Taj and the Great Camel Trek Read Free Page A

my finger. ‘Sharp,’ I said unnecessarily as a pinprick of blood appeared. I began folding it up again in the oilskin, but Padar put out a hand to stop me.
    â€˜It needs to have you wear it, beta.’ In his other hand was a long piece of cloth. ‘Your mother, she made this for when you were old enough to wear the knife.’ His eyes filled again and I knelt there in shock. I couldn’t even ask when, when did she do such a thing? ‘Come.’ He lifted me by the shoulders and wrapped the cloth around my waist. When I looked at him again his tears had dried and he had a crooked smile on his face. ‘You put the knife like this,’ and he tucked the knife into the waist cloth. ‘It will become part of you, and in the desert you may need it.’
    â€˜You don’t mind, Padar? That I come with you? You had said I couldn’t.’
    â€˜It is for preparing you I said these things.’ Then he lifted off his turban without unwrapping it. ‘It is true I do not think an expedition is for boys and half-grown camels, but Mr Gile, he has spoken.’
    I almost smiled at Padar’s ‘Mr Gile’; he often couldn’t pronounce the endings of English words. ‘You don’t sound happy for me.’
    Padar sighed. ‘Too many difficult things can happen on an expedition. Once, when I was driving camels in the north-west of India, we reached a caravanserai and bandits were hiding there, twenty of them. They took everything the camels carried, and those men who argued, they were killed.’ He shook his head.
    â€˜Will there be bandits in the desert on the way to Perth?’
    Padar’s eyes searched my face. ‘I am not knowing. No one has been where Mr Gile want to go. No one except desert peoples. Who knows what dangers we will face.’ His gaze shifted to the knife at my waist.
    I wasn’t so worried about dangers then; I was more concerned by Mr Giles’ final words and wondered if they’d prove true: that I’d be company for Tommy, but would he be good company for me?

‘Taj! Where are you?’ The morning sky was washed with grey and my father had little patience with boys who were late to work.
    â€˜I have to find Mustara, Padar.’
    â€˜We have twenty-two camels to load and all you can think of is your own camel? Mustara can join the string at the end.’ He grumbled to Roshni, the lead gelding, while he checked his nose peg. ‘A camel that young on an exploring expedition. Mr Gile, he ask for trouble.’
    He turned to me as I joined him, a rope in my hand. ‘Last night I said your camel is a good one, but I am telling you now, if he cannot keep up with the string on the way to Port Augusta, both of you will be returning home.’
    â€˜But Mustara saved Emmeline and me in the dust storm, and he almost won the race.’ That ‘almost’ still annoyed me.
    â€˜That may be so, but the wide, open desert is very different to our desert here at Beltana. Be rememberingthis – the first sign of lagging and home you both will go.’
    Mr Giles said I could come so I didn’t argue any more with my father. I knew it was the stress of getting the camels ready that made him harsh and I nodded at him for it is good to respect your elders. We began the difficult task of loading the camels. We connected the fifteen baggage camels by their nose-pegs to the tail of the camel in front with a doubled piece of twine. That is why the line of camels is called a string. Padar used only wooden nose-pegs because a brass one would become hot and burn a camel’s nose.
    Emmeline had asked me once if it was cruel to have nose pegs. ‘The string will break easily if they bolt,’ I had told her. ‘And besides, camels don’t like a bit in their mouth as horses have. How else would we drive them?’
    Padar and I led the camels into a circle with Roshni first for he was a good leader, and Padar