Freedom's Land (33 page)

Pete came hurrying across the rough land, the other men from his work team following him. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Janie’s missing. We need to start searching for her before it gets dark.’

Pete nodded and the men turned to make their way towards the Boyds’ farm. It was at times like this they all wished they had better forms of transport than Shanks’s pony. It took so long to get anywhere on foot.

There was no sign of Andrew on the track. He must have moved quickly to get so far ahead of them.

When her husband burst into the humpy, Norah walked straight into his arms. ‘Oh, Andrew, love, she’s still missing. I’m that worried!’

‘We’ll find her, I promise. The others are following but I ran on ahead. Have you any idea where she went?’

‘Yes. Come and see.’ Explaining as they walked she took him to the puddle. Already the signs of Janie’s fall had almost been wiped out by the heavy rain. ‘Thank goodness Jack saw her footprints here before it was too late.’

‘I’ll get my axe. We need to mark the way as we go. No use all of us getting lost.’

‘I’m coming with you.’

‘You should stay here.’

‘I’ll go mad if I have to sit waiting. Irene will stay with the boys and be here if anyone –
when
someone finds her.’

By the time the other men arrived, Andrew and Norah were ready to leave. Gil sent them off with Pete, while he went in a slightly different direction with Ted.

The men pushed through the forest, stopping every few minutes to cooee and listen carefully. But there was no sound of the child’s voice, only the monotonous dripping of the rain from the trees and the crackling and rustling of twigs underfoot as they tramped along.

Norah kept up with the two men, and managed the loudest cooee of all, her voice rising at the end more shrilly than theirs. Apart from that, she said nothing, holding her fears tightly inside herself. Whenever they stopped she listened as hard as she could, but heard nothing except the calls of the other group.

She looked up at the sky and then at Andrew. ‘It’s getting dark.’

‘We’ll get lanterns, keep on searching.’

‘It’ll be too dangerous. You won’t be able to see your own marks on the trees.’

Back at the house, Irene and the two boys were sitting wrapped in blankets. Jack, who’d been thinking hard, said suddenly, ‘What if she’s gone round in circles? People do in the bush, Pete says.’

‘They’ll still find her eventually.’

‘They don’t always find people who’re lost.’

He sat frowning and a few minutes later said, ‘I think we should go outside and cooee again in case she’s closer to us than to them.’

‘Your father said to stay in the house.’

‘It’s worth a try, don’t you think? I’ll only be a few steps away. There’s no danger in that.’ He looked at her pleadingly. ‘I can’t just sit here. She’s smaller than Ned, even if she is a year older than him, and she doesn’t know the bush at all because she always stays near the house.
Please.
Just let me go outside and try.’

‘You won’t go out of sight of the house?’

‘No. I promise.’

He went outside and sent shrill calls echoing through the nearby bush, then stood listening. But there was no answer.

Glancing guiltily back at the house door, he walked towards the edge of the bush, taking care not to make any noise that might bring Irene out. The wind was blowing strongly, sending rain slicing into his face. Janie wouldn’t walk into that wind, he decided, but away from it. He walked away from the wind and when he was further along the edge of the uncleared land, he sent another call through the forest, then another three for good luck.

Standing motionless, he strained to hear the slightest sound, giving her plenty of time to reply.

Was that something? He listened again, but wasn’t sure.

Casting a quick guilty glance over his shoulder, he moved in the direction of the sound, breaking off branches as he went so that he’d be able to find his way back. When he’d gone fifty paces into the bush he stopped and called again.

This time he was quite sure he’d heard something. He looked up at the sky. It was getting dark fast. No long twilights here in Australia, as there had been in England. Did he have time to find her? He hoped so. He couldn’t, just couldn’t go back and leave a little girl alone in the forest. She must be terrified, poor thing.

Taking care to continue breaking off branches, leaving them hanging by shreds of bark as signposts to the men who would surely follow him, he walked on, stopping to call every twenty paces and hearing a reply every time, definitely a reply and getting louder.

Who else could it be but Janie?

Irene went to build up the fire in the lean-to, filled the kettle and put it on to boil. ‘I’d better go and get another bucket of water,’ she told Ned. ‘Don’t go away.’

When she went outside, she looked round for Jack, and realised suddenly that she hadn’t heard him cooeeing for a while. She couldn’t see any sign of him, either. Surely he hadn’t broken his promise?

She set the bucket down and walked all round the humpy, but there was no sign of him. From the forest, however, came a distant call. He
had
broken his promise and gone searching for his sister! She was more afraid than angry, terrified that he’d get lost as well.

Ned peered round the corner of the humpy. ‘Where’s our Jack?’

‘Gone into the bush.’ She grabbed the boy. ‘You’re not going after him. There are two children lost in the bush and you’re not making it three.’

‘Jack won’t be lost. We play trackers sometimes and he can always find his way back.’

‘I pray that’s so. Whatever happens, your father’s going to be very angry with him when he finds out what he’s done.’

‘Oh, Jack’ll be all right.’ Ned looked up at the sky. ‘It’s getting dark, so it’d be no use going after him. He’ll be lost all night. What an adventure!’

That idea seemed to fill him with such relish she kept a firm hold of his jacket as they went back into the humpy to wait.

The minutes seemed to tick past very slowly. She felt she had failed Norah and Andrew.

What if they got so cold they came down with pneumonia? She shivered at the thought.

After a while, Janie decided it was stupid to sit doing nothing, getting colder and colder. She stood up and began jumping up and down to keep warm. Then she realised she’d not been making any noises for some time. If there was one thing that had been dinned into all the children, it was that if you were lost, you had to shout every few minutes.

She cupped her hands round her mouth and tried to do that. But her voice broke down into sobs. With great difficulty she made herself stop crying and call again. This time she managed to make a noise.

But it still wasn’t loud enough. She could do far better than that. She took deep breaths and cooeed several times, then waited and listened. She knew you didn’t keep on making noises, so decided to do three calls then count to a hundred, then do three more.

She didn’t try to walk on through the forest, though, because she didn’t know which way to walk.

The next time she called, she looked up at the sky and saw in dismay that it was getting much darker. That wasn’t the grey of rain clouds, it was darkness coming on fast. What if she was lost here all night? What would she do then? It was so cold.

She almost missed the distant call, and had started counting again when it suddenly dawned on her that she’d heard a faint answering sound. Surely she had? She listened again.

Nothing.

She must have been mistaken.

Tears filled her eyes and she sagged back against the tree trunk, jerking upright as another call rang out again. She hadn’t been mistaken. Someone was looking for her.

Eagerly she called back, waiting . . . waiting . . . and yes, there it was again.

As the caller came gradually closer, tears of relief ran down her cheeks, mingling with the rain. Then she heard the noise of someone coming towards her and called out, ‘I’m here. I’m here.’

When Jack walked into the clearing where she was standing, she looked behind him, expecting to see his father or the foreman. But there was only Jack.

She began to sob. She wanted a grown-up to pick her up and hold her tight. She wanted her mother.

Jack was so glad to see her safe and sound he stopped dead and let out a groan of relief. Then he moved towards her. She seemed very little with her clothes sticking to her body and her hair flattened by rain. She was crying so hard, he put his arms round her and gave her a hug.

‘It’s all right. Shh now, it’s all right. I’ve found you and we’ll be able to find our way back.’

She put her arms round him. ‘Oh, Jack, I was so frightened! I didn’t mean to get lost. I was chasing Fluffy. I’m ever so sorry.’

‘Shh. It’s all right. I’m here now.’

He couldn’t get her to stop crying for some time.

When she did, she looked round anxiously, her face a white blur in the darkness. ‘It’s nearly night.’

‘I know. We have to stay here. We can’t find our way back in the dark because I won’t be able to see where I’ve broken off branches. But I’ll easily find my way in the morning, I promise you.’

She shivered and huddled against him.

‘We shouldn’t even try to move,’ he decided after thinking it over.

‘But it’s getting colder and colder, and I don’t have a coat. What shall we do?’

‘We’ll cuddle up to one another to keep warm and if you turn your back to me, I’ll wrap my overcoat round you. It’s a good thing my aunt bought this one too big for me.’ He moved a strand of wet hair from her eyes and pulled her close again. ‘I’ll look after you. I’m your big brother. That’s what big brothers do.’

‘You didn’t want a sister.’

‘Well, you didn’t want a brother. But we’ve got one another now, so we should make the best of it.’

Silence, then, ‘All right.’ A few seconds later she added in a rush, ‘And thank you for coming after me. I’m not frightened now I’ve got you. Well, not very.’

He looked round and seeing a leafy bush in the last of the light, said, ‘Let’s see if we can make a little shelter.’ He began to pull the branches off the bush and pile some on the ground. ‘They’ll be lumpy, but they’ll be warmer to sit on than the wet soil and mud.’

She started to help him and got a bit warmer with the activity. After they’d made a pile to sit on, they stacked some branches round the front of the hollow in the tree trunk, which gave a little protection from the cold wind.

Soon it was dark. They sat down together, huddling close. A short time later he felt her head droop against his chest and heard a soft, steady sound of breathing. She was asleep.

He felt suddenly very protective, not because it was his duty but because she was his sister now, and she felt soft and helpless as she lay cuddled in his arms, like a kitten he’d once had.

As he shifted slightly to get more comfortable, he decided he’d better stay awake. His dad and the other men might come hunting for them with lanterns. If they did, he needed to be awake to call out if he saw any lights coming through the trees.

He hoped his dad would come and find them soon, because it was bitterly cold.

21

W
hen the searchers returned to the Boyds’ humpy, Irene burst into tears at the sight of them.

‘I’m sorry. I told Jack to stay near the humpy. He
promised
me he would.’

It was a minute or two before they could calm her down and find out what was wrong.

Andrew looked at Pete. ‘Would it be too risky to go looking for him?’

‘Well . . . I’ve been talking to the kids about what to do if they get lost in the bush. Jack was the smartest of them all and I reckon he’ll have done the right thing.’ Pete looked across at Irene. ‘Do you know at which spot he went into the bush?’

She took a minute to consider this. ‘Not exactly, but it’d be behind the house not in front and towards the right as you look at the bush.’

‘That’s a start.’ Gil picked up the lantern. ‘Get that other lantern, Andrew. Pete, you’ll come, won’t you?’

‘I will if he’s left signs; if he hasn’t, we’ll have to wait till first light.’

Norah stood up. ‘I want to come too.’

Gil shook his head. ‘Not this time. Trousers are easier when going through the bush, won’t slow us down as much.’ He looked at her skirt, which had several new tears in it from their recent foray.

When they went round to the rear of the house, Pete held up one hand. ‘Stay back.’ He walked slowly along the rough ground and stopped to finger a low-hanging branch. ‘Ha!’

‘Have you found something?’

‘Yes. Look.’

The others moved forward and saw a broken branch hanging from a strip of bark at just below a man’s eye height.

‘Told them to leave signs if they ever got lost,’ Pete said in satisfaction. ‘Clever lad, that one. Let me go first and you two stay behind till I tell you to move forward. We don’t want to destroy the clues.’ He moved on, casting around and eventually calling to his companions.

By the time they’d gone about a hundred yards into the bush, the lights of the house had disappeared, but the hurricane lanterns shed pools of brightness in the rustling darkness around the two men.

Pete stopped. ‘Time to call out, I reckon. Hold my lantern. And keep quiet afterwards.’

As the sounds he made echoed through the forest, they waited. Nothing. He raised his hands to his mouth and sent the call ringing out again. Waited again. With a sigh of disappointment, he reached for the lantern and they moved on, still finding broken branches. ‘We’re definitely on the right track.’

After the next call, he stiffened. ‘Did you hear that?’

Andrew shook his head. ‘My hearing isn’t as good as yours. Comes of toiling in a noisy workshop.’

‘I heard something. Yes, there it goes again.’ Pete answered it, then moved on again.