The Moonshiner: An Australian Outback Romance by Lucy Walker

Author:Lucy Walker [Walker, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small town and rural, outback romance, clean romance, clean and wholesome, australian romance, autstralian rural romance, australian author, australian rural novels
Publisher: Wyndham Books (Small Town & Rural Romance)
Published: 2022-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

He went back through the dressing-room and into the living-room. He sat on the edge of his stretcher, which was now unfolded and stretched out in the far corner near the telephone table. He rolled himself a cigarette. There was a frown between his brows. Presently he got up and lifted the telephone receiver. He pressed down a lever on the switchboard with his finger and stood listening for some time.

‘That you, Arthur?’ he said when a voice answered the other end of the line. ‘All quiet with you now? Good, same here. It should hit in another minute or two and you’ll get it first. Anything come down at all? That big old yard gum? I’m sorry about that. I was fond of that old tree. The garages and engine-room all right? Good. Everything’s right here but I’m a bit uneasy about the crosspieces under the roofing iron. It’s why I came up. They were never bolted down when this place was built. Well, we’ll see how it goes in the next ten minutes. If the roof weathers that it will be all right. What’s that? Oh, Arnold. Oh yes. Well, how’s he making out? That’s so? He did say he came from the West and they sure know a lot of cyclones off the Ninety Mile Beach. Pretty capable, is he? Good. I’m glad to hear he’s making out. Tell him all’s well here and Miss Joan Yelland is indulging pleasant dreams right now. She’s probably asleep … Okay, Arthur. Tell him to ring her in the morning. What, the blow’s begun, has it? Right, hang up. Good night and good luck!’

‘Thanks a lot.’

Edmond put down the receiver and went to the door leading to the boxed-in veranda. He inhaled the smoke of his cigarette and expelled it slowly as he stood, his head slightly on one side, listening. He could hear the growl and swoosh and whine of the wind as it came up the rise.

He clamped his teeth together and the muscles firmed at the side of his jaw as he waited for the bang. It was as if a myriad hordes of screaming fiends hit the west side of the homestead simultaneously. The house shuddered but stood firm. From above there came an ominous creak. Edmond threw down his cigarette and put his foot on it. The electric light had gone out again. One Aladdin was burning in the sitting-room and it gave him enough light to swing up the ladder he had already set against the west wall of the veranda into the manhole that led into the cavity between the ceiling and the roofing iron. He had a torch already stuck in his belt.

Inside the manhole, with a single gesture, he switched on the torch and reached for one of the several lengths of chain that were hanging in readiness from a cross beam.

The chain length in one hand and the torch in the other he walked gingerly round, stepping lightly from beam to beam, never once wavering in his balance.

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