South of Capricorn Read Free Page B

offered the child. For it was an undisputable fact that, if Leta made up her mind not to board the plane, then she would fight like a tiger to obtain her own way. Gail certainly did not relish a scene where Leta, lying on the ground, would scream and kick and eventually have to be dragged or carried to the plane.
    The threat having done what it was intended to do, Leta became resigned to the idea of living with her father. But apart from one occasion when she had said, quite unexpectedly, ‘I hope my daddy’s nice,’ she had not until this moment displayed an atom of enthusiasm, and Gail had surmised that, as far as the child’s reaction was concerned, living with her father was the lesser of the two evils.
    ‘Are you really looking forward to seeing your daddy?’ asked Mr. Stafford, and Leta nodded her head.
    ‘I want to see what he’s like. If he’s nice then I’ll be a good girl for him!’
    This left no impression on Gail. She knew Leta far too well to take any notice of a promise like that.
    ‘Good-bye, darling.’ It was the last time this was to be said, and mother and daughter had one final hug. Leta was again engaged in mutilating her shoe, but soon Gail had her firmly by the hand, and it was not until they were on the plane that she let go.
    ‘You’ve pinched my fingers! I hate you !’ Leta stamped her foot, glaring at Gail. ‘You’d no need to hold my hand so hard, because I wouldn’t have run away!’ Gail said nothing. She had held on simply because she was not taking any chances. Knowing Leta as she did, she was quite prepared for trouble, even though the way had been paved by the doctor’s words, and even by Leta’s enthusiasm. However, it were better always to be prepared for the worst with a child of Leta’s temperament—a temperament of changing mood and heightened passions. ‘I’ll pinch you if you do it again! You’ve no right—’
    ‘Sit down and be quiet!’ snapped Gail at last, acutely aware of the surprised and disapproving stares of other passengers.
    ‘I won’t! I’m going to stand up all the way—so there!’
    A rather stout gentleman with heavy moustaches and protuberant eyes, noticing the scene as he made to take a seat opposite, looked down at Leta and said sternly,
    ‘Do as your mother tells you, young lady! Sit down at once! You’re a very naughty little girl! No, don’t you dare to interrupt me! My word, but you want a good smacking. Do as I tell you—sit down beside your mother and be quiet!’
    Stunned for one disbelieving moment, Leta then did no less than kick out at the man, catching him just below the knee.
    ‘Leta!’ exclaimed Gail, horrified and fervently thankful that her parents could not witness this scene. ‘You naughty girl! Say you’re sorry, at once!’
    But this was too much to expect. Instead of the apology the man received a pettish, ‘Mind your own business!’ before Leta put out her tongue at him. For the rest of the flight he spoke neither to Leta nor to Gail, but his glances at Gail from time to time left her in no doubt at all of his opinion of her as a ‘mother’. She would have liked to disillusion him, just for her own comfort, but she refrained, deciding that it did not matter much what he thought of her, seeing that she and he would never meet again.
    At Brisbane Gail and Leta changed to a train and to her relief Leta fell asleep and from then on Gail could read her book in peace. However, after reading for a while she became interested in the scenery as the train travelled through the highlands of the Great Divide into the area of brigalow scrub and sub-tropical wood lands. The sun began to sink, but there was still some time to go before the brief twilight fell.
    The twilight would last about twenty minutes, Gail had been told, and after that darkness would descend rapidly. And it was almost dark before the train drew into the station and Gail felt rather apprehensive on noticing that there was very little sign of