The river is Down Read Free Page B

and not the nerve to find out from those Bindaroo relatives why they had none of her dead father's investment left!

CHAPTER II
    They were ready to move now.
    The monkey man clambered back into the Land-Rover and eased it forward to tauten the tow-line.
    `Right!' he called, leaning his brown head and brown-clad shoulders out of the window. 'Who drives, boss? You or me?'
    The boss, out of Cindie's car now, had been standing with his legs slightly apart again; his hands tucked in his belt.
    `I do, Flan. You get up on the back bumper of the girl's car and keep it balanced against a cross-drift in the channel.'
    The re were no pleases or thank-you in this dialogue. The monkey man jumped out of the Land-Rover again. The boss turned to her.
    `Now, if you'll get up in the passenger seat, I'll take you—and your car—across the river. Time is beginning to matter. That water's risen another inch while we've been hitching-up here.'
    `Thank you.'
    Cindie wished she didn't sound diffident. She was letting herself down. Stalling the car, and that dreadful blush, had done it. The sort of thing David had always held against her. She couldn't understand advanced physics, or why the speed of light had to be so much faster than the speed of sound. Or why someone should land on the moon before . To David she was kissable—when he had time—but scientifically speaking, ignorant. She was tired of that category. The boss glanced at her curiously as he opened the door for her.
    `Want a hand up? The step is a bit high.'
    `No thank you.' She gathered her remnants of pride together. 'I don't understand about universal constants or the speed of sound, but I can run and jump and play tennis. Besides I'm five feet six inches high. Not really a little person
    They stood by the step and he looked straight into her eyes.
    'My name's Nick Brent,' he said. 'I'm in charge of the construction camp on the thousand-miler. That's a road in the making
    Cindie nodded. 'Yes, I thought so. I heard about the road back at the coast. I also heard about the river coming down.'
    He raised his eyebrows. 'Oh? You heard about the river coming down? Yet you came on? Alone?'
    `Yes. But I didn't know it would be down before I crossed it,' she said gravely. 'That, you see, is the difference. Information, but inadequate information.'
    `Do you always talk like this, Miss—er, Miss Cindie?'
    `Miss Cindie Something. It's an interesting name, isn't it? Cindie is short for Cynthia and the Something was bestowed on me, over the air probably. It makes me into a person
    travelling incognito. Brown, because I'm brown-all-over, would be nearer the mark.'
    `Very common in the outback,' he said dryly. 'Now, Miss Brown, if you don't mind getting in this Rover, we'll take off before the river takes the lot of us.'
    'Yes, of course.' Cindie put her foot on the step. 'Are we going to Marana Station? It's not far off, is it?' she asked.
    `We are not. Marana, and every other station from here to the coast, and from here to the desert on the east, will now be cut off by the river. It curves a lot—if you happened to look at your map at all; and has a dozen creek tributaries
    `Oh!' Cindie felt deservedly deflated.
    Then where were they going?
    She slipped into the passenger seat and Nick Brent clambered in on the far side. He slammed the door after him. He started up; did strange things with the gears, then leaned out of the window and called to Flan, who was now balancing on the elevated bumpers of Cindie's car.
    `Right, Flan? Then hang on while I give the first pull.'
    The Land-Rover began to ease its way cautiously down the river bank. Suddenly it speeded up to make a dash into the water. Nick Brent kept his eyes on the rear-vision mirror.
    `Sorry for the splash,' he said to Cindie. 'You may not understand universal constants but you will know that the short sprint was from necessity. I had to keep the pace of this Land-Rover faster than the estimated pace of your car when it began to roll