CHAPTER XVI.

THE LONG TRAIL.

It was a queer procession that moved away from Narrung homestead in the early morning. A great motor ambulance, with a bed for Dick that was a marvel of cushions and springs, went first, his mother and a nurse with him. Mr. Lester and the second nurse followed in another car that had come up from Perth; and, last of all, Mr. Warner, in his own motor, with Merle's little white face beside him. For Merle had got her wish--not because it was hers, but because of Dick's few words. "If Dick wants Merle, or my house, or every penny I have in the world, he has only got to say so," Mr. Warner had said. "If she's in the way, or whenever Dick is tired of her, you can consign her to her grandmother in Perth." He looked at Merle as if she were a bale of goods. If the words stung her she made no sign.

Both the cars were piled high with baggage. Where possible they would stay in towns on the way, but since Dick's fatigue might demand that they should stop at any moment, there were tents to be carried, food, cooking utensils--all that was necessary for his comfort. The driver of the ambulance was a skilled man, trained to steer his great car so gently as to avoid the slightest jolt, if the roads were reasonably good--and there were favourable reports of the condition of the tracks. The Westown doctor had arrived the night before on his motor cycle to see his patient start; he helped to carry him out, with the nurses, when it was time to go.

Dick was a little flushed with excitement, and his eyes very bright. He smiled at the people who thronged round to say good-bye to him, and his weak hand had a special pat for Bobby--Bobby, who wailed because he was going, and refused to be comforted. The doctor and nurses hurried the farewells; their patient must not have any more fatigue than was necessary. Indeed, the doctor heaved a sigh of relief when he was safely in the ambulance, and it moved slowly away down the paddock.

The two mothers clung together for a moment at the last.

"I would give up my own son if I could give yours back to you," Mrs. Warner murmured. Tears were running down her kind face.

"I will have him back," Mrs. Lester said steadily. "Some day you must come to see him--straight and well again." But Mrs. Warner had no words.

The day passed more easily than they had dared to hope. If the tracks were sandy, at least they were in good order; the ambulance passed over them gently, and the fresh air acted as a sedative to Dick, who slept calmly during the warmest hours of the morning. They pitched a camp early in the afternoon, afraid to make the first stage a long one. It was an ideal spot--a grassy clearing, ringed round with tall trees and low bushes, full of birds that had never learned to be afraid of humans. Dick begged to be taken out, and they lifted his stretcher into the shade, where he could lie watching the business of camping. Mr. Warner and Mr. Lester were old hands at the business; the tents went up, firewood was brought in, and the camp-fire lit, and their evening meal prepared, long before it was time to put Dick back to bed and make him comfortable for the night. He put off the moving as long as he could. "I've been in bed so jolly long--I'm sick of four walls," he pleaded. So they let him wait until their meal was over and dusk came down; and the nurses, fearing the chill of the evening air, became adamant, and carried him off.

Mrs. Lester woke when the first rays of the sun came into her tent. She slipped on a coat and hurried across to the ambulance, peeping in. Already the nurse was busying herself about nourishment, and Dick's eyes, clear and merry, peeped at her over the edge of his blankets.

"Isn't it jolly, mother! Did you sleep well?"

"Ever so well," she told him. "And you?"

"Oh, we've had a beautiful night!" the nurse said, cheerfully. "My patient snored serenely, while the 'possums and wombats and things kept me awake. This boy of yours thrives on the bush, Mrs. Lester!"

"But, of course; isn't he a bush baby?" She laughed. Not since his illness had there been such a ring of health in Dick's voice. Looking at his face, with its touch of colour, it seemed impossible that presently he would not leap up to join her in the old way, to ramble through the trees, exploring the new world. Her thoughts flew back to their last day near Perth, when he had gone climbing, swinging from bough to bough with all his lithe young body like a steel spring, supple and strong. Now--she choked back the sigh that came to her lips.

"Can he get up to breakfast, do you think, nurse?"

"Oh, I think so, as he's so good!"

"Well, rather!" Dick stated. "Wash me quick, nurse, dear, and take me out. I want to see trees and scrub, and bacon frying, and everything. Oh--cocoa? Well, all right!" He submitted to be fed, more or less meekly.

So the days passed, one like the other. They left the main roads as they came near civilisation, finding good camping places, since Dick showed that he had a dread of being taken to hotels. "I don't want to be carted in and out, with people staring at me," he pleaded. "And the bush is so lovely. You don't mind camping, mother?" She would have lain on the bare earth to keep the ring of happiness in his voice. They made each day's journey short, so that the vibration, however softened, should not affect him. It never tired him to be in the open, watching them move about the camp. His old keen interest awoke again. They made a point of consulting him about everything, so that he should feel himself an active part of each day's life, his father desiring his opinion about the set of a tent rope with earnestness equal to that of Mr. Warner when he carried a pan of bacon to his side to find out if it were properly cooked. The motor driver entered into the spirit of it, and discoursed to him learnedly on the finer parts of his car's anatomy; and no one thought of watching the billy, since it was Dick's job to attend to it, and to call out when the steam poured from the lid. Merle had a task all her own. From the moment they halted each day she sought through the bush tirelessly bringing to his bedside whatever treasures she could gather--flowers, deserted nests, curiously marked stones, gorgeous beetles; all that keen eyes could find. Dick grew to look for her collections with delighted interest. "My word, you are a brick, the way you find things!" he told her.

As she had begged Mrs. Lester, so her desire came to her--she was indeed "legs" to him. He could not shake off his innate distaste for asking older people to run about for him. Even with the nurses he would go without something he wanted rather than send one on an errand. Somehow, Merle was different. He began to look on her rather as a younger brother; to find it easy to employ one whose eagerness to be employed was evident in every look. He never omitted thanks, but she did not want them. Her gratitude was for being used--thanks did not matter.

With everyone else she was as silent as ever. Sometimes Mrs. Lester would manage to make her talk a little; but for the most part she rarely spoke, and when she was not watching Dick her eyes followed her father about like a hungry dog's. She knew that he no longer wanted her. In his way he was sorry for her; but his overmastering feeling was angry disgust and impatience that through one of his children so bitter a calamity had befallen his friends. He had said to his wife, "When I look at that boy, remembering what he was, and then think it is Merle's fault that he lies there, I feel as if I never wanted to see her again."

The journey might have been accomplished much more quickly than it was. There was no need to hurry, for there was no doubt that the open-air life was doing Dick good. He was as helpless as ever, but his appetite was keener; he slept better and he had fewer attacks of pain. They watched him hungrily, snatching at each hopeful sign. Supplies ran out, but it was easy for one of the cars to run ahead into a town and lay in a store of all that they needed. The weather held good, with calm, starry nights, that made sleeping in the open delightful. They were all better for the trip when at last they rolled into Perth late one afternoon. Dr. Brereton had made all arrangements for them. His big private hospital was on the outskirts of the city, and there Dick was installed with his nurses in a room with a balcony overlooking the Swan, where he might be wheeled to pass the day. They found a corner also for Mrs. Lester, since she flatly refused to be parted from Dick; and there was a hotel not far off for the others. Dr. Brereton whistled with delight when he came in to see his former patient.

"Well, young man! Why, you look as fit as a fiddle!" he ejaculated. "What have you been doing with him, Mrs. Lester? He's brown as a berry."

"Camping suits him, and we have been over a fortnight on the road," she said, smiling. "I don't know how he is going to stand being inside walls again."

"We'll keep him on the balcony, then," responded the doctor. "Feel strong, old man?"

"Pretty good," Dick nodded. "I'll be all right once I can sit up. When will that be, doctor?"

"Oh, some day. We've got to get you thoroughly fit first," the doctor evaded.

Dick's face fell. What he had hoped from his meeting with Dr. Brereton only he knew.

"Don't you think I'm well enough to try now?" he pleaded. "You don't know how jolly well I feel."

"I'm going to bring another man to see you to-morrow," the doctor said. "Too late to-night to overhaul you; but I want to see how my job looks."

"Oh, your job was all right long ago--you did it awfully well," Dick assured him kindly. "Dr. Carter took the stitches out at Narrung."

"Hurt you?"

"Well--everything hurts a bit," Dick admitted. "It didn't hurt more than other things. I'd be lonely now if I didn't have an ache or two!"

"Poor old chap!"

"Oh I'm all right. At least, I would be, I know, if you'd let me sit up. No one could get well, always lying flat. Why you couldn't keep me flatter if my silly back was broken!--and you said it wasn't, didn't you, mother?"

His eyes were like a pleading animals. Mrs. Lester smiled at him with stiff lips.

"And it isn't, old son. But you must be patient--give us time."

Dick saw her mouth quiver, and was seized with swift penitence.

"I didn't mean to be a brute, mother. I won't worry you." He gave a little laugh. "You see, Dr. Brereton was someone new for me to worry, so I had to."

"H'm!" said the doctor. "We poor wretches are supposed to be able to stand anything. Never mind--just wait until you're up, and able to fight----"

He was interrupted by a quick cry from Dick. The boy's eyes were shining, his voice shaking with excitement.

"Doctor! You mean that! You mean I'll t-truly be up--able to f-fight--I won't lie here always! You did m-mean it----!"

Mrs. Lester turned to the window, unable for a moment to command her face. The doctor patted the boy's head with swift remorse.

"Of course I meant it, old man," he spoke soothingly. "Only you must give us time."

"I'll wait any time, if I know it's all right," Dick muttered. A shade of weariness passed over his face. Then he looked at his mother, and put out a hand to her.

"Been a beast again," he said apologetically. "Didn't mean to, mummie--only he sort of surprised me."

She dropped a butterfly kiss on his brow.

"Here's nurse with your tea," she said, thankful for the diversion. "I wonder how you will like food cooked in a respectable oven again?"

"There's no food anywhere like the food you cook over a camp fire," Dick declared.

"You can't have lost the camp appetite yet," said the nurse warmly. "So don't tell me." She tucked a napkin under his chin with a deft movement. "Please, we would like people to run away--my lion doesn't like to be watched while he's fed!"

"I'm sorry I said it," Dr. Brereton confessed out in the corridor. "One says things hurriedly--anything to soothe a patient. And you know I strongly advised that he should not be told his case was hopeless."

"No, and of course we have not told him so. But I think he looked on any statement from you as coming with special authority. I'm sorry, too; he has never been so excited."

"Poor little chap! I wouldn't have given him false hope for anything."

"And you are sure it is false?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I haven't any hope, Mrs. Lester. It wouldn't be fair to you to tell you otherwise. Mind, I would leave no stone unturned; I want another surgeon, the best man in Perth, to examine him with me to-morrow. But I think his verdict will be the same as my own."

They told it to the parents gently next morning trying to soften the cruel words. No hope, so far as they could see, that Dick would ever walk again. In time, with special treatment and massage he might sit up; but further than that they could promise nothing.

"He's wonderfully strong," Dr. Brereton said. "Everything is in his favour, to a limited extent; there's no reason why he should not have a long and happy life, because he has pluck enough to face the future when once it becomes necessary to tell him."

"You would not tell him yet?" Mr. Lester said.

The doctor shook his head.

"He's too young--too full of hope. Later on, when lying still has become second nature"--Mrs. Lester shivered suddenly--"it will be easier for him to bear the telling. Now, if you take hope from him, he might slip back."

"What did you say to him this morning? He asked you, of course?"

"Oh, yes, he asked, poor laddie. We put him off; told him--it's the truth, too--that he was getting on well, but that he must be patient and put up with the massage. It will be painful, you know, Mrs. Lester. He was very good--extraordinarily patient under our handling this morning. After it all he was dog-tired, so we have put him to sleep. The nurse is with him."

"When do you think we can move him to Melbourne?" Mr. Lester asked.

"Oh--almost any time. Let him have a few days' rest. I should advise you to get passages on one of the big mail steamers; the inter-state boats are more apt to kick about if there's bad weather in the Bight. Not that you should have bad weather now."

"The _Occident_ is due next week," the second doctor put in. "She's one of their newest boats--you should be able to get a deck cabin on her for the boy. I know the manager here, Mr. Lester; would you care to go round with me and arrange matters?"

So Dick, lying wearily on his balcony that afternoon, still stiff and sore from the morning's handling, heard with relief that they were to be homeward bound.

"That's jolly," he said. "I'd like to see Melbourne again--and the fellows at school. Will the old doc. let Bottles and Nuge and Teddy come to see me, do you think, mother?"

"Of course he will," Mrs. Lester said. "They will be wild to hear about your adventures--think of the untold sums they have spent on wiring to you!" The story of the Northern blacks' raid upon Narrung had been sent to the papers in the Eastern States, and Dick had been inundated with telegrams from his school.

"Well, it will be great to see them," he said. "Perhaps one of them would come up to Kurrajong next holidays, mother; I expect I'll be sitting up by then, so it wouldn't be so very dull for them." He grinned. "Old Bottles is going to be a doctor--it would be handy for him to practise on me!"

"Thank you," said the nurse hurriedly; "I'd rather not!"

"So would I," agreed Dick. "Just you keep your eye on him, though, nurse; he's safe to have some patent pill of his own that he'll be mad keen to give me!"

"I will be there," said the nurse, with a grim determination not to quit her patient's side during any invasion by Bottles.

"Mother," Dick said, "will there be more doctors in Melbourne?--more overhauling like to-day?"

"There may be, my son. You won't mind, Dick, if it's to make you better?"

"Oh, no," he said. "Anything's better than lying still. I didn't seem to mind it so much at Narrung, but since we began to move about, and I feel stronger, I just feel that I'd be all right if I could only get up. But these silly asses of doctors won't let me try."

"Never mind," said his father hastily. "We'll see what the Melbourne men say. Meanwhile, I've got you such a jolly deck cabin on the _Occident_, Dick, with one for mother and me next door. You'll be able to be out on deck every day. It's her first trip out, and she's one of the finest boats that ever came to Australia. It will be something to tell the boys that you came in her."

"Yes, that'll be ripping," said Dick, with interest. "I say, father, what about Merle?"

"Well, I don't know," Mr. Lester said, pondering. "I know she wants to come with us; and if you would like to have her, of course she can come."

"Oh, I don't think I could do without my old 'Legs,' could I?" said Dick, laughing. "Do let her come--she just hates the idea of going back to Narrung. And let me tell her, father, will you--she'll be no end bucked!"