Part 44 (2/2)
”'Yes,' says he 'Sounded like 'Daddy!' I think it was out here'
”'I think it was more this way,' says I; and each of us went his oay
”When I got to where I thought was about the place, I listened again, and searched round everywhere The bell was co h the stillness of the scrub, faint, but beyond mistake, 'Dad-de-e-e!' There was n't a trace of terror in the tone; it was just the voice of a worn-out child, deliberately calling with all herless than half-a-mile away, but I could n't fix on the direction; and the scrub was very thick
”I hurried down to the bell Everyone there had heard the call, or fancied they had; but it was out to their right--not in front
Of course, the lubra would n't leave the track, nor Bob, nor the chap with the bell; but everyone else was gone--Dan a to Bob
”'Picaninny tu very weak on her feet'
”By-and-by, 'Picaninny plenty tumble down' It was pitiful; but we knew that ere close on her at last By this time, of course, she had been out for seventy-two hours
”I stuck to the track, with the lubra and Bob We could hear so 'Mary!'”----
”Bad line--bad line,” s, anyway,” replied Thoirl was likely to answer a strange voice
At last, however, the lubra stopped, and pointed to a sun-bonnet, all dusty, lying under a spreading hop-bush She spoke to Bob again
”'Picaninny sleep here last night,' says Bob And that ithin a hundred yards of the spot I hadthe first call
I knew it by three or four tall pines, a a mass of pine scrub
However, the lubra turned off at an angle to the right, and run the track-- not an hour old--tohere we had heard the second call We were crossing fresh horse-tracks every few yards; and never two minutes but what somebody turned-up to ask the news But to sho little use anything was except fair tracking, the lubra herself never saw the child till she went right up to where she was lying between two thick, soft bushes that ht ”----
”Asleep?” I suggested, with a sinking heart
”No She had been walking along--less than half-an-hour before--and she had brushed through between these bushes, to avoid some prickly scrub on both sides; but there happened to be a bilby-hole close in front, and she fell in the sort of trough, with her head down the slope; and that was the end of her long journey It would have taken a child in fair strength to get out of the place she was in; and she was played-out to the last ounce
So her face had sunk down on the loose le
”Bob snatched her up the instant he caught sight of her, but we all saw that it was too late We coo-eed, and the chap with the bell kept it going steady Then all hands reckoned that the search was over, and they were soon collected round the spot
”Now, that little girl was only five years old; and she had walked nothing less than twenty-two ht be nearer twenty-five”
There was a minute's silence Personal observation, or trustworthy report, had made every one of Thompson's audience familiar with such episodes of new settlement; and, for that very reason, his last remark ca isthan the distances lost children have been known to traverse
”How did poor Rory take it?” I asked
”Dan? Well he took it bad When he saw her face, he gave one little cry, like a wounded animal; then he sat down on the bilby-heap, with her on his knees, wiping thebaby to her
”Not one of us could find a word to say; but in a fewin earnest, and the storm was on us with a roar And just at this moment Webster of Kulkaroo came up with the smartest blackfellow in that district
”We cleared out one of the wagonettes, and filled it with pine leaves, and laid a blanket over it And Spanker gently took the child fro the other half of the blanket over her
Then he thanked all hands, and made them welcome at the station, if they liked to come I went, for one; but Bob went back to Kulkaroo direct, so I saw no ht