Jim ducked suddenly, and a chip hurled by Norah flew over his head and splashed into the water.
"Get out--you"ll frighten the fish!" he said, grinning. "My yarn, old girl."
"Might have had the sense to keep me out of it," said Norah impolitely.
"You be jiggered," said Jim affectionately. "Anyhow, boys, you should have seen Dad"s face when Norah trotted over from the stable. He was just girthing up old Bosun, and I was wrestling with Sirdar, who didn"t want his crupper on.
""My dear child," Dad said, "get off that pony and go back to bed. You can"t think I could allow you to come out?"
"Poor old Norah"s face fell about a foot. She begged and argued, but she might as well have spared herself the trouble. At last Dad said she could ride out in the first two paddocks, but no nearer the fire, she had to be content with that. I think she was pretty near mopping her eyes."
"Wasn"t," said Norah indistinctly.
"Well, we went off. All of us had fire-beaters. You know we always have them ready; and Field was driving the water-cart--it always stands ready filled for use. We just galloped like mad. Dad didn"t wait for any gates--Bosun can jump anything--and he just went straight across country. Luckily, there was no stock in the paddocks near the house, except that in one small paddock were about twenty valuable prize sheep.
However, the fire was so far off that we reckoned they were safe, and so we turned our attention to the fire.
"We left old Norah in the second paddock, looking as miserable as a bandicoot. Dad made her promise not to meddle with the fire. "Promise me you won"t try any putting out on your own account," he said; and Norah promised very reluctantly. I was jolly sorry you were out of it, you know, old kid," said Jim reflectively; and Norah gave him a little smile.
"We made great time across the paddocks," Jim continued. "Dad was ever so far ahead, of course, but our contingent, that had to go round by the gates, didn"t do so badly. Billy was on Mick, and he and I had a go for the lead across the last paddock."
"Who won?" asked Harry.
"Me," said Jim ungrammatically. "When we got into the smoke we had to go round a bit, or we"d have gone straight into the fire. We hung up the horses in a corner that had been burnt round, and was safe from more fire, and off we went. There were ever so many men fighting it; all Morrison"s fellows, and a lot from other places as well. The fire had started right at our boundary, and had come across a two-hundred acre paddock like a shot. Then a little creek checked it a bit, and let the fighters have a show.
"There were big trees blazing everywhere, and stumps and logs, and every few minutes the fire would get going again in some ferns or long gra.s.s, and go like mischief, and half a dozen men after it, to stop it. It had got across the creek, and there was a line of men on the bank keeping it back. Some others were chopping down the big, blazing, dead trees, that were simply showering sparks all round. The wind was pretty strong, and took burning leaves and sticks ever so far and started the fire in different places. Three fellows on ponies were doing nothing but watch for these flying firebrands, galloping after them and putting them out as they fell."
Jim paused.
"Say you put your hook in the water, Wally, old chap," he suggested.
Wally looked and blushed. In the excitement of the moment he had unconsciously pulled up his line until the bait dangled helplessly in the air, a foot above the water. The party on the log laughed at the expense of Wally, and Jim proceeded.
"Father and four other men came across the creek and sang out to us--
""We"re going back a bit to burn a break!" they said. "Come along."
"We all went back about a hundred yards from the creek and lit the gra.s.s, spreading out in a long line across the paddock. Then every one kept his own little fire from going in the wrong direction, and kept it burning back towards the creek, of course preventing any logs or trees from getting alight. It was pretty tough work, the smoke was so bad, but at last it was done, and a big, burnt streak put across the paddock.
Except for flying bits of lighted stuff there wasn"t much risk of the fire getting away from us when once we had got that break to help us.
You see, a gra.s.s fire isn"t like a real bush fire. It"s a far more manageable beast. It"s when you get fire in thick scrub that you can just make up your mind to stand aside and let her rip!"
Jim pulled up his book and examined his bait carefully.
"Fish seem off us," he said.
"That all the yarn?" Harry asked.
"No, there"s more, if you"re not sick of it."
"Well, fire away," Wally said impatiently.
Jim let his sinker go down gently until it settled in comfort in the soft mud at the bottom.
"This is where I come to Norah," he said.
That young lady turned a lively red.
"If you"re going to tell all that bosh about me, I"m off," she said, disgustedly. "Good-bye. You can call me when you"ve finished."
"Where are you off to, Norah?" inquired Harry.
"Somewhere to fish--I"m tired of you old gossips--" Norah elevated a naturally tilted nose as she wound up her tackle and rose to her feet.
She made her way along the log past the three boys until she reached the land, and, scrambling up the bank, vanished in the scrub. Presently they saw her reappear at a point a little lower down, where she ensconced herself in the roots of a tree that was sticking out of the bank, and looked extremely unsafe. She flung her line in below her perch.
"Hope she"s all right," Harry said uneasily.
"You bet. Norah knows what she"s about," Jim said calmly. "She can swim like a fish anyhow!"
"Well, go on with your yarn," urged Wally.
"Well--I told you how we stopped the fire at the little creek, didn"t I?
We thought it was pretty safe after we had burnt such a good break, and the men with axes had chopped down nearly all the big trees that were alight, so that they couldn"t spread the fire. We reckoned we could sit down and mop our grimy brows and think what fine, brave, bold heroes we were! Which we did.
"There was one big tree the men couldn"t get down. It was right on a bit of a hill, near the bank of the creek--a big brute of a tree, hollow for about twelve feet, and I don"t know how high, but I"ll bet it was over a hundred and fifty feet. It got alight from top to bottom, and, my word, didn"t it blaze!
"The men tried to chop it down, but it was too hot a job even for a salamander. We could only watch it, and it took a lot of watching, because it was showering sparks and bits of wood, and blazing limbs and twigs in every direction. Lots of times they blew into the dead gra.s.s beyond our break, and it meant galloping to put them out.
"The wind had been pretty high all the time, and it got up suddenly to a regular gale. It caught this old tree and fairly whisked its burning limbs off. They flew ever so far. We thought we had them all out, when suddenly Dad gave a yell.
"There was a little, deep gully running at right angles to the creek, and right through the paddocks up to the house. In winter it was a creek, but now it was dry as a bone, and rank with dead gra.s.s at the bottom. As we looked we saw smoke rise from this gully, far away, in the home paddock.
""My Shropshires!" said Dad, and he made a run for Bosun.
"How we did tear! I never thought old Dad could run so hard! It seemed miles to the corner where the horses were, and ages before we got on them and were racing for the home paddock. And all the time the smoke was creeping along that beastly gully, and we knew well enough that, tear as we might, we couldn"t be in time.
"You see, the valuable sheep were in a paddock, where this gully ended.
It wasn"t very near the house, and no one might see the fire before every sheep was roasted. We had only just got them. Dad had imported some from England and some from Tasmania, and I don"t know how much they hadn"t cost."
"Weren"t you afraid for the house as well?" asked Harry.
"No. There was a big ploughed paddock near the house; it would have taken a tremendous fire to get over that and the orchard and garden. We only worried about the Shropshires.
"I got the lead away, but Dad caught me up pretty soon. Between us and the sheep paddock there were only wire fences, which he wouldn"t take Bosun over, so he couldn"t race away from the rest of us this time.
"We might as well take it easy," he said, "for all the good we can do.
The sheep nearly live in that gully."
"All the same, we raced. The wind had gone down by now, so the fire couldn"t travel as fast as it had done in the open ground. There was a long slope leading down to the gully, and as we got to this we could see the whole of the little paddock, and there wasn"t a sheep in sight.
Every blessed one was in the gully, and the fire was three-parts of the way along it!