Read Ebook: From Billabong to London by Bruce Mary Grant Leist Fred Illustrator

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Ebook has 194 lines and 20500 words, and 4 pages

No one spoke for a moment. Then Wally got up quietly and moved towards the door.

"Don't go, Wally, my boy," Mr. Linton said. "You're so much one of the family that you may as well join the family councils. No, there's nothing exactly wrong, Norah. But there are happenings."

"Jim's going?" said Norah, quickly. Her keen eyes saw that the new and unfamiliar shadow had lifted from her brother's face. Jim nodded, smiling at her.

"Yes, I'm going. Dad says it's all right."

Norah drew a long breath, and Wally gave an irrepressible whistle of delight.

"Lucky dog--I'm so glad!" he cried. "Oh, why can't I be eighteen!"

"There will be plenty of fighting after you are eighteen," Mr. Linton said. "This isn't going to be any lightning business. But that's not all, Norah. Your old father has to pack up, too. I must go to England."

"Daddy! You!"

The voice was a cry. Then Norah shut her lips tightly, and said nothing more, looking at her father.

"It's business," he said hurriedly. "I don't want to go, my girl. It may not take me long."

There was a long pause.

"I can't ask to go," said Norah at last, rather breathlessly. "It's too big a thing--not like a trip to Melbourne or Sydney. I know it would cost a fearful lot of money--and there are other things. It's--it's all right, Daddy, if you say so--only I want to know. Have I got to stay behind?"

There was no answer. Jim was watching the set, childish face pitifully, longing to help, and powerless. Norah got up from the arm of her father's chair at length, and turned her face away.

"It's--it's quite all right, Daddy," she said, unsteadily. "I understand. Don't go worrying."

"Worrying!" said David Linton, explosively. "No, I'm not going to worry--if I can help it: and I'm not going to leave you, either. We'll stick together, little mate."

"Daddy!" said Norah, very low. She went to him like a little child, and he put her on his knee, one arm round her, while Jim beamed on them both.

"I knew you couldn't do it," he said laughing. "It was so altogether ridiculous to think of old Nor here alone, and you and me at the other side of the world. Things like that simply can't occur!"

"Well--there may be danger" began his father.

"There would be strong danger of my losing my few wits if you did it," Norah said. "I thought I was going to lose them a minute ago, as it was. Oh, Daddy won't it be lovely! Think of the ship--and the queer ports--and England! It's the most wonderful thing that ever happened. And we'll be near Jim, and he'll get leave and come over to see us!"

"That's another thing," Mr. Linton said. "It's settled that you're to enlist, Jim; that matter is decided. But is there any particular reason why you should enlist in Australia?"

"In Australia?" repeated Jim, blankly. "Why--where else?"

"Well, if Norah and I are going home, why should we not all go together? You would have no difficulty in joining the Army in England, if boys of sixteen are getting commissions there."

"Oh, yes--you'd be quite a veteran, judging by to-day's news, Wally," said Mr. Linton, laughing. "There would be no difficulty at all, I should think, Jim; I know enough people in London to pull a few strings, though even that would hardly be necessary. But if you wanted a commission I should think it could be managed. It would leave us all together a bit longer."

"That would be ripping," Jim said, doubtfully. "I don't know, though; I'm an Australian, and I rather think Australians ought to stick together. And I would know such a lot of the fellows in our own contingent."

"That counts, of course," said his father. "But there's another point; there are rumours that our men may not be sent direct to the Front. You might get hung up in Egypt, or the Persian Gulf, or Malta; I've heard suggestions that the Australians should even be used for garrison duty in India."

"No; and it would mean that you might never get to England at all, to join Norah and me after the show. If you're going, I don't want you to be shelved in some out-of-the-way corner of the earth; I'd like you to have your chance."

"Oh, Jimmy, come with us!" said Norah. "Just think how jolly it would be--not like the voyage in a horrid old troopship, where you mightn't be allowed to see a single port. And perhaps we'd be together quite a lot in England, before you were sent to the Front."

Wally jumped up with such emphasis that his chair fell over backwards. He did not notice it.

"Let's all go!" he cried.

Three pairs of eyes turned upon him for information.

"If it's really true that boys younger than I am are being taken in England, I'd have a chance, wouldn't I, Mr. Linton?"

"I suppose you would--yes, of course, my boy. You're only a year younger than Jim, aren't you?"

"Yes--and he knows as much drill as I do, to say nothing of shooting and riding," Jim exclaimed. "Would you come, Wal?"

"I should just think I would!" Wally uttered. "But you'd have to join in England, Jim--not here."

"But your guardian--and your brothers, Wally. Would they be willing?" Mr. Linton asked. "It's rather an undertaking to arrange off-hand. And it would mean your leaving school."

"Well, you old goat!" said Jim, disgustedly. David Linton laughed.

"My dear boy, I think you're pretty well established as one of the family," he said. "You have been Jim's chum for five years, and somehow we've come to regard Billabong as your home. I have liked to think you felt that way about it, yourself."

"It's the only real home I ever remember," said Wally, still greatly confused. "And you've all been such bricks to me. I've quite forgotten I'm really a sort of lost dog."

"It's rude to say you're a lost dog, when you belong to Billabong," said Norah solemnly, though her eyes were dancing. "Isn't he talking a lot of nonsense, Dad?--and this is much too exciting an evening to waste any time. I wish someone would sort me out, for I'm all mixed-up in my mind. We're going to England, you and I, Dad."

"And me," said Wally, cheerfully disregarding grammar.

"And me, I suppose," Jim followed. "If you think I've as good a chance there, Dad?"

"Better, I should think--judging from the rush of men here," said his father.

"Then we're all going," finished Norah blissfully. "In a 'normously large ship, Dad?"

"Most certainly," said David Linton, hastily. "I came out forty years ago in a five-hundred tonner, and I've no desire to repeat the experience. We're built on lines that demand space, we Lintons."

"And when we get to London?"

"We'll settle down somewhere--where we can be near the boys until they are sent out to the Front, and I can attend to business."

"We'll wander about a bit until they come back to us. If it's likely to be long, you'll have to resume your neglected education, young woman," said her father severely.

"After the war," said Wally, happily, "we'll all meet in London, and see the Kaiser led in triumph down Piccadilly. My own preference leads me to hope that it will be on a donkey with his face towards the tail of the ass, but I'm sadly afraid the world has grown too civilised."

"Well, you can't call him and his crowd civilised, anyhow," Jim said.

"If we've any money left!" put in her father.

"Or even if we haven't," said Norah, and smiled at him--"we'll go back to Billabong!"

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