Arthur Upfield - No footprints in the bush

Back in a tree, or a stone, or an ant hill, Rexboss could not provide her with such lovely dresses, and she was sure that if the strange man killed him the supply of white man’s tucker, especially the sugar, would end. That must not be, and she crept away to arouse the Illprinka men.

The chief and two others accompanied her back to the entrance and looked under the curtain when the breeze lifted it. Being a crafty man, the chief clearly foresaw what would happen if they rushed into the room. Rexboss would go back into a stone or something, and no longer would he be head man, because under Rex boss’s protection he had committed many tribal crimes.

Motioning those with him to withdraw, he conscripted an aborigine who had assisted Rexboss to build the “house” and who knew how to use wire-cutters and wire. With this man, he went to the back of the room in which Flora had slept, and ordered the other to make a hole through the wall of wire-netting and cane-grass. When he crawled through the opening into the bedroom, the clock in the outer wall struck twice.

“Oh yes,” Rex was continuing, his voice raised almost to shouting. “After my plans mature I’ll be strong enough to defy the government. In this heart of the continent, I’ll be supreme. If I’m let alone I’ll be peaceful: if not, I’ll sting worse than a million scorpions.”

He could see the Illprinka chief creeping soundlessly across the floor towards Bony. Bony was sitting listlessly with his back to the stalker, the night taxing his endurance weakened by pain and fatigue. Rex went on, now smilingly:

“I think I’ll take you to about five thousand feet and tip you out, my friend. Then you will have time to think of your stupid refusal to join me. I’ll do that with Flora, when I’m tired of her, and old Burning Water, too.”

The Illprinka man made no sound when he rose to his feet at Bony’s back. Had Bony been normal he would have “sensed” the presence of the man. He was too late.

A black arm flashed over and down one shoulder and swept aside the pistol. Another encircled Bony’s neck and pressed hard against the powerful chest.

Rex pounced upon the pistol, and then danced away from the table, shouting threats and oaths and commands. Bony struggled to rise but failed. The lamplight flickered. The ticking of the clock became the sound of a hammer in his ears.

Flight

FLORA’S reactions to the immediate prospect of escape and the distant prospect of safety and assured security were akin to the beginning of intoxication. She wanted to laugh, to shout, even to dance. Then she wanted to shriek with laughter at the absurd shoes of emu feathers on her feet. Fortunately for her, Bony’s feet were small and their use of the shoes had shaped them almost to fit her.

“Quiet!” breathed the Chief of the Wantella Tribe.

The stars were bright. The new moon hung low above the cane-grass and lantana country behind them. The walking was easy, for Burning Water kept to the claypans. He walked fast, and the girl was obliged to step more quickly to keep with him. When they had been walking for half an hour, he said:

“We expected difficulty with dogs, but Rex must have been afraid that dogs about his camp might betray it. It was good for us.”

“That’s strange,” Flora said. “Only now do I remember never having heard a dog bark once all the time I was there. But never mind the dogs, or their absence. Tell me what Bony is going to do back there with Rex. Why didn’t he come with us?”

“It is wise not to talk too much when it is sure an avenging party will come after us,” Burning Water said, and Flora knew by his voice that the subject of Bony was painful to him.

Despite the rubbing of the Kurdaitcha shoes every time her feet passed each other, despite the fact that they were so light and the ground so smooth, already her feet were beginning to ask for the accustomed leather shoes withcuban heels. Sinews and little bones in her feet were beginning to ache a little when Burning Water stopped.

“We will sit down and rest,” he said, and squatted on his heels.

“Rest!” she echoed. “Not yet, surely?”

“For five or ten minutes. It will help to keep strength.”

She sat on the warm ground beside him. Then she asked: “Are you tired?”

“No.” After a short period of silence he added: “But my heart is tired.”

“For Bony? Do you fear greatly for him?”

“Chief Illawalli was wise when he made Bony a great man among us, Miss McPherson,” Burning Water strongly affirmed. “Two nights ago a saltbush snake bit him: bit him on the foot. I did what I could-quick. Before I could finish with the treatment, I had to kill two Illprinka men who were waiting for dark to go and get a message dropped from Captain Loveacre’s aeroplane. The delay gave the poison a chance. Last night we travelled twenty miles to the cane-grass. Bony was very sick, and towards morning his foot pained much.”

“A saltbush snake! They’re deadly, aren’t they?”

“Yes. All today he lay deep in a fox hole which I covered with bush. I went looking for Rex’s house. We had no water. Then I saw the clothed lubra come out of one place and go into another place in the cane-grass, and I knew that was where you must be. I saw Rex come out and go into a big shadow, long and fairly low, and I knew that was where his aeroplane was. After dark I got water and took it to Bony. We waited. We daren’t make a fire to make tea. Then we crept close to the camp and began to watch.”

“Oh! Being so sick he ought to have come with us.”

“It is what I told him,” asserted Burning Water. “He said no. He said we would have to travel far and fast before day broke. He said he’d only be a drag on us, what with his sickness and bad leg. So he is staying behind to keep Rex from giving the alarm as long as possible.”

“How will he escape from Rex and the Illprinka men?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he’ll be able to. I wanted to take Rex some way into the bush and cut his black throat, but Bony said that would be murder. I suppose it would, white-fellow law, but I don’t think it would be murder when it means Rex or Bony. In the morning that clothed lubra will find him there and tell the Illprinka men. He’s hoping to keep Rex from doing anything till morning comes. We must get on.”

“How far have we come?”

“About six miles,” he replied.

“Six miles! Only six miles! What is the time? Do you know?”

“By the stars I should say it is about eleven o’clock. Would you like a drink of water?”

“Please.”

Soon after the beginning of the third stage, Flora felt yielding sand beneath her Kurdaitchashoes, and she felt herself walking up an incline. Presently she saw the curved back of a sand-dune against the sky. The hand claspingher own tightened, and her guide said:

“Walk on your toes and lift your feet high. We are crossing the rump of a great headland. We’ll come down to the valley again in about half a mile.”

When for the third time Burning Water stopped to rest, she asked if she might wear her leather shoes inside the masses of feathers. Burning Water took time to consider the matter. He found grounds for arguing for and against, and he decided in favour because speed was the first essential. On his knees, he assisted the girl with her footwear. Then:

“A little water?”

“Please: I wish it were coffee. Don’t you?”

“I do. But we daren’t make a fire to brew coffee. And I could never brew coffee like old Mrs McPherson used to.”

When for the fourth time they stopped, she said weakly:

“Oh, my feet are terrible. My legs are all stabbing pains.”

“Liestill, Miss McPherson,” he urged. “We’ll stay here for about twenty minutes, no longer. We have come only about eleven miles.”