A primitive winding-gear and a heap of slag marked the
position of a small manganese mine which had been the cause for
prolonging the single line railway so far into the Bush. To the west and
south and north stretched scrub and bush, right away to forest and
purple hills on the far horizon. Eastward the glittering rails shone
back to the city, sending out blinding little flashes of light as the
sun caught them.
The guard and driver got leisurely out of the train and stood on the
platform; the stationmaster-cum-porter-cum-hotel-keeper, in a pair of
dungaree trousers and a dusty vest of flesh-coloured cellular material
which gave him the effect of nakedness, stared at them as though
passengers were the last phenomenon he had expected to see.
"Cripes! What yous want?" he said.
"Are we far from anywhere?" asked Marcella, smiling at him. He spat
assiduously through a knothole in the boarding and looked from her to
Louis.
"Depends on what you call far," he said reflectively. "There's Gaynor's
about fifteen miles along, an' Loose End nigh on thirty. Where yous
makin' for, then?"
"I should say Loose End would suit us, by the sound of it," said Louis
with a laugh. "But it isn't much use starting out to-night."
The stationmaster looked proprietorially towards the station and the
hotel site.
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