Bunyip Land | Page 3

as sure as I live. There, that I will."
"There, doctor, did you ever hear such a boy?" cried nurse.
"Never," said the doctor. "Why, Joe, my boy," he cried as I stood shrinking from him, ready to defend myself from his remonstrances, "your ideas do you credit. I didn't think you had it in you."
"Then you don't think it is wrong of me, doctor?" I said, catching his hand.
"No, my boy, I do not," he said gravely; "but it is a task for strong and earnest men."
"But I am strong," I said; "and if I'm not a man I'm in real earnest."
"I can see that, my lad," said the doctor, with his brown forehead filling with thoughtful wrinkles; "but have you counted the cost?"
"Cost!" I said. "No. I should get a passage in a coaster and walk all the rest of the way."
"I mean cost of energy: the risks, the arduous labours?"
"Oh, yes," I said; "and I sha'n't mind. Father would have done the same if I was lost."
"Of course he would, my lad; but would you go alone?"
"Oh, no," I replied, "I should take a guide."
"Ah, yes; a good guide and companion."
"There, Master Joseph, you hear," said nurse. "Doctor Grant means that sarcastical."
"No, I do not, nurse," said the doctor quietly; "for I think it a very brave and noble resolve on the part of our young friend."
"Doctor!"
"It has troubled me this year past that no effort has been made to find the professor, who, I have no doubt, is somewhere in the interior of the island, and I have been for some time making plans to go after him myself."
Nurse Brown's jaw dropped, and she stared in speechless amazement.
"Hurray, doctor!" I cried.
"And I say hurray too, Joe," he cried. "I'll go with you, my lad, and we'll bring him back, with God's help, safe and sound."
The shout I gave woke Jimmy, who sprang to his feet, dragged a boomerang from his waistband, and dashed to the door to throw it at somebody, and then stopped.
"You'll break his mother's heart, doctor," sobbed nurse. "Oh! if she was to hear what you've said!"
"I did hear every word," said my mother, entering from the next room, and looking very white.
"There, there," cried nurse, "you wicked boy, see what you've done."
"Mother!" I cried, as I ran to her and caught her--poor, little, light, delicate thing that she was--in my arms.
"My boy!" she whispered back, as she clung to me.
"I must go. I will find him. I'm sure he is not dead."
"And so am I," she cried, with her eyes lighting up and a couple of red spots appearing in her cheeks. "I could not feel as I do if he were dead."
Here she broke down and began to sob, while I, with old nurse's eyes glaring at me, began to feel as if I had done some horribly wicked act, and that nothing was left for me to do but try to soothe her whose heart I seemed to have broken.
"Oh, mother! dear mother," I whispered, with my lips close to her little pink ear, "I don't want to give you pain, but I feel as if I must--I must go."
To my utter astonishment she laid her hands upon my temples, thrust me from her, and gazing passionately in my great sun-browned face she bent forward, kissed me, and said:
"Yes, yes. You've grown a great fellow now. Go? Yes, you must go. God will help you, and bring you both safely back."
"Aw--ugh! Aw--ugh! Aw--ugh!" came from the verandah, three hideous yells, indicative of the fact that Jimmy--the half-wild black who had attached himself to me ever since the day I had met him spear-armed, and bearing that as his only garment over the shoulder, and I shared with him the bread and mutton I had taken for my expedition--was in a state of the utmost grief. In fact, he had thrown himself down on the sand, and was wallowing and twisting himself about, beating up the dust with his boomerang, and generally exciting poor old nurse's disgust.
"Mother!" I cried; and making an effort she stood up erect and proud.
"Mr Grant," she exclaimed, "do you mean what you say?"
"Most decidedly, my dear madam," said the doctor. "I should be unworthy of the professor's friendship, and the charge he gave me to watch over you in his absence, if I did not go."
"But your practice?"
"What is that, trifling as it is, to going to the help of him who gave me his when I came out to the colony a poor and friendless man?"
"Thank you, doctor," she said, laying her hand in his.
"And I go the more willingly," he said smiling, "because I know it will be the best prescription for your case. It will bring you back your health."
"But, doctor--"
"Don't say another word," he