Part 17 (1/2)
Prudence cut the beautiful cake and distributed large slices all round No grown-up person was present to ood or a bad thing ”according to circs” as Jerry would say
The children were all tired after their hard work and excite hoe to say that he expected to find everyone fast asleep in bed when he got back; so, after a tour of exploration round the house and its ihbourhood, they went off to their rooms, and soon most of them were asleep
Not all of thee of air, or the strange bed, or still stranger circumstances, or all combined, it would be hard to say, but it seeer he lay in bed the an to worry hiantic proportions in his ot lost Perhaps it orth a hundred pounds, as Jerry had suggested Suppose a ht be worth more than a hundred; perhaps two hundred pounds
What if a blackfellow stole it, or the tree fell down in the night, or got burnt up It is true that none of these things had happened during the months in which it had lain there before, but _then_ no one had known that it was valuable It would be just like luck, or rather unluck, if soe of diamonds was so san to have nighte suh his folly To be sure, no one knew that he had put the diamond back in the tree But he knew hi He tossed froht perplexed hi that he wasn't going to be born for another thirty years? He belonged to the future, and the future could not influence the present--at least, he supposed not, but funny things did happen Anyhow, this was _his_ present for the ot out of bed at last and went to theThere was such a flood of ht as day Why not slip into his clothes and scoot down to the bottom of the scrub- land, and collect that dia about in bed, and afterwards he would go calet out of the house Probably Ah Keas on the watch for his master, and, if he saw dick, would remark ”no can do”, or words to that effect
dick went to the edge of the balcony and looked over; it was not very far froround, but it was too far to juh--he decided to try, and if he fell--well, he had smashed himself up before this ain A few tumbles more or less wouldn't make much difference to hiet back to 1920 somehow or other He could hardly kill hiround with nothing worse than a few scratches to his credit, and set off along the path by which they had coe in case Ah Kew's beady eyes should be on the outlook So long as he ithin the grounds of the house he felt confident and cheerful, but when he reached the slip-rail and looked over into the land beyond he felt so away
It looked eerie, that strange, unfaht There were dead trees standing here and there, and their pale trunks took unpleasant shapes--they hosts, of course; there were no such things as ghosts All the tales he had ever read about Australia suddenly started up in his ers, of blackfelloho had ood deal without being actually _killed_ Now that he came to think of it, Australia in the 'seventies was a wildish sort of place--in some parts at any rate He wished that he was surer where he was--how far away fro were still at large
But, of course, he could not go back He stepped cautiously fro to the black shadows as much as possible He could hear the sound of that little waterfall quite distinctly, and see theshallows of the creek--now he could see the gu for--he had taken particular notice of a crooked bough--what on earth was that?
A wild piercing shriek froht him suddenly to a standstill, his heart in hismurdered or tortured Blackfellows, probably, as Ned Kellywomen--at least so it said in _Robbery Under Arms_ dick wondered what exactly the blackfellows had done to the woain!
He stood still After all, why not leave the diaine all that rubbish about it, and a much sillier ass to leave his safe bedroom and come out to this wild and desolate spot all alone If he had brought Jerry--
Ah, Jerry! There had been that affair of Jerry's eldest brother and the guns Ten wounds Both legs shot off ”Stick it out, you chaps”
The very last words he spoke in this world, sweeter in Jerry's ear, dick knew, than the finest poetry ever written He gathered hiin a habit of _not_ sticking it out For, wherever he was, he was always dick Gordon to himself--a person for whom he wished to have a considerable arove, so cool and lovely by day, did not look so dark and ht
At last! Here was the old tree Now for it He stepped round, prepared to enter the eardless of possible snakes or blacks, when he heard a sound that made the hair rise on his head and the back of his neck feel queer, for it was un inside the tree The child of the ht
So the blacks _were_ near--perhaps inside the tree at this very moment The idea flitted across his mind that there was an extraordinary difference between reading about a thing and experiencing it As the child's sobs continued he shrunk together-- he would rather meet an enemy in the open and be shot at twenty tie and mysterious blacks--and then he suddenly decided that, if there were a child there, he o and look for it and do his best, blacks or no blacks
But at that very instant the crying stopped and turned to speaking:
”Please, God, let there be a ood if you'll make abegan again
”Grizzel!” exclai like darkness before light ”How on earth did she get there? She'll be frightened into fits if she sees me” He moved back a little distance and stopped to think The best plan would be to call her softly, he decided
”Grizzel! Where are you, Grizzel? Are you there, kiddy? It's dick calling Are you in your tree? I'--look out!”
[Illustration: dick STARTED VIOLENTLY]
He ca and looked in It was Grizzel sure enough, in her little dressing-gown, her face blotched with tears and her curls crushed and tumbled dick put an arht”