Десмонд Бэгли - Landslide

‘Bob! Oh, Bob!’

I swung round and the next moment Clare was in my arms, sobbing and laughing at the same time. ‘I thought you were dead,’ she said. ‘Oh, darling, I thought you were dead.’

I managed a grin. ‘The Mattersons had a last crack at me but I came through.’

‘Hey, Boyd!’ It was Crupper, no longer neat and trimly uniformed but looking like a tramp. Any one of his own men would have put him in jail just for looking like he did. He stuck his hand out. ‘I never expected to see you again.’

‘I thought the same about you,’ I said. ‘How many were lost?’

‘I know of five for certain,’ he said gravely. ‘We haven’t finished checking yet — and God knows what is happening downstream. They didn’t have much warning.’

‘You can make it seven for certain,’ I said. ‘Skinner and Burke both bought it. Novak came through.’

‘There’s a lot needs doing,’ said Crupper. ‘I’ll get on with it.’

I didn’t volunteer for anything. I’d had a bellyful of trouble and all I wanted to do was to go away somewhere and be very quiet. Clare took my arm. ‘Come,’ she said. ‘We’ll go away from here. If we climb the hill there we might be able to find a way round the flood.’

So we made our way up the hill very slowly, and at the top we rested a while and looked north over the Kinoxi Valley. The waters of Matterson Lake would fall very quickly to reveal the jagged stumps of a raped land. But the trees still stood in the north — the forest in which I had been hunted like an animal. I didn’t hate the forest because I reckoned it had saved my life in a way.

I thought I could see the green of the trees in the far distance. Clare and I had lost four million dollars between us because the Forestry Service would never allow a total cut now. Yet we were not displeased. The trees would stay and grow and be cut down in their season, and the deer would browse in their shade — and maybe I would have time to make friends with brother Bruin after having made amends for the scare I gave him.

Clare took my hand and we walked slowly along the crest of the hill. It was a long way home, but we’d make it.