The river is Down Read Online Free PDF Page B

only. Perhaps they were used to seeing the boss bring in strange things, and persons, from the wilds of the spinifex plains. Their
    expressions said that anything could happen out here on the thousand-miler. Nothing surprised anyone any more.
    Nick Brent glanced at her, perhaps to see her reaction to this scene. Then he looked straight ahead as he ran the Land-Rover round one corner between two rows of caravans, coming to a dust-cloud stop at the steps of a small white prefabricated house set apart from the others under a clump of white-trunked gum trees. This house was not a caravan, and did not have wheels. It was planted firmly on the earth. Yet it was as impermanent-looking as its more mobile brothers lining the square.
    The trees hung their leaves, tired after the long hot day. Nothing stirred, even though the door of the little house was wide open.
    So enormous was the silence and stillness—so space-like that Cindie wondered why anyone went off the earth in a capsule if they merely wanted space. If they wanted silence and foreverness, here it was in the heart of Australia.
    The honking of 'Nick's horn seemed a blasphemy. It made Cindie start.
    `Mary!' Nick Brent called in a voice not loud, but which carried in the stillness. It was a good clear voice and Cindie, as she heard it, experienced an unexpected comfort from its authority—and yes, security.
    A woman came to the door of the house, wiping her hands on her apron. She was not yet middle-aged and the grey streak on one side of her hair seemed out of place. Her face was strong-featured in a fine-drawn way. She had dark eyes, and a wide flashing smile for Nick Brent.
    `Great kangaroos!' she said, turning her glance to Cindie, then back again to the man. 'What have you brought in this time, Nick? Last time it was a lame brumby with twin foals.'
    Nick Brent's face remained expressionless. 'This is Miss Cindie . . .' He glanced at the girl beside him for elucidation.
    'Miss Cindie Brown,' she said lamely. She nearly added 'allover', but thought this might be deemed a joke out of place.
    Nick straightened his back, pushed his hat to the back of his head.
    'There you have it, Mary!' His face did not move a
    muscle. 'Miss Cindie Brown. This is Mary Deacon, Cindie.' The girl beside him ventured a cautious smile at the
    woman in the doorway. She wasn't sure of her reception. The conversation, staccato though it was, had sounded
    as if Nick Brent was always bringing something in. A drowned rat, a dead wallaby, a bob-tailed lizard, twin foals, and now a girl called Cindie Brown.
    Brown? Me! The new me. Another identity!
    Again her spirits rose. Found in the river, but still breathing! She could imagine the wording on Nick Brent's dossier. One more piece of bric-a-brac brought in from the wilderness of spinifex.
    'Well, you'd better get down and come in,' Mary was saying, giving her hands another wipe on that apron. She turned to the man again. 'How long's she staying, Nick?'
    'Till the river's dry, Mary.'
    The woman's eyebrows went up. 'That could be when the thousand-miler's finished, boss. Prospectors back of the breakaway country sent in air-flash that it's raining emus and wallabies up in the ranges. The creeks at the head of the river are flooding for miles around. We're near marooned already.'
    'Rain everywhere, and not a drop round here,' Nick said dryly. 'Meantime, Mary, will you look after Miss Cindie .....He hesitated.
    'Brown!' Mary this time, finished for him. Then she laughed. 'What kind of a name is that, Nick? Is she running from the tax department, or what?'
    'You ask Cindie. You have her from now to the dryout—whenever that will be. Take care of her, please.'
    He opened his own door, then walked round to open the one on Cindie's side.
    'Have you a change of clothes in your bag, Cindie?' he asked. Suddenly he was less hostile. Or did she imagine it? 'Flan will bring your other things along when he turns up.' His eyes met hers as she dropped to the ground.