The Gum Tree Gang and the Mystery at the Old Queenslander (13 page)

Krystal ducked down below the window.

After what seemed like ages,
she heard the bedroom door
go 'click'. She
waited a bit longer, then a car started up.
Someone was leaving. She quickly dashed to the side of
the house to have a look, but couldn't see who was
inside
the car. Like a silver streak it
moved through the bushy
driveway and out of
view.

Krystal cautiously crept to
the broken window again
and peered inside.
Matthew's hands and mouth were
retied and
the tartan rug was partly over his body.

Krystal felt her anger
rising! She jumped off the
verandah and
picked up a rock. She climbed up again,
pulled the sleeve of her jacket over her hand and
covered
the rock. She hit the broken pane
of glass. A splintering
sound made Matthew
do a half-flip.

Krystal instantly moved away
from the window and
waited. "Someone
must've heard," she whispered. Her
heart
bumped loudly. She waited a minute, then, still
shaking, but feeling bold, she picked up another rock
and
hit the broken pane again.

The sound of splintering
glass made Matthew bury his
face in the
tartan rug.

For Krystal, it was a
successful blow. The break was
now large
enough for her to put her arm right through and
reach the latch on the window. It was stiff, but she
felt
very strong even without breakfast. In
a moment the
window flew open, and she
climbed through.

~~~~
Chapter
Twenty-seven
~~~~

Riding High

Matthew mumbled as Krystal
took out her camping knife
again, and
finished cutting the cords around his feet. The
cord was still half cut, where she had started last night. It
seemed like a long time ago now.

In a few minutes the ropes
dropped to the floor, and
Matthew kicked
his legs in the air, mumbling happily.

"Hold your horses," Krystal
scolded, then began to cut
the ropes on his
hands, and finally the tie around his
mouth. "Are you very sore?" she asked, staring at the
red
marks on Matthew's wrists.

"Just a bit," Matthew
replied gallantly. "But I wish
you'd taken
the thing off my mouth first, 'cause I wanted
to say something."

"I did that because I
figured if you had your feet free,
you
could make a run for it. It's not much use being able
to yell and do nothing else, is it?" she
reasoned.

"I guess so," Matthew agreed
half-heartedly.

"We'd better get going
before those guys get back,"
said Krystal,
anxiously looking out the window.

"I think they'll be gone for
a long time, that's why I
wanted to say
something. I heard the fellow called Cad
book a flight on an aeroplane. I think they left me
here
for dead," Matthew
lamented.

"I don't know about that!
There's a horse in the stables.
They
wouldn't just go and leave the poor thing, would
they?" Krystal wondered.

"Yeah, their horse is
probably more important to them
than me.
Morrie will probably come back. What do we
do now?" Matthew asked, walking stiffly around the
room, getting used to his leg's movements
again.

"I wonder if they have a
telephone here?" Krystal
looked around the
room. "Where did he make the
telephone call
from?"

"He used one of those mobile
jobs." Matthew scanned
the room as he
spoke. He turned the knob of the bedroom
door. It was locked. "Looks like they definitely left
me
for dead. It's a good thing you came
along," he said as he
pushed against the
door with his shoulder.

The door wouldn't move.

"We'd better leave the same
way I came in!" Krystal
began to climb
through the opened window.

Matthew followed as she
leapt outside onto the
verandah. "Now
what?" he asked looking around at the
lovely bush setting. "It's a nice place, real bushy. I
wonder where we are?"

"I'm not sure, but it's not
too far away from home. The
drive was about
fifteen minutes, so we should be able to
find our way back again." Krystal was already climbing
up the large mango tree next to the verandah.
"I'll have a look from up here," she yelled down.

In a few minutes she leapt
down again. "It's very thick
bush. I think
we might have to do a little bit of riding. I
hope the horse is friendly!" She began to make her way
towards the stables.

"Hey, wait, someone's
coming," said Matthew, as he
grabbed
Krystal's arm.

The two crouched down behind the nearest
bush.

"Over there!" said Matthew,
nodding his head towards
some scrub near
the house.

"Must be Morrie," Krystal
whispered. Quickly she felt
around for a
stone. She picked up one as big as the palm
of her hands. "This'll do," she said. She half-stood,
then
flung the stone as far as she could.
They heard a rustle in
the scrub as it
landed about ten metres away on the
opposite side to the figure of what they thought was
Morrie.

"Look over there!" Something
large was moving
through the bush. "It's
not Morrie!" said Matthew
happily, "it's
just a kangaroo!"

Krystal stood up, relieved.

"Krysty, I don't get it. Why
did you throw that stone
over
there."

"To cause a distraction of
course," she replied sharply.
"If it had
been Morrie he would have gone over there
while we made it to the stable. Well, we'd better get a
move on. Our parents will be getting up, and
there'll be
terrible trouble when they find
out we're missing." She
moved faster
towards the stable as she spoke.

Matthew had to jog to keep up with her.

As they reached the horse
she jerked her head and
neighed. "Wonder
what's its name? Hello Nudge,"
Krystal
raised her hand to pat the animal. The horse
moved away.

"I heard Cad call her
'Dilly'," said Matthew excitedly.
"Sorry
Dilly; I'm a bit silly," said Krystal, still holding

her hand out. They laughed. It felt good to
laugh.

Dilly made a soft neighing sound, and moved
towards

Krystal.

"It must be her name!"
Krystal exclaimed. She patted
Dilly's neck.
Dilly relaxed. "Would you like to take two
children for a ride, Dilly?" Krystal asked the
horse.

"But there's no saddle
here," objected Matthew,
looking around.
How can we stay on?"

"We'll ride bareback, and
just hang on. Well, it's either
ride or
walk." Krystal had made up her mind. She was
already looking forward to the experience.

"I don't suppose they have a spare bicycle?"
Matthew asked, standing back and waiting as Krystal opened the
half-door.

"I don't think so. Come on
Dilly," Krystal coaxed.
"Stay still," she
commanded, as she scrambled up on the
horse's back.

She looked down at Matthew.
He looked small.
"There's a good view from
here. Come on, I'll give you a
hand." She
stretched her hand towards Matthew.

In a few moments Matthew was
sitting behind Krystal
and hanging on with
all his might.

"It feels great being up
here. The whole world looks
like it's
waking up," Matthew looked with awe towards
the rising sun.

"Okay, let's go for a ride,"
said Krystal, giving Dilly a
gentle kick
with her heels.

Matthew hung on tightly to
Krystal as they bounced
along.

Had Tracey and Kevin gotten
help? Had they made it
home? Krystal
wondered, as Dilly cantered along the
dusty
track.

~~~~
Chapter
Twenty-eight
~~~~

Blue Goo

Tracey bent over Kevin's
still form, listening for his
breathing and
heartbeat. "Kevin," she whispered, "it's
me, Tracey. Are you okay?"

He groaned.

Tracey burst out crying with relief.

"My neck...it hurts," Kevin moaned, opening
his eyes and staring at Tracey. "What happened?" he questioned.

"I was going to ask you
that!" she replied, pulling a
hankie out of
her pocket and blowing her nose. "We'd
better get you to a doctor, and try and make it to the
police," said Tracey, with a confidence she was
far from
feeling.

"Let's go then!" said Kevin,
attempting to rise, and
crumbling to the
ground again.

"Let me help," insisted
Tracey. "My mum's a nurse,
you know. I
might be a nurse one day too!"

She put her arm under
Kevin's shoulder and he
managed to get to
his feet.

Tracey hung her back pack on
her left shoulder, and she
supported Kevin
with her right arm and shoulder.
"There's a
light on at Mrs. Potter's place. If we can just
make it across the road, we'll ask her for help,"
Tracey
said encouragingly.

Somehow Tracey felt very
strong as they hobbled
across the road. She
hoped Mrs. Potter was up, and had
not just
left a light on by mistake. In a few minutes they
were knocking on Mrs. Potter's door.

"Who is it?" a voice said from behind the
door.

"It's Kevin and me, Tracey Roberts! We need
help," Tracey replied.

The door opened about ten
centimetres. It was held by
a short chain.
Part of Mrs. Potter's nose, mouth and one
eye stared through the opening. She undid the chain and opened
the door.

"What on earth happened?"
She dropped the wooden
rolling pin in her
hand and reached out to help Kevin.
She
ushered them into the kitchen and sat Kevin down on
a wooden chair with a floral cushion. The kitchen
light
was dim.

"I knew something was going
on. I saw you children
going into that old
place. Not good, I thought, not good!"

She brought a glass of blue
coloured liquid out of the
fridge. "Drink
this." She shoved the glass near Kevin's
lips.

He sipped cautiously.

"Mrs. Potter, would you mind
if we rang the police.
There's something
really bad going on," Tracey
requested.

"I'm sorry, child, I don't
have one of those fancy
telephones. When we
were growing up we never needed those sorts of things. Out at
Birdsville we just visited the
post office
once a week to get all the local news. Things
have changed since then...," her voice trailed
on.
"Don't worry, I'll run to the police
station. It'll be
quicker than a telephone.
Will you take care of Kevin
then?" Tracey
asked, turning to leave.

"I'll take good care of the
lad, to be sure," she replied,
coaxing
Kevin to drink more of the blue goo. "Now,
young man, where do you hurt?" she queried, eyeing
Kevin all over.