Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: "The rescue of Dick and Bobby." (Page 74.)]
DICK LESTER
OF
KURRAJONG
BY
MARY GRANT BRUCE
WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED
LONDON AND MELBOURNE
Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.--HOW HOLIDAYS CAME SUDDENLY
II.--DICK GOES WEST
III.--DICK GOES TO SEA
IV.--ABOARD THE "MOONDARRA"
V.--HOW DICK PRACTISED HIGH DIVING
VI.--WESTRALIA
VII.--THE "OHIO" COMES IN
VIII.--THE JOURNEY NORTH
IX.--NARRUNG HOMESTEAD
X.--THE NARRUNG TRIBE
XI.--SOMETHING OLD AND QUIET
XII.--THE TEN-MILE HUT
XIII.--HOW CONQUEROR BOLTED
XIV.--"BUCK UP, SCHOOL!"
XV.--UNDER SENTENCE
XVI.--THE LONG TRAIL
XVII.--HOW MERLE JUMPED FROM A TRAM
XVIII.--HOW DICK LESTER TOOK HIS CHANCE
XIX.--WHEN THE WORLD CAME RIGHT AGAIN
DICK LESTER OF KURRAJONG
CHAPTER I.
HOW HOLIDAYS CAME SUDDENLY.
"Lester!"
A small boy, red-faced and puffing after a hard run with his message,
paused at the wicket gate of the playground of a great school. He wore
an anxious look, for he had been bidden to hurry; and to pick out one
boy from two or three hundred seems a rather overwhelming task,
especially with most of the number vigorously kicking practice
footballs. He gave up the idea of plunging into the throng, sighed,
drew a long breath, opened his mouth to its fullest extent, and
shrilled again:
"Lester! Hi, Lester!"
There was no response, except from two youngsters near, who kindly
advised him to call loudly, adding that there was no sense in
whispering. The injured messenger turned a shade redder, glared, and
renewed his shriek.
"Lester! You're wanted!"
"Why not telephone?" asked one of his tormentors, lazily. "It's much
easier."
"Besides you'll hurt yourself if you make awful noises like that,"
commented the other. "The last chap who did it busted. And nobody
wants to gather up your pieces."
"Beasts!" said the small boy; and again, desperately: "Lester!"
"He's somewhere over in that corner," said a senior boy, who was
standing against a tree, sheltering from the nipping wind while he
knitted his brows over a Virgil--unpleasantly conscious that the Doctor
would demand heart-to-heart intercourse concerning it within half an
hour. "Clear out, for goodness' sake, and stop behaving like a motor
siren."
The small boy trotted away in the direction indicated, dodging the
footballing groups as best he could, and keeping a sharp look out for
the object of his search. Presently his anxious face lightened, and he
hurled himself against a boy who, being just about to kick at a
spinning ball, turned upon him, justly indignant.
"Can't you look out where you're going, you silly young ass!"
"Lester, you're wanted!" said the messenger breathlessly.
"Who by?" demanded Dick Lester, ungrammatically.
"The doctor. And he said you were to hurry."
"Now, I wonder what I've been doing." Lester knitted his brows. "Was
he in a wax?"
"Oh, much the same as usual," returned the messenger--to whom the
doctor, even in his most benevolent moments, was a being of terror and
thunderbolts. "You'd better hurry up, or you'll know all about it."
Dick trotted off across the playground, meeting friendly salutations on
the way from some who desired to know what had been his latest
iniquity, and from others who counselled a pillow beneath the jacket as
an aid to the coming interview. He hoped--rather faintly--that his
face was clean, knowing for certain that his hands were not. It seemed
prudent not to waste time in going to clean up, so he ran on, and
presently tapped at the door of the doctor's study, having as yet been
unable to guess why he should be sent for. There was a little matter
of a highly-unauthorised ride on a pony belonging to a milkman near the
school; another item of a sketch on the blackboard, which had proved
very diverting to his form, but had not been effaced quite quickly
enough to escape the eagle eye of the science master. It had
represented the doctor, full-fledged in cap and gown, careering along
St. Kilda beach on a donkey. Without any doubt, one might prophesy
that the doctor would not find in it the undiluted delight it had given
to the form.
"All the same, old Stinks potted me himself for it," Dick pondered,
referring to the science master aforesaid. "I don't believe he's beast
enough to have me carpeted as well. And nobody knew about the pony
except Bottles. At least I hope not!" He shrugged his shoulders, and
renewed his delicate tap at the study door.
"Come in!" said a deep voice, and Dick entered. Dr. Gurdon glanced
round from his writing table.
"Oh, you, Lester. Go into the room across the hall."
Wondering greatly, Dick withdrew, closing the door behind him. The
opposite door belonged to Mrs. Gurdon's drawing-room; presumably he was
merely to wait there until the doctor had time to attend to his case.
He went in, still lost in conjecture.
"Dickie!"
Someone little and slight and dainty sprang to meet him, and with an
inarticulate cry Dick fled to her.
"Mother! Oh, you blessed old darling!"
"I couldn't resist taking you by surprise," Mrs. Lester said, still
holding him closely. "It was only yesterday that I knew that I was
coming. Oh, Dick, you've grown ever so!"
"Have I?" he said, laughing. "Yes, I believe I have--my trousers are a
mile shorter. Oh, and I thought it meant a licking when the old doc.
sent for me; and it was--you!"
"What have you been doing to deserve a licking, you bad boy?" said his
mother, smiling.
"Oh, lots. Tell you all about it afterwards." Dick said cheerfully.
"Nothing very awful, though, Mother-est, how long are you going to be
down?"
"Two days. And you're coming away with me until to-night, because
we've got lots to talk about. Run and change your clothes--yes, and
you might wash your face, too, my son."
"Right-oh! Back in two jiffs."
He went upstairs three steps at a time, unbuttoning as he went. In the
room which he shared with three other boys a very fat youth was
laboriously endeavouring to remove sundry stains from an Eton collar.
"My last collar," grumbled he. "I guess the laundry eats 'em. And
I've got to go to the dentist, and matron'll eat me if she sees me in
this. Wish you had a decent neck, Skinny, and I'd borrow one from you."
"Seventeens, isn't it, that you take?" queried Dick, grinning. "Never
mind, Bottles, you're the pride of the school."
"Oh, am I?" rejoined his plump friend sourly. "I don't know about the
pride of the school, but I'm a fortune to the man who makes my
clothes--I bust out of 'em once a fortnight. Why on earth anyone
wanted to be fat beats me."
"Did anyone?" Dick grinned--and dodged a hair-brush, hurled by Bottles
with an agility that was surprising, considering his bulk. "Steady,
you playful old elephant--I'm busy."
"You seem a bit rushed," remarked Bottles, observing his friend's
movements with some amazement, as Dick flung off his school suit
hurriedly, dived at the wash-stand, emerged from the basin, dripping,
and after a brief towelling plunged at his locker for his Sunday
clothes. "Going to have lunch at Government House, by any chance?"
"No--something better," Dick knotted a blue tie carefully. "Mother's
turned up suddenly, and I'm off for the day."
"Some people have all the luck," Bottles said, enviously. "Things
don't get sorted out equally at all--some get mothers and some get
dentists. Jolly glad, all the same, Lester. You didn't expect her
down, did you?"
"No, and when the old doc. sent for me I made sure it was the milkman's
pony," Dick said, grinning.
"That's what it is to have a guilty conscience," laughed Bottles, whose
name, by the way, happened to be Glass. "Great Scott, you're dressed;
and I'm still pounding at this beastly collar, and it only gets worse.
What on earth am I going to do?"
"Dodge matron, and buy some new ones at the stores when you get in,"
counselled Dick, giving his hair a furious brushing. He dived into his
locker for a new cap. "So long, old man; hope the dentist won't be
very beastly. See you to-night." He clattered down the corridor,
leaving Mr. Glass gazing ruefully at his murky collar.
Mrs. Lester was standing at the window of the drawing-room, looking out
upon the rather dismal shrubs of the school garden. She turned to meet
Dick, with the delightful smile that made her look only old enough to
be his sister.
"Ready? and so spruce!" she said. "Did you bring your overcoat, Dick?"
"It's outside," Dick answered. His eyes dwelt upon her lovingly. "I
say, mother, you do look stunning!"
Other people had had the same thought that morning, looking at the
dainty figure in the plain suit of dark brown. Her little face, with
its wild-rose colouring, looked out from a great collar of brown furs,
under a big hat; and pinned in her muff was a knot of violets and
boronia that lent their fragrance to her sweetness. Dick could not
have told you what she wore, only he knew that everything about her,
from the curly hair under her brown hat to the dainty feet in the brown
suede shoes, was perfection.
"Not one of the chaps has a mother like you," he told her, stumbling
over the eager words. "Some of 'em have awful old squaws of
mothers----"
She put a hand over his mouth, smiling into his eyes.
"And if I were the most awful old squaw alive you wouldn't think it,
and neither do they," she said. "You'd be just as glad to see me if I
were ugly and dowdy, Dickie-boy."
"I would, but I'm jolly glad you're not," returned her son. "I'm just
frightfully proud when you come to school, and you should hear what the
fellows say about you. So there!" He tucked her hand into his
arm--she had blushed like a girl at his words--and half pulled her out
of the room. "Come along, or someone'll come and talk to you, and that
would waste an awful lot of precious time."
There were a thousand questions to ask as the train whisked them
towards Melbourne. Dick's father had been for a year in England; there
was a letter from him, Mrs. Lester said, rather vaguely. Dick could
read it presently. Apart from father there was home--the big station
up north, with its myriad interests; dogs and horses--all old
friends--cattle, and the prospects of the season ahead; Dick's pet
wallaby and rabbits and pigeons, and all the station people who made up
the little circle in which his life had been spent until school claimed
him; overseer, stockman, boundary riders; cook, with her big heart and
her amazing capacity for sending wonderful hampers; old nurse, who had
a somewhat disconcerting way of still regarding him as her baby, but
who came very close in his affections for all that. Dick had not found
out half that he wanted to know when the short journey came to an end,
and they found themselves at the familiar hotel.
"We'll have lunch," said Mrs. Lester. "It must be nearly one o'clock.
Then we'll go up to my room and talk before we go out."
Dick shot a quick glance at her. They were very close friends, these
two; during all his thirteen years they had never been apart for more
than a few days until he went to school, and he knew every intonation
of her voice, every changing shade of expression on her face. Now he
suddenly understood that something new was to be manifested in that
talk; and therefore he ate his lunch with some impatience, though
without anxiety, seeing that his mother was far too cheerful for any
trouble to be hovering near. This was as well, since the lunch was
something of an event to a small boy at the end of a long term of the
"plain and wholesome" food of boarding school; and as his mother was
very merry, and the rooms crowded with people all more or less
interesting, and a good string band was playing lively music in a
palm-fringed gallery at the end of the room, the moment was
sufficiently enthralling to keep Dick from much speculation as to the
mystery.
"Nothing more, sonnie?"
"No thanks." Dick regarded with affection a dish that had held trifle.
"That was a topping lunch, mother. Have you finished?"
His mother nodded, gathering up her furs.
"Come upstairs--I want to consult you about something."
The lift flashed them up several storeys, and presently they found
themselves in Mrs. Lester's room, overlooking the calm stateliness of
the eastern end of Collins Street. Mrs. Lester took off her hat and
tossed it upon the bed.
"Sit down, Dickie. I want to read you father's letter."
Dick gave a sudden little shiver.
"Do you remember last time you said that?" he asked.
She met his eyes. "Before you went to school?"
"Yes. You read me father's letter, saying I ought to go. And it was
awful, 'cause he left it to us, and I felt such a sweep, 'cause I
couldn't make myself say I would."
"But you did say it, Dick."
"Yes--but it took me a bit to make up my mind."
"Well, it isn't always easy to swallow a nasty dose off-hand," said the
little mother philosophically.
"And now you've got another dose. Is it as bad, mother?"
"Ah, you must judge that for yourself," she said. "Listen--and, first
of all, remember that we have evidently missed a letter. There is
quite a gap between this and the last one we had from him, and he
speaks of a letter he posted us from Edinburgh--but it hasn't come.
However, I don't know that it matters much."
"Not matter? Why, we may never get it!" cried Dick, wide-eyed.
English mail day was the chief day of all to them. To miss one of
father's letters was a calamity not lightly to be borne. Yet here was
this mother smiling over it.
"No--nothing matters much," she said, and rumpled his hair suddenly.
"Listen, old son."
"... So it's nearly over, the long, hard separation from you two
dear ones, and I needn't worry that this time I've only a moment to
send a note. I've booked my berth in the _Ohio_, and have none too
much time now to attend to all sorts of odds and ends before I
sail----"
"Mother!" exploded Dick. "When?"
"Be quiet!" said his mother, laughing. "There's more yet."
"----and fix up business finally. I can't realise that I'll see
you and the boy so soon; it's too good to be true. And I don't
mean to wait for it one day longer than I have to. We're due at
Fremantle on 27th August. I think you said Dick's term ended about
the end of August, and then he'll have three weeks' holiday for me
to make his acquaintance. (Snort from Dick.) Well, it would mean
cutting into school a bit, but the boy is only a youngster after
all, and I don't think it would matter"--here the little mother
suddenly began to read very fast, and the words tumbled out of her
mouth so quickly that Dick could hardly have caught them if he had
not been listening with all his ears and his eyes as well,
listening, kneeling at her feet, with his gaze fixed on her face,
with its rose-flush, and its dancing eyes and lips that trembled
ever so little--"if he missed a few classes; what do you say to
hurrying off to town, kidnapping him from Dr. Gurdon, and bringing
both my belongings across to Fremantle to meet me?"
"Ow!" said Dick faintly, his mouth and eyes round circles of amazement
and delight. "Fremantle! Oh, mother-est, are we going?"
His mother rumpled his hair all over again.
"Going!" said she. "Do you think we could refuse an invitation like
that, Dickie?"
She found herself suddenly hugged with a vehemence that left her
breathless.
"Oh, isn't he just the very best person ever!" gasped Dick.
"Mother--when?"
"To-morrow," said his mother calmly. "And even so, we'll have to go
overland to Adelaide. The boat that will get us to Western Australia
in time to meet the _Ohio_ leaves Melbourne to-day. I knew I couldn't
catch it in Melbourne; but it doesn't matter."
Dick sat down on the floor, looking at her with a kind of solemn
bewilderment.
"Do you mean to tell me," he asked, "that to-morrow you and I go to
Adelaide and catch a steamer to meet father at Fremantle?"
"To-morrow as ever is," said his mother as solemnly.
"And that in less than a week we'll see father?"
She nodded. Her sweet mouth quivered suddenly and her eyes dimmed.
Dick, suddenly flinging his arms round her, felt her trembling.
"Oh, Dickie, it's been so long," she whispered brokenly. "And I've
been so lonely." She put her face against his smooth, sunburnt cheek,
and he patted her very hard. Presently she sat up and smiled at him
again.
[Illustration: "It was almost a relief when they met a 'sundowner'
slouching along."]
"Now, isn't that ridiculous, when we're going to get him back so soon!
And there's more letter yet, Dick."
"It would be a little change for you--you've been alone on the
place so many months now. Dick won't refuse, I know; and as for
me--well, the voyage will be long enough, even if I do shorten it
by a week. I'll leave the _Ohio_ at Fremantle and we'll come back
together on an inter-State boat. The _Ohio_ is packed, and there
might be a difficulty about getting berths for us all. Besides, we
shan't be hurried then, and we can show Dick a glimpse of the West.
I want to get home badly enough; but, after all, that can wait. I
just feel that when I once get you two back I shall never want to
hurry again."
The low voice paused and they looked at each other.
"Mother, is it all fixed?" Dick demanded. "Did you square the doc.?"
"I represented the case to Dr. Gurdon," said his mother, with a dignity
that was belied by the twinkle in her eyes. "And he kindly agreed to
excuse you, in the special circumstances. Anticipating this courtesy
on his part, I----"
"Oh, mother," said Dick reproachfully.
"----went to the shipping office and bought tickets before going out to
the school," finished his mother, laughing. "If you think, Master
Richard Lester, that I'm going to let any head master, or any other old
thing, stand in our way when we're going to meet father after he has
been away a year, you are sadly mistaken."
She sprang up suddenly and began to dance--a quaint, elfish dance of
quick, swaying movements like a brown leaf fluttering before the
breeze. Dick watched her, laughing, until presently her steps changed
to something more definite, and she swooped and caught him by the hands
and pulled him up, and together they pranced up and down the big room
like a pair of young horses, too full of joy of living to keep still.
Dick's mother had taught him to dance when he was little more than a
baby, so that he was not quite as stiff-legged as you might expect from
a muscular schoolboy of thirteen. It was not the first time he had
suddenly been called upon to take part in what he called "one of his
mother's war dances." So they pranced together until a crusty old
gentleman in the room below found his chandelier rattling, and was on
the point of ringing for the waiter to demand angrily the reason, when
Mrs. Lester ceased for lack of breath and fell into an arm-chair.
"Dear me, and I an old married woman," she gasped, fanning herself and
looking far more like a flushed child. "Whatever would father say? I
must think more of my dignity."
"He'd say you were just a kid, like he always does," said Dick, who had
collapsed upon the hearth-rug. "It would be an awful shock to father
if he found that you'd got prim and grown up."
"I misdoubt he'll never find that, the poor man," said his mother
tragically. "Dickie, I'll never forget how terrible it was when I
first found myself married and settled down at Kurrajong, with a house
and several servants. You see, I was only seventeen when I married,
and though seventeen may seem a lot to you, it isn't so much of an age
when you come to it. And I had always been at boarding school and I
didn't know a thing about keeping house. I used to like stock very
much as a child, but I remember that for a while after I was married I
used to look at a bullock or a sheep with horror, as unpleasant beasts
that got cut up into a number of joints, of which I never could
remember the names."
"Poor old mummie!" said Dick, laughing. "How did you manage to learn
things?"
"Cook pulled me through; I found her six months after my marriage.
Before that there was a terrible cook who scorned me and my ignorance,
and gave me a very bad time, and father very bad meals. Of course, he
never grumbled."
"No, he never would," said Dick.
"It was only one day when he found me crying in my room that he
discovered that I was really unhappy--and you should have seen how
angry he was. He sent away the terrible cook, and we went to Melbourne
and hunted for a really nice one--and got her. And dear old cookie
taught me all the things I ought to have learned before I got married.
But I made up my mind that if ever any daughters came to me I would
have them taught very thoroughly at school how to run their houses.
But they never did come--only one little ragamuffin of a son!"
She rumpled his hair, and leaning forward, dropped a butterfly kiss on
his nose.
"Now you look like a golliwog," she said, "and we have no time to
spare, because we must go and buy deck shoes, and cures for sea
sickness, and other interesting things. We have got to look our very
smartest when we board that big mail-boat to get father. Tidy
yourself, beloved, and we'll go out."
Dick brushed his hair with her long-tailed hairbrush, which he despised
very much; and after his mother had pulled his coat here and there and
settled his tie with deft fingers, she pronounced him fit to accompany
her, and they fared forth into the busy streets. Shopping with his
mother generally resolved itself, for Dick, into waiting at the doors
of big drapery houses, where she was swallowed up into mysterious
regions that had no charms for her son. He preferred to stand in the
doorway, tucked into a corner out of the way of the hurrying throng of
eager women passing in and out--there was fun in watching the crowd,
the clanging tram-cars, the beautiful horses--it was before the days of
many motors, and good carriage horses were still to be seen in the city
streets. Like most bush-bred boys--and girls, for that matter--Dick
thought there was no sight to equal that of a good horse. He was
staring at a big, taking chestnut, driven by a man in a light buggy,
when a voice said, "Hullo, young Lester!" and he turned to greet Master
Glass, resplendent in a new collar, and no longer melancholy in
appearance.
"Hullo, Bottles!" Dick rejoined. "How did the dentist treat you?"
"Oh, not too badly," Bottles answered. "Finished me up in pretty quick
time, too, so I've got the rest of the afternoon to play in. What are
you up to?"
"Mother's shopping," said Dick. "Oh, I say, Bottles, such a lark! I'm
off to Western Australia to-morrow!"
"Whew-w!" whistled Bottles. "What for?"
Dick unfolded his news.
"Well, of all the lucky young kids," was Bottles' comment. "So you'll
be gone until after the holidays? Anyhow, you'll have your father at
home to keep you in order, so it's to be hoped that you'll come back
well licked."
"I hope you don't think I have failed in my duty in that respect,
Bottles," said a laughing voice; and the abashed Master Glass turned
quickly to greet Mrs. Lester, blushing to the roots of his
close-cropped hair.
"You don't give him half enough, Mrs. Lester," he mumbled. "I have to
attend to him myself, or he'd get too bumptious."
"You!" said Dick, with huge scorn. "I'd like to see you, old fatty!"
Which loathed insult caused the irate Bottles to vow to take deep
vengeance no later than that very night.
Mrs. Lester restored tranquillity.
"Leave him to me, Bottles; I'll keep him severely in order," she
laughed. "Meanwhile, come and have some tea with us; I'm sure you need
some."
The boys followed her into a big restaurant, so crowded that they found
some difficulty in finding a table. A band was playing softly, and
somewhere near them a little fountain plashed gently under a clump of
tree-ferns, catching rays of rosy light from some concealed source
overhead. A waitress brought them tea and muffins, with a dish of
cakes so attractive that the only problem was which to choose; and
their satisfaction was heightened presently by the spectacle of three
senior boys from their own school wandering helplessly about in a vain
attempt to find a resting place. Bottles and Dick nodded kindly to
them, and felt intensely superior, selecting cakes with a calm
enjoyment that brought murderous feelings to the three prefects, who
propped themselves against a pillar and waited dismally for someone to
vacate a table, which no one seemed inclined to do. Indeed, they were
still standing when Mrs. Lester called for her bill.
"We might as well give those three boys this table," she said. "I
suppose you know them, Dick?"
Dick knew them as the cabin boy may be expected to know the captain and
chief officer of his ship, as superior and mighty beings, too far above
him to dream of more than the curtest recognition. One of them had
cuffed him for getting in his way in the playground no later than
yesterday. It was therefore somewhat soothing to have the opportunity
of sauntering across to these lords of creation and remarking; "Care to
have our table, Landon?" And soothing, too, to see how meekly the
famished ones accepted the invitation, and how the lordliness of
demeanour that seemed part of them at school fell from them when Mrs.
Lester spoke to them. Landon, indeed, blushed like any junior, and
stammered in his answer, which gave unmitigated joy to Bottles and
Dick, and formed the subject of much merry jest in the dormitory that
night.
Bottles said good-bye after tea, and took himself back to school, while
Dick and his mother, their shopping finished, boarded a tram that
landed them near the Fitzroy Gardens, where the flowers were beginning
to show promise of their spring blaze of glory, and the splendid
stretches of turf under the great trees made a haven of refuge to tired
city dwellers. They found a quiet seat in a sheltered corner--there
was still something of winter in the breeze--and talked, filling in all
the gaps that even the longest letters must leave when the smallest
detail is eagerly treasured. Dick heaved a great sigh when at length
they rose and strolled slowly across the lawns towards the street.
"I feel almost as if I'd been home again," he said. "My word, mother,
won't it be gorgeous to go back to Kurrajong--and to take father!"