Baxter shrugged. “I’ve got my kit, what there is left of it. This is where I use it.”
“Haven’t you enough worries?”
Baxter grinned wanly. “Better than walking the floor. Rod, they’re stirring again. Hadn’t we better build up the fires?”
“Mmm . . . not if we’re going to make it last. I don’t think they can come through that.”
Baxter did not answer, as a joe came through at that instant. It ploughed through the smouldering fire and Baxter speared it. Rod cupped his hands and shouted, “Build up the fires! But go easy.
“Behind you, Rod!”
Rod jumped and whirled, got the little devil. “Where did that one come from? I didn’t see it.”
Before Bob could answer Caroline came running out of darkness. “Bob! Bob Baxter! rve got to find Bob Baxter!”
“Over here!” Rod called.
Baxter was hardly able to speak. “Is she is she?” His face screwed up in anguish.
“No, no!” yelled Caroline. “She’s all right, she’s fine. It’s a girl!”
Baxter quietly fainted, his spear falling to the ground. Caroline grabbed him and kept him from falling into the fire. He opened his eyes and said, “Sorry. You scared me. You’re sure Carmen is all right?”
“Right as rain. The baby, too. About three kilos. Here, give me that sticker Carmen wants you.”
Baxter stumbled away and Caroline took his place. She grinned at Rod. “I feel swell! How’s business, Roddie? Brisk? I feel like getting me eight or nine of these vermin.
Cowper came up a few minutes later. Caroline called out, “Grant, did you hear the good news?”
“Yes. I just came from there.” He ignored Caroline’s presence at the guard line but said to Rod, “We’re making a stretcher out of pieces of the flume and they’re going to haul Carmen up. Then they’ll throw the stretcher down and you can burn it.”
“Good.”
“Agnes is taking the baby up. Rod, what’s the very most we can crowd into the cave?”
“Gee!” Rod glanced up at the shelf. “They must be spilling off the edge now.
“I’m afraid so. But we’ve just got to pack them in. I want to send up all married men and the youngest boys. The bachelors will hold on here.”
“I’m a bachelor!” Caroline interrupted. Cowper ignored her. “As soon as Carmen is safe we do it we can’t keep fires going much longer.” He turned away, headed up to the cave.
Caroline whistled softly. “Roddie, we’re going to have fun.”
“Not my idea of fun. Hold the fort, Carol. I’ve got to line things up.” He moved down the line, telling each one to go or to stay.
Jimmy scowled at him. “I won’t go, not as long as anybody stays. I couldn’t look Jackie in the face.”
“You’ll button your lip and do as Grant says or I’ll give you a mouthful of teeth. Hear me?”
“I hear you. I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to like it, just do it. Seen Jackie? How is she?”
“I snuck up a while ago. She’s all right, just queasy. But the news about Carmen makes her feel so good she doesn’t care.”
Rod used no age limit to determine who was expendable. With the elimination of married men, wounded, and all women he had little choice; he simply told those whom he considered too young or not too skilled that they were to leave when word was passed. It left him with half a dozen, plus himself, Cowper, and possibly Caroline. Trying to persuade Caroline was a task he had postponed.
He returned and found Cowper. “Carmen’s gone up,” Cowper told him. “You can send the others up now.
“Then we can burn the roof of the Baxter house.”
“I tore it down while they were hoisting her.” Cowper looked around. “Carol! Get on up.
She set her feet. “I won’t!”
Rod said softly, “Carol, you heard him. Go up right now!”
She scowled, stuck out her lip, then said, “All right for you, Roddie Walker!” turned and fled up the path.
Rod cupped his hands and shouted, “All right, everybody! All hands up but those I told to stay. Hurry!”
About half of those leaving had started up when Agnes called down, “Hey! Take it slow! Somebody will get pushed over the edge if you don’t quit shoving.”