From the windward side of the verandah he and Slaughter leaped to the ground. The smoke was rolling towards them in great opaque billows and the air scorched their faces, for through the dense ma.s.s they saw the lurid gleam of the flames leaping and springing like living things thrown out in a skirmishing line across the gra.s.s-covered stretch of country. They dashed forward towards it, their eyes half blinded, their lungs choking, and their skin blistering.
"Light it there," Slaughter gasped; and Tony paused to get his match-box.
He flung a lighted match on the gra.s.s, and in a moment, with a roar and a glare that sent him reeling to the ground, the flames sprang up, dancing, skipping, rushing hither and thither as they licked up the fuel of the gra.s.s. In a moment they had pa.s.sed from him, travelling in a widening circle, the curve to windward moving slowly, the curve to leeward looping as it ran over the ground. Through the line of flame and smoke he saw the station loom. A moment later it stood clear on the blackened earth, and on either side of it the broken line of flame sped on. Scrambling to his feet, he ran over the still smoking ashes towards the house, with one thought in his mind, one hope in his heart--that the woodwork had not caught.
He reached the verandah, which was reeking with the smell of scorched wood, and rushed round to the other side. The line of flame was already far beyond it, pa.s.sing over the open gra.s.s country at the back with towering ma.s.ses of dead white smoke rolling along overhead. On the verandah the blind woman sat, huddled up against the wall, and beside her Ailleen was standing.
She turned as she heard him, and took a step towards him with outstretched hands.
"Thank G.o.d you came," she said, as he caught her in his arms and held her.
"Darling, darling!" he whispered. "Ailleen, you are mine now."
"I always was," she answered, as she clung to him. "Oh, why have you been so long in coming? I thought you had forgotten."
"You sent me away the day I came, and they said----"
"Tony!"
She raised her head as she spoke, and looked at him with eyes full of deep reproach.
"I hardly cared for anything then," he said.
"Tony, I never meant that," she answered. "You rode off, and I thought----I"m so sorry, Tony."
The voice of the blind woman interrupted them.
"Where is he? Where is he? Why doesn"t he come?" she said plaintively.
"Oh, Tony, I forgot," Ailleen exclaimed, as she loosened her arms. "Let me go to her."
"And where"s Slaughter?" Tony cried, coming back from the clouds of happiness to the reality of their situation to discover that he only had returned to the station.
He hurried round to the other side of the house. The ground was black, with small wisps of smoke rising here and there for a considerable distance away, while a hundred yards off he saw an undefined heap lying.
The sight of it made him shudder, and he rushed over to it, fearing what he dared not think.
It was Slaughter, senseless, with blackened face and singed hair, lying where he fell when the flames swept up around him and the smoke rolled over him, shutting him off from escape and filling his lungs till he was overcome.
Tony seized him by the shoulders, and, half carrying, half dragging him, succeeded in getting him to the house. Ailleen, seeing him coming, met him with some water, and between them they bathed his head and hands until there was some sign of returning vitality. But consciousness was longer in reviving, and Slaughter still lay insensible when a rescue party from the men who were fighting the fires pressed through the lines and reached Barellan.
For many days after Slaughter lay ill, almost at death"s door, to the sorrow and anxiety of Birralong; for the nightly gatherings at Marmot"s temporary store had much food for reflection in the knowledge which came to them after the days of the great bush fire.
The charred ruins of the Three-mile, and the shallow waterhole beside the hut, revealed enough to put to shame the scandal that had been laid on Slaughter"s shoulders, and for that alone Birralong, collectively, acknowledged the blame of a grievous fault. But there was more than mere acknowledgment of error needed to balance accounts. The fire that Tony lit in the gra.s.s at Barellan would have been of no value in saving the station had not another been lit farther away and nearer the onward rushing line of raging fury. The heat and smoke where Tony stopped nearly overpowered him, but Slaughter had dashed almost up to the oncoming line before _he_ fired the gra.s.s; and the men of Birralong, who knew what bush fires mean, had no words to express what they thought of Slaughter"s act.
"Cold-blood Slaughter, eh?" Cullen said, when he heard it; and then he stood up and took off his hat, and remained standing, with bowed head, till the others caught his meaning and followed his example; and so, while Slaughter lay nearly dying at Barellan, the men of Birralong nightly greeted the mention of his name.
But that was not all the news which came to the gossips of the town. The story that Tony had heard from the dying Barber, and which he had re-told at the Flat, was known to every one; Nuggan, anxious to cover his retreat from an awkward position, being a.s.siduous in spreading it.
Later, when rumour had it that the Lady of Barellan had claimed that Tony and not d.i.c.kson must be her son, Birralong was prepared to support her, more especially when it was known that Ailleen had never wavered in her allegiance to the champion of the district. But there was no proof of her right to make the claim till Slaughter had recovered, and even then, in a legal sense, there was not much of a case to go on. Only was there the statement that the dead McMillan lived again in the features and figure of Tony; but it satisfied Birralong, and no one came forward to dispute it. Even if the question had been raised no interest would have been served, for Mrs. d.i.c.kson willed that if Barellan could not be his, it should be Ailleen"s, and with Peters"s Reef a "boomer," as Palmer Billy averred, their future was a.s.sured when Tony and Ailleen were wed.
Birralong took it soberly till the last event occurred. Then festivity reigned supreme, and the resources of the Rest were strained to meet the calls, made by a thirsty district, to do honour to the occasion. And always was there another cheer and another excuse for a toast when the raucous voice of Palmer Billy proclaimed the fact--which it did till the coming of dawn--that they were "both to be ranked with the real McKay, and both were colonial born."
THE END
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
THE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT.
By G. FIRTH SCOTT.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d._
PRESS OPINIONS.
"Mr. Firth Scott"s tale of the then little-known land of Australia--for it is told of a time prior to the discovery of gold--is strikingly original and ingenious, animated, interesting, and puzzling.... "The Track of Midnight" deserves grateful recognition by lovers of tales well told; in it there is life, action, character, and admirable colour. If this is, as we think it is, Mr. Firth Scott"s first novel, he has made an uncommonly good beginning."--_The World._
""The Track of Midnight" is a very exciting story, for it is full of hair-breadth "scapes and never for a moment halts. It holds the attention from first to last, being a tale of love as well as of adventure."--_The Globe._
"The secret of "Midnight"s" ident.i.ty is capitally kept, and comes as a surprise to the reader."--_Daily Graphic._
"Readers in quest of an exciting and cleverly-constructed story should make a note of Mr. Scott"s tale of Australian adventure."--_Bookseller._
"The story is well put together, and is faithful in every detail to the traditions which have come down to the present period, and which are sanctioned by the narratives of eye-witnesses. The interest excited in the mind of the reader in the development of the story is entrancing, while with a masterly skill he reserves his greatest surprise for the last page of the book. Scenes of adventure, blood-curdling affrays, and all the "moving incidents of flood and field," fill the pages with peculiar interest, and carry the reader to the end with a sigh that the end is come.... As a story of the early colonial days it is bound to almost surfeit the mind of the most exacting lover of adventure."
--_Queensland Mercantile Gazette._
The Romance of Australian Exploring.
BY G. FIRTH SCOTT.
_With Maps and Ill.u.s.trations. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s._
"Here we have described, in a very readable manner, some of the heroic deeds by which the mysteries of the "silent sombre land" were solved, and the boundless wealth of the island-continent made available to the world.... Mr. Scott, in a preface, says that his object has been to present the records of the most important expeditions "with the least amount of dry detail and the largest possible amount of interest and romance." He has done well."--_Adelaide Observer._
""The Romance of Australian Exploring" can be thoroughly recommended. It is neither too long nor too hasty. It represents the best of each journey in the most attractive form. Mr. Scott is to be heartily congratulated on his work."--_The Queenslander._
"This handy book of exploration in Australia ... picks out the most noted expeditions of Australian history, and presents them in a form in which they should find most acceptance from the work-a-day world. The book, which is well ill.u.s.trated, is a useful contribution to the general stock of information concerning the work of colonisation in Australia."--_Sydney Daily Telegraph._
"Mr. Firth Scott has produced a really romantic and fascinating volume."--_Literature._
"It is a book to stir the blood; and to awake many thoughts."--_Critic._