All four lamps were lit now, but the closed wound had been liberally swabbed with antiseptic and tightly bandaged. Ross’s colour was better, but his pulse was more erratic than Terence would have liked, and his skin still felt feverish. ‘We’ll have to risk moving him and hope the stitches hold,’ he murmured as he washed his hands and face and took a long drink of water.

‘Then we’d better do it now,’ said Mike, who had gathered the horses together and was standing like a statue beyond the makeshift shelter.

Terence and the other two men crawled out of the cramped space and stared at the inferno that was now less than five miles away. The smoke-filled sky was red with fire as tongues of flame began to forge rivulets through the clumps of spinifex that dotted the landscape.

‘We’ll put Ross in the back of the ute,’ said Terence, snapping out of his horrified stupor. ‘It’ll be a less bumpy ride. Paddy, you sit with him and keep him sedated.’

The four of them carefully lifted the stretcher and carried it to the utility truck, where they jammed it in with bales of rope, the spare tyre, boxes of tools and the medical chest. Covering him with a blanket, Terence then placed his hat over the man’s face to ward off the dust and handed his medical bag to Paddy.

Fastening the tailgate, he shook hands with Mike and Sam the tracker, thanking them for all they’d done, and then climbed behind the steering wheel.

As the tracker slapped the reins over the back of the draught horse and the wagon pulled away, Mike tipped his hat at Terence and Paddy and, with Paddy’s horse on a leading rein, was soon lost in the rapidly gathering darkness.

Terence took one swift glance at the great sweep of fire that was now less than two miles away and turned the key in the ignition.

There was a whirr and a grinding cough – and then nothing. The engine was dead.

*

Sal was still in tears as she reached the top of the steep slope that led through the black basalt mountains to the miles of dirt track that would eventually take her back to Morgan’s Reach.

The engine whined and complained as it struggled to get up the hill, the heavy tyres slipping and sliding over the shale. It was unbearably hot and the sweat rolled down her face and back, her hands slippery with it as she gripped the steering wheel and silently urged the utility to make it to the top.

As she breached the hill and passed between the high black walls of the mountain Sal sighed with relief and brought it to a standstill so she could take a long drink from her water-bag. But as she looked out from her vantage point at the panorama spread before her all thought of thirst and heartache fled.