I glanced from the blacks to the doctor, to see that he was intently
gazing up the gorge where the rushing water came seething down, and I
read in his face that he could not see the slightest hope.
I looked at Jack Penny, who was deeply intent upon a little blue anchor
that some bush shepherd had tattooed upon his thin white arm.
Then I turned to Jimmy, whose quick dark eyes were busy inspecting his
toes, those on the right foot having hold of his war-club, which he was
holding out for Gyp to smell.
He alone of the party did not seem to realise the fact that the end was
so near.
"Can we do anything, doctor?" I said at last in a low awe-stricken
voice.
He gazed at me tenderly and held out his hand to press mine, when I laid
it in his grasp.
"No, my lad," he said, "nothing. I have tried mentally to see a way out
of our peril, but I can see none. Unless the water sinks we are lost!
Joe, my lad, you must act like a man!"
"I'll try, doctor," I said in a choking voice; and as I spoke, once more
there seemed to rise up before me our quiet peaceful home near Sydney,
with its verandah and flowers and the simply furnished pretty rooms, in
one of which sat my mother, waiting for tidings of her husband and son.
I could not help it, but clasped my hands together uttering a despairing
cry. For it seemed so hard to give up hope when so young and full of
health and strength. Even if it had been amidst the roar and turmoil of
the storm it would not have seemed so bad, or when the great flood wave
came down; but now, in these calm cool moments, when there was nothing
to excite, nothing to stir the blood, and, above all, just when the sky
was of a dazzling blue, with a few silvery clouds floating away in the
rear of the storm, while the sun shone down gloriously, it seemed too
hard to bear.
I gazed eagerly at the water, to see that it was nearly a foot higher,
and then I joined the doctor in searching the rock with my eyes for a
place where we might find foothold and clamber beyond the reach of the
rushing torrent; but no, there seemed no spot where even a bird could
climb, and in despair I too began to strip off some of my clothes.
"Are you going to try to swim?" said the doctor gravely.