A Town like Alice

up the bundles for the packhorses in the rain, put her up into the saddle and she was off again for Willstown with Moonshine by her side.
    The short rest had stiffened her, and it needed all her courage to face the twenty miles that lay ahead. Every muscle in her body was stretched and aching. Her legs ceased to function much to hold her in the saddle, but the big horns above and below her thighs came into play and held her in place.
    They crossed the creeks, now too deep for a car, and rode on. They were following the car track, and the going was good. She was the laggard now, because Moonshine's horse was fresh and Robin was tiring. She rode the last ten miles in a daze, walking and trotting wearily; for the last five miles the black stockman rode close by her side to try and catch her if she fell. But she didn't fall. She rode into Willstown in the darkness at about seven o'clock, a very tired girl on a very tired horse with a black ringer beside her. She rode past the hotel and past the ice-cream parlour with its lights streaming out into the street, and came to a stand outside Sergeant Haines' police station and house. She had been about eight hours in the saddle.
    Moonshine dismounted and held Robin's head. She summoned a last effort and got her right leg back over the saddle, and slithered down to the ground. She could not stand at first without holding on to something, and she held on to Robin's saddle. Then Sergeant Haines was there.
    "Why, Miss Paget," he said in the slow Queensland way, "where have you come from?"
    "From Joe Harman," she said. "He's got Don Curtis up at the top end of Midhurst with a broken leg. Look, tell Moonshine what he can do with these horses, and then help me inside, and I'll tell you."
    He told Moonshine to take the horses round to the police corral and to bed down for the night with the police trackers in the bunkhouse; then he turned to Jean. "Come on in the house," he said. "Here, take my arm. How far have you ridden?"
    "Forty miles," she said, and even in her fatigue there was a touch of pride in the achievement. "Joe Harman's up there now with Mr Curtis. All the Midhurst stockmen have gone up there to make an airstrip. It's the only way to get him out, Joe says. You can't get through the creeks with a utility."
    He took her in and sat her down in his mosquito-wired veranda, and Mrs Haines brought out a cup of tea. He glanced at the clock and settled down to listen to her in slow time; he had missed the listening watch of seven o'clock on the Cairns Ambulance radio, and now there was three quarters of an hour to wait before he could take any action. "Six miles west-south-west of the new bore," he said thoughtfully. "I know, there's open country round about that part. I'll get on to the radio presently, and get the plane out in the morning."
    "Joe thought if you got on the radio some ringers might go out from Windermere and help him make the strip," she said. "He's talking about cutting down some trees. I don't want him to do that, because of his back."
    He nodded. "I'll be getting Windermere at the same time." And then he said, "I never knew you were a rider, Miss Paget."
    "I'm not," she said. "I've been on a horse six times before."
    He smiled, and then said, "Oh my word. Are you sore?"
    She got up wearily. "I'm going home to bed," she said, and caught hold of the back of the chair. "If I stay here any longer I won't be able to walk at all."
    "Stay where you are," he said. "I'll get out the utility and run you to the hospital."
    "I don't want to go to the hospital."
    "I don't care if you want to go or not," he said, "but that's where you're going. You'll be better off there for tonight, and Sister Douglas, she's got everything you'll want."
    Half an hour later she was bathed and in a hospital bed with penicillin ointment on various parts of her anatomy, feeling like a very small child. Back in his office Sergeant Haines sat down before his transmitter.
    "Eight Queen Charlie, Eight Queen Charlie," he said, "this is Eight Love Mike calling Eight Queen Charlie. Eight Queen Charlie, if you are receiving Eight Love Mike will you please come in. Over to you. Over."
    He turned his switch, and the speaker on top of the set said in a girl's voice, "Eight Love Mike this is Eight Queen Charlie answering, receiving you strength three. Pass your message. Over."
    He said, "Eight Queen Charlie, we've got Don Curtis. Joe Harman found him at the top end of Midhurst. His injuries are compound