The river is Down Read Free Page A

because of clay-bog. I didn't know what to do
    A shadow was thrown across her window from the other side.
    He had to bend quite a lot to look at her through the far window, because this was the tall one. He was different. He was very brown, but not lined. His body was still, yet wary, as if he only moved when ready. Then he'd go into action like the flash of a stockwhip, maybe. His eyes were penetrating, very direct. He was a man of command. Even the quiet, forbidding antagonism she sensed in his bearing did not lessen her own first response to respect him.
    `Are you from Marana Station?' she asked, hiding an unexpected shyness. He was impressive and she was a little scared of him.
    `I am not,' he said briefly. 'We're down from the construction camp. The thousand-miter. What is the trouble with your starter?'
    'I didn't think there was any.' She was flustered and apologetic, though in her heart she wanted to stand up to this man, and keep her dignity.
    `Move out, then, will you?' he asked briefly. He held the door open for her but looked across to the monkey man who was leaning in the window on the drive side of the car as if time was nothing and they now could take all day. Cindie sensed him telling himself : if women are stupid enough to travel alone in the outback, they ought to learn how to look after themselves first. She scrambled across the passenger seat and slipped out of the car. The taller man had to bend low to ease through the door to the steering wheel.
    'Smell any petrol, Flan?' he asked his companion. The monkey man sniffed the air.
    `Maybe she's flooded the carburettor some, boss, but can't smell anything much enough to worry about.'
    The man at the steering wheel moved the gear stick, then pulled the starter. The engine sprang into life and purred as sweetly as if it had been a brand new car straight from the show-floor.
    Cindie's face flushed scarlet, as he glanced at her. His unrelenting expression spoke volumes.
    He eased his foot on the throttle and the engine rolled beautifully. He glanced up through the window again.
    Her chin went up. 'I was nervous. I must have stalled it. That's why
    `You were still in gear ' he said casually, yet with the
    hidden superiority of an elder statesman.
    `Jumping 'roos!' the little monkey man said. 'She comes across from the coast, maybe all the way up north first—
    she's got a city number plate—and she says she's nervous. She starts a car in gear
    `Now's not the time for cracks, Flan,' the boss said without emphasis, unexpectedly. 'Nothing will get back over that river in another hour. I'll back up and turn this car. Get the tow-rope hitched on the bar while I set the luggage up high and back in this lot.'
    So he had spared her his spoken annoyance! Cindie was grateful.
    She felt lost and just a little forlorn, standing there while her car was backed away and the driver turned it round.
    Neither of the men spoke to her again while they went about their business of attaching the tow-rope, then using a kind of winch on the back of the Land-Rover to raise a miniature crane from under the canvas hood. The tow was then attached through a pulley.
    Her car suddenly looked dreadfully deserted and undignified as the winch raised the back wheels, and the car rested, nose dipping forward with its rear part suspended in the air like the helpless end of a goose. Her heart was remorseful that she had caused this indignity to her only beloved possession.
    `Poor darling car !' she said sadly to herself, shaking her head.
    She stood by, wanting to offer to help, but afraid of a snub if she said anything. The quiet efficient authority of the two men had an intimidating effect on her.
    That dreadful blush about muffing the starter had thrust her straight back into the class of helpless womanhood that should not have become emancipated. She could almost hear what they were thinking. Ought never have left her mother's apron strings.
    Her mother's apron strings?
    Mother without a penny,