A TERRIBLE ENEMY.
The boys were up next morning, whilst still the stars shone undimmed in
the sky, and succeeded in catching their horses without very much
trouble. The fire had smouldered all night through, so that they had a
cheerful blaze very quickly, and boiled their tea in a few minutes.
They were anxious to make as early a start as possible, as they had
lost time the day before, and as soon as they could tear Murri away
from the still plenteous remains of their yesterday's roast they sprang
into the saddle. But the native was wiser than they, for, when they
were mounted, and Como was leaping round them and barking in a manner
that was highly indecorous in a dog of his years and sober aspect, he
stopped them, and said in his funny English--
"White fellow bail _pitnee_" (never thinks). "Mine must fill um bockles
plenty much water. Bail water bong along o' this stage. Hot, hot this
day. All um creek gone away."
Saying this he filled all the canvas water bottles at the spring, and
then took a long drink himself, as though laying in a good store of the
precious commodity.
Murri was right; the day was an intensely hot one, and every moment of
all that long forenoon the scorching sun gained greater power. The
country through which they were riding was quite shadeless for the
great rolling plains were only covered with a dense tall growth of
perfectly dry and withered grass and scrub. The twigs of the _mulga_
and the stunted iron-bark bushes were so dry and brittle that they
rattled like bones when shaken by the horses as they passed through
them, and broke off short if they were touched. The earth was either
dried to a powder or baked so firm and hard that the horses' hoofs rang
on it as though on a pavement. The very trees that grew on the banks of
the gullies were shrivelled and brown. The one or two creeks that they
had to cross--taking the horses up and down the steep crumbling banks
with the greatest difficulty--were mere tracks of white and dazzling
sand, with here and there, in the shadow of the bank, a tiny pool, that
was fast drying up, remaining to prove that it ever had been a rapid
watercourse. This sand, as, indeed, did the whole earth, reflected the
burning rays of the sun till to move out of the shade was almost
intolerable.
It was evident, from the parched and dried-up appearance of all
vegetation, and from the lowness of the water in the little pools of
the creek, that there had been no rain for very many months. There had
been no heavy rainfall at Wandaroo for a very long period, and it
seemed that this part of the country had suffered a much longer
drought. Flocks of birds were flying about the little stagnant pools in
the creeks, dashing themselves head first into the water in their
eagerness to quench their thirst. Crowds of animals, kangaroos and
wallabies principally, were congregated at the muddy margins to drink
at the fast-failing supply. No rain had fallen thereabouts for a year
or more.
To make matters worse, infinitely worse, a stifling hot wind rose with
the sun, blowing from the west, all across the gigantic sand plains of
the interior where the air was dried and heated as though in some vast
furnace. Every breath that they drew was painful, and the heated blasts
of air dried up the moisture of their body and shrivelled their skin in
a manner that must be experienced to be believed. The animals, as is
always the case, seemed to feel the heat even more than the men; to
such an extent did the horses suffer that it seemed barbarous to ride
them, and had Murri not continually urged the lads to try to get to
Nooergup, where he said was an unfailing spring, they would have halted
for the sake of their cattle. They did make one good halt at mid-day to
rest the horses, which were far too jaded to eat, although they had
been so spirited in the early morning before the hot wind had sprung
up.
It was towards the middle of the afternoon, some little time after they
had renewed their march, that the sky began to grow lurid at the
horizon and the day to grow faintly dimmer. The sun still poured down
its scorching rays upon them; the wind seemed to grow hotter and hotter
till men and animals fairly gasped for breath, and the air, tremulous
with the heat of the burning earth, was quivering to a height of twenty
feet above their heads. Every moment the sky grew duller, and in the
west a copper-coloured cloud rose slowly in the sky; gradually the
light of day grew red, and thin films of cloud rapidly sweeping across
the face of the sun changed his brightness to a dull blood hue.
All the members of the little party well knew what this meant. Some
tribe of _myalls_ had carelessly left their camp fire not quite
extinguished, and the hot wind that was blowing had re-animated the
dying embers in the early morning and set fire to the bush. Every blade
of grass, every bit of scrub, and every leaf, were as dry as tinder,
and leaped into flame the instant that the rapidly-spreading fire came
to it. In a short time the whole district was blazing, and fanned by
the strong hot wind, the fire spread in all directions with
inconceivable rapidity.
Directly that Murri, who was the first to detect the ruddy tint in the
western sky, had called Alec's attention to the fact of the bush fire,
they came to a halt to consult as to what had better be done.
"With this strong wind the fire will travel much quicker than we can,"
said Alec, with a tone of anxiety in his voice that was very natural in
their present danger; "or we could turn and ride back to our last camp,
for there is water there, and no fire could reach us on that open sandy
space."
"The horses couldn't travel that far under eight hours; they are almost
done up as it is," said George. "Heavens, how hot it is! It is like
breathing in an oven."
"No, I don't think they could; it has been a trying day for them, and
they are pretty well pumped. We _are_ unlucky beggars; everything seems
against us; you nearly killed by the _myalls_, Prince Tom robbing us of
our stores, and now all of us to be burnt up alive. There isn't a creek
or a pool that we can get into, and the fire is quickly marching up to
us. There! Didn't you smell the burning fern just then?"
"Yes; by Jove! it is coming near; but don't be so despondent, Alec. It
isn't on us yet. Don't you think that by pushing on to the north or
south, as fast as ever we can make the horses go, we might reach the
end of the line of fire and head round it? Let us ask Murri."
But the native, who had been scanning, with the keenest anxiety in
every line of his face, the advancing line of smoke, said that the fire
was already too extended for them to think of doing that, and that in
his opinion the only plan that offered them any chance of safety was to
push ahead with the greatest speed and try to reach the rocks at
Nooergup before the flames could meet them. He spoke with most unusual
excitement, his quick, restless eyes expressing better than his words
his sense of their imminent danger.
"_Burrima, burrima_" (quickly, quickly), said he with rapid utterance.
"Nebbe mind um _yarroman_. Ride, ride, ride. Kill um _yarroman_, then
you not dead. Plenty much slow go, all fellow dead along o' this
place."
Seeing from his manner that he thought their peril great, and knowing
full well the horrors of a great bush fire, the boys put their horses
to their best speed and galloped on. It almost seemed like courting
death to ride straight in the teeth of the advancing fire, but they
knew that they might rely upon Murri's word, so they acted as he
advised. The horses themselves soon became aware of their danger, for
when they had crossed the next low ridge, after an hour's rapid riding
along a fairly level stretch of scrub-covered country, the line of
leaping flame could be seen, stretching as far as the eye could see to
the north and south. The quivering limbs of the beasts, their dilated
nostrils and wildly starting eyes, showed how greatly they feared the
dreaded element.
Now it was that they began to pass numbers of animals all hurrying and
rushing along in abject terror in the opposite direction to the
horsemen. Kangaroos and wallabies progressing by great leaps; emus
flapping their inefficient wings to help them in their flight; bush
rats and smaller creatures scuttling along by the side of wriggling
snakes and currish dingoes. Overhead were flocks of parrots, pigeons,
cockatoos, and other bush birds, all flying away from the great cloud
of rolling smoke and flame that seemed to stride with enormous steps
after the flying creatures. For the time all enmities between them
seemed forgotten; kangaroos and dingoes, snakes and rats and opossums,
rushed along side by side in the friendliness of a great common danger.
Every moment as the three hurried on the heat became greater; the speed
of the horses now grew less just when there was the greatest need for
their swiftness. They could only be kept at the gallop by incessant
application of the spur, and the boys hated to punish in this way the
faithful creatures that had borne them so nobly, but they knew that the
horses' lives as well as their own depended upon their being able to
keep up their present pace for a mile or two more.
They could now plainly hear the wild roar and crackling of the awful
fire as it consumed everything before it in its devastating march, and
the burning air that came in puffs and beat upon them, scorched and
withered them. Their very eyeballs seemed to dry within their sockets,
and the smarting lids, when they closed them, hardly kept out the awful
glare. The natural light of day was gone, for the whole sky was covered
with one vast cloud of lurid smoke, and everything looked red and
burning from the ruddy light of the sweeping flame.
Still Nooergup, their haven of refuge, lay a mile ahead of them. Murri
pointed it out to them, and seemingly close behind it rose the moving
wall of flame. Could they but reach those barren rocks before the line
of fire encircled it and sped again on its way they were safe; but with
failing worn-out horses, and exhausted as the riders were with the heat
and want of air, it seemed impossible.
The lips of all three were cracked and bleeding from the heat of this
awful _sirocco_, and their tongues were dry and rattling in their
parched mouths. They had drunk and lost by the rapid evaporation from
their canvas water bottles every drop of water that they had brought
from their last camp, and their unmoistened lips could hardly
articulate. When they did speak their voices were so harsh and hoarse
and changed as scarcely to be intelligible. Their speed was greatly
lessened from each of them having to lead one of the spare horses, for,
although these three horses were much less exhausted than those which
were ridden, they were in a much greater state of alarm, and much more
restive.
Alec's noble and high-spirited horse, Amber, was much less jaded than
the horses that George and Murri rode, though it was more terrified and
alarmed than any of the others at the roaring and flaring of the now
nearing fire. Seeing that his own horse was rapidly failing, and that
Amber still had reserve stores of strength, George goaded on his
over-strained steed and caught up Alec, who was some few paces ahead.
His face, although scorched by the heat, looked very wan and drawn, and
no one could have recognised his clear, sweet voice in the sobbing,
croaking tones in which he spoke. At first he could hardly utter a
sound, but he forced his voice, and made himself heard above the
roaring of the advancing flames.
"Arrick, old boy, push on. There is something in Amber yet, though
Firebrace is about done up. You can get through and on to the rocks.
Make Como come with you."
"Geordie!" cried Alec, in a tone of reproach, and looking round at him
with his stiff and bloodshot eyes. "Leave you? We _both_ get through or
we _die together_ on this side."
He said no more, but checked his horse, and brought him down to
Firebrace's pace, and Geordie knew that further remonstrance was in
vain. Would he not have acted just the same himself had he been the
better mounted?
They were now within a hundred yards of Nooergup, which was just a
little mass of barren tumbled rocks, on a slight elevation, rising,
like an island, from the sea of stunted trees, scrub, and tall grasses,
that surrounded it on all sides. The rushing line of fire had already
reached it, and the huge flames, ten feet in height in their lowest
part, were already licking the rocks at the sides with flickering
blazing tongues, as though they would consume even the rocks that
impeded their progress. But the fire had not passed all along it yet,
and just where the rocks stood there was a break in the livid, roaring
line.
Towards this the riders were madly goading on their panting horses. One
minute longer, and it will be too late! The very air seems fire; they
can only get their breath with the utmost difficulty. Murri has wrapped
his poor naked body in the blue blanket that was fastened to his
saddle, to protect himself from the flying sparks and the deadly heat.
There is a roaring in their ears as of a mighty sea, and a flame and
glare before their eyes as though heaven and earth are fire. It almost
seems that the flames are bending forward, and hurrying and rushing to
envelop them.
There is still a narrow opening in the vivid line of fire. Only a few
seconds more, and they will be safe. Fifty yards! forty yards!! thirty
yards to go!!! And then----! George's horse staggers, and with a sob
like a human being in distress its legs almost give way.
"Heaven help us now!" cried Alec, in despair.
But even then he does not give up. He looses the horse he has been
leading, and leaning across, half out of his saddle, he gives poor
trembling Firebrace a blow across the quarters with his whip. George,
weakened by his wound, is almost insensible, but he sticks in his
saddle; and his horse, making one last awful effort, bears him between
the narrow gates of flame, and, placing his master in safety, falls
dead of a broken heart.
The shock of the fall revives George, and, disentangling himself from
the stirrups, he springs to his feet.
He is alone!
The line of fire has passed on, the narrow opening is closed, and he is
behind the wall of flame, which is rushing on to consume in its fiery
embrace the brother who had saved him a moment before.
[Illustration: "HE SEIZED THE NATIVE ROUND HIS SLIM, NAKED BODY."
(_p. 79._)]
When Alec stooped to strike Firebrace, to urge him on to one final
effort, Amber, terrified beyond all control at the nearness of the
flames, swerved to one side, and by the time Alec had again turned his
head towards the rocks the disconnected line of fire had rejoined
itself, and presented an unbroken front to him. At this moment, when
every hope seemed extinguished, his mad courage came to his aid, and
suggested one last chance. A chance in a thousand, but still a chance.
He saw that Murri had been as unsuccessful as himself, and that he was
still in front of the leaping line of fire; he shouted to him to
dismount, and, for all his huskiness, his voice rang out like a
clarion, and the man heard him, and blindly obeyed, like a child, in
his fear and confusion, doing exactly as he was bidden.
"And now stand still," roared Alec.
Backing his horse for some little distance to gain the necessary speed,
Alec, goading Amber with voice and spur alike, rushed like lightning
towards the soaring flames. Straining every muscle, he seized the
native round his slim, naked body, and by an almost superhuman effort
he lifted him from the ground. At the same moment he again dashed his
spurs into Amber's throbbing sides, and, giving the noble creature his
head, he boldly rode at the wall of fire.
Like a greyhound the superb horse cleared the glowing heart of the
fire, and darting with inconceivable speed through the flickering
flame, which for one second surged and beat about him, he landed with
his double burden in safety on the glowing ashes of the ground the fire
had just passed over. A few strides more, and they were side by side
with George.