Arthur Upfield - No footprints in the bush

Down at the foot of the sand slope the Illprinka men had halted, and stood staring at them. The great stone stood guard over the tribe’s sacred treasure house, and even within its shadow there must be no violence. In the shadow of the stone was sanctuary.

Sanctuary

NONE but a few old men of the Illprinka tribe would ever dare approach near the great boulder fallen from the face of the headland in the dim and distant past. For any unauthorized buck, any woman or child, to be found near the stone would inevitably mean sentence of death, from which there could be no escape even from the protection of a friendly tribe.

When it fell the impact had cracked the rock, the extent of the crack being about two feet in width and seven or eight in length. The interior had been made weather tight with termite cement, and periodically the old men visited the sacred place toeffect repairs or to remove objects necessary for their ceremonies.

The boulder was the bank of the Illprinka Tribe. Here were kept the tribe’s churinga stones, the head of the sacred pole decorated with birds’ down and hair alleged to have belonged to the tribe’s Alchuringa ancestor, bull-roarersand other sacred objects.

Normally Chief Burning Water, of the Wantella Tribe, would have avoided this place as he would have avoided a saltbush snake. By bringing a woman to it he could not increase the penalty he himself had incurred, the penalty of death which even in his own country would be meted to him. That he, an unauthorized person, had desecrated the Illprinka’s sacred store-house with his presence would not mean the desecration by the Illprinka people of the sacred store-house belonging to the Wantella Tribe. There would be no such retaliation.

Burning Water had taken Flora to a place where she would be safe not only from the Illprinka men but, also, from Rex McPherson, for even he would not dare defile the precincts of the sacred store-house with violence from the sky.

Presently Burning Water regained his wind and sat up. His action was watched anxiously by the old men who dreaded that he would open the “bank” and handle the “cash.” Had they known that Burning Water knew the locality of their sacred store-house, and that he would have dared to violate it with his presence, it is doubtful whether they would have pursued at all. They would have preferred to face Rex’s anger because of failure to capture the fugitives.

The sun’s heat was increasing, and Burning Water lifted Flora and carried her into the still long shadow cast by the boulder. He reassured her of their complete immunity from attack, and, having laid her down, he removed the Kurdaitcha boots and her own shoes. She thanked him wearily. The boots of emu feathers added to those removed from his feet provided for her quite a comfortable pillow.

“It’s all right now, Miss McPherson,” he told her. “We are safe here, and presently, perhaps, the flying doctor and the captain will come in the aeroplane and see us and take us back to the homestead.”

The extremity of safety about the sacred store-house would be fifty yards, and within fifty yards of their side of the boulder was an abundance of shrub providing wood for a fire. Burning Water gathered some of this wood to light a fire close to the storehouse. Whilst the water in the quart-pot was coming to the boil, he gathered dry wood for a signal fire and fresh boughs to create the dense smoke.

Flora was sleeping despite the flies. Burning Water brewed the tea and then sat beside the fire on his heels. While waiting for the liquid to cool he watched the old men clustered together and all facing towards him. The younger men had disappeared into the distant bush, no doubt sleeping and recuperating from the run of twenty-five miles, but Burning Water dared not lie down for fear he might sleep.

The shadows shortened. Now and then the leafy twigs waving above Flora’s face would fall to rest upon her for a space. Then Burning Water would rouse himself and perk them upward. To maintain wakefulness, he cleaned the rifle and his pistol and then kept loading and unloading the weapons.

He was thus engaged when he heard the sound of the aeroplane engine, the sound he had been longing to hear. At first he could not locate the machine’s position in the glaring world of sunshine. The Valley was now partially filled with mirage water which distorted the waiting and watching Illprinka men into a high black mound.

Then he saw it. It was to the east, approaching fast, following the course of the valley and a mere thousand feet above it. He snatched a burning stick from the fire, waved it swiftly about his head to produce flame, and applied the flame to the signal fire made ready. When the smoke from the fire began to rise the machine had passed, but those in it had seen the group of aborigines sitting in the hot sunlight on the claypan verge, when normally they would have been in the shade.

“Let’s go back and see what those fellows are doing down there,” Dr Whyte said by telephone to Captain Loveacre. “There’s a black at the foot of the headland, and-why-there’s Flora lying down there with him. Bring her round, man. Slight wind from the south.”

The twin-enginedmachine vanished from Burning Water’s eager eyes, only to come again to view farther away. It returned and flew past him over the excited Illprinka men, who now scattered and raced for the bush. Burning Water saw Dr Whyte waving to him. He waved back vigorously and lifted Flora and implored her to wake.

“Miss McPherson!” he shouted unnecessarily. “It’s Doctor Whyte and the captain. They’re landing. Open youreyes, please and look.”

“What is it-the Illprinka men?”

“The aeroplane. It’s the captain and the doctor.”

Not an Illprinka man could now be seen. The machine touched ground and began to taxi with whirring propeller blades towards the place the old men had occupied and keeping parallel with the face of the headland. Then it stopped opposite Burning Water, who began to carry Flora down the sand slope to the waiting flying doctor.

“Watch the blacks!” shouted Burning Water.

Whyte nodded. He reached down and took Flora up into the roofless cabin. Burning Water climbed up to join them. Flora was crying and stroking Whyte’s face whilst she lay in his arms.

“Grand work, Burning Water,” shouted the doctor to makehimself heard above the engine noise. “Where’s Bony?”

Burning Water described Bony’s situation when they parted and Bony’s probable desperate position at the moment.

“I want the captain to fly me over to the other side of the valley and put me down,” he went on. “All the Illprinka men will be this side. Perhaps if the captain could fly me nearer Rex’s camp and put me down it would be better still. I must go back for Bony, my brother, and my son and my father.”

“On your own?” asked Whyte, amazed.

“Alone,” asserted Burning Water more grammatically. “Tell the captain. It wouldn’t take you long to fly me nearer to the cane-grass. Say ten or twelve miles, or even fifteen. I must reach Bony quickly. Then, perhaps you and the captain could come out this way again and see what might be seen. Have you any tucker?”

Whyte nodded and pointed to a locker. He spoke to Loveacre and the captain revved the engines and set the machine along the ground in gathering speed.

Burning Water passed sandwiches and then proceeded to eat hurriedly. He found bread and meat in the locker and placed the food in the sugar bag suspended from his neck, and then he felt the plane bump on the ground and begin to run along the claypan verge bordering the southern edge of the valley. The machine stopped and the engine roar subsided sufficiently to permit talking by shouting.