Brumby Plains by Joanne Van Os Read Free Book Online Page A

them.
    Within a minute all four were standing in the cave, shining the torch around excitedly. The walls were covered in paintings – fish, kangaroos, crocodiles, all executed in the traditional X-ray style of western Arnhem Land artists.
    â€˜Wow, look at this place! This must be really old!’ exclaimed Darcy.
    They examined the paintings in the torchlight. The red and white ochres glowed in contrast to the charcoal black, never having been faded by sun or rain. The figures of men and women dancing seemed to move in the wavering light, and sent a shiver of excitement or apprehension down Sam’s spine – he wasn’t sure which.
    â€˜Why would anyone paint inside a cave where you couldn’t see it? They didn’t have torches then,’ wondered George.
    â€˜I suppose they lit a fire, or held up burning branches or something. A teacher at school said that the rock paintings weren’t only done for people to look at. They had other purposes, so it didn’t matter if not everyone could see them,’ said Tess. ‘This is amazing …’
    â€˜There’s burnt sticks and charcoal on the floor just here – look.’ Sam pointed the torch at their feet, and they could see the remains of long dead campfires scattered about. The cavern was quite large, big enough to park a couple of cars in, Darcy reckoned, and at its highest the roof was about five metres above them. It sloped down gradually to the front of the cave, but dropped quite sharply at the back.
    â€˜I wonder how far it goes in,’ said George. ‘Let’s have a look.’ He took the torch from Sam and moved further into the gloom. The paintings on the wall were less prolific here and less carefully made. They looked as if they had been done in a hurry. They showed quite different things too. There were lots of depictions of people lying down.
    â€˜Maybe this is a story about a plague, you know, like typhoid or cholera or something, and a lot ofpeople got sick and died around here,’ whispered Tess.
    â€˜George, shine the torch over to your right. There’s something on the floor, against the wall, looks like – hey, look out!’ The torchlight flickered wildly off the walls and suddenly went out with a crack as the torch hit the floor. A black, flapping maelstrom filled the cave and the four of them dropped to their knees and huddled as a colony of bats winged past them and rocketed out of the cave mouth, leaving the air heavy with their warm, pungent smell.
    â€˜Oh my God! I thought we were dead!’ breathed Darcy as the quiet returned. There were only the scurrying sounds of a few babies left behind, and the pounding of everyone’s hearts.
    â€˜Millions of bats! Hey, man, the Bat Cave!’ George was full of good humour now he knew his life wasn’t in mortal danger. He hadn’t been so sure when he’d dropped the torch in fright.
    â€˜Yeah, well, steady on, Batman, we don’t have a torch now. That was the only one I could find last night and now it’s busted, so we’ll have to go.’ Sam was moving back towards the cave entrance, wherethe light was stronger. Tess and the others followed, and they climbed back up the tree root into the sunlight at the surface.
    They stood looking down at the hole. It was a fissure in the sandstone which the banyan had helped to break open further, along with weathering and erosion, to form a ragged-edged hole just wide enough for a slim body to fit through. Bushes and debris from the tree had obscured it from sight until George had plummeted through it. Sam pulled the bushes back across it to hide it again.
    â€˜Wow! Those paintings are probably really old and we’ll be famous for finding them!’ Darcy could see his name in lights already.
    â€˜No way,’ said Sam. ‘We’re not telling anyone about this place – not yet anyway. We’re not supposed to be here, remember? Let’s go