登陆注册
15468300000084

第84章 THREE 1929-1932 Paddy(16)

Like pilgrims at the final crossroads they straggled apart in the steady grey rain, getting farther and farther away from each other, smaller and smaller, until each disappeared along the appointed path. Stuart had gone a bare half mile when he noticed that a stand of burned timber drew very close to the fire's demarcation line. There was a little wilga as black and crinkled as a pickaninny's mop, and the remains of a great stump standing close to the charred boundary. What he saw was Paddy's horse, sprawled and fused into the trunk of a big gum, and two of Paddy's dogs, little black stiff things with all four limbs poking up like sticks. He got down from his horse, boots sinking ankle deep in mud, and took his rifle from its saddle scabbard. His lips moved, praying, as he picked his slippery way across the sticky coals. Had it not been for the horse and the dogs he might have hoped for a swaggie or some down-and equals out wayfarer caught, trapped. But Paddy was horsed and had five dogs with him; no one on the track rode a horse or had more than one. dog. This was too far inside Drogheda land to think of drovers, or stockmen from Bugela to the west. Farther away were three more incinerated dogs; five altogether, five dogs. He knew he would not find a sixth, nor did he.

And not far from the horse, hidden as he approached by a log, was what had been a man. There could be no mistake. Glistening and shiny in the rain, the black thing lay on its back, and its back was arched like a great bow so that it bent upward in the middle and did not touch the ground except at the buttocks and shoulders. The arms were flung apart and curved at the elbows as if beseeching heaven, the fingers with the flesh dropping off them to reveal charred bones were clawing and grasping at nothing. The legs were splayed apart also but flexed at the knees, and the blob of a head looked up sightless, eyeless at the sky.

For a moment Stuart's clear, all-seeing gaze rested on his father, and saw not the ruined shell but the man, as he had been in life. He pointed his rifle at the sky, fired a shot, reloaded, fired a second shot, reloaded, let off the third. Faintly in the distance he heard one answering report, then, farther off and very faintly, a second answer. It was then he remembered the closer shot would have-come from his mother and sister. They were northwest, he was north. Without waiting the stipulated five minutes, he put another shell in the rifle breech, pointed the gun due south, and fired. A pause to reload, the second shot, reload, the third shot. He put the weapon back on the ground and stood looking south, his head cocked, listening. This time the first answer was from the west, Bob's shot, the second from Jack or Hughie, and the third from his mother. He sighed in relief; he didn't want the women reaching him first.

Thus he didn't see the great wild pig emerge from the trees to the north; he smelled it. As big as a cow, its massive bulk rolled and quivered on short, powerful legs as it drove its head down, raking at the burned wet ground. The shots had disturbed it, and it was in pain. The sparse black hair on one side of its body was singed off and the skin was redly raw; what Stuart smelled as he stared into the south was the delectable odor of bubbled pork skin, just as it is on a roasted joint fresh from the oven and crisp all over the slashed outer husk. Surprised out of the curiously peaceful sorrow he always seemed to have known, his head turned, even as he thought to himself that he must have been here before, that this sodden black place had been etched into some part of his brain on the day of his birth. Stooping, he groped for the rifle, remembering it wasn't loaded. The boar stood perfectly still, its little reddened eyes mad with pain, the great yellow tusks sharp and curving upward in a half circle. Stuart's horse neighed, smelling the beast; the pig's massive head swung to watch it, then lowered for the charge. While its attention was on the horse Stuart saw his only chance, bent quickly for the rifle and snapped the breech open, his other hand in his jacket pocket for a shell. All around the rain was dropping down, muffling other sounds in its own unchanging patter. But the pig heard the bolt slide back, and at the last moment changed the direction of its charge from the horse to Stuart. It was almost upon him when he got one shot off straight into the beast's chest, without slowing it down. The tusks slewed up and sideways, and caught him in the groin. He fell, blood appearing like a faucet turned all the way on and saturating his clothes, spurting over the ground.

Turning awkwardly as it began to feel the bullet, the pig came back to gore him again, faltered, swayed, and tottered. The whole of that fifteen-hundred-pound bulk came down across him, and crushed his face into the tarry mud. For a moment his hands clawed at the ground on either side in a frantic, futile struggle to be free; this then was what he had always known, why he had never hoped or dreamed or planned, only sat and drunk of the living world so deeply there had not been time to grieve for his waiting fate. He thought: Mum, Mum! I can't stay with you, Mum!, even as his heart burst within him.

"I wonder why Stu hasn't fired again?" Meggie asked her mother as they trotted toward the sound of those two first triple volleys, not able to go any faster in the mud, and desperately anxious. "I suppose he decided we'd heard," Fee said. But in the back of her mind she was remembering Stuart's face as they parted in different directions on the search, the way his hand had gone out to clasp hers, the way he had smiled at her. "We can't be far away now," she said, and pushed her mount into a clumsy, sliding canter.

But Jack had got there first, so had Bob, and they headed the women off as they came across the last of the living land toward the place where the bushfire had begun.

"Don't go in, Mum," said Bob as she dismounted. Jack had gone to Meggie, and held her arms.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 肠胃病食疗菜谱

    肠胃病食疗菜谱

    《胃肠病食疗菜谱》精选了近百种适合于胃肠病患者的食疗菜谱,你能在短时间内享受到食疗的好处,并且其菜肴色、香、味俱全。《胃肠病食疗菜谱》内容丰富,科学实用,易学易懂,非常适合胃肠病患者以及患者家属使用。
  • 异界星天绝

    异界星天绝

    一个学生,因为自己的一不小心,被一位神秘人捉去,带到了一个未知的异世界,开始一段冒险。但是,少年却并不知道,自己已经卷入一场危险的浩劫。
  • 疯狂的小小程序员

    疯狂的小小程序员

    疯狂的小小程序员是一本推荐阅读的程序员职业生涯中必备启蒙小说主人公:小贱程序员之独闯江湖
  • 逆袭:飞翔还是坠落

    逆袭:飞翔还是坠落

    作为“时代见证”系列丛书之一,《逆袭之路》通过对近两年来知名企业的市场表现进行分类,一类是在创意年代把握机会为消费者带来惊喜表现,在这场过山车的运动中成功的攀上更高位置;另一类是盛极而衰期待华丽转身的代表,他们更需要时间和市场来验证这一场运动是重上高峰还是荡到低谷。本书不是一般的企业案例书,它通过财经记者的专业分析,让读者看到企业的市场表现和战略特点,从中可以找到自已的判断分析。
  • 终觉浅

    终觉浅

    七石说,《终觉浅》这个名字来源于一句诗。所谓‘纸上得来终觉浅,绝知此事要躬行’。七石说,写这本书的目的是证明自己不是逗比!七石的写作灵感源自脑洞,那些脑洞随时连接外太空!
  • 斗渣剩妃经商记

    斗渣剩妃经商记

    卫国公嫡女,苦熬十年,为他筹谋,助他登基,却在凤临天下的当晚被囚禁。屈辱求生,却等来嫡兄被乱箭射死,外祖家斩首抄没!终一日,她对天起誓,若可重来,绝不为后!本应香消玉殒,睁眼却是重回十三岁,庶姐想毁我容?做梦!换我来毁你节!庶母欲破我身?没门!让我来揭你丑!渣男望纳我为正妃?妄想!堂妹才会去爬你的床!本以为这世要独孤一生,却偏偏遇见了他!(本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。)
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 叱咤嫣红

    叱咤嫣红

    她是江湖上闻风伤胆的杀手沐风,是月梅楼隐秘的东家严离,可是没人知晓她是21世纪最聪明的一缕魂魄,只要遇到他,所有的一切仿佛脱出掌控......怎么逃却逃不脱了。他是弦临王朝的七王爷,当今圣上最疼爱的弟弟。传闻江湖“圣七”无人能敌,却没有人见过他的真面目,直到遇见她,所有的目标只为将她拉入自己的掌控之中......
  • 广陵剑之绝世枭侠

    广陵剑之绝世枭侠

    天地化缘,万物皆有其因。所谓混沌,所谓清气,此二者不与同体。一旦清浊相遇,必生灵尽毁。神,仙,魔,民,木,土皆幻化成风。传言上古,曾流传一柄宝剑,为族人伏羲氏所持。剑因人生,剑因人亡。当时天下混战,群雄争霸,这不仅仅是一场凡人间的杀戮,而是一场天、地、魔三界交缠的圣战。百年对决,生灵涂炭,三界相持不下,因而人间也不得安宁。是时,恰逢九州连铸,墨云翻腾,雷影隐隐,那合了七百七十七天的苍穹终于豁开一道纵向长纹,一时间,赤紫之气幻旋成一道气柱,直指鄢陵山。伏羲族人中的一支铸剑世家艋铜,其七子照寅,传闻降生之时,面有不凡之气。果不其然,此人实属聪颖之辈……
  • 不朽天圣

    不朽天圣

    我意御剑行天下,苍穹鬼邪莫可敌,扶摇直上三万里,踏破仙宫我做庄他是世俗界的无名之人,机缘之下进入千年前的修真门派—永生罗刹们是不朽还是永生?面对一次次的挑战,他又将作何抉择