“You, of course,” Easter smiled.
“Of course,” Bony concurred without a smile. “Look! the day is dawning. The best time for meditation is when day dawns.”
Meditation at daybreak; when the sun rose! Easter stood, scratched his chin, and docilely followed Bony to the veranda. He felt like the man who hopes to win a five-pound prize in a lottery and wins fifty thousand. He had searched for a woman at first thought to have fallen from a train; and now was given a picture of a female spy, mysterious helicopters, rockets and atom bombs.
Chapter Three
A Ship at Sea
THEREcan be only one simile when telling of the Nullarbor Plain.
The jeep was like a ship on a completely calm ocean. To the east the sea was softly grey, and to the west it was softly green, and when the sun passed the meridian, the colours would be reversed. Astern of the jeep, three miles away, the tiny settlement of Chifley, despite reduction in size, appeared to be less than half a mile distant. The tiny houses guarded by the water-tower were the focal point of a fence built across the world. The wires could not be seen but the posts could be counted-telegraph posts flanking the ribbon of steel joining East with West Australia.
The track was merely twin marks of tyre-rasped earth and, between the marks and to either side, the foot-high saltbush was the universal covering. Neither ahead nor astern could the motor track be seen beyond fifty yards, and one felt it was an eyesore and ought not to be there. The first exploring vehicle had to avoid rock-slabs and sometimes arock-hole, and every succeeding vehicle had rigidly kept to those same tracks.
“This Mount Singular?” asked Bony.“Large holding?”
“According to the Survey not particularly large, a thousand square miles or so,” replied Easter.