[...]... directed to the ground in the vicinity of the machine As mentioned, the grass butts were widely spaced, and between each cropped butt the lake surface was composed of fine reddish sand Their own boot and shoe prints from the car were plainly discernible, but there were no other tracks left by a human being The pilot had not 9 jumped from the machine to the ground on their side Neither had the girl Having... in the front seat? If there is, then your eyes are better than mine, her father replied The pilot must have made a forced landing Well drive round a bit and then cross to it. Nettlefold had to take care when negotiating the steep yet low bank to reach the ribbon of claypan, and then, because the machine was a little to the left, he drove the car along the firm level claypan strip until opposite the. .. channels Here the river had no main channel to distinguish it from the veritable maze of streams which intertwine between the countless banks Westward from the Coolibah homestead, the channels which form the river are fifteen miles across, and when the great floods come sliding down from the far northern hills only the tops of the coolibah trees are left visible When crossing the river the track was... all the same, stated Cox, putting on his heavy uniform coat The captain indicated the grim head of the doctor, to be seen above the cockpit and behind the low windscreen 24 Hes a corker, he cried Directly he climbed in he became sober. Apparently sober, the sergeant corrected So long! Hes ready. He climbed into the passengers seat, and then he turned to shout above the engine roar: Do I put on the. .. ground, but it was the first time that he had left Mother Earth in the company of Dr Knowles Looking down over the cockpit edge he saw Golden Dawn laid out for his inspection There in the middle of the street stood the white-dressed figure of the exchange operator, still beside John Kane Outside the police-station stood his wife and son waving to him, and he waved down to them They and the town slipped... steps and so to the front gate in the wicket fence Above the gate on a narrow wooden arch were the words, ộỗọỏẫJởớ~ớỏỗồI= and on the fly gauze covering the window frame of the left hand room was the word ỗẹẹỏẫK Across the hundred-yards-wide unmetalled track stood the store, a low, rambling, wooden building badly infested with termites and badly in need of paint When he emerged from the Government premises... to hurry back to his house for his bag The sun was low in the western sky The air was motionless and painted a deep gold where in it hung the dust raised by the dairy-mans cows and the two separate mobs of goats being driven to yards on the outskirts of the town On passing opposite the post office, he noted that the main door was shut, and that at the door of the telephone exchange room a girl stood... and here and there patches of tussock-grass An amazing place, this It was 5 the studio of the Wind King who had chiselled the sand hummocks into fantastic shapes, a veritable hell when the hot westerlies blew in November and March Sixty miles from home they boiled the billy for lunch, the car halted in the shadow cast blackly on the glaring ground by three healthy bloodwoods The girl set up the low canvas... endlessly until at last the travellers reached the easternmost flat to speed smoothly for half a mile before reaching the horse-paddock gate From the gate it was a quick run up a stiff gradient to the house which, with the many other buildings, was built on comparatively high land Before the car stopped outside the gate of the garden fronting the south veranda, a woman came running to meet them She was tall... beneath him, the machine sank nearer to the plain and then flew directly towards the sun To Sergeant Cox this air journey was by no means boring The earth did not appear flat and featureless It was too near to be either He could even see the rabbits dashing to their burrows to escape the huge eagle. He could distinguish the track, faint though it lay across the gibber plain, and he could observe the shadows . prints from the car were plainly discernible, but there were no other tracks left by a human being. The pilot had not 9 jumped from the machine to the ground on their side. Neither had the girl and then, because the machine was a little to the left, he drove the car along the firm level claypan strip until opposite the aeroplane, when he turned sharply out on to the lake bed. The. from home they boiled the billy for lunch, the car halted in the shadow cast blackly on the glaring ground by three healthy bloodwoods. The girl set up the low canvas table beside the running