First in the Field Part 67

"I don't see anything to laugh at," said Nic.

"I suppose not, you young enthusiast."

"That I'm not," cried the boy. "It's you who take too miserable a view of things."

"With cause, boy."

"Well, yes, there is plenty of cause," said Nic: "but you really could live down there safely for years without being found out--if you could get down."

"I can get down, and I have been down there since I broke away. I have made myself a bark gunyah, and for the present that is my home, Nic."

"Capital," cried the boy eagerly. "Take me and show me."

The convict shook his head.

"No," he said; "you and I must never meet."

"Why?" said Nic, in rather an ill-used tone.

"Because you would be disgracing yourself by a.s.sociating with a man of my character, and you would be breaking laws made for the protection of the settlers who employ convict servants."

"You are not a man of bad character," said Nic quietly; "and as to law-- well, I suppose it would be breaking that; but then the law doesn't know any better. It does not know you like I do."

"There, boy, we will not argue the question. I'm black enough as it is, but I want to do you good, Nic, not harm. Come," he continued, rising, "time is going on, and you are some distance from home. Where is your horse?"

"Miles away."

"Then you must be moving."

"There's no hurry," said Nic.

"Yes, there is. You have a dangerous ledge to go along."

"I can get along better when I am more rested," said the boy.

The convict smiled.

"Then let me put it in a more selfish way," he said. "It is close on sundown, and I have a long way to go to my home. A more dangerous way than yours, and I could not attempt it after it begins to grow dusk."

"I'm ready," said Nip, springing up; "but tell me this: when will you meet me again?"

"Perhaps never," said the convict.

"Then I shall come hunting for you every day till I find the way down into the gorge."

"And bring the government people on my track?"

"No, I won't do that," said Nic; "but I will find you out, and I can now that I know where you are."

"I doubt it, boy. The gorge is enormous, and I am the only man who knows the way down."

"Pooh! The blacks would know. Bungarolo would show me now he knows I have seen you."

"The blacks do not know, Nic. I should not know if I had not discovered it two years ago by accident when trying to save the life of a sheep which had fallen. There, be content. You have seen me. Some day we may meet again. Now then, we must lose no more time."

"Very well," said Nic; "only mind this: I will not do anything to risk having you discovered; but I will come to you."

"I know you will not do anything to harm me, my lad; but you are deceiving yourself, my boy. You will not come to me. Now, are you ready?"

"Yes. Where's this dangerous shelf?"

"I will take you along it. Where is your handkerchief?"

"It was too hot to have it round my neck," said Nic, smiling, as he took it from where it was tied about his waist.

"I am going to bind it round your eyes," said the convict.

"What! For fear that I should find the way down into the gorge?"

"No; because your head may turn giddy when you see the depth below you.

I want you to trust me, Nic, to lead you safely along the shelf. Can you do this?"

Nic was silent for a few moments.

"I feel as if I want to trust you," he said at last; "but I don't feel as if I can--no, no, I don't mean that. I mean that I want to trust you, but I can't trust myself. No, that isn't it exactly. I suppose I'm afraid. Why can't I walk close behind you?"

"Because I doubt your doing it without practice. I expect that you would go along half-way and then lose your nerve, and I don't think I could lift and carry you then. Won't you trust me, Nic?"

The boy looked sharply into his eyes for a moment, and then leaned forward for his eyes to be bound, thinking the while of the log bridge over the fern gully and his feelings there.

"There," said the convict, as he secured the knot firmly. "Now listen: I shall take hold of your hand to hold it tightly, and I want you to try and make yourself part of me for the next ten minutes, obeying every touch, and taking step for step with me. Don't pause, don't hesitate; only keep on feeling that I am guiding you safely through the darkness.

There is no risk if you do this."

"I'm ready," said Nic; "only begin quickly, please, and let's get it done."

"Then come along."

Nic felt his hand seized in a strong, firm grip, and followed as he was led, hesitating once, and showing a disposition to hang back, but it was only for a moment. The next he was walking slowly and steadily behind the convict, who led him between two or three bushes, and then along a narrow shelf which pa.s.sed round the end of the rock slip; and as soon as it was cleared the b.u.t.tress at that end grew still more narrow, so that the boy felt his right arm brus.h.i.+ng against the perpendicular rock wall, while his left hung free.

He could not see, but he knew that his left fingers must be pointing down into the tremendous gulf; and in imagination he saw with wonderful accuracy through the golden transparent air the various plants which grew from the interstices of the t.i.tanic wall, the bushes and shrubs, the pendent vines and clinging creepers, the shelves and faults in the strata here and there deeper down, and then lower and lower still the gaps and hollows whence stalwart trees had risen from seeds dropped or hidden by some bird--trees which had grown out almost horizontally, and then curved up into their proper vertical position, to rise up and up as the years rolled on, though now they looked mere shrubs a handbreadth high.

And as the boy walked on he saw lower and lower the forest monarchs dwarfed to shrubs, and lower still patches of timber that were indistinct and looking hardly more than gra.s.s, while here and there the light of the setting sun gleamed ruddily from the water of the chain of lakes.

It was but the picture raised by memory from where it was printed upon Nic's mind, but it was very accurate, and almost exactly what he would have seen had his eyes been free during that long, long walk, as it seemed--a walk of a few brief minutes though, and then his hand was dropped.

"Don't do that till you've unbound my eyes," said Nic sharply.

"Why not, boy? we are in safety now."