Camel Rider by Prue Mason

Author:Prue Mason
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742283166
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Published: 2009-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

MIDDAY, DAY TWO

‘I’m not going to eat Marge. Never!’

I could strangle Walid. He’s managed to hack the legs off poor Marge. But even though he’s collected a heap of firewood ready to roast them over, he’s stuck now because he’s got no matches to light the fire.

I almost feel sorry for him. The way he looks disappointed. I think he meant well, even though what he did was so heartless. I just don’t know how he could kill a living, breathing, trusting animal like that.

‘Let’s get rid of the carcass anyway,’ I say. ‘It stinks and the flies … It’s revolting.’

We both drag what’s left of Marge around the back of the bushes. At least I don’t have to look at her now.

While Walid’s sitting by his heap of firewood, playing with the knife I was so stupid as to give to him, I’m thinking about that Toyota truck. People wouldn’t be driving through the mountains for no reason. They must have been Bedu. My dad says that Bedu are usually friendly, but you have to be careful not to get on the wrong side of them or say the wrong thing because they can be pretty fierce. He says they live by the rules of the desert, which are pretty much ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.

I guess they must have been out looking for something, or somebody. Then, like I’m waking up, I realise.

They must have been looking for me. It’s been over twenty-four hours now, and my mum would have arrived in Melbourne last night, our time. She and Dad would know by now that I didn’t get to Suman and they would have sent somebody to come and look for me.

Now I really hope I am rescued. Except for Marge’s raw legs, we’ve got nothing to eat. All my clever plans are totally blown. Even if I get a major telling off with the certainty of being grounded for years, at least I’ll be alive.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if the Americans have arrived in Abudai by now and everything’s back to normal. Maybe my dad is even at home with Tara right now. Yeah, I bet that’s what’s happened.

If only there was some way of sending a message telling those Bedu where we are. I try to think how they might have done it in the old days when nobody had phones. Then it hits me. Smoke signals. Of course. But we need to light a fire for that, too. I look at Walid’s heap of wood. I’m as stuck as he is.

‘If only I could find one small piece of glass. With this, the sun could make a spark in this dried wood.’

‘What we need is a bit of glass,’ I say to Walid as he’s sitting there flicking out all the little tools on the Swiss Army knife. It’s then I see it. We both see it at the same time. The magnifying glass.

We turn and slam our hands together in a hi-five.

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