After an hour and a half, the track began to descend, winding towards a thickly vegetated valley. It turned a bend and they crossed the Aberfeldy River. In its summer torpor it drizzled around the rocks and boulders that marked its course but in winter, as Adelaide had discovered on one of her excursions, it turned into a raging, uncrossable torrent. Adelaide paused at a deeper pool to allow the horses to drink. She dismounted and soaked the handkerchief she had tied around her neck in the pool. Caleb followed her lead.

Above the sighing of the wind in the trees came another sound: the roaring of an angry beast tearing at the bars of its cage.

‘That’s the fire?’ Caleb asked.

She nodded. ‘Surely they can’t have got much further?’ She swung back into the saddle. The mare laid her ears back, snorting as Adelaide kicked her on. ‘She knows we’re going in the wrong direction,’ Adelaide said. She leaned forward and patted the mare’s neck. ‘It’s all right, girl. Not much further.’

The track started to climb again, winding up to the next ridge. Above the wind and the distant roar of the fire, Adelaide caught something else, the faint nicker of a horse. For a moment she thought she’d imagined it but her horse had heard it too. Her ears pricked up and she gave an answering whinny. The other horse replied, closer now.

Adelaide rose in her stirrups, scanning the road ahead. Then she pulled her handkerchief up over her nose and mouth and pressed forward, the horse baulking beneath her, its instinct to flee fire fighting with its training to obey its rider. She put her heels to her horse and it finally broke into a trot and then a canter. Caleb followed, the horses surefooted on the uneven track.

At the top of the ridge, Adelaide drew rein. Danny’s pony stood just off the road, its reins tangled in a fallen tree. Caleb was off his horse in an instant, handing the reins to Adelaide.

The little beast shied back as he approached, whickering in alarm. He held out his hand and made a soft cooing noise. Being well and truly caught, the little horse had no choice but to let him approach. He stroked its nose and whispered in its ear and the pony calmed, allowing him to untangle the reins and lead it over to Adelaide.

‘They can’t be too far,’ Caleb said. ‘I’ll lead the pony.’

The horses put their heads down, ears pinned back as Adelaide and Caleb pushed on into the smoke. Around them the bush came alive with the crashing of wallabies and other small animals escaping the red devil that chased them from the peace and security of their bush homes.