a while I open them, +and find, to my astonishment, that nothing has occurred, and I'm still +there. Then we sail along after Norah, and I hold up my head proudly and +look as if that were really the way I have always handled cattle. And +she isn't a bit taken in. It's dreadfully difficult to impress Norah." + +Every one laughed, and looked at the new-chum affectionately. This small +English girl, so ready to laugh at her own mistakes, had twined herself +wonderfully about their hearts. Even Brownie, jealous to the point of +prickliness for her adored Norah, and at first inclined to turn up a +scornful nose at "Miss Tommy's" pink and white daintiness, had been +forced to admit that she "could 'andle things like a workman." And that +was high praise from Brownie. + +The telephone bell whirred in the hall, and Jim went out to answer it. +In a few minutes they heard his voice. + +"Norah, just come here a moment." He came back presently, leaving Norah +at the telephone. + +"It's Dr. Anderson," he said. "They're in trouble in Cunjee--there's a +pretty bad outbreak of influenza. Some returned men came up with it, +and now it's spreading everywhere, Anderson says. Mrs. Anderson has been +nursing in the hospital, but now two of her own kiddies have got it, so +she has had to go home, and they're awfully shorthanded. Nurses seem to +be scarce everywhere; they could only get one from Melbourne, and she's +badly overworked." + +"Norah will go, I suppose," said David Linton, with a half-sigh--the +sigh of a man who has looked forward to peace and security, and finds it +again slipping from his grasp. + +"Oh, yes, I'm sure she will. They have a certain number of volunteers, +not nearly enough." + +"I'm going," said Tommy, and David Linton nodded at her kindly. + +"What about you and me, Jim?" Bob asked. + +"Well, Anderson says they have a number of men volunteers. Such a lot of +returned fellows about with nothing to do yet. I told him to count on us +for anything he wanted, but the need seems chiefly for women." + +"Must they go to-night? It's pretty late," said Mr. Linton. + +"No, not to-night," Norah answered, entering. "It would be eight o'clock +before I could get in, and Dr. Anderson says I'm to get a good sleep and +come in early in the morning. Tommy, darling, will you mind if I leave +you for a few days?" + +"Horribly," said Tommy drily. "It would be unpardonably rude for a +hostess. So I 'm coming too." + +Norah laughed down at her. + +"Somehow, I thought you would," she said. "Well, Jimmy, you'll take us +in after breakfast, won't you? We'll have it early." She perched on the +arm of her father's chair, letting her fingers rest for a moment on +his close-cropped grey hair. "And I've never asked you if I could go, +daddy." + +"No," said David Linton; "you haven't." He put his arm gently round her. + +"But then I knew that you'd kick me out if I didn't. So that simplifies +matters. You'll take care of yourself while I'm away, won't you, dad? No +wild rides by yourself into the ranges, or anything of that sort?" + +"Certainly not," said her father. "I'll sit quietly at home, and let +Brownie give me nourishment at short intervals." + +"Nothing she'd like better." Norah laughed. "I don't believe Brownie +will really feel that she owns us again until one of us is considerate +enough to fall ill and give her a real chance of nursing and feeding us. +Then the only thing to do is to forget you ever had a will of your +own, and just to open your mouth and be fed like a young magpie, and +Brownie's perfectly happy." + +"She won't be happy when she hears of this new plan," Mr. Linton said. +"Poor old soul, I'm sorry she should have any worry, when she has just +got you home." + +"Yes; I'm sorry," Norah answered. "But it can't be helped. I'll go and +talk to her now, and arrange things--early breakfast among them." + +"You might make it a shade earlier than you meant to, while you're at +it, Nor," Jim observed. "Then we could turn off the track as we go in +to-morrow to let Tommy have a look at the place that has been offered +Bob--you know that place of Henderson's, off the main road. Bob can go +over the land with us when we're coming back. But once you and Tommy get +swallowed up in Cunjee, there's no knowing when we could get you out; +and Tommy ought to inspect the house." + +"Oh, I'd love to," said Tommy enthusiastically. "No mere man can be +trusted to buy a house." + +"Don't go to look at it with any large ideas of up-to-date improvements +floating in your mind," Jim warned her. "It's sure to be pretty +primitive, and probably there isn't even a bathroom." + +"Don't you worry, Tommy; we'll build you one," said Mr. Linton. + +"I'm not going to worry about anything; there are always washtubs," +spoke Tommy cheerfully--"and thank you, all the same, Mr. Linton. I +didn't expect much when I came out to Australia, but I'm getting so much +more than I expected that I'm in a state of bewilderment all the time. +Someday I feel that I shall come down with a bump, and I shall be +thankful if it's only over a bathroom." + +"Distressing picture of the valiant pioneer looking for discomforts and +failing to find them," said Bob, laughing. "It's so difficult to feel +really pioneerish in a place where there are taps, and electric +light, and motors, and no one appears to wear a red shirt, like every +Australian bushman I ever saw on the stage." + +"Did you bring any out with you?" demanded Norah wickedly. + +"I didn't. But honest, it was only because I had so many khaki ones, and +I thought they'd do. Otherwise I'd certainly have thought that scarlet +shirts were part of the ordinary outfit for the Colonies. And if you +believed all the things they tell you in outfitting shops, you would +bring a gorgeous assortment. We'd have even arrived here with tinware. +It was lucky I knew some Australians--they delicately hinted that you +really had a shop or two in the principal cities." + +"I've often marvelled at the queer collection people seem to bring out," +said Mr. Linton. "It's not so bad of late years, but ten years ago a +jackeroo would arrive here with about a lorry-load of stuff, most of +which he could have bought much more cheaply in Melbourne or Sydney--and +he'd certainly never use the greater part of it. Apparently a London +shop will sell you the same kind of outfit for a Melbourne suburb as +if you were going into the wilds of West Africa. They haven't any +conscience." + +"They just never learn geography," said Norah. "And 'the Colonies' to +them mean exactly the same thing, no matter in what continent the colony +may be. If they can sell pioneers tinware to take out to Melbourne, so +much the better for them. Well, I must see Brownie, or there may not be +early breakfast for pioneers or any one else." + +Brownie rose to the occasion--there had never been any known occasion +to which Brownie did not rise--and the hospital at Cunjee was still +grappling with early morning problems next day when the Billabong motor +pulled up at the door, after a flying visit to the new home--which +Tommy, regarding with the large eye of faith, had declared to be full of +boundless possibilities. Dr. Anderson came out to meet the new-comers, +Norah and Tommy, neat and workmanlike; Jim, bearing their luggage; and +Mr. Linton and Bob sharing a large humper, into which Brownie had packed +everything eatable she could find--and Brownie's capacity for finding +things eatable at short notice was one of her most astonishing traits. +The little doctor, harassed as he was, greeted them with a twinkle. + +"You Lintons generally appear bearing your sheaves with you," he said. +"Well, you're very welcome. How many of you do I keep?" + +"Tommy and Norah, for certain," said Mr. Linton. "And as many more of us +as you please. Want us all, doctor?" + +"Well, I really don't; there are a good many men volunteers. But if +I might commandeer the car and a driver for a few hours, I should be +glad," the doctor went on. "There are some cases to be brought in +from Mardale and Clinthorpe. I heard of them only this morning, on the +telephone, and I was wondering how to get them in." + +"We're at your disposal, and you've only to telephone for us or the car +whenever you want it," said Mr. Linton. "How are things this morning?" + +"Oh--bad enough. We have several very troublesome cases; people simply +won't give in soon enough. My youngsters are very ill, but I'm not +really worried about them as long as my wife keeps up. Our biggest +trouble is that our cook here went down this morning. She told me she +couldn't sleep a wink all night, and when she woke up in the morning +her tongue was sticking to the roof of her head!--and certainly she has +temperature enough for any strange symptoms. But we feel rather as if +the bottom had dropped out of the universe, for none of our volunteers +are equal to the job." + +"I can cook," said Norah and Tommy together. + +"Can you?" said the little doctor, staring at them as though the heavens +had opened and rained down angels on his head. "Are you sure? You don't +look like it!" + +"I can guarantee them," said Mr. Linton, laughing. "Only you'll have to +watch Norah, for the spell of the war is heavy upon her, and she'll boil +your soup bones thirteen times, and feed you all on haricot beans and +lentils if nobody checks her!" + +"Dad, you haven't any manners," said Norah severely. "May I cook, +Doctor?" + +"You can share the job," said Dr. Anderson thankfully. "I really think +it's more than enough for one of you. This place is getting pretty full. +Of course, I've wired to town for a cook, but goodness knows if we'll +get one; it's unlikely. Come on, now, and I'll introduce you to Sister." + +Sister proved to be a tall, capable, quiet woman, with war decorations. +She greeted the volunteers thankfully, and unhesitatingly pronounced +their place to be cooks, rather than nurses. + +"I can get girls who will do well enough in the wards," she said, "where +I can direct them. But I can't be in the kitchen too. If you two can +carry on without supervision it will be a godsend." + +So the kitchen swallowed up Norah and Tommy, and there they worked +during the weeks that followed, while the influenza scourge raged +round Victoria. The little cottage-hospital became full almost to +bursting-point. Even the rooms for the staff had to be appropriated, and +nurses and helpers slept in a cottage close by. Luckily for the cooks, +Cunjee now boasted a gas supply and its citizens supplied them with +gas-stoves, as Norah said, "in clutches," so that they worked in +comfort. It was hard work, with little time to spare, but the girls had +learned method, and they soon mapped out a routine that prevented their +ever being rushed or flurried. And they blessed the cold weather that +saved constant watching lest supplies should go bad. + +From Billabong came daily hampers that greatly relieved their labours. +It was a matter of some amazement to the Lintons that Brownie did not +volunteer for the hospital, and indeed, it had been the first thought of +Brownie herself. But she repressed it firmly, though by no means feeling +comfortable. To Murty she confided her views, and was relieved by his +approval. + +"I know I did ought to go," she said, almost tearfully. "There's those +two blessed lambs in the kitchen, doing wot I'd ought to be doing; and +I know Mrs. Archdale 'ud come up an' run things 'ere for me. But wot 'ud +'appen if I did go, I ask you, Murty? Simply they'd take the two blessed +lambs out of the kitchen an' put 'em to nursing in the wards, an' next +thing you knew they'd both be down with the beastly flu' themselves. +They're safer among the pots and pans, Murty. But when the master looks +at me I don't feel comferable." + +"Yerra, let him look," said Murty stoutly. "'Tis the great head ye have +on ye; I'd never have thought of it. Don't go worryin', now. Are ye not +sendin' them in the heighth of good livin' every day?" + +"That's the least I can do," said Brownie, brightening a little. "Only +I'd like to think Miss Norah and Miss Tommy got some of it, and not just +them patients, gethered up from goodness knows where." + +"Yerra, Miss Norah wouldn't want to know their addresses before she'd +feed 'em," said the bewildered Murty. But there came a suspicious smell +from the kitchen, as of something burning, and Mrs. Brown fled with a +swiftness that was surprising, considering her circumference. + +Jim lived a moving existence in those days, flying between Billabong +and Cunjee in the car, bringing supplies, always on hand for a job if +wanted, and insisting that on their daily "time off" Norah and Tommy +should come out for a spin into the country. Sometimes they managed to +take Sister, too, or some of the other helpers. The car never went out +with any empty seats. Presently they were recovering patients to be +given fresh air or taken home; white-faced mothers, longing to be back +to the house and children left in the care of "dad," and whatever kindly +neighbours might drop in; or "dads" themselves, much bewildered at the +amazing illness that had left them feeling as if neither their legs nor +their heads belonged to them. Occasionally, after dropping one of these +convalescents, Jim would find jobs waiting to his hand about the bush +homestead; cows to milk, a fence to be mended, wood waiting to be +chopped. He used to do them vigorously, while in the house "mum" fussed +over her restored man and tried to keep him from going out to run the +farm immediately. There were generally two or three astonished children +to show him where tools were kept--milk buckets, being always up-ended +on a fence post, needed no introduction, and the pump, for a sluice +afterwards, was not hard of discovery. The big Rolls-Royce used to purr +gently away through the bush paddock afterwards, often with a bewildered +"mum" looking amazedly at the tall young man who drove it. + +Meanwhile Bob Rainham, left alone with his host, set about the business +of his new farm in earnest, since there seemed nothing else for him to +do; and David Linton, possibly glad of the occupation, threw himself +into the work. The farm was bought on terms that seemed to Bob +very easy--he did not know that Mr. Linton stood security for his +payments--and then began the task of stocking it and of planning just +what was best to do with each paddock. The house, left bare and clean by +the last owners, was in good repair, save that the dingy white painting +of the exterior, and the varnished pine walls and ceilings within were +depressing and shabby. Mr. Linton decided that his house-warming present +to Tommy should be a coat of paint for her mansion, and soon it looked +new--dark red, with a gleaming white roof, while the rooms were painted +in pretty fresh colours. "Won't Tommy get a shock!" chuckled Bob +gleefully. The dinginess of the house had not escaped him on the +morning that they had made their first inspection, but Tommy, who loved +freshness and colours, had made no sign. Had you probed the matter, +Tommy would probably have remarked, with some annoyance, that it was not +her job to begin by grumbling. + +Wally came hurtling back from Queensland at the first hint of the +influenza outbreak, and was considerably depressed at finding his twin +souls, Jim and Norah, engaged in jobs that for once he could not share. +Therefore he, too, fell back on the new farm, and found Bob knitting his +brow one evening over the question of furniture. + +"I don't want to buy much," he said. "Tommy doesn't, either; we talked +it over. We'd rather do with next to nothing, and buy decent stuff by +degrees if we get on well. Tommy says she doesn't want footling little +gimcracky tables and whatnots and things, nor dressing-tables full of +drawers that won't pull out. But I've been looking at the cheap stuff in +Cunjee, and, my word, it's nasty! Still, I can't afford good things now, +and Tommy wouldn't like it if I tried to get 'em. Tommy's death on the +simple life." + +"How are you on tools?" queried Wally. + +"Using tools? Pretty fair," admitted Bob. "I took up carpentering at +school; it was always a bit of a hobby of mine. I'm no cabinet-maker, if +that's what you mean." + +"You don't need to be," Wally answered. "Up where I come from--we were +pretty far back in Queensland--we hardly ever saw real furniture, the +stuff you buy in shops. It was all made out of packing-cases and odd +bits of wood. Jolly decent, too; you paint 'em up to match the rooms, or +stain 'em dark colours, and the girls put sort of petticoats round some +of the things." + +"We began that way," said David Linton, with a half-sigh. "There was +surprisingly little proper furniture in our first house, and we were +very comfortable." + +"Couldn't we begin, sir?" asked Wally eagerly. "This wet weather looks +like setting in. Bob can't do much on the farm. If we could get out +a few odd lengths of timber and some old packing cases from the +township--" + +"Heavens, you don't need to do that!" exclaimed their host. "The place +is full of both; packing-cases have been arriving at Billabong since Jim +was a baby, and very few of them have gone away again. There's plenty of +timber knocking about, too. We'll go over to the farm if you like, Bob, +and plan out measurements." + +"I think it's a splendid idea, thanks, sir," said Bob slowly. "Only I +don't quite see why I should bother you--" + +"Oh, don't talk rubbish!" said David Linton, getting up. "I believe I'm +glad of the job--the place seems queer without Jim and Norah." + +"My word!" said Wally. "Let's all turn carpenters, and give Tommy the +surprise of her life!" + +They flung themselves at the work with energy. A visit to the new house, +and a careful study of each room, revealed unsuspected possibilities to +Bob, whose English brain, "brought up," as Wally said, "on a stodgy +diet of bedroom suites," had failed to grasp what might be done by handy +people with a soul above mere fashion in the matter of furniture. They +came back with a notebook bulging with measurements and heads seething +with ideas. First, they dealt with the bedrooms, and made for each a set +of long shelves and a dressing-table-cupboard--the latter a noble piece +of furniture, which was merely a packing-case, smoothed, planed and +fitted with shelves; the whole to be completed with a seemly petticoat +when Tommy should be able to detach her mind from influenza patients. +They made her, too, a little work-table, which was simply a wide, low +shelf, at which she could write or sew--planned to catch a good light +from her window, so that as she sat near it, she could see the line of +willows that marked the creek and the rolling plains that ended in the +ranges behind Billabong. Tommy's room was painted in pale green; and +when they had stained all these exciting additions dark green, Bob +heaved a great sigh, and yearned audibly for the swift recovery of +the influenza patients, so that Tommy could return and behold her new +possessions. + +"We could make washstands," said Mr. Linton, when they had fitted out +the two remaining bedrooms. "But washstands are depressing things, and +would take up a good deal of space in these little rooms. You have a +good water supply, Bob; why not have built-in basins with taps, and lay +on water through the bedrooms?" + +Bob whistled. + +"My aunt! Is that really possible?" + +"Quite, I should say. It wouldn't take elaborate plumbing, and the pipes +could discharge into an irrigation drain for your vegetable garden. It +would save Tommy ever so much work in carrying water, too. There's a +fearsome amount of water carried in and out of bedrooms, and I can't see +why pipes shouldn't do the work. It need not cost you much--just a shelf +across a corner, with an enamelled basin let in." + +"Save you buying jugs and basins," said Wally. "Great money-saving +idea!" + +"Rather," said Bob. "Is there anyone in Cunjee who can plumb?" + +"Oh, yes; there's a handy man who can do the whole thing. We'll get Jim +to go and see him tomorrow." + +They left this job to the handy man, who proved equal to all demands, +and went on themselves to higher flights. Kitchen and pantry were +already fitted with shelves, but they built in a dresser, and found a +spare corner, where they erected a linen press warranted to bring tears +of joy to the eye of any housewife. Round the little dining-room and +sitting-room they ran a very narrow shelf, just wide enough to carry +flowers and ornaments, and they made wide, low window seats in each +room. Then, becoming bold by success, they turned to cabinet making, +and built into the dining-room a sideboard, which was only a glorified +edition of the kitchen dresser, but looked amazingly like walnut, aided +by a little stain; and for both sitting-rooms made low cupboards, +with tops wide enough to serve as little tables. Even the verandah was +furnished with wide shelf tables and a cupboard, and with low and broad +seats. + +"And it's all done by kindness--and packing cases!" said Jim, surveying +the result with admiration. + +"Indeed, I'm afraid a lot of your father's good timber has gone into +it," said Bob half ruefully. "He was awfully good about it, and the +supply of just-what-you-want timber on Billabong seemed inexhaustible." + +"No, you really used very little good stuff," David Linton said. "It's +chiefly packing cases, truly, Jim. But we had plenty of time to plane it +up and make it look decent. Bob ran an electric light into the workshop +and we worked every night. I believe it's kept us from getting influenza +from sheer boredom, with all you people away." + +"They'll soon be home," Jim said cheerfully. "Influenza's dying out, I +believe. No fresh cases for three days, and all the patients are getting +better. The little Andersons are up and about. By the way, Dad, couldn't +we bring those kiddies out to Billabong for a change?" + +"Why, of course," his father answered. "Tell Mrs. Anderson to come too, +or, if she won't leave her husband, Brownie will be delighted at the +chance of getting two children to look after again. Are the cooks quite +cheery, Jim?" + +"As cheery as possible," Jim answered. "They got off early to-day, and I +took them and Sister and the Anderson youngsters out for a run. Did 'em +all good. I'm coming home to-night, and they don't want me to-morrow, +because they're going to afternoon tea with some one or other. Flighty +young things, those cooks! So I can help you carpenters or do any odd +jobs." + +"We've lots," said Wally, who was putting a finishing coat of dark green +enamel to a rod destined as a towel rail for Tommy's room. "Simple jobs, +suitable for your understanding. Take care, Jimmy, I've a wet paint +brush, and you have a good suit on! I want to put shelves from floor to +ceiling of the bathroom, because the walls are rough and unlined, and +nothing on earth will make it a beautiful room. So Tommy may as well +store there all the things she doesn't want anywhere else. And you can +make her a medicine cupboard. I shan't have time to look at any of you +unskilled labourers, for I'm going to build her a draining-rack for +plates and things over the kitchen sink. And I can tell you, that takes +brains!" + +"Then it's not your job!" said Jim definitely. + +"Isn't it? I'll show you, you old Bond Street fashion plate!" Wally +stretched his long form, simply attired in a khaki shirt and dungaree +trousers, much be-splashed by paint, and looked scornfully at his neatly +dressed friend. "You needn't think, because you come here dressed like +the lilies of the field and fresh from motoring girls round the country, +that--" + +"My hat!" said Jim justly incensed. "And I after cleaning out and +whitewashing the hospital fowl-houses all the morning! Young Wally, you +need some one to sit on your head." He took off his coat slowly. + +"Ten to one," said Wally hastily, "if we had time to look into the +matter we'd find you'd whitewashed the fowls as well! These Army +Johnnies are so beastly impractical!" He gathered up his brushes and +fled, pursued by his chum. Sounds of warfare came faintly from the +distance. + +"It's a good thing some of us are sane," said Mr. Linton laughing. +"Nearly finished, Bob?" + +He was painting a shelf-table, screwed to the wall within a space at +the end of the verandah, which they had completely enclosed with wire +mosquito netting. Bob was hanging the door of this open-air room in +position, a task requiring judgment, as the floor of the verandah was +old and uneven. + +"Nearly, sir," he mumbled, his utterance made difficult by the fact +of having several screws in his mouth. He worked vigorously for a few +moments, and then stood back to survey his job. "This is going to be +a great little room--though it's hard just now to imagine that it will +ever be warm enough for it." + +"Just you wait a few months until we get a touch of hot weather, and +the mosquitoes come out!" said David Linton. "Then you and Tommy will +thankfully entrench yourselves in here at dusk, and listen to the +singing hordes dashing themselves against the netting in the effort to +get at you!" + +"That's the kind of thing they used to tell me on the Nauru," Bob said +laughing; "but I didn't quite expect it from you, Mr. Linton!" + +The squatter chuckled. + +"Well, indeed, it's no great exaggeration in some years," he said. "They +can be bad enough for anything, though it isn't always they are. But an +open-air room is never amiss, for if there aren't mosquitoes a lamp will +attract myriads of other insects on a hot night. That looks all right, +Bob; you've managed that door very well." + +"First rate!" said Jim and Wally approvingly, returning arm in arm. + +"You're great judges!" David Linton rejoined, looking at the pair. "Have +you returned to work, may I ask, or are you still imitating the lilies +of the field?" + +"Jim is; he couldn't help it," said Wally. "But I have been studying +that oak tree out in the front, Mr. Linton. It seems to me that a +seat built round it would be very comforting to weary bones on warm +evenings--" + +Bob gathered up his tools with decision in each movement. + +"Wally has come to that state of mind in which he can't look at anything +on the place without wanting to build something out of a packing case +in it, or round it, or on top of it!" he said. "When the sheep come I'll +have to keep you from them, or you'll be building shelves round them!" + +"Why, you're nearly as bad yourself!" grinned Wally. + +"I know I am, and that's why I've got to stop. I'm going to leave nice +little chisels and spokeshaves and smoothing planes, and mend up the +pigsty; it needs it badly, and so does the cow-shed. And then I've +got to think of ploughing, and cutting that drain across the flat, and +generally earning my living." + +"Don't you worry," said David Linton. "You couldn't have done much +outside in this wet weather, and at least your house is half-furnished. +And we'll help you through with the other things." + +"You're all just bricks," said Bob, his fair skin flushing--"only I +begin to feel as if I were fed with a spoon. I can't always expect to +have my work done for me." + +"You haven't shown much wish to leave it for anyone else," Jim said +drily. "Neither you nor Tommy strikes this district as a loafer. Just +stop talking bosh, old man, and think what Tommy's going to say to her +mansion." + +"Say?" queried Mr. Linton. "Why, she'll point out to us all the places +where she wants shelves!" + +"Shelves?" yelled the three as one man. + +"Yes, certainly. There was never a woman born who had enough. Don't lose +sight of your tools, Bob, for you'll go on putting up shelves as long +as you've an inch of wall to put them on. Come along, boys, and we'll go +home." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE HOME ON THE CREEK + + +"I think it's the loveliest home that ever was!" said Tommy solemnly. + +"Well, indeed, it takes some beating," Wally agreed. + +"Creek Cottage"--the name was of Tommy's choosing--was ready for +occupation, and they had just finished a tour of it. There was nothing +in it that was not fresh and bright and dainty--like Tommy herself. +The rooms were small, but they had good windows, where the crisp, short +curtains were not allowed to obscure the view. There were fresh mattings +and linoleums on the floors, and the home-made furniture now boasted, +where necessary, curtains of chintz or cretonne, that matched its +colouring. Norah and Tommy had spent cheery hours over those draperies. +The curtains for Tommy's "suite" had been Norah's gift--of dark-green +linen, embroidered in dull blue silks; and in the corner there was a +little sofa with cushions of the same. Tommy had purred--was, in fact, +still purring--over that home-made furniture, and declared it superior +to any that money could buy. She had also suggested new ideas for +shelves. + +They had not troubled furniture shops much. Save for a few comfortable +arm-chairs, there was nothing solid and heavy in the house; but it was +all pleasant and home-like, and the little rooms, bright with books +and pictures and flowers, had about them the touch of welcome and +restfulness that makes the difference between a home and a mere house. +The kitchen was Tommy's especial pride--it was cool and spotless, with +fresh-painted walls and ceilings, and shining white tiles round the +white sink--over which Wally's draining-rack sat in glory. Dazzling +tin-ware decorated the walls, and the dresser held fresh and pretty +china. For weeks it had been a point of honour for no one to visit +Cunjee without bringing Tommy a gift for the kitchen--meat fork, a set +of skewers, a tin pepper castor; offerings wrapped in many coverings of +tissue paper, and presented with great solemnity, generally at dinner. +The last parcel had been from Mr. Linton, and had eclipsed all the +others--an alarum clock, warranted to drive the soundest sleeper from +her bed. Bob declared it specially designed to ensure his getting fed at +something approaching a reasonable hour. + +A wide verandah ran round the whole house, and rush lounges and deck +chairs stood about invitingly--Tommy had insisted that there should +be plenty of seating accommodation on the verandah for all the Linton +party, since they filled the little rooms to an alarming extent. +Near where they stood the drawing-room opened out by a French window. +Something caught Tommy's eye, and she dived into the room--to return, +laughing with new treasure-trove--a sink brush and saucepan-scrubber, +tied up with blue ribbon. + +"Your doing?" she asked, brandishing them. + +"Not mine." Wally shook his head. "I don't do frivolous things like +that. But I heard Jim wheedling blue ribbon out of Norah this morning, +and I don't fancy he has much use for it ordinarily. You'd better ask +him." + +"It's like both of you--you nice stupids!" she said. + +"What?--the pot-scrub! That's not polite of you, Miss Rainham; and so +untrue, where I'm concerned." Wally sat down on the arm of a lounge and +regarded her with a twinkle. "What's old Bob doing?" + +Tommy laughed happily. + +"I think whenever we don't know where Bob is, he's safe to be out +looking at either the sheep or the pigs," she said. "He just loves them; +and he says he can see them growing." + +There was a hint of Spring in the air, and more than a hint of good +grass in the green paddocks stretching away from the house. By the creek +the willows were putting out long, tender shoots that would soon be a +thick curtain. The lucerne patch that stretched along its bank was dense +and high. The Rainhams had been delayed in taking possession of Creek +Cottage; a severe cold had smitten Tommy just at the end of her labours +in the hospital, and, being thoroughly tired out, it had been some time +before she could shake off its effects. Mr. Linton and Norah had put +down their feet with joint firmness, declaring that in no circumstances +should she begin housekeeping until she was thoroughly fit; so the +Rainhams had remained at Billabong. Tommy was petted and nursed in a +way she had not known since Aunt Margaret had died, while Bob worked +feverishly at his farm, riding over every day from Billabong, with a +package of Brownie's sandwiches in his pocket, and returning at +dusk, dirty and happy. Bob was responding to Australian conditions +delightfully, and was only discontented because he could not make his +farm all that he wanted it to be within the first week. + +Therein, however, he had unexpected help. The Cunjee district was a +friendly one; station owners and farmers alike looked kindly on +the young immigrant who turned so readily to work after four years' +fighting. Moreover, Tommy's work in the hospital was well known; the +general opinion being that "anything might be expected from young +Norah Linton, but you wouldn't think a bit of a new-chum kid like Bob +Rainham's sister would turn to and cook for a crowd, and she hardly off +the ship!" So the district laid its heads together and consulted Mr. +Linton; with the result that one morning Bob found himself unexpectedly +accompanied to work by his host. It was nothing unusual for Jim or +Wally, or both, to go with him. He was cutting a drain, which they +declared to be a job for which they had a particular fancy. But to-day +he found Monarch saddled with the other horses, and Mr. Linton, not only +ready to start, but hurrying them off; and there was no lunch to carry, +Norah airily declaring that since she and Tommy were to be deserted +they declined to be downtrodden, and would motor over with a hamper and +picnic at Creek Cottage. There was a mysterious twinkle in Norah's eye; +Bob scented something afoot, and tried--in vain--to pump her on the +matter. He rode away, his curiosity unsatisfied. + +But when they rode up the homestead paddock at his farm, he gave a long +whistle. + +"What on earth--?" he began amazedly. + +There were men in sight everywhere, and all working. Eight or nine +ploughs were moving across the paddocks destined for cultivation; +already wide strips of freshly turned earth showed that they had been +some time at work. On the flat where Bob had begun his drain was a line +of men, and some teams with earth-scoops, cutting a deep channel. There +were even men digging in the garden; and the sound of axes came faintly +from a belt of scrub that Bob was planning to clear--some day. He gaped +at them. + +"What does it mean?" + +"It's a bee," said Wally kindly. "A busy bee, improving each shining +hour." + +Bob turned a puzzled, half-distressed face to Mr. Linton. + +"I say, sir--what is it?" + +"It's just that, my boy," said David Linton. "The district had a fancy +to help you--Cunjee thinks a heap of soldiers, you see. So a lot of the +fellows got together and planned to put in a day on the creek, doing odd +jobs." + +"I say," said poor Bob flushing scarlet, "I never heard such a +thing--and I hardly know any of them. Whatever am I to say to them, +sir?" + +"I wouldn't say much at all," said David Linton laughing. "You'll only +embarrass them if you do. Just take a hand in any job you like, and +carry on--as we're all going to do." + +"There's one man you know, anyhow," said Jim grinning. He pointed out +old Joe Howard, the nearest to them among the ploughmen. + +"Heavens!" ejaculated Bob. "You don't mean to tell me old Joe has come +of his own accord!" + +"Couldn't keep him away," Jim said. "He remarked that you were a very +decent young feller, and he'd taught you how to work, so he might as +well lend an 'and. It's like old Joe's cheek, but he'll claim for ever +that he made you a worker." + +"Oh, let him," said Bob. "It doesn't hurt me, and it may amuse him." His +gaze travelled across the busy paddocks. "Well--I'm just staggered," he +said. "The least I can do is to get to work quickly." + +They turned the horses out and scattered; Bob to cutting scrub--it was +the job he liked least, so it seemed to him the decent thing to tackle +it--Jim to the drain construction, while Wally joined the band of +workers in the garden, since he knew Tommy's plans concerning it; and +Mr. Linton attacked a fence that needed repairs. In the middle of the +morning came the Billabong motor, driven by Norah, with Brownie and a +maid in the tonneau with Tommy, and hampers packed wherever possible. A +cart with other supplies had been driven over by Evans in the very early +morning, since Billabong had undertaken the feeding of the workers for +the day. The Rolls-Royce picked its way delicately round the paddocks, +while the girls carried drinks and huge slabs of cake to the different +bands of workers--this being the time for "smoke-oh." Then they hurried +back to the cottage, where Brownie and Maria were busy unpacking hampers +on the verandah, and Brownie was preparing to carve great joints of beef +and mutton and pork in readiness for the hungry horde that would descend +on them at dinner time. + +It was all ready when the men trooped up from the paddocks--squatters +and stockmen, farmers, horse breakers, bush workers of every degree; +all dirty and cheery, and filled with a mighty hunger. Soap and water +awaited them at the back; then they came round to sit on the edge of the +long verandahs, balancing heaped plates on their knees, and making short +work of Brownie's provisions. Jokes and cheery talk filled the air. +Tommy, carrying plates shyly at first, found herself the object of much +friendly interest. "Little Miss Immigrant," they called her, and vied +with each other in making her feel that they were all welcoming her. But +they did not waste much time over dinner--soon one after another got +up and sauntered away, lighting his pipe, and presently there were +straggling lines of figures going back to work across the paddocks. +After which Norah and Tommy bullied Bob into eating something--he had +been far too anxious to wait on his hungry "bee" to think of feeding +himself, and then the ladies of the party lunched with the ardour of the +long-delayed, and fell upon the colossal business of dish-washing. + +Afternoon tea came early, by which time nearly all the ploughing was +done, and the brown ribbon of the new drain stretched, wide and deep, +across the flat. The girls took the meal round the paddocks, this time +with Bob to carry the steaming billies of tea; it gave him a chance to +thank his helpers, when it was difficult to say whether the thanker or +the thanked were the more embarrassed. Soon after "cow time" loomed for +some of the workers, and whatever waits in Australia, it must not be +the cow; so that here and there a man shouldered his tools, and, leaving +them at the shed, caught his horse and rode away--apologizing to Bob, if +he happened to meet him, for going so early, with the brief apology of +the dairy farmer, "Gotter get home an' milk." But the majority worked on +until dusk came down and put an end to their efforts, and then came up +for their horses, singing and laughing. + +Bob stood at the gate, bareheaded, as they rode away. By this time he +had no words at all. He wished from the bottom of his heart that he +could tell them what good fellows he thought them; but he could only +stand, holding the gate for them with Tommy by his side; and it may +be that the look on each tired young face moved "the bee" more than +eloquence would have done. They shouted cheery good-byes as they went. +"Good luck, Miss Immigrant! Good luck, Captain!" And the dusk swallowed +them up, leaving only the sound of the cantering hoofs. + +Thanks to "the bee," the little farm on the creek looked very +flourishing on the great day when the lady of the house came down in +state to take possession of her domain. Bob had worked hard in the +garden, where already rows of vegetables showed well; Jim and Wally had +aided Norah and Tommy in the making of a flower garden, laying heavy +toll on Hogg's stores for the purpose; to-day it was golden and white +with daffodils and narcissi and snowdrops. The cultivation paddocks, no +longer brown, rippled with green oats; and cattle were grazing on +the rough grass of the flats, once a swamp, but already showing the +influence of the big drain. Bob had great plans for ploughing all his +flats next year. Dairy cows pastured in the creek paddock near the +house; beyond, Bob's beloved sheep were steadily engrossed in the +fascinating pursuit of "turning into wool and mutton." He never grew +tired of watching the process. + +The ever-present problem of labour, too, had solved itself pleasantly +enough. Sarah, for many years housemaid at Billabong, had married a +man on a farm near Cunjee, whose first attempt at renting a place for +himself had been brought to an untimely end by the drought; and Sarah +had returned to Billabong, to help in preparing for the home-coming of +the long-absent family, while her husband secured a temporary job in +Cunjee and looked about for another chance. There Jim had found him, +while helping at the hospital; the end of the matter being that Sarah +and Bill and their baby were installed at Creek Cottage, Bill to be +general utility man on the farm, and to have a share of profits, while +Sarah helped Tommy in the house. Every one was satisfied, and already +there were indications that Tommy would be daft over the baby. + +Sarah came out now to say that tea was ready--she had insisted on being +responsible for everything on this first day. Not that there was much +to do, for Brownie had sent over a colossal hamper, declaring that Miss +Tommy shouldn't be bothered with thinking about food when she wasn't +'ardly settled. So they packed into the little dining-room; where, +indeed, it took no small ingenuity to stow so large a party, when three +of the six happened to be of the size of David Linton and Jim and Wally; +and Tommy did the honours of her own table for the first time. + +"And to think," she said presently, "that six months ago there was only +Lancaster Gate! Of course, there was always Bob"--she flashed him a +quick smile--"but Bob was--" + +"In the air," put in Norah. + +"Very much so. And it didn't seem a bit certain that I could ever get +him out of it; or, if I did, that I could ever escape from Lancaster +Gate." + +"And you wouldn't, if the she-dragon had had her way," Bob said. + +"No. There was nothing to do but run. But even when I dreamed of +running, I never thought of more than a workman's cottage, with you +earning wages and me trying to make both ends meet. And now--look at us! +Bloated capitalists and station owners." + +"Well, you were a cook not so long ago. I wouldn't be too proud," Wally +gibed. + +"All the more reason for me to be proud--I've risen in the world," +declared Tommy. "Left my situation to better myself--isn't that +the right way to put it? And we've got the jolliest home in +Australia--thanks to all of you. Do have some more cake, Mr. Linton; I'd +love to say I made it myself, but Brownie did--still, all the same, it's +mine." + +"Don't you worry," he told her. "I'm coming here plenty of times for +cake of your own baking." + +"That's what I want." She beamed at him. "All of you. Bob and I will +feel lost and lonesome if we don't see you all--oh, often." + +"But you're going to," Norah said. "We'll be over goodness knows how +many times a week, and you two are always coming to dinner on Sunday, +and ever so many other days as well." + +"Was it in your plans that any work should be done on this estate?" +queried Bob solemnly. + +"Why, yes, in your spare time," Wally answered. "Any time you're not on +the road between here and Billabong, or catching a horse to go there, or +letting one go after coming back, or minding the Billabong horde when it +comes over, you can do a little towards improving the creek. I say, Bob, +it sounds the sort of life I'd love. Can't you give me a job, old man?" + +"Seeing that you've done little but work on this place since you came +back from Queensland, I shouldn't think you'd need to ask for a job," +retorted Bob. "However, I'll take you on as milker if you like--it's +about the only thing you haven't sampled." + +"No," said Wally, "you won't. Whatever beast I finally take to by way +of earning my living, it won't be the cow--if I can help it. I'd sooner +graze giraffes!" + +"Oh, do try!" Norah begged. "I'd love to see you trying to put a bridle +on one in a hurry!" + +"Wonder what would happen if one rode a giraffe and he reared?" pondered +Jim. + +"You'd have to swarm up his neck and hang on to his little horns," Wally +said. "But they're nice, silent beasts, giraffes, and I think they'd be +very restful to deal with." + +Every one laughed unsympathetically. Restfulness was the last quality +to be associated with Wally, who had been remarkable throughout his life +for total inability to keep still. + +"It's always the way," said Wally, in tones of melancholy. "Every +fortune teller I ever saw told me that no one understood me." + +"All fortune tellers say that, and that's why people think them so +clever," said Tommy. "It's so soothing to think one is misunderstood. My +stepmother always thought so. Did Bob tell you, Mr. Linton, that we had +had letters from home?" + +"No--from your people?" + +"From Papa. The she-dragon didn't write. I think her words would +have been too burning to put on paper. But Papa wrote a pretty decent +letter--for him. He didn't speak of our letters from Liverpool--the +notes we wrote from the hotel, saying we were leaving for Australia. +But he acknowledged Bob's letter from Melbourne, saying we were going +up country under your wing, and actually wished us luck! Amazing, from +Papa!" + +"I think he's jolly glad we got away," Bob said. + +"I think that's highly probable," said David Linton. "You'll write to +him occasionally, won't you?" + +"Oh, yes, I suppose so," Bob answered. "Sometimes I'm a bit sorry +for him; it must be pretty awful to be always under the heel of a +she-dragon. Oh, and there was a really fatherly sort of letter from old +Mr. Clinton. He's an old brick; and he's quite pleased about our finding +you--or you finding us. He was always a bit worried lest Tommy should +feel lonesome in Australia." + +"And not you?" Norah asked laughing. + +"No, he didn't worry a bit about me; he merely hoped I'd be working +too hard to notice lonesomeness. I think the old chap always was a bit +doubtful that any fellow would get down to solid work after flying; he +used to say the two things wouldn't agree. But you sent him a decent +report of me, didn't you, sir?" + +"Oh, yes--I wrote when you asked me, just after you bought this place," +David Linton said. "Told him you were working like a cart-horse, which +was no more than the truth, and that Tommy was serving her adopted +country as a cook; and that I considered your prospects good. He'll have +had that letter before now--and I suppose others from you." + +"We wrote a few weeks ago--sent him a photograph of the house, and +of Tommy on a horse, and Tommy told him all about our furniture," Bob +chuckled. "I don't quite know how a staid old London lawyer will regard +the furniture; he won't understand its beauty a bit. But he ought to be +impressed with our stern regard for economy." + +"He should," said Mr. Linton with a twinkle. "And I presume you +mentioned the sheep?" + +"As a matter of fact," said Tommy confidentially, "his letter was little +but mutton. He described all his ewes in detail--" + +"Colour of their eyes?" queried Wally. + +"And their hair," nodded Tommy. "I never read anything so poetical. And +any enthusiasm he had over went to the pigs and the Kelpie pup!" + +"But what about the cows?" laughed Norah. "And the young bullocks?" + +"Oh, he mentioned them. But cattle are just four-legged animals to +Bob; they don't stir his soul like sheep and pigs. He couldn't write +beautiful things about them. But when it comes to sheep, he just +naturally turns into a poet!" + +The object of these remarks helped himself serenely to cake. + +"Go on," he nodded at his sister cheerfully. "Wait until my wool cheque +comes in, and you want a new frock--then you'll speak respectfully of my +little merinoes. And if you don't, you won't get the frock!" + +"Why, I wouldn't disrespect them for anything," Tommy said. "I think +they're lovely beasts. So graceful and agile. Will any of them come yet +when you whistle, Bobby?" + +"Are you going to put up with this sort of thing, Bob?" demanded Jim. + +Bob smiled sweetly. + +"I'm letting her have her head," he said confidently. "It's badly +swelled just now, because she's got a house of her own--but you wait +until she wants a new set of shelves, or a horse caught in a hurry +so that she can tear over and find out from Norah how to cook +something--then she'll come to heel. It's something in your climate, I +think, because she was never so cheeky at home--meek was more the word +to describe her." + +"Meek!" said his sister indignantly. "Indeed, I never was meek in my +life!" + +"Indeed you were, and it was very becoming," Bob assured her. "Now +you're more like a suffragette--" He stopped, staring. "Why, that's it! +It must be in the air! She knows she'll have the vote pretty soon!" He +broke into laughter. "Glory! Fancy little Tommy with a vote!" + +Tommy joined in the general mirth. + +"I hadn't realized it," she said, "and I needn't bother for over +eighteen months, anyhow. And I don't believe that any of you have ever +voted, even if you are twenty-one--except Mr. Linton, of course; and you +don't know a bit more about it than I do." + +"Hear, hear!" said Wally. "I certainly don't, and neither does Jim. But +when we do vote, it's going to be for the chap who'll let us go and dig +our own coal out if there's a strike. That's sense; and it seems to me +the only sensible thing I've ever heard of in politics!" A speech which +manifested so unusual an amount of reflection in Wally that every one +was spellbound, and professed inability to eat any more. + +Bob and Tommy stood on the verandah to watch their visitors go; Mr. +Linton and Norah in the motor, while Jim and Wally rode. The merry +shouts of farewell echoed through the gathering dusk. + +"Bless them," said Tommy--"the dears. I don't believe we'd have a home +now but for them, Bob." + +"We certainly wouldn't," Bob answered. "And sometimes I feel as if +they'd spoon-fed us. Look at all they've done for us--these months at +Billabong and all they've taught us, and all the things that they've +showered on us. We couldn't pay them back in twenty years." + +"And they talk as if the favour were on their side," his sister said. +"There's the buggy they've lent us--Mr. Linton spent quite a long time +in pointing out to me how desirable it was for them that we should use +it, now that they have the car and don't need it. And the horses that +apparently would have gone to rack and ruin from idleness if we hadn't +come." + +"And the cows that don't seem to have had any reason for existence +except to supply us with milk," Bob said laughing; "and the farm +machinery that never was really appreciated until immigrants came +along--at least, you'd think so to hear Jim talk, only its condition +belies him. Oh, they're bricks, all right. Only I don't seem as if I +were standing squarely on my own feet." + +"I don't think we could expect to, just yet," said Tommy pondering. "And +if they have helped us, Bobby, you can see they have loved doing it. It +would be ungracious for us not to take such help--given as it has been." + +"Yes, of course," Bob answered and squared his shoulders. "Well, +I'm going to work like fury. The only thing I can do now is not to +disappoint them. I feel an awful new-chum, Tommy, but I've got to make +good." + +"Why, of course you're going to," she said, slipping a hand through his +arm. "Jim wouldn't let you make mistakes; and the land is good, and +even if we strike a bad season, there's always the creek--we'll never be +without water, Jim says. And we're going to have the jolliest home--it's +that now, and we're going to make it better." + +"It's certainly that now," Bob said. "I just can't believe it's ours. +Come and prowl round, old girl." + +They prowled round in the dusk; up and down the garden paths by the +nodding daffodils, out round the sheds and the pigsties, and so down +to where the creek rippled and murmured in the gloom, flowing through +paddocks that, on either side, were their own. Memories of war and of +gloomy London fell away from them; only the bright present and a future +yet more bright filled them; and there was no loneliness, since all +the big new country had smiled to them and stretched out hands of +friendliness. They came back slowly to their house, arm in arm; two +young things, like shadows in the gloom, but certain in their own minds +that they could conquer Australia. + +Bob lit the hanging lamp in the little sitting-room, and looked round +him proudly. A photograph caught his eye; a large group at his Surrey +Aerodrome, young officers clustered round a bi-plane that had just +landed. + +"Poor chaps," he said, and stared at them. "Most of 'em don't know yet +that there's anything better in the world than flying." + +"But they've never met merino sheep," said Tommy solemnly. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CUNJEE RACES + + +"Who's going to the races?" demanded Jim. + +He had ridden over to the creek alone, and Tommy had come to the garden +gate to greet him, since the young horse he was riding firmly declined +to be tied up. It was a very hot morning in Christmas week. Tommy was in +a blue print overall, and her face was flushed, her hair lying in little +damp rings on her forehead. Jim, provokingly cool in riding breeches and +white silk shirt, smiled down at her across the gate. + +"Races!" said Tommy. "But what frivolity. Why, I'm bottling apricots." + +"No wonder you look warm, you poor little soul," said Jim. "You oughtn't +to choose a scorcher like this for bottling. Anyhow, the races aren't +to-day, but New Year's day--Cunjee Picnic meeting. We're all going, so +you and Bob have got to come. Orders from Norah." + +"Oh, New Year's day. I'd love to come," Tommy said. "I've never seen +races." + +"Never seen races!" ejaculated young Australia in sheer amazement. +"Where were you dragged up?" They laughed at each other. + +"Aunt Margaret wasn't what you'd call a racing woman," Tommy said. "I +don't fancy Bob has seen any, either. Bill and Sarah, to say nothing of +the baby, are going. I offered to mind the baby, but Sarah didn't seem +to think the picnic would be complete without her." + +"People have queer tastes," Jim said. "I wouldn't choose a long day +at races as the ideal thing for a baby; but Sarah seems to think +differently. Wonder what Bill thinks? Still, I'm glad she didn't take +you at your word, because we'd have had to dispose of the baby somewhere +if she had. I suppose we could put it under the seat of the car!" + +"Oh, do you?" Tommy regarded him with a glint in her eye. "No; we'd have +made you nurse her--she isn't 'it.' She's the nicest baby ever, and I +won't have her insulted." + +"Bless you, I wouldn't insult the baby for worlds," grinned Jim. "I'll +look forward to meeting her at the races--especially as you won't be +minding her. Then it's settled, is it, Tommy? We thought of riding; will +it be too far for you?" + +"Not a bit," Tommy said. "Bob and I rode in and out of Cunjee the other +day, and I wasn't tired--and it was dreadfully hot." + +"Then you'll be all right on New Year's day, because the racecourse is +two miles this side of the township," Jim said. "But Norah said I was to +tell you some of us could easily go in the car if you'd rather drive." + +"Oh, no, thanks; I know you always ride, and I should love it," Tommy +answered. "Is Mr. Linton going?" + +"Oh, yes. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the whole station's going," Jim +said. "All except Brownie, of course; she scorns races. She says she +can't imagine why anyone should make anything run fast in the 'eat if +they don't want to." + +"Does Brownie ever leave Billabong?" + +"Hardly ever," Jim answered, laughing--"and it's getting more and more +difficult to make her. I think in a year or two it will need a charge +of dynamite. Oh, but, Tommy, we got her out in the car the other +evening--had to do it almost by main force. It was a hot evening, and +we took her for a spin along the road. She trembled like a jelly when we +started, and all the time she gripped the side with one hand and Norah's +knee with the other--quite unconsciously." + +"Do you think she enjoyed it at all?" Tommy smiled. + +"No, I'm jolly well sure she didn't," Jim responded. "Brownie's much too +well mannered to criticize anyone else's property, but when she got +out she merely said, 'You have great courage, my dear.' And wild horses +wouldn't get her into it again, unless we promised to 'make it walk,' +like we did the day we brought her over to help at your working bee. The +funny part of it is that Norah believes she was just as frightened that +morning, only she had a job on, and so was too busy to think of it. But +as for going in a car for mere pleasure--not for Brownie!" + +"Brownie's a dear," said Tommy irrelevantly. "Jim, can't you put that +fierce animal in the stable or the horse paddock, or somewhere, and come +in for some tea? I simply must get back to my apricots." + +"And I've certainly no business to be keeping you standing here in the +heat," Jim said. "No, I can't stay, thanks, Tommy--I promised dad I'd +meet him at the Far Plain gate at eleven o'clock, and it's nearly that +now. You run in to your apricots, and don't kill your little self over +them; it's no day for cooking if you can avoid it." + +"Oh, but I couldn't," Tommy answered. "They were just right for +bottling; the sun to-day would have made them a bit too soft. And it's +better to get them done; to-morrow may be just as hot, or hotter." + +"That's true enough," Jim said. "Feeling the heat much, little Miss +Immigrant?" + +"Oh, not enough to grumble at," she answered, smiling. "And the +bathing-hole in the creek is a joy; it's almost worth a hot day to get a +swim at the end of it. Bob has built me a bathing-box out of a tree, and +it's a huge success; he's very pleased with himself as an architect." + +"That's good business," approved Jim. "You two never grumble, no matter +what comes along." + +"Well, but nothing has come along but good luck," Tommy said. "What have +we had to grumble at, I should like to know?" + +"Oh, some people find cause for grousing, no matter how good their luck +is," Jim answered. "I believe you and old Bob would decline to recognize +bad luck even if it did come your way." + +"It's not coming," Tommy said, laughing. "So don't talk about it--I +don't believe it exists." She stood watching him for a moment as he +tried to mount; his big young thoroughbred resented the idea of anyone +on his back, and Jim had to hop beside him, with one foot in the +stirrup, while he danced round in a circle, trying to get away. Jim +seized an opportunity, and was in the saddle with a lithe swing; +whereupon the horse tried to get his head down to buck, and, being +checked in that ambition, progressed down the paddock in a succession of +short, staccato bounds. + +"I think I should have to recognize bad luck coming if I had to ride him +instead of Jim," remarked Tommy quaintly. She turned and ran in to her +neglected apricots. + +New Year's day broke clear and hot, like all the week before it. Norah, +arriving at the Creek about ten o'clock, looked a little anxiously at +her friend. + +"We're used to riding in the heat, Tommy, dear," she said. "But you're +not--are you sure you feel up to it?" + +"Why, I'm going to love it," Tommy said. She looked cool and +workman-like in a linen habit and white pith helmet--Norah's Christmas +present. "I hadn't these nice things to wear when Bob and I brought the +sheep out from Cunjee three weeks ago; and it was just as hot, and so +dusty. And that didn't kill me. I liked it, only I never got so dirty in +my life." + +"Well, we shall only have a hot ride one way," said Norah +philosophically. "There's a concert in Cunjee, and the boys want to stay +for it. The concert won't be much, but the ride home in the moonlight +will be lovely. You and Bob can stay, of course?" + +"Oh, yes. Bill must bring Sarah and the baby home in good time, so he +will milk the cows," Tommy answered. "He wanted them to stay for the +concert, but Sarah had an amazing attack of common sense, and said it +was no place for a baby. I didn't think she considered any place unfit +for a baby, and certainly Bill doesn't." + +"Bush people don't," said Norah, laughing. "If they did, they would +never go anywhere, because the babies must go too, no matter what +happens. And the babies get accustomed to it, and don't cry nearly as +much as pampered ones that are always in the nursery." + +"Bush kiddies grow a stock of common sense quite early," said Wally's +voice from the door. "It leaves them in later life, and they stay +gossiping with immigrants in new riding-kit, leaving their unfortunate +fathers grilling in the sun. Which he says--" But at this point Norah +and Tommy brushed the orator from their path, and hastened out to the +horses--finding all the men comfortably smoking under a huge pepper +tree, and apparently in no hurry to start. + +Bob bewailed his yellow paddocks as they rode down to the gate. + +"They were so beautifully green a few weeks ago," he said. "Now look at +them--why, they're like a crop. The sun has burnt every bit of moisture +out of them." + +"Don't let that worry you, my boy," David Linton said. "The stock are +doing all right; as long as they have plenty of good water at this time +of the year they won't ask you for green grass." He gave a low chuckle. +"You wouldn't think this was bad feed if you had seen the country in the +drought years--why, the paddocks were as bare as the palm of your hand. +Now you've grass, as you say yourself, like a crop." He looked at it +critically. "I could wish you hadn't as much; fires will be a bit of an +anxiety later on." + +"Grass fires?" queried Bob. + +"Yes. There's not enough timber here to have a real bush fire. But this +grass is dry enough now, and by February it will go like tinder if any +fool swagman drops a match carelessly. However, you'll just have to keep +your eyes open. Luckily, your creek can't burn--you'll always have so +much safeguard, because your stock could take to it; and that row of +willows along the bank would check any grass fire." + +"My word, wouldn't a fire race across the Billabong plains this year!" +said Wally. + +"Yes, it would certainly travel," agreed Mr. Linton. "Well, we've +ploughed fire-breaks, and burned round the house, and we can only hope +for good luck. You'd better burn a break round your house soon, Bob." + +"Bill was saying so only this morning," Bob answered. "I nearly chucked +the races and stayed at home to do it--only I was afraid it might get +away from me single-handed, and I couldn't very well keep Bill at home." + +"Oh, time enough," the squatter said lightly. "You're not so dry as we +are, and we only burned last week." + +"We'll come over and help you to-morrow, if you like," Jim said. "Wally +wants work; he's getting too fat. A little gentle exercise with a racing +fire on a hot day would be the very thing for him. We'll come and burn +off with you, and then have a bathing party in the creek, and then you +and Tommy must come back to tea with us." Which was a sample of the way +much of the work was done on the Creek Farm. It had never occurred to +the two Rainhams that life in Australia was lonely. + +The road to Cunjee was usually bare of much traffic, but on the one +race day of the year an amazing number of vehicles were dotted along +it, light buggies, farm wagonettes, spring carts and the universal +two-wheeled jinker, all crammed with farmers and settlers and their +families. Wives, a little red-faced and anxious, resplendent in their +Sunday finery, kept a watchful eye on small boys and girls; the boys +in thick suits, the girls with white frocks, their well-crimped hair +bearing evidence of intense plaiting overnight. Hampers peeped from +under the seats, and in most cases a baby completed the outfit. Now and +then a motor whizzed by, leaving a long trail of dust-cloud in its wake, +and earning hearty remarks from every slower wayfarer. There were riders +everywhere, men and women--most of the latter with riding-skirts slipped +on over light dresses that would do duty that night at the concert and +the dance that was to follow. Sometimes a motor-cycle chugged along, +always with a girl perched on the carrier at the back, clinging +affectionately to her escort. As Cunjee drew nearer and the farms closer +together the crowd on the road increased, and the dust mounted in a +solid cloud. + +The Billabong people drew to one side, as close as possible to the +fence, cantering over the short, dusty grass. It was with a sigh of +relief that Jim at last pointed out a paddock across which buggies and +horsemen were making their way. + +"There's the racecourse," he said. + +"Racecourse!" Tommy ejaculated. "But it just looks like an ordinary +paddock." + +"That's all it is," said Jim, laughing. "You didn't expect a grand-stand +and a lawn, did you? Cunjee is very proud of itself for having a turf +club at all, and nobody minds anything as long as they get an occasional +glimpse of the horses." + +"But where do they run?" + +"Oh, the track goes in and out among the trees. There's some talk of +clearing it before the next meeting by means of a working bee. But +they won't worry if it doesn't get done--every one will come and have a +picnic just the same. You see, there are only two days in the year when +a bush place can really let itself go--Show day and Race day. Show +day is more serious and business-like, but Race day is a really +light-hearted affair, and the horses don't matter to most of the +people." + +They turned into a gate where two men were busily collecting shillings +and keeping a wary eye lest foot passengers should dodge in through the +fence without paying. There were no buildings at all in the bush paddock +in which they found themselves. It lay before them, flat, save for +a rise towards the southern boundary, where already the crowd was +thickening, and sparsely timbered. As they cantered across it they came +to a rough track, marked out more or less effectively by pink calico +flags nailed to the trees. + +"That's the racing track," Wally said. "Let's ride round it, and we'll +have a faint idea of what the horses are doing later on." + +They turned along the track, where the grass had been worn by horses +training for the races during the few weeks preceding the great day. The +trees had been cleared from it, so that it was good going. In shape it +was roughly circular, with an occasional dint or bulge where a big red +gum had been too tough a proposition to clear, and the track had had to +swing aside to avoid it--a practice which must, as Jim remarked, make +interesting moments in riding a race, if the field were larger than +usual and the pace at all hot. Presently they emerged from the timber +and came into the straight run that marked the finish--running along the +foot of the southern rise, so that, whatever happened in the mysterious +moments in the earlier parts of a race, the end was within full view of +the crowd. The winning-post was a sawed-off sapling, painted half-black +and half-white; opposite to it was the judge's box, a huge log which +made a natural grand-stand, capable of accommodating the racing +committee as well. Behind, a rough wire fence enclosed a small +space known as the saddling paddock. The crowd picked out its own +accommodation--it was necessary to come early if you wanted a good +place on the rise. Already it was dotted with picnic parties, preparing +luncheon, and a procession of men and boys, bearing teapots and billies, +came and went about a huge copper, steaming over a fire, where the +racing club dispensed hot water free of charge, a generosity chiefly +intended to prevent the casual lighting of fires by the picnickers. +All over the paddock people were hastening through the business of the +midday meal; the men anxious to get it over before the real excitement +of the day began with the racing, the women equally keen to feed their +hungry belongings and then settle down to a comfortable gossip with +friends perhaps only seen once or twice in the twelve months. Children +tore about wildly, got in the way of buggies and motors, climbed trees +and clustered thickly round any horse suspected of taking part in +the racing. More than one candidate for a race appeared on the course +drawing a jinker; and, being released from the shafts, was being +vigorously groomed by his shirt-sleeved owner. + +"There's an awful lot to see!" ejaculated Tommy, gazing about her. + +"That is if you've eyes," Jim said. "But most of it can be seen on foot, +so I vote Wally and Bob and I take the horses and tie them up while +there's still a decent patch of shade left for them to stand in--every +tree in the paddock will have horses tied to it before long. Do you know +where Evans was to leave the buggy, Dad?" + +"Yes--it's under a tree over there," said his father, nodding towards a +bushy clump of wattles. "I told him to pick out a good shady place for +lunch. We'll go on and get ready, boys. I'll take the teapot for hot +water." + +"Not you!" said Jim. "We'll be back in a few minutes and can easily get +it. Just help the girls with the things, Dad, and we'll get lunch over; +I'm as hungry as a hawk." + +"I'm not hungry," said Norah. "But I want, oh! gallons of tea." + +Tea seemed the main requirement of everybody. It was almost too hot to +eat, even in the deep shade of the wattles. The boys, taught by the war +to feed wherever and whenever possible, did some justice to Brownie's +hamper; but Mr. Linton soon drew aside and lit his pipe at a little +distance, while Tommy and Norah nibbled tomato and lettuce sandwiches, +kept fresh and cool by being packed in huge nasturtium leaves, and drank +many cups of tea. Then they lay under the trees until a bell, ringing +from the saddling paddock, hinted that the first race was at hand. There +was a surge of people towards the rise. + +"Come on," Jim said, jumping up. "Help me to stow these things in the +buggy, Wally--we'll want most of them for afternoon tea later on. Then +we might as well go and see the fun. You girls rested?" + +They were, they declared; and presently they set off towards the rise. +Already the horses were appearing on the track, most of the jockeys +wearing silk jackets and caps, although a few were content with doffing +coat and waistcoat, and riding in blue and pink shirts--occasionally, +but not always, complete with collar and tie. The horses were a mixed +lot; some bore traces of birth and breeding, but the majority were just +grass-fed horses from the neighbouring farms and stations, groomed and +polished in a way that only happened to them once a year. The well-bred +performers were handicapped with heavy weights, while the others had +been let off lightly, so that all had a chance. + +"Billabong has a horse running to-day--did you know?" Jim inquired. + +"No!" Tommy looked up, dimpling with interest. "But how exciting, Jim. +Is it yours?" + +"No." Jim shook his head. "I won't enter a horse if I can't ride him +myself, and of course I'm too heavy. He belongs to the station, but he's +always looked upon as Murty's, and black Billy's going to ride him. He's +in the Hurdle Race." + +"Do you think he has any chance?" + +"Well, he can gallop and jump all right," Jim said. "But he hasn't had +much training, and whether he'll jump in company is open to doubt. But +I don't think he'll disgrace us. You've seen Murty riding him--a big +chestnut with a white blaze." + +"Oh, yes--he calls him Shannon, doesn't he?" said Tommy. "I saw him jump +three fences on him last time we were out mustering with your people. +He's a beauty, Jim." + +"Yes, he's pretty good. Murty thinks he's better than Garryowen, but I +don't," Jim observed. + +"If the Archangel Gabriel turned into a horse you wouldn't think he was +up to Garryowen!" said Wally. + +"No, and he probably wouldn't be," said Jim, laughing. "If you begin +life as an archangel, how would you settle down to being a horse after?" + +"I suppose it needs practice," Wally admitted. "Look out--here they +come!" + +The horses were coming down the straight in their preliminary canter, +and the crowd abandoned the business of picnicking and turned its +attention to the first race. The riders, mostly local boys, looked +desperately serious, and, as they pulled up after their canter, and +turning, trotted slowly back past the rise, shouts of warning and +encouragement and instruction came to them--from the owners of their +mounts--which had the effect of making the boys look yet more unhappy. +A bookmaker, the sole representative of his profession, yelled steadily +from under a lightwood tree; those who were venturesome enough to do +business with him were warned solemnly by more experienced men to keep a +sharp look-out that he did not get away with their money before the end +of the day. + +"That happened in Cunjee some years ago," said Mr. Linton. "A bookmaker +appeared from goodness knows where, and struck a very solid patch of bad +luck. All the district seemed to know how to pick winners that day, +and he lost solidly on every race. He plunged a bit on the fourth race, +hoping to get his money back; but that was worse still, and when he +saw the favourite winning, he knew he had no hope of settling up. So he +quietly collected his horse, which he had tied up in a convenient +place, in case it was wanted in a hurry, and made tracks before the race +finished." + +"What happened to him?" asked Bob. + +Mr. Linton chuckled. + +"Well, he added considerably to the excitement of the day. Some one +saw him going, and passed the word round, and every man to whom he owed +money--and they were many--ran for his horse and went after him. He had +a good start, and no one knew what road he would take, so it was quite +a cheery hunt. I think it was Dave Boone who tracked him at last, and he +paused at a cross-roads, and coo-eed steadily until he had a number +of followers. Then they set sail after the poor bookie, and caught +him about seven or eight miles away. They found he had practically no +money--not nearly enough to divide up; so they took what he had and +presented it to the Cunjee Hospital, and finished up the day happily by +tarring and feathering the bookie, and riding him on a fence rail round +Cunjee that night!" + +"What do your police do in a case like that?" Bob asked. + +"Well, there's only one policeman in Cunjee, and, being a wise man, he +went to the concert, and probably enjoyed himself very much," said Mr. +Linton, laughing. + +"And what happened to the bookie?" + +"Just what you might expect--the boys got sorry for him, made a +collection for him, bought him some cheap clothes--I believe they didn't +err on the side of beauty!--and shipped him off to Melbourne by the +first train in the morning. I don't think he'll try his artful dodges +on this section of the bush again; and it has made all the boys very +watchful about betting, so it wasn't a bad thing, on the whole. They +think they know all about the ways of the world now. Look, Tommy--the +horses are off! Watch through the trees, and you'll get a glimpse +presently." + +The gay jackets flashed into view in a gap in the timber, and then were +lost again. Soon they came in sight once more and rounded the last +curve into the straight, amid shouts from the crowd. They came up the +straight, most of the jockeys flogging desperately, while everyone +rushed to get as near the winning-post as possible. Hats were flung in +the air and yells rose joyfully, as a Cunjee boy, riding a desperate +finish, got his horse's nose in front in the last couple of lengths and +won cleverly. + +"She's excited!" said Wally, looking down at Tommy's flushed face. + +"I should think so," said Tommy. "Why, it was dreadfully exciting. I'd +love to have been riding myself." At which everyone laughed extremely, +and a tall young stockman from a neighbouring station, overhearing, was +so impressed that he hovered as near as possible to Tommy for the rest +of the day. + +The next event was the Hurdle Race, and interest for the Linton party +centred in the candidate described on the race-card as Mr. M. O'Toole's +Shannon. Nothing further could be done for Shannon--he was groomed until +the last hair on his tail gleamed; but black Billy, resplendent in a +bright green jacket and cap, the latter bearing an embroidered white +shamrock, became the object of advice and warning from every man from +Billabong, until anyone except Billy would probably have turned in wrath +upon the multitude of his counsellors. Billy, however, had one refuge +denied to most of his white brothers. He hardly ever spoke; and if some +reply was absolutely forced upon him, he merely murmured "Plenty!" in a +vague way, which, as Wally said, left you guessing as to his meaning. + +"Yerra, lave off badgerin' the boy," said Murty at last, brushing aside +Dave Boone and Mick Shanahan, and the other Billabong enthusiasts. +"If he listens to the lot of ye anny longer he won't know whether he's +ridin' a horse or an airyplane. There's only wan insthruction to be +kapin' in your head, Billy--get to the front an' stay there. Ridin' a +waitin' race is all very well on the flat, but whin it comes to jumpin', +anything that's in front of ye is apt to turn a somersault an' bring ye +down in a heap." + +"Plenty!" agreed Billy; and lit a cigarette. + +"Shannon don't like anny other horse in front of him at all," went on +Murty. "He's that full of pride he never tuk kindly to bein' behind, not +since he was bruk in. He'll gallop like a machine an' lep like a deer if +he gets his head." + +"I don't b'lieve you've much show, anyhow," Dave Boone said. "There's +that horse from the hotel at Mulgoa--Blazer, they call him. He's done no +end of racin', and won, too." + +"Well, an' if he has, hasn't he the great weight itself to be carryin'?" +demanded Murty. + +"Why, he's top weight, of course; but you're carryin' ever so much over +weight," responded Mr. Boone. "If you'd put up a boy instead of Billy, +you could be pounds lighter." + +"Ah, git away with your advisin'," replied Murty. "Billy knows the +horse--an' where'd a shlip of a boy be if Shannon cleared out with him? +I'd rather carry too much weight, an' know I'd put a man up as could +hold the horse." His anxious eye fell on the girls. "Miss Norah and Miss +Tommy!--come here an' wish him luck without offerin' me any advice, or +I'll lose me life over the ould race! They have desthroyed me with all +the things they're afther tellin' me to do." + +"We won't tell you a thing, Murty--except that he's looking splendid," +Norah said, stroking Shannon's nose, to which the horse responded by +nuzzling round her pocket in search of an apple. "No, I can't give you +one, old man--I wouldn't dare. But you shall have one after the race, +whether you win or not, can't he, Murty?" + +"He can so," said Murty. "Wance he's gone round that thrack he can live +on the fat of the land--an' Billy, too. It's a dale aisier to get the +condition off a horse than off Billy. No man on this earth 'ud make a +black fellow see why he shouldn't have a good blow-out whenever it came +his way. Only that Providence made him skinny by nature, he'd be fat +as a porpoise this day. I've been watchin' over his meals like a mother +with a delicate baby these three weeks back; but what hope 'ud I have +with Christmas comin' in the way? He got away on me at Christmas dinner, +an' what he didn't ate in the way of turkey an puddin' wouldn't be worth +mentioning--an' him booked to ride to-day! 'Plenty' always did be his +motter, an' he lives up to it. So he's pounds overweight, an' no help +for it." + +"Never mind, Murty," Jim said. "He knows the horse, and Shannon's able +to stand a few pounds extra. He'll give us a good run." + +"I believe ye, Masther Jim," said Murty, beaming. "He'll not disgrace +us, an' if he don't win itself, then he'll not be far behind. There you +are, Billy--that's the bell for weighin'. Hurry up now, and get over to +the scales." + +The black boy's lean figure, saddle and bridle on arm, threaded its way +through the crowd round the weighing enclosure--a little space fenced +off by barbed wire. Presently they saw him coming back grinning. + +"That pfeller sayin' I plenty too much pounds," he said in an unusual +burst of eloquence. + +"Ah, don't be rubbin' it in--don't I know it?" quoth Murty, taking the +saddle and slipping it deftly on Shannon's back. "I dunno, did he think +he was givin' me a pleasant surprise with the information by way of a +New Year's gift. Does he think we've never a scales on Billabong, did +ye ask him? There now, he's ready. Get on him, Billy, an' shove out into +the track for a canter. I'll get nothing but chat from every one as +long as you're here. Take him for a look at some of the hurdles, the way +he'll know all about them when he comes to jump." He stood with a frown +on his good-humoured face as Shannon and his rider made off. + +Norah laid a hand on his arm. + +"There's not a horse on the course better turned out, Murty," she said. +"No one can say the Billabong representative doesn't look fit." + +Murty turned on her, beaming again. + +"Well, indeed, he'll not be doin' the station any discredit, Miss +Norah," he said happily, "an' if he don't win, well, we can't all be +winnin', can we? Only we did win a race last year, whin none of ye +were here to be watchin' us an' make it worth while. I'd like to score +to-day, now that ye're all here to see--an' Miss Tommy too, that's never +seen racin'." He smiled down at the English girl's pink face. + +"I'm going to see you win to-day, Murty--I feel it in my bones," said +Tommy promptly. "I've always loved Shannon, ever since I saw you jump +those big fences with him when we put up the hare out mustering." + +"Yerra, that one'd make a steeplechaser if he got the trainin'," +declared Murty, all his troubles forgotten. "Come a little higher up, +won't ye, Miss Norah; we can see every jump from the top of the rise, +barrin' the wan that's in the timber." + +They followed him up the little hill until he declared himself satisfied +with his position; and he spent the time until the flag fell in pointing +out to Tommy the exact places where the hurdles were erected--pausing +only for a proud look when Shannon thundered past below them in his +preliminary canter, the green jacket bright in the sun, and every muscle +in the horse's gleaming body rippling as he moved. He was reefing and +plunging in his gallop, trying to get his head; but Billy soon steadied +him, and presently brought him up the straight again at a quiet trot. +The other horses went out, one by one, until at length a field of eight +faced the starter; and presently they were off, and over the first jump +in a body. They came down the straight on the first time round, packed +closely, a glittering mass of shining horses and bright colours. One +dropped at the jump near the judge's box, and as the other horses raced +away round the turn the riderless horse followed, while his jockey lay +still for a moment, a little scarlet blur upon the turf. Eager helpers +ran forward to pick him up, but he was on his feet before they could +reach him, and came limping up the hill, a little bruised and infinitely +disgusted. + +"He's all right," Murty said. "Yerra, Mr. Jim, did ye see the ould horse +jump! He wint ahead at his fences like a deer!" + +The horses were in the timber; they peered anxiously at the bright patch +of colour that showed from time to time, trying to see the familiar +green jacket. Then, as the field came into view Murty uttered an +irrepressible yell, for his horse shot ahead at the next jump and came +into the straight in the lead. Murty gripped at the nearest object, +which happened to be Norah's shoulder, and clenched it tightly, +muttering, in his excitement, words in his native Irish. They thundered +up the straight, Billy crouching on Shannon's neck, very still. Then +behind him the Mulgoa horse drew out from the ruck and came in chase. +Nearer and nearer he came, while the shouts from the crowd grew louder. +Up, up, till his nose was at Shannon's quarter--at his girth--at his +shoulder, and the winning-post was very near. Then suddenly Billy lifted +his whip and brought it down once, and Shannon shot forward with a last +wild bound. Murty's hat went up in the air--and Wally's with it. + +"He's done it!" Murty babbled. "Yerra, what about Billabong now?" He +suddenly found himself gripping Norah's shoulder wildly, and would have +apologized but that Norah herself was dancing with delight, and looking +for his hand to grasp. And the crowd was shouting "Shannon! Shannon! +Billabong!"--since all of these Cunjee folk loved Billabong and were +steadily jealous of Mulgoa. Jim and Wally were thumping Murty on the +back. Bob and Mr. Linton stood beaming at him. Below them Billy came +trotting back on his victorious steed, sitting with a grave face, as +expressionless as if he had not just accomplished his heart's desire. +But his dark, mysterious eyes scanned the crowd as he turned from +weighing in, and only grew satisfied when he saw the Billabong party +hurrying to greet him. They shook his hand, and smote him on the back, +Dave Boone and Mick Shanahan prancing with joy. And Shannon, his glossy +coat dark with sweat, nuzzled again at Norah's pocket for an apple--and +this time got it. + +This glorious event over, interest became focused on a trotting race, +which brought out a queer assortment of competitors, ranging from +King Lightfoot, a horse well known in Melbourne, to Poddy, an animal +apparently more fitted to draw a hearse than to trot in a race--a lean, +raw-boned horse of a sad countenance and a long nose, with a shaggy +black coat which rather resembled that of a long-haired Irish goat. +There were other candidates, all fancied by their owners, but the public +support was only for King Lightfoot, who ran in elaborate leather and +rubber harness, and was clearly regarded by his rider as of infinite +condescension to be taking part in such a very mixed company. + +It proved, however, not to be King Lightfoot's lucky day. The horses +started at intervals, according to their performances or merit, Poddy +being the first to move, the Melbourne horse the last. King Lightfoot, +however, obstinately refused to trot, whereas Poddy revealed unexpected +powers, flinging his long legs abroad in a whirlwind fashion, and +pounding along doggedly, with his long nose outstretched as if hoping +to get it past the winning-post as soon as possible. No other horse came +near him; his initial lead was never lessened, and he plugged doggedly +to victory, while the crowd roared with laughter, and out in the timber +King Lightfoot's rider wrestled with his steed in vain. Later, his +prejudice against trotting in the bush removed by stern measures, King +Lightfoot flashed up the track like a meteor, with his furious rider +determined to show something of what his steed could do. By that time +Poddy was once more unsaddled, and was standing under a tree with his +weary nose drooping earthwards, so that the crowd merely yelled with +laughter anew, while the stewards unfeelingly requested the Melbourne +man to get off the track. + +"Oh, isn't it hot!" Norah fanned herself with a bunch of gum leaves, and +cast an anxious look at Tommy. + +It was breathlessly hot. Not a hint of air stirred among the trees or +moved the long dry grass that covered the paddock--now showing many +depressions, where tired people or horses had lain down to rest. The +horses stood about, drooping their heads, and swishing their tails +ceaselessly at the tormenting flies; men and women sought every +available patch of shade, while dogs stretched themselves under the +buggies, panting, with lolling tongues. Children alone ran about, as +though nothing could mar their enjoyment; but babies fretted wearily in +their mothers' arms. Overhead the sun blazed fiercely in a sky of brass. +Now and then came a low growl of thunder, giving hope of a change at +night; but it was very far distant, although a dull bank of cloud lay to +the west. David Linton watched the cloud a little uneasily. + +"I don't quite like the look of it," he muttered to himself. "I'll go +and ask Murty what he thinks of it." But Murty had been swallowed up +in a crowd anxious to congratulate him on Shannon's success, and +his employer failed to find him at the moment. He came upon Sarah, +however--sitting under a tree, with her baby wailing dismally. + +"To hot for her, Sarah," David Linton said kindly. + +"That's right, sir--it's too hot for anyone, let alone a little tiny +kid," Sarah said wearily. "I'd get Bill to go home if I could, but I +can't get on his tracks--and it's too hot to take baby out in the sun +looking for him. If you come across him, sir, you might tell him I want +him." + +"All right," said the squatter. "But you wouldn't take that long drive +home yet, Sarah--better wait until the sun goes down." + +"Well, I'd go into Cunjee, to me sister-in-law's," said Sarah. "She'd +let me take baby's things off an' sponge her--an' I'd give a dollar to +do it. No more races with kids for me in weather like this!" She crooned +to the fretting baby as Mr. Linton went off. + +He found Tommy and Norah together under a tree near the track--hot, but +interested. + +"Where are the boys?" + +"They're all holding ponies," Norah said. "I don't quite know why, but a +very hot and worried man collected them to help start the race. What is +it for, Dad, do you know?" + +"Oh, I see!" David Linton laughed. "It's--a distance handicap--the +ponies all start at the same moment, but from different points along the +track." + +"Yes, that must be it," Norah said. "Jim's away over near the timber +with a little rat of a pony, and Bob is shepherding another fifty yards +behind him, while Wally is quite near here with that big pony of the +blacksmith's that has won ever so many races. She'll have a lot of +ground to make up. But why must each one be shepherded, Dad?" + +"Human nature," said David Linton, smiling. "These youngsters who are +riding would sneak a yard or two if they weren't closely watched, and +they would never start fair; the only way is to put each in charge of a +responsible man with a good watch, and let him start them. What time +is the race? Oh, four o'clock. Well, I never yet saw a pony race that +started on time; neither the ponies nor the boys are easy to handle, and +I see there are ten of them. Watch them; it's after four, and they must +be nearly ready to start." + +The ponies were strung out round the course, each with a "shepherd" +standing to attention near its bridle, watch in hand. They could see +Jim's great form standing sentinel over a tiny animal, whose diminutive +rider was far too afraid of the huge Major to try to snatch even a yard +of ground; nearer, Wally kept a wary eye on the experienced jockey +on the blacksmith's racing mare, who was afraid of nothing, but +nevertheless had a certain wholesome respect for the tall fellow who +lounged easily against a tree near him, but never for an instant shifted +his gaze. The shepherds were waiting for a signal from the official +starter. + +It came presently, a long shrill whistle, and simultaneously each +guardian stepped back, and the released ponies went off like a +flash--all save Bob's charge, who insisted on swinging round and bolting +in the wrong direction, while his jockey sawed at his mouth in vain. +Yawing across the track the rebel encountered the blacksmith's pony, +who swerved violently in her swift course to avoid him, and lost so much +ground that any chance she had in the race was hopelessly lost, whereat +the blacksmith, who was standing on the hill, raved and tore his hair +unavailingly. A smart little bay pony fought out the finish with Jim's +tiny charge, and was beaten by a short head, just as Wally, walking +quickly, came back to his party. + +"That was a great race," said Norah. "Wally, you shouldn't walk so fast +on such a day. It makes one warm only to look at you." + +Wally answered with an absent air that was unlike his usual alertness. +The girls, watching the ponies come in, noticed nothing, and presently +he drew Mr. Linton aside. + +"Did you notice that cloud, sir?" he asked, in a low voice. "I didn't +until I was down on the track with the pony, looking in that direction. +But it's twice the size it was when I went down." + +"I've been looking at it, and I don't like it," said Mr. Linton. +"It's smoke, I'm positive, and too near Billabong and the Creek to be +comfortable. I think we'll make tracks for home, Wally. Have you seen +Murty anywhere?" + +As if in answer, Mr. O'Toole came running down the hill. + +"I've been huntin' ye's everywhere," he panted. "There's a man just +kem out from Cunjee lookin' for ye, sir--some one's tallyphoned in +that there's a big grass fire comin' down on the Creek, an' 'twill be +a miracle if it misses Billabong! I've told the men--they're off to get +the horses." + +Norah and Tommy had turned, with dismayed eyes. + +"Will it be at our place, Murty?" Tommy asked. + +"I dunno will it, Miss Tommy," the Irishman answered. "But as like as +not 'twill miss it--or anyhow, we'll get there first, an' stop it doing +much damage. Don't you worry your little head, now." + +She looked up at him gratefully. Norah's hand was thrust through her +arm. + +"It may not be near the Creek at all, Tommy dear," she said. + +"Oh, I hope it isn't--my poor old Bob!" Tommy said, under her breath. +"Can we hurry, Norah?" + +"They're bringing the horses," Norah answered. "We'll be off in a +minute--see, dad has gone to meet Bob." + +Wally had turned to Murty. + +"Murty, do you mind if I ride Shannon and take him across country? I'm +on Marshal to-day, you know, and he can't jump for nuts. But Shannon can +take every fence between here and the Creek, and I can cut the distance +in half if I go across. I'm about the lightest of us, I think." + +"So ye are--an' the horse'll take ye like a bird," said Murty. "Don't +shpare him, Mr. Wally, if ye think ye can do any good. He's over there +under the big wattle." + +"Right-o!" said Wally. "Tell Mr. Jim, will you, Murty?" He turned and +ran down the hill with long strides. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HOW WALLY RODE A RACE + + +Already the cloud was growing in the western sky--so high that it +threatened to obscure the sun that still blazed fiercely down. At first +a dull brown, there was a curious light behind it; at the edges it +trailed away into ragged wisps like floating mist. There was something +mysteriously threatening in its dense heaviness. + +There were other men running for their horses, as Wally raced towards +Shannon. The news of a grass fire had spread quickly, and every man +wanted to be on his own property, for the whole countryside was covered +with long, dry grass, and no one could say where a fire might or might +not end. Boone and Shanahan passed Wally, leading several horses--his +own amongst them. They hailed him quickly. + +"We've got Marshal, Mr. Wally." + +"Give him to Murty," Wally answered as he ran. "I'm riding Shannon." He +raced on. + +"That means he's going across country," said Dave Boone. "For two pins +I'd go too." + +"Don't you--you'd never get your horse over them fences," Shanahan said. +"An' it'll take Mr. Wally all his time to get across them wired paddocks +of Maclennan's. Hope he don't break Shannon's laigs." + +"Not he; Mr. Wally's no fool," said Boone. "Git up, y' ol' sardine!" He +kicked the horse he was leading, and they trotted up to Norah and Tommy. + +Shannon, standing with drooping head, showed little interest as Wally +flung the saddle on his back. He had won his race handsomely, and it was +a scorching day; possibly the big chestnut felt that no more should be +required of him; in which case he was soon to be rudely awakened. Wally +swung into the saddle with a quick movement, and turned him, not towards +the gate, but in the opposite direction, which further puzzled Shannon. +But he was a stock horse first and a hurdle racer as an afterthought; +and a good stock horse knows his rider's mind, if that rider is a good +man. He made one tentative movement towards his paddock mates, now +moving away towards the gate; then, feeling the touch of Wally's hand +on the bit, and the light pressure of his knee, he decided that some new +game was on foot, and cantered easily away. + +They crossed the racing track, going westward over the big paddock, away +from the buggies and the crowd. A belt of timber checked their swift +progress a moment; then they came out into clear ground in sight of +the boundary fence, a stiff three-railer. Wally peered at it anxiously, +unable, for an instant, to see if there were a wire on top; but it was +clear, and he shook up his horse, putting him straight at the middle of +a panel. Shannon pricked his ears and flew it daintily--this was work he +loved, and hot though the day might be, he was ready for any amount of +it. Also Wally was lighter than Murty, his usual rider; and although he +loved Murty, and respected him greatly, this new man had a seat like a +feather and a hand gentle as silk upon his tender mouth. Shannon broke +into the gallop that he felt sure his rider wanted. + +They were in a wide paddock, bare, save for a few clumps of timber, +in the shade of which sheep were thickly clustered. It was good, sound +going, with a few little rises; and, knowing that he would have to +slacken speed presently, Wally let the chestnut have his head across the +clear grass. They took the next fence and the next before he drew rein. +He was in country he did not know--all big farms, with many stubble +fields with newly erected stacks, and with good homesteads, where now +and then a woman peered curiously from a verandah at him. There were +no men in sight; every man in the neighbourhood was at the races on New +Year's day. + +He found himself in a paddock where rough ground, thickly strewn with +fallen timber, sloped down abruptly to a creek. Checking Shannon, he +rode more steadily down to the water, and trotted along the bank for +a hundred yards, looking for a good place to ford--the banks shelved +abruptly down, and the water was unusually deep. But the only promising +fords were too thickly snagged to be tempting; and presently, with a +shrug, Wally gave up the quest, and choosing a place where the fall of +the bank was a shade less abrupt, he put the horse at it. + +Shannon hesitated, drawing back. Water was the one thing to which he had +not been schooled on Billabong, and this place was mysterious and deep. +But Wally's hand was firm, and he spoke sharply--so that the chestnut +repented of the error of his ways, and plunged obediently downwards. +The bank gave under them, and they slithered down among its remnants and +landed in the water with a profound splash, almost hidden for a moment +by the spray that drenched Wally's thin silk coat and shirt. Shannon +floundered violently, and nearly lost his footing--and then, deciding +that this was an excellent entertainment on a hot day, he thrust his +thirsty nose into the water. Wally checked him after one mouthful. + +"I'm sorry, old chap," he said regretfully. "I'd like it as much as you. +But I can't let you have a drink just now." + +He pressed him on across the muddy stream, floundering over sunken logs, +slipping into holes, dodging half-concealed snags; and so they came to a +bank which scarcely seemed a possible place, so steep was it. But Wally +looked at the smoke-cloud, and grew desperate, and for the first +time touched Shannon with the spur; and the chestnut answered gamely, +springing at the bank and climbing almost like a cat. Twice it broke +under him; the third time he made some footing, and Wally suddenly flung +himself from his back, scrambling up ahead of him, and hauling at the +bridle. Shannon followed, floundering and snorting; desperately relieved +to find himself on firm ground again. Wally swung into the saddle and +they galloped forward. + +The next two fences were log ones, and the chestnut took them almost in +his stride. Then Wally's lips tightened, for he saw a homestead that +he knew must be Maclennan's, the most prosperous farmer about; and +Maclennan had strong views on the subject of inflammable fences in a +country so liable to grass fires, and all his property was wire-fenced. +The first fence stretched before him, taut and well-strung; he looked up +and down its length in search of a gate, but there was none in sight. + +"I could put my coat on the top wire for you to jump if it was a thick +one, old chap," he told Shannon. "But a scrap of wet silk wouldn't be +much good to you. We'll have to chance a post." + +He drew rein, trotting up to the fence, where he let the horse put his +nose over a post--and set his lips again when he saw that the top wire +was barbed. + +"Just you remember to pick up all your toes well, old man," he said. + +He trotted back a little way, and, turning, came hard at the fence, +putting Shannon directly at the post. This also was new to the chestnut; +but once, when a foal, he had been badly pricked on barbed wire, and, +ever since, one glance at its hideous spikes had been enough for him. +Refusing was out of the question--Wally was leaning forward, keeping +him absolutely straight, lifting him at the post with a little shout of +encouragement. He flew over it as if it had been a hurdle. Wally patted +his neck with a big sigh of relief. + +"Eh, but I was scared for your legs, old man!" he said. + +They galloped across a wide stubble field, while Wally's keen eyes +searched the fence for a gate. He caught sight of one presently, a +stiff, four-railed gate, considerably higher than the fence. High as it +was, Wally preferred it to barbed wire; and by this time he had a queer +feeling that no jump would prove too much for the big, honest chestnut, +who was doing so gamely everything that he was asked. Nor did Shannon +disappoint him; he rose at the gate cheerfully, and barely tipped it +with one hind foot as he cleared it. Wally fancied there was something +of apology in the little shake of his head as he galloped on. + +"If I'd time to take you back over that you wouldn't lay a toe on it +again, I believe. Never mind, there's sure to be another." + +There was, and the chestnut flew it with never a touch. Maclennan's +paddocks were wide and well cleared--such galloping ground as Wally +dared not waste--and he took full advantage of them, leaving one after +another behind swiftly, to the beat of Shannon's sweeping stride. Fence +after fence the chestnut cleared, taking them cleanly, with his keen +ears pricked; never faltering or flagging as he galloped. Wally sat him +lightly, leaning forward to ease him, cheering him on with voice and +touch. Before him the cloud grew dense and yet more dense; he could feel +its hot breath now, although a bush-covered paddock ahead blocked the +fire itself from his immediate view. He had to choose between picking +his way through the trees or galloping round them; and chose the latter, +since Shannon showed no sign of fatigue. He put the last wire fence +behind him with a sigh of relief. A small farm with easy enough fences +remained to be crossed, and then he swung round the timber at top speed. +Once round it, he should come within view of the Rainhams' house. + +He came into the open country, and pulled up with a shout of dismay. +Before him was the long line of timber marking the creek, but between +lay nothing but a rolling cloud of smoke, lit with flashes of flame. A +hot gust of wind blew it aside for a moment, and through it he caught +a glimpse of Creek Cottage, burning fiercely. Wally uttered a smothered +groan, and thrust Shannon forward, over the last fence, and up a little +lane that led near the Rainhams' back gate. + +The paddock was nearly all on fire. It had started somewhere back in +the bush country, and had swept across like a wall, burning everything +before it. As Wally reached the gate, it was rolling away across the +paddocks, a sheet of flame, licking up the dry grass; leaving behind it +bare and blackened ground, with here and there a fence post, or a +tree burning, and, in the midst of its track, Creek Cottage wrapped in +flames. + +The boy slipped from his saddle and flung Shannon's bridle over the +gate-post. Then, as a thought struck him, he turned back and released +him, buckling the reins into one stirrup. + +"I don't dare to tie you up, old man," he said. "The beastly fire might +swing round. Go home, if you like. I can't take you across that hot +ground." He gave the chestnut's neck a hasty pat; then, putting one hand +on the gate, he vaulted it cleanly and ran across the burnt ground. + +The grass was yet smouldering; it broke away under his feet, crackling +and falling into black powder. He ran desperately, not feeling the +burning breath of the fire, in blind hope of being able to save +something. The house itself, he knew, was doomed; no fire-brigade could +have checked the flames which had laid hold of the flimsy weatherboard. +The fire had divided round it, checked a little by Tommy's +flower-garden, which was almost uninjured yet, and by Bob's rows of +green vegetables which lay singed and ruined; then, unable to wait, +it had swept on its way through the long dry grass, which carried it +swiftly forward, leaving the burning cottage and the green garden in the +midst of a blackened waste. + +The front verandah, and one side, were yet untouched, nor had the front +rooms caught. Wally raced through the garden and tried the front door. +It was locked. He sprang to the nearest window and smashed it with quick +blows from a hoe standing near; then, flinging up the sash, dived in. +The room was full of smoke, the heat stifling. It was Tommy's room. He +gathered up her little personal belongings from the dressing-table and +flung them on the quilt, following them with armfuls of clothes hastily +swept from shelves. A trunk, covered with a bright Navajo blanket, stood +near the window. He thrust it through to the verandah, and scrambled +out after it with the quilt and blankets bundled round the things he had +saved. Dragging them across the lawn, he thrust them under some green +bushes, and returned for the trunk. + +"I don't believe you'll catch there," he said, choking. "Wonder if I can +try another room?" + +He had opened the door from Tommy's room into the hall, but the rush of +flame and smoke were so appalling that he had to shut it again quickly, +realizing that the draught only helped the fire. To break in by another +window was the only way. He smashed his way in to the other front +room, and hurriedly gathered up all he could. There was no time to save +anything heavy. His quick mind guided him to the things he knew Bob and +Tommy valued most--things that had been Aunt Margaret's in the past, +that spoke of their old happy life in France. He spread an embroidered +cloth on the floor and pitched his treasure trove into it--working +feverishly, choking and gasping, until the flames began to crackle +through the wall, and the ceiling above him split across. Then he +plunged through the window, and staggered across the lawn with his +burden--falling beside it at last, spent and breathless, his throat +parched with smoke, and his eyes almost sightless. But he picked himself +up presently and went back. All the rooms were blazing now. The side +verandah had not yet caught, and on it he saw an old oaken chest that +did double duty as a seat and as a wardrobe for Bob's spare clothes. The +sight brought fresh energy back to Wally. + +"By Jove, there's old Bob's box!" he uttered. "I'll have to get that." + +He dragged it across the verandah and on to the path. It was cruelly +heavy. He had to stop and rest again and again; but still he struggled +on, a few yards at a time, until it, too, was in comparative safety. +Then there was nothing else that he could do but sit on the grass and +watch the gay little home that they had all loved as it fell into ruins. +The flames made mercifully short work of it; they roared and crackled +and spat wreathing fiery tongues round the chimneys and up and down +the verandah posts; shooting out of the broken windows and turning the +white-painted iron of the roof into a twisted and blackened mass. It +fell in presently with a deafening roar, bringing one chimney with it; +and soon all that Wally had to look at was a smouldering heap of coals, +in the midst of which one chimney stood, tottering and solitary, +with the kitchen stove a glowing mass of red-hot iron, and strangely +contorted masses of metal that once were beds. The boy uttered a groan. + +"And they were so proud of it," he said. "Poor souls--how are they going +to stick it?" + +He got up presently and made his way round to the back. All the sheds +and buildings were burned; he turned with a shudder from where Bob's +beloved Kelpie had died at his post chained in helplessness. The metal +parts of the buggy, writhed into knots and tangles, lay in the ashes of +the big shed; beyond, the pigsty smouldered. + +"They've gone, too, I suppose," Wally said. "By George, where are all +his stock? They can't all be burned, surely." + +There was nothing visible in the bare, black paddocks. He cast a wild +look round, and then made for the creek at a staggering run. The fire +had died away for lack of material as it neared the banks, for great +willows overhung them, a camping-ground for the stock all through the +summer heat, and the ground was always beaten hard and bare. Wally +uttered a shout of relief as he came to the trees. Below in the wide, +shallow pools, all the stock had taken refuge--carthorses and cows, +sheep and pigs, all huddled together, wild-eyed and panting, but safe. +They stared up at Wally, dumbly bewildered. + +"Poor brutes," said Wally. "Well, you chose a good spot, anyhow. I say, +what a jolly good thing Bob let his pigs out. Poor old chap--he's +not broke yet." He leaned against the gnarled trunk of a willow for a +moment. "Well, I suppose I'd better get up to the gate and tell them--it +won't do for Tommy to come on the ruins all of a sudden." + +But he realized, as he made his slow way up from the creek, that he was +too late. There was a little knot of horses beside the garden gate. His +eye caught the light linen habit coats that Tommy and Norah wore. They +were looking silently at the blackened heap of ashes, with the tottering +chimney standing gaunt in its midst, Bob's face grey under its coating +of smoky dust. Norah was holding Tommy's hand tightly. They did not hear +Wally as he came slowly across the black powder that had been grass. + +"I suppose the stock have gone, too," Bob said heavily. + +"No, they haven't, old man," Wally said. "I believe every head is safe; +they're in the creek." + +They turned sharply, and cried out at the sight of him--blackened and +ragged, his eyes red-rimmed in his grimy face, his hands, cut by the +broken window glass, smeared with dried blood. His coat and shirt, burnt +in a score of places, hung in singed fragments round him. There were +great holes burnt in his panama hat, even in his riding breeches. Jim +flung himself from his horse, and ran to him. + +"Wal, old man! Are you hurt?" + +"Not me," said Wally briefly. "Only a bit singed. I say, you two, you +don't know how sorry I am. Tommy, I wish I could have got here in time." + +"You seem to have got here in time to try, anyhow," said Tommy, and her +lip trembled. "Are you sure you're not hurt, Wally?" She slipped from +her saddle, and came to him. "Were you in the fire?" + +"No, I'm truly all right," Wally assured her. He suddenly realized that +he had not known how tired he was; something in his head began to whirl +round, and a darkness came before his aching eyes. He felt Jim catch +him; and then he was sitting on the ground, propped against the fence, +and blinking up at them all, while indignantly assuring them that he had +never been better. + +"Did you meet the fire? It was away from here before I got here." + +"It crossed the road in front of us," Mr. Linton said. "There were a +good many men about by that time--we got it stopped before it reached +Elston's." His pitying eyes went back to the brother and sister. Anxiety +for Wally had drawn them from their own disaster for a moment; now they +had moved away together, and stood looking at the ashes of their home, +where so many hopes were ashes, too. David Linton went over to them, and +put a hand on a shoulder of each. + +"You're not to be down-hearted," he said firmly. "It's bad enough, and +bitter enough--but it might be worse. The stock are safe, and the land +is there--one good shower will turn the paddocks green again. Why, +there's even most of your garden left, Tommy. And we'll build the house +and sheds better than before." + +"You're jolly good, Mr. Linton," Bob said, with dry lips. "But we owe +you enough already." + +"If you talk that sort of nonsense, I'll be really annoyed," David +Linton said. "Why, hard luck comes to all of us--we got burned out +ourselves once, didn't we, Norah?" + +"Rather--and had to live in tents," said Norah. "No, you'll have to come +back to us at Billabong until we build up the cottage again--oh, and, +Tommy darling, I've been lonesome for you!" She put a hand on Bob's arm. +"You won't worry, Bob? One bit of bad luck isn't going to beat you!" + +"I suppose it won't," Bob said slowly. "There's the insurance money, +anyhow. But it was the jolliest little home--and our very own. And I was +so jolly proud of being independent." + +"Well, you're that still," Jim said. "This is a country where everybody +helps everybody else--because you and Tommy come to stay with us, and +run your stock for a while on Billabong until your own grass grows, that +isn't going to make you less independent. Wouldn't you do the same for +us, if we were in the same box?" + +"That goes without saying--and I'm as grateful as I can be," Bob said. +"But the cases are different. I'm deep enough in your debt, as it is. +I--" His lip quivered, and he turned away, staring at the ruins. + +"I don't see any good arguing about it, at all events," said Norah, +practically. "We're all hot and tired, and I vote we just get home and +have tea. We'll all feel better after a tub, and then we can begin to +make plans. Come on, Tommy dear, it's just lovely to think we're going +to have you." + +Bob stood with one hand on the scorched gate. + +"I wish I could have got here in time to get out a few things," he +muttered. + +"Oh, I did that," said Wally, brightening. "I forgot, in the shock of +finding all Noah's Ark turned out in the creek. Come along, Tommy, and +see my little lot of salvage!" + +He dragged himself up from the ground and seized Tommy's hand. They +trooped across the lawn. + +"I saved the cuckoo clock and that set of Swiss bears," said Wally. "And +lots of oddments from goodness knows where--the sort of thing you can't +buy in Cunjee. I expect I've hauled out all the things you wouldn't have +saved, Tommy, but you'll just have to let me down lightly--I'd have made +a shot for the beloved cake tins, only I hadn't time." + +"Oh, Wally, you dear old idiot," said Tommy. "And that's how you nearly +killed yourself." They came in sight of Wally's heap of loot, and she +stopped in amazement. + +"Bob--just look!" + +"By Jupiter!" said Bob, "you saved my old box! You old brick. How did +you manage it? Why, it weighs a ton!" + +Tommy was on her knees by the bundles. "Look!" she said. "Look, Bobby! +My silver things--and all Aunt Margaret's, and my little jewel box. And +my clothes! How did you do it, Wally?" Suddenly her voice broke. She put +her head down on the bundle in a passion of sobs. + +"That's the best thing she could do," said David Linton gently. He +turned to Norah. "Let her cry--and bring her along presently, and we'll +take her home. Come along, boys, we'll get the horses and go and see +Wally's Noah's Ark." + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BUILDING UP AGAIN + + +It was three months later, and Billabong lay in the peace of an +exquisite autumn evening. The orchard showed yellow and bronze against +the green of the pine trees; here and there oak and elm leaves fluttered +down lazily upon the lawn. The garden flamed with dahlias and asters, +amidst which Hogg worked contentedly. And there was utter content upon +the face of David Linton, as he stood on the broad stone steps of his +home, and looked towards the setting sun. Beyond the garden gleamed +the reed-fringed waters of the lagoon; further yet, the broad paddocks +stretched away, dotted with feeding Shorthorns. It was the view, of all +others, that he loved--his soul had longed for it during weary years of +exile and war. Now, it seemed that he could never tire of looking at it. + +Brownie came up from the garden, a basket on her arm laden with splendid +mauve and pink asters. David Linton strolled across the gravel sweep to +meet her. + +"What, Brownie--taking Miss Norah's job, are you?" + +"Well, it ain't 'ardly that, sir," Brownie answered. "Miss Norah she +done the vases this morning, same as ushul, an' Miss Tommy elpin' her. +Only she wouldn't pick these 'ere astors, 'cause they're 'Oggs best, an' +she didn't like to 'urt 'im; you see she always remembers that onst they +go into the 'ouse, 'Ogg, 'e don't see 'em no more. An' she do love 'em +in the vases. So I just put the matter sensible like to 'Ogg, an', of +course, 'e saw reason and give me 'alf; an' I'll 'ave 'em on the table +to-night. Only they've filled every vase in the house already, I believe +I'll be druv to puttin' 'em in Mason jars!" + +"Miss Norah will love them, no matter what they're in," said Mr. Linton. +"There's no sign of them yet, Brownie--it's nearly time they were home." + +"Well, they meant to 'ave a long day's work fixin' the 'ouse," said +Brownie comfortably. "Mrs. Archdale druv me over to see them, an' Sarah +gave us all afternoon tea--she an' Bill are real toffs in their little +new cottage there. Sarah ain't indulgin' in any regrets over that fire! +And they were all busy as bees. Miss Tommy's room's fixed, an' her +little sleep-out place off it, and so's Mr. Bob's, an' they were workin' +at the drorin'-room; 'omelike it looked with all their nice old things +in it again." + +"I'm sure it will," David Linton agreed. "How do you like the new house, +Brownie?" + +"Why, it's lovely," said Brownie. "An' a fair treat to work, with all +them new improvements--no corners to the rooms, an' no silly skirtin' +boards that'll catch dust, an' the water laid on everywhere, an' the air +gas, an' all them other patent fixings. An' so comferable; better than +the old one, any way you look at it. Miss Tommy's the lucky young lady +to be comin' in for such a place." + +"Well, she deserves it, Brownie." + +"She do," said Brownie heartily. "Ain't it lovely to see Miss Norah an' +'er so 'appy together? Our blessed lamb never 'ad a friend like that +before, and she needed one--every girl do." + +"Long may it last, that's all I say," agreed the squatter. "Norah needed +her badly, although she didn't know it. And she and her brother are the +best type of immigrants, aren't they?" + +"They are that," said Brownie, "always cheery, an' workin' 'ard, an' +takin' the ups and downs sensibly. Now, it was a real nasty knock to +find their nice little 'ome burnt down on New Year's day, but after the +first shock they never 'ung their lip at all--just bucked in to make +good again." + +She went on her way with her asters, and David Linton walked slowly +across the lawn and stood looking over the gate, along the track where +his children would come riding home. Somehow, he found it difficult not +to think of them all as his children. Wally had made an attempt to go +away and set up a place for himself, but the idea had been received with +such amazed horror by the whole household that it had been temporarily +shelved. After all, Wally had more money than was good for him, the +result of having always been an orphan. He could establish himself in a +place at any time if he wished. And meanwhile, he was never idle. David +Linton had handed over most of the outside management of the big run +to Jim and his mate. They worked together as happily as they had played +together as boys. There was time for play now, as well; Mr. Linton saw +to that. The years that they had left on Flanders fields were not to rob +them of their boyhood. + +There had also been time to help the Rainhams--and there again the +district had taken a hand. It was not to be imagined that the people +who had helped in the first working bee would sit calmly by when so +stupendous a piece of bad luck as the New Year fire overtook the just +established young immigrants; and so there had been several other bees, +to replace Bob's burnt fencing, to clear away the ruins of the house and +sheds, and, finally, to rebuild for him. There had been long discussions +at Billabong over plans--the first Creek Cottage had taught them much +of what was desirable in the way of a house; so that the second Creek +Cottage, which rose from the ashes of the old one when kindly rains had +drawn a green mantle over all the blackened farm, was a very decided +improvement upon the old house, and contained so many modern ideas and +"dodges" that the wives and sisters of all the working bees, who helped +to build it, came miles to see it, and went home, in most cases, audibly +wishing that they could have a fire. It was illuminating, too, to the +working bees, to see how Bob and the Billabong men planned for the +comfort of the women who were to run the house, and for its easy +working; so that presently a wave of labour-saving devices swept through +the Cunjee district in imitation, and wives who had always carried +buckets of water found taps conveniently placed where they were +needed, and sinks and draining racks built to ease the dreary round +of dish-washing, and air-gas plants established to supersede the old +kerosene lamps. After which the district was very much astonished that +it had not done it before. + +The cottage was finished now, and nearly ready for its occupants; Bill, +Sarah and the baby had been installed for some time in a neat little +two-roomed place with a side verandah, a short distance from the main +building. Home-made furniture, even more ambitious than the first built, +had been erected, and a fresh supply of household goods bought during +an exciting week in Melbourne, where Mr. Linton had taken them all--all, +that is, but Bob, who had steadfastly declined to go away and play when +other people were helping him. So Bob had remained at his post, giving +Tommy a free hand as to shopping; a freedom cautiously used by Tommy, +but supplemented by the others with many gifts, both useful and idiotic. +Tommy had an abiding affection for the idiotic efforts. + +She had spent so much time in the saddle that she now rode like an old +hand; the brown-faced girl who came up the paddock presently with the +cheery band of workers was very different to the pink and white "little +Miss Immigrant" of eight months before. She rode Jim's big favourite, +Garryowen, who, although years had added wisdom to him, was always +impatient when nearly home; he was reefing and pulling, as they swept +up at a hand gallop, but Tommy held him easily, and pulled up near Mr. +Linton, laughing. He looked at them with grave content. + +"I began to think you meant me to have tea alone," he said. "Have they +been doing any work, Bob, or couldn't you keep them in hand at all?" + +"Oh, they've been working," Bob answered. "I told Sarah not to give them +any afternoon tea if they didn't, and it acted like a charm." + +"You to talk!" said Norah, with tilted nose. "They said they'd sample +the new deck chairs, dad, and it took them about an hour to make sure if +they liked them--they just smoked while Tommy and I toiled." + +"Well, you'd only have been annoyed with us if we hadn't done the +sampling properly, and had grumbled afterwards," said Wally. "I'm always +trying to teach you to be thorough, Norah. Of course, they say they work +all the time, sir--but when they disappear into Tommy's room there's an +awful lot of talking." + +"There would be something wrong with them if there weren't," said the +squatter sagely. "And I have no doubt there yet remains much awaiting +their expert supervision in Tommy's room." Whereat Tommy and Norah +beamed at him, and commended him as a person of understanding, while +Wally remarked feelingly to Bob that there was no chance of justice +where those two females were concerned. At this point Jim observed that +the conversation showed signs of degenerating into a brawl, and that, +in any case, it was time the horses were let go. They trotted off to the +stables, a light-hearted body. + +Tommy slipped her arm into Bob's as they went upstairs to dress. + +"Come into my room and talk for a moment." + +He came in and sat down in a low chair by the window. + +"Your quarters at the new place won't be as big as this, old girl." + +"They'll be bigger, for it will all be ours," rejoined Tommy promptly. +"Who wants a big room, anyway? I don't. Bobby, I'd be hard to please if +I wanted more than I've got." + +"You're always satisfied," he said. "There never was anything easier +than pleasing you, old Tommy." + +"Life's all so good, now," she said. "No hideous anxiety about you--no +Lancaster Gate--no she-dragon. Only peace, and independence, and the +work we like. Aren't you satisfied, Bob?" + +"I'd like to be really independent," he said slowly. "Our amount of +debt isn't heavy, of course, and it doesn't cause real anxiety, with Mr. +Linton guaranteeing us to the bank--" + +"And as we had to build again, it was worth while to improve the house +and make it just what we wanted," Tommy added. "We'll pay the debt off, +Bob. Mr. Linton assures me that with ordinary seasons we should easily +do it." + +"I know, and I'm not anxious," Bob said. "Only I'll be glad when it's +done; debt, even such an easy debt as this, gives me the creeps. And I +want to feel we stand on our own feet." + +"And not on the Lintons'!" said Tommy, laughing. "I quite agree--though +it's amazing to see how little they seem to mind our weight. Was there +ever such luck as meeting them, Bob?" + +"Never," he agreed. "We'd have been wage-earners still, or struggling +little cocky farmers at the best, but for that letter of General +Harran's--though, I think more was due to the way you butted into their +taxi!" + +"I believe it was," laughed Tommy. "It was the sort of thing to appeal +to the Lintons--it wouldn't to everybody. But the letter was behind it, +saying what a worthy young man you were!" + +"Well, when you start calling me such a thing as 'worthy,' it's time I +left and got dressed for tea," said her brother, rising slowly. "English +mail ought to be in, by the way; I'm wondering what old Mr. M'Clinton +will say when he hears we were burned out in our first season." + +"He'll wish he'd sent us to the snows of Canada, where such things +don't happen on New Year's day," Tommy said. "Still, he ought not to be +anxious about us--Mr. Linton wrote and told him our position was quite +sound." + +"Oh, I don't think he'll worry greatly," said Bob. "I must hurry, old +girl, or I'll be late--and I want a tub before tea." + +The boys came down in flannels, ready for a game of tennis after tea; +and Bob and Wally were just leaving the court after a stoutly-contested +set, when black Billy brought the mail-bag across the lawn to Mr. +Linton. The squatter unlocked it and sorted out the letters quickly. + +"Nothing for you, Tommy; two for Norah; three for Bob, and bundles for +Wally and Jim. Papers beyond counting, and parcels you girls can deal +with." He gathered up a package of his own letters. "Chiefly stock +and station documents--though, I see, there's a letter from your aunt, +Norah; I expect she's anxious to know when I'm going to cease bringing +you up like a boy, and send you to Melbourne to be a perfect lady." + +"Tell her, never," said Norah lazily. "I don't see any spare time +ahead--not enough to make me into a lady after Aunt Winifred's pattern. +Cecil is much more lady-like than I am." + +"He always was," Jim said. "Years ago we used to wonder that he didn't +take to wool-work, and I expect he'll do it yet. Even serving in the war +didn't keep Cecil from manicuring his nails--he gets a polish on them +that beats anything I ever saw." + +"Never mind--he's got a limp," said Norah, in whose eyes that legacy of +the war covered a multitude of sins. + +"Well, he has. But he even limps in a lady-like way," grinned Jim. "And +he has no time for Wal and me. He told me that he was surprised that +five years of France and England hadn't made us less Australian." + +"It's a matter of regret to us all," said Norah placidly. "We hoped for +great things when you came out--more attention to polite conversation, +and a passion for top-hats, and--" At which point further eloquence was +checked by a cushion placed gently, but firmly, by a brotherly hand on +her face, and so she subsided, with a gurgle of laughter, into the cool +depths of the buffalo grass where they were all lying. + +"Oh, by Jove!" said Bob suddenly. He looked at them, and finally at +Tommy, his eyes dancing. + +"What's up, old man?" Jim asked. "Not your stepmother coming out?" + +"England couldn't spare her," Bob said. "But the sky has fallen, for all +that. Just listen to old M'Clinton. + +"'. . . It was with deep regret that I learned from you and from Mr. +Linton of the calamity which had befallen you on New Year's day. Such +disasters seem common in Australia, like blizzards in Canada, and I +presume every settler is liable to them. In your case your loss, +being partly covered by insurance, will not, Mr. Linton assures me, +be crushing, although it seems to me very severe. To have your initial +endeavours, too, handicapped by so calamitous an occurrence would have +excused despondency, but--'" + +"Hasn't he a lovely style?" chuckled Wally, as the reader paused to turn +over. + +"'But Mr. Linton assures me that you and your sister are facing the +situation with calmness and courage.' Did you know you were calmly +courageous, Tommy?" + +"I am not," said Tommy. "I am courageously calm. Go on, Bobby--my +calmness will waver if you don't get to the point. Where does the sky +fall?" + +"Half a second. 'Further, I am immensely interested to learn from Mr. +Linton, who appears to be the kindest of benefactors'--that's you, +sir--'that the people of the district, who have already helped you so +remarkably by a working bee, are so much in sympathy with you both that +they intend again lending you their assistance over rebuilding your +house. This shows me, even without Mr. Linton's letter, that you have +earned their esteem and regard. Nevertheless, I estimate that you cannot +fail to be at some monetary embarrassment, and this I am luckily able +to ease for you. Certain rubber investments of your late aunt's have +recently risen in value, after the long period of depression due to +the war; and I deemed it prudent to sell them while their price in the +market was high. The terms of your aunt's will enable me to reinvest +this money, amounting to a little over nine hundred pounds, for you, or, +at my discretion, to hand it over to you; and such is the confidence +I repose in you, after Mr. Linton's letter, that I feel justified in +remitting you the money, to use as you think best. I presume that will +be in the reduction of your liabilities. I should like to think you had +the benefit of Mr. Linton's advice in the matter.' Shall I, sir?" + +"I never listened to such language," returned the squatter. "I should +like it read three times a day, before meals. But if it's my advice you +want, Bob, you can have it. Meanwhile, I'm very glad for you to have +such a windfall, my boy." + +Tommy and Norah had collapsed on each other's shoulders, speechless. + +"Joy never kills, they say," said Wally, regarding them anxiously. "But +it's been known to turn the brain, when the brain doesn't happen to be +strong. Will we turn the hose on them, Jim?" + +"Sit on him, Bob," came faintly from Norah. + +"I will--with the weight of nine hundred pounds!" said Bob--and did so. + +"Get off, you bloated capitalist," said Wally, struggling. He succeeded +in dislodging him, with a mighty effort. "You're just purse-proud, +that's what's the matter with you. What'll you do with it, Bobby--go +racing? Or buy an aeroplane?" + +"Get out of debt," said Bob, sitting up with rumpled hair and a face +like a happy child's. "And there'll be a bit over to play with. What +shall we put it into, Tommy? Want any pretty things?" + +"Just merino sheep," said Tommy. + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Back To Billabong, by Mary Grant Bruce + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACK TO BILLABONG *** + +***** This file should be named 7047.txt or 7047.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/0/4/7047/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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