The Runaway Settlers by Elsie Locke Read Free Book Online Page A

her mother’s arms. Last of all came a large collie dog.
    ‘I doubt if you’ll find the place in much condition for living, Mrs Phipps,’ Mr Dyer had said, ‘for it’s been long neglected.’
    ‘I’ll make a home of it, so long as it’s mine to try,’ she answered smiling, and thinking of the barracks at Cashmere which were beyond anything she could do.
    Now they passed beneath some more trees and into a clearing—and there in the moonlight stood the white walls, bare and lonely. ‘Hurrah!’ cried Jack, running forward, but Mr Dyer called him back.
    ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘There’s sure to be rats, and the rats could be fierce. If you’re wise, you’ll let Ranger go first.’
    ‘Rats!’ echoed Archie with a shudder—they were the only animals he had ever hated.
    The door opened with a heavy scraping. The collie did not hesitate for a moment. With short barks and loud snufflings he worked rapidly about the shadowy walls, while the family propped one another up, shivering. At last he trotted quietly out. The rats had escaped through a dozen holes, but they had been scared out of their wits.
    Everyone crowded inside and the lantern-light played on the fireplace, the boxes scattered around, the two rough bunks, the litter on the floor. The window was only a square hole covered with glazed calico. The place stank of musty wood, rotting potatoes and the recently departed rats. The boys shrank back to the cool, sweet air in the doorway—but Mrs Phipps only handed the sleeping Emma to Mr Dyer and seized the manuka broom which leaned against the mantelpiece.
    ‘All we need for tonight is a patch of clean ground,’ she said. ‘We won’t need rocking to put us to sleep, and tomorrow we can put our backs into it. You won’t know it for the same place.’
    In one long line, fully dressed, with blankets above and below and folded under their heads, the Phipps family lay down. Comfortingly, the lantern was left on the mantelpiece. ‘I can find my way back blindfold,’ said Mr Dyer, cheerfully wishing them good night. Emma and Jim slept in the middle of the line. Because of the rats, Mrs Phipps kept a stout stick beside her, alongside the wall; and Jack with his sheath-knife handy was next to the door. But even this fear could not keep them awake for five minutes; and fortunately the collie had done his work well.
    Not rats, but a bar of sunlight woke Jack in the morning. He edged away from the sleeping Archie and stepped outside.Every piece of him ached with stiffness and his shoulder reminded him of its old bruises. He moved out into the centre of the clearing and looked around at its encircling trees, at the Sugarloaf towering above, and at Mount Bradley with its squared-off crags, like the Egyptian Sphinx he had seen in a book; and a joyful thought came surging up inside him.
    Father will never find us here!
    Mr Dyer had left a water-bottle beside the doorway. Jack took a drink, stretched himself fully awake, and began to explore.
    The clearing was almost square, sloping gently to the beginning of the fern, where it was steep. On two sides there was a belt of small trees, and on the verge of what must be the stream that flowed from the Sugarloaf was a mass of flax, tutu and tall toetoe grass with swaying golden plumes.
    Jack mounted the slope to get a view of the harbour. It gleamed like glass, except where it was rippled by a dinghy with a single oarsman rocking to and fro. By the time it had passed out of sight, Jack had formed his great ambition.
    A boat! I must have a boat!
    At that moment an angry grunting and snorting burst from the nearby fern. Jack swung round. Glowering at him, with short tusks showing under its quivering snout, was a great hairy iron-grey pig. Jack’s hand went to his hip, and found nothing; his sheath-knife was still lying on the floor of the cottage. He glared back at the boar—and the boar grunted again and disappeared.
    Jack raced back down the slope. In the doorway stood Emma