AFTER THE FIRE.
At first they were all too exhausted to speak. Alec loosed his grip of
Murri, and slipping from his horse, which was trembling in every limb
from the terrible strain it had gone through, staggered to where his
brother was standing. Geordie was half dazed with the agony he had
undergone, for when he found himself alone and shut off from the others
by the white, hot wave of fire that surged between them, he gave up all
hopes, even the faintest, of ever seeing his brother again. He had
stood quite still for a moment or two by the side of his dead horse,
gazing vacantly at the fire as it swept majestically forward, and the
revulsion of feeling was almost too great for him to bear when he saw
the leaping horse and its burden flying through the sheet of flame. For
an instant horse and rider, looming gigantic through the haze of smoke,
seemed to hang above him, and then the noble charger struck the
smouldering earth, and he knew that both horse and rider were saved.
Both Alec and Murri were almost unrecognisable, so blackened and
charred were they with the fiery ordeal they had undergone: their hair
was singed, and Murri was painfully scorched in one or two places. The
native was the first to recover his composure; his nature was much less
sensitive and highly-strung than that of the English lads. He had been
terribly frightened, but that was over now, and, feeling the pangs of
thirst very keenly, the new sensation quickly removed remembrance of
the old. It was no use being overcome with an emotion that was past,
and it was of great use to supply a want that was actual and very
present; so in this very practical state of mind he walked off with a
tin from Amber's saddle to the place where he knew was the unfailing
little spring he had spoken of in the morning.
The water was low in the little rock basin, but it promised them, at
any rate, a sufficiency. Murri hastily drank a tinful, and then carried
some to where Alec and George were sitting, exhausted and panting for
breath. Never had either of them drank with such rapture; the physical
bliss of that draught of pure cool water was the keenest they had ever
felt. It put new life into them, and, although the air was still like
the breath of a furnace, they sprang to their feet refreshed. Alec's
first thought, after he found that Geordie was unhurt, was for Amber;
he led him to the little pool, and before he quenched his own thirst,
which as yet was not half satisfied, he gave drink to the noble animal
that had saved him.
Murri, who had quite regained his usual practical calm in the few
moments since they had been safely landed on the rocks, was standing by
them as Alec watered his horse. His head was moving from side to side,
and his quick eye glanced rapidly over everything.
"Plenty hunglee by-'m-by. Mine go catch um wallaby; him can't run 'way
'cause along o' fire," he said, and, pointing to a scorched-up looking
creature at some little distance from them, he started in pursuit,
armed with the waddy from his sinew belt.
"What a fellow he is--he thinks of nothing but eating," said George,
with a half laugh, for now that the awful tension of his nerves was
relaxed he could not help seeing the comic side of things,
notwithstanding their precarious position. "The instant that he escapes
death by burning he thinks he can make the very fire that nearly killed
him useful in catching his prey."
"Well, it is a good thing for us that he is so business-like, for
everything we brought with us is on the other side of the fire."
"Oh, and Como, too, and the horses!" said George, with a shudder. "In
my relief at having you safe I had forgotten everything else; and look,
Alec, poor Firebrace dropped dead the minute he had crossed the line of
fire."
"It has been a narrow escape for all. I never expected that any of us
could be saved. When I saw the fire had cut me off from the rocks I
thought I was done for, and then I determined to make a rush for it,
and with the blood beating in my ears like the ringing of a bell I
turned Amber towards the fire."
"Look!" suddenly and excitedly called out George, who was leaning
against the horse, which did not move a yard from them; "I believe the
flames are sinking just over yonder. We might get through and try to
save Como and the horses."
Alec, following the direction of his eager, outstretched hand, saw that
in one part of the line, where there was a sandy little patch nearly
bare of vegetation, the flames had almost become extinguished.
"Yes, yes," he cried; "come along. Quickly, quickly; we may save them
yet."
The two lads, made strong by the thought that they might save the lives
of the poor creatures, rushed across the hot and still smoking earth
towards the little barren place. There was hardly any fire there, and,
darting across it, they stood once more in front of the blazing line.
Three of the horses--for Dandy had disappeared, never to be seen
again--maddened with terror, yet trembling with fatigue and exhaustion,
were rushing backwards and forwards in front of the advancing flames,
as though fascinated and enthralled by the very thing they dreaded. The
two boys, shouting at the same time, that they might be heard above the
roar of the fire, called aloud to them; and the poor distraught
creatures, hearing the voices of their lords and masters, who were as
gods to them, turned at once, and, throwing their heads in the air,
came rushing to them with loud neighs, just as one sees a dog which has
been lost in the streets come tearing to his master when he sees him
again in the crowd. They followed the boys closely, glad to touch them
with their hot, soft muzzles to make sure that they had found them,
with a mute appeal for water in their sunken eyes that was
inexpressibly touching.
George let Alec lead them to the rocks and to the spring, and turned
back once more to look for Como, which he had not seen with the horses.
He could see nothing of his dear old friend at first, but after a short
time he thought he could distinguish some strange object lying quite
still and motionless just in front of the quickly-marching blaze at
some little distance from him. Towards this he quickly ran, and found
that it was Como lying singed and senseless, only a yard or two from
the flames. Drawing a deep breath, and holding his hat before his face,
he darted in and, scorched and blinded by the heat, dragged the heavy
body out of reach of the fire. He thought that there was still a look
of life about it, so passing both arms round the great chest of the
animal, which hung limply in his grasp, he started off at a run towards
the almost surrounded sand patch with the weighty burden in his arms.
Well for him that he was fleet of foot as well as strong of limb, for
he only just reached the little barren spot before the broad arms of
the fire met again in a silent embrace that would have cut him off for
ever. The great flames soared up higher and stronger with a sweeping
flare, as they came together again, but boy and dog had passed between
them.
"Geordie, Geordie!" said Alec, "what a frightful risk to run; you had
no right to do it."
"But I couldn't leave Como to burn."
"I fear he is dead after all."
But he was not; there was life in the old dog yet, and after they had
poured water over him and down his throat he showed signs of life, and
feebly licked the face of his master, who was stooping over him.
"Well," said Geordie at supper time, when coolness had come with the
night, and they were eating the wallaby that Murri had succeeded in
killing. "Well, we ought to be a united party after this. Everybody
seems to have been saving and helping everybody else."
"It has been a day of terrible dangers," answered Alec, "but--let me
whisper it, Geordie--I have _enjoyed_ it. It is an awful thing to say,
perhaps, but anything so grand as that one leap into the great sheet of
flame I never felt. It was worth years of ordinary living."
That night it was long before the lads could get to rest; they had been
excited too intensely by the adventurous day they had passed through
for sleep to visit them quickly. Murri, who seemed to have no more
nerve than a jelly-fish, after a few philosophical remarks upon the
advisability of going to sleep at once, had wrapped himself in his
blanket and fallen asleep at the same moment. The night had grown
cooler, for the hot wind ceased to blow at about sunset, and the heavy
pall of smoke having rolled away, the quiet stars shone down upon them
from a sky that was clear and deep once more. The fire, which seemed to
have received a check at one of the great deep gullies they had crossed
in the morning, looked as though it were dying down, although now and
again the eastern sky throbbed with a ruddy glow as some little patch
of scrub or bush caught fire and flared up brightly in the blue still
night.
How solemn was the great silence of that wide expanse which, for a
time, was deprived of all life! Every breathing thing had fled before
the fire, and a silence as of death reigned over all the land. The
lads, for all their bold spirit and boyish lack of sentiment, felt the
impressiveness of it at last, and, ceasing their chattering, sank into
a stillness which soon flowed into sleep.
Night crept on; the moon sank behind the grave white peaks of the
mountains that from their heights watched for the dawn of the day; the
steady-pacing hours swept over the burnt black earth; and then in the
fulness of its time the east glowed again, but with a rose that was not
the rose of ruin and fire but the warmth and glory of a new day's
birth.
All three of them slept soundly through the night, and their slumbers
might have encroached on the morning had not a heavy shower of rain
fallen just before sunrise and awakened them. It almost seemed that the
fire which had devastated the land had brought the remedial rain in its
train, for, whereas there had previously been a drought of a year or
more in all that district, rain now fell in heavy refreshing showers
directly after the conflagration occurred.
The fact of this rain falling then was of the greatest importance to
the little band of adventurers, for not only was there an immediate
alteration for the better in the temperature, but these heavy showers
would replenish the springs and refill the dried-up creeks, and make
the young grass grow that was so imperative a necessity for their
horses.
There were some few bushes and little clumps of withered grass left
unconsumed among the rocks of Nooergup, and, as these offered a scanty
keep for the horses for one day, the boys agreed that they would not
leave their present camp till the next morning. The reason for this
decision was the worn-out condition of the horses, all of which stood
sadly in need of a day's rest, and the fact that until the burnt grass
sprouted again they would be unable to get feed for them. They knew
that after these showers, which fell both in the morning and the
evening of the day after the fire, the young grass would grow
incredibly quickly, and that the feeding of their horses would no
longer be a cause of anxiety to them.
"Don't you wish that those pretty little black moustaches of yours,
Alec, would grow again after their singeing as quickly as the grass?"
said George, mockingly, to his brother, and looking at him with a
laughing face.
"Don't you wish you had some to be singed, young Impudence?" said Alec,
throwing a little piece of damper at him which the resuscitated Como
instantly caught and swallowed, thinking it was meant for him.
Murri, by whose valuable opinion they were always greatly guided,
thought the little rest was advisable, so they did not leave Nooergup
until the second day after the fire.
It was a damp and misty morning when they started. George had taken his
saddle from poor Firebrace and transferred it to Vaulty, a strong
serviceable roan, which he rode henceforth. The sun soon dispelled the
light silvery cloud which hung above the steaming earth. When this soft
veil had been withdrawn they could see, across the charred and
blackened plain, the blue mountains of their hopes rising high into the
dazzling sky, apparently close to them. But in reality, as Murri
assured them, they lay three days' journey away.
All that day they journeyed across the burnt monotonous plain, but
towards evening they reached the further edge of it, where the fire had
originated, and once more were in a region of thick scrub and dense
bush, which already looked fresher and almost green again after the
copious rains, so quickly does Nature restore herself. Here again,
after a day of silence and stillness on the wasted plains, they heard
the voices of birds and saw living creatures moving. Two large emus
that they came upon, near a little park-like patch of tall _casuarina_
trees, almost led them to a small, recently-filled pool of water, for
the birds, only fearing their enemy man, and thinking that these
strange unknown creatures that were approaching them were quadrupeds
only, had no fear of them, and walked to their pool without any sign of
alarm. The boys stopped Murri from throwing his _boomerang_ at them,
for they could not find it in their hearts to reward such confidence as
the emus showed in them by letting them be killed. Quite inexplicable
behaviour Murri thought it. But then he wanted his supper, and was
totally without sentiment. Happy savage!