CHAPTER XIV
When Deirdre returned from the pool, where she had left Lass, the crateof fowls, and the cows with the old dog standing guard over them, Mrs.Cameron was already beating an arrow of flame that had struck thepaddock on the hill-top, and Jenny on the other edge of the fences wasalso beating.
Darkness had fallen. The glare of the fire was visible above the thickstanding wall of haze.
Deirdre saw a glittering line break through the grass at a littledistance from Mrs. Cameron, and seizing one of the green branches Jennyhad thrown down in the centre of the paddock, beat the fire until itwent out. Other threads of fire appeared near her, and she followed themalong the fence, slashing with the branch until they died down, leavingblackened earth and breaths of virulent blue smoke.
"Stay near the top of the hill, Deirdre," Mrs. Cameron called, "andwatch to see if there's a break on the front clearing, or the pool side,or near the sheds!"
Then the fire began to show in a dozen places at once, wrigglinglizard-like through the dry, palely-gleaming grass. Beating becameautomatic, an unflagging lashing and thrashing, and watch had to be keptthat the enemy was not attacking in another part of the clearing. Theblackened earth smoked under a dead flame one moment, the next a sparkkindled and wispish fire was running through the grass again. Far downthe hillside, through the smoke mists, to Deirdre on the top, Mrs.Cameron and Jenny looked wraith-like in their white cotton dresses.
The fire in the trees, of which these swift, silent runners in the grasswere fore-warners, was still some distance off. But they could hear thecrash of falling trees, the rush and roar of the flames in the tangledleafage, shrill cries of the wild creatures of the bush, the blare andbellowing screams of cattle.
Mrs. Cameron's light skirt caught fire. Jenny beat it out with herhands. She and Mrs. Cameron fell back a moment.
The glare lighted the whole of the clearing. In the valley flashingshafts of flame could be seen. They leapt athwart clouds of smoke whichdrove, billowing, across the sky, sprayed by showers of sparks.
"Mrs. Cameron!" Deirdre screamed warningly as a fire-maddened steerleapt into the paddock and careered across it into the darkness on theother side.
The heat was suffocating. The heavy, acrid smoke in their lungs madetheir heads reel. Deirdre was fighting a brilliant patch of flameshalf-way across the paddock when Mrs. Cameron called to her.
"It's no good, child!" she said. Her face was dim with smoke, her handsburnt and blackened. "It's no good trying to do any more, we must gonow."
They ran from the hill-top to the house, Mrs. Cameron caught up herbundle, Jenny, the blue vases and the spinning wheel, and Deirdre,taking Socks from the stable in which he was beginning to whinny withfear, led him down the track in front of the house. They were half wayacross the clearing when Mrs. Cameron came to a standstill. Flames hadeaten their way up the paddock and lay across the track.
"We're cut off," she said.
"What can we do?" Deirdre asked. "There's no time to lose."
Jenny screamed, dancing up and down, beside herself with terror andexcitement: "We're cut off! Cut off!"
She dropped one of the vases she was carrying, and it broke in athousand pieces.
"I don't know," Mrs. Cameron said slowly. Her eyes wandered to thebroken pieces of the vase.
For a moment Deirdre's brain was paralysed too. She stood staring downthe track. All the terrible stories of the fires, of people who had beenburnt to death, flashed into her mind.
A shout was raised behind them.
"It's father!" she cried.
The Schoolmaster dashed round the corner of the house. His face wasblackened and had angry weals where the fire had lashed it. His eyebrowsand beard were singed close to his head. At a glance he took in thesituation. His horse with head hung was blowing like a bellows.
"Davey's just behind me!" he gasped, looking at Mrs. Cameron. "Mr.Cameron and he didn't know the fires were making this way till I toldthem; then he sent Davey. I came ... to give him a hand. Never thoughtwe'd get here--miles of fire across the road. Get a couple of blankets,Deirdre, and we'll make a dash for the creek."
Deirdre ran back to the house, tore the blankets from the beds insideand threw them on to the verandah. He dipped three of them in a bucketof water that stood by the kitchen door, wrapped her in one, and Mrs.Cameron and Jenny in the others.
Davey swung into the yard on an all but spent horse.
"Keep her going, Davey," the Schoolmaster cried, "and get down to thewater. I'll look after your mother. Deirdre, you take Jenny up behindyou. Fly along and let down the slip panel. Socks'll stand the grassfire if you keep him at it."
Davey and Deirdre dashed across the smouldering and smoking paddock,putting their horses blindly towards the corner of the fence where theslip-rails were already down.
Trees on the edge of the clearing behind the house were already roaring,wrapped in the smoke and flaming mantle of the fire. A shower of sparksthrown up by a falling tree scattered over the stable and barns.
A hoarse yelping, the cackling of fowls and the wild terrified lowing ofthe cows, came from the pool. Davey rode into it, hustled the cows intothe centre, and took the old sheep-dog up on his saddle. Socks, withDeirdre and Jenny on his back, splashed in after him. The Schoolmasterand Mrs. Cameron followed a few moments later. He had caught up herspinning wheel and she was clutching her bundle and the other blue vase.
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