And so were we.
We just hadn’t been able to go that extra few feet up the hill and the flood swirled in its first crest just above us. I had the sense to see what was coming and to fill my lungs with air before the water hit us so I didn’t think I’d drown, but I thought I’d be torn in two as the fast water hit Novak and swung him off his feet.
With one hand grasping his belt I was holding the weight of two big men and I thought my arm would be sprung from its socket. The muscles in the other arm cracked as I desperately hung on to the tree and my lungs were bursting when I finally managed to gulp air.
That first great crest could not last long but while it did it filled the valley from side to side and was a hundred feet deep in that first great lunge to the south. But it dropped rapidly and I was thankful to find the strain taken from me as a policeman grabbed Novak.
He shook his head and gasped. ‘I couldn’t help it,’ he cried desolately. ‘I couldn’t hold him.’
Burke was gone!
There was a new, although impermanent, river below us which had calmed down to a steady and remorseless multi-million-gallon flow that would ebb, hour by hour, until there would be no more Matterson Lake — just the little stream called the Kinoxi River that had flowed from this valley for the last fifteen thousand years. But it was still a raging torrent, three hundred feet wide and fifty feet deep, when I staggered up and planted my boots firmly on that wonderful solid road.
I leaned on the side of the police car and shuddered violently and then became aware that someone was watching me. In the back of the car, sandwiched between two policemen, was Howard Matterson, and his teeth were drawn back in a wolf-like grin. He looked totally mad.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Get into the car — we’ll take you to the bottom.’
I shook my head. ‘If I travel with that man you couldn’t stop me killing him.’
The policeman gave me an odd look and shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’
I walked slowly down the road towards the bottom of the hill and desperately wondered if I would find Clare. I was glad to see some survivors; they picked their way slowly down the hillside and walked like somnambulists. I came across Donner; he was smeared with viscid mud from head to foot and was standing looking at the flood water as it streamed past. As I passed him I heard him muttering. Over and over again he was saying, ‘Millions of dollars; millions of dollars — all gone! Millions and millions.’
‘Bob! Oh, Bob!’
I swung round and the next moment Clare was in my arms, sobbing and laughing at the same time. ‘I thought you were dead,’ she said. ‘Oh, darling, I thought you were dead.’
I managed a grin. ‘The Mattersons had a last crack at me but I came through.’
‘Hey, Boyd!’ It was Crupper, no longer neat and trimly uniformed but looking like a tramp. Any one of his own men would have put him in jail just for looking like he did. He stuck his hand out. ‘I never expected to see you again.’
‘I thought the same about you,’ I said. ‘How many were lost?’
‘I know of five for certain,’ he said gravely. ‘We haven’t finished checking yet — and God knows what is happening downstream. They didn’t have much warning.’
‘You can make it seven for certain,’ I said. ‘Skinner and Burke both bought it. Novak came through.’
‘There’s a lot needs doing,’ said Crupper. ‘I’ll get on with it.’
I didn’t volunteer for anything. I’d had a bellyful of trouble and all I wanted to do was to go away somewhere and be very quiet. Clare took my arm. ‘Come,’ she said. ‘We’ll go away from here. If we climb the hill there we might be able to find a way round the flood.’
So we made our way up the hill very slowly, and at the top we rested a while and looked north over the Kinoxi Valley. The waters of Matterson Lake would fall very quickly to reveal the jagged stumps of a raped land. But the trees still stood in the north — the forest in which I had been hunted like an animal. I didn’t hate the forest because I reckoned it had saved my life in a way.
I thought I could see the green of the trees in the far distance. Clare and I had lost four million dollars between us because the Forestry Service would never allow a total cut now. Yet we were not displeased. The trees would stay and grow and be cut down in their season, and the deer would browse in their shade — and maybe I would have time to make friends with brother Bruin after having made amends for the scare I gave him.
Clare took my hand and we walked slowly along the crest of the hill. It was a long way home, but we’d make it.