The Foot of Time: A Novel of Australia and the South Seas: (1933)

236 THE FOOT OF TIME
Edith more'n I can say, and so would the missus.
And I've your solemn 'Alfred-David'?"
"You have, Sir."
"Then here's my hand to you, my boy, if so be
as you'll take it, and I wish to—I wish I could
give you Edith with it."
CHAPTER XXIV.
BUSHED.
BRUCE turned quietly and left him. He went out
disconsolate. The boy turned, half unthinkingly,
towards the bush where he and Edith had wandered
off that day, now so very long ago—the day he
told her of his love, and asked her to wait for him.
He found the track along which they had wandered,
and wistful to see the spot so sacred to him,
strolled listlessly on and on. The bush had suffered
a bushfire since that day, and the undergrowth was
replaced by new growth. Bruce came at length
to the spot which most resembled it. His shoe lace
had come undone, and he glanced round to find a
tree stump upon which to rest his foot the better
to adjust the fastening. That one might serve.
No, it was alive with ants. He turned three-quarters
round. What about that one? No. it was unsteady.
Another part turn. Yes, that one had a flat
top. He stooped and re-tied the lace, then erect
again he stepped forward to return. Funny! North,
south, east and west were precisely similar. Which
direction was which? Ridiculously simple. Why,
he was within ten yards of where he was walking!
And now Bruce was lost. He didn't know it yet,
but he would. Oh, yes, he would know it, and so