WORRALS GOES AFOOT
by Capt. W. E. Johns
10. INTO THE WILDERNESS (Pages
132 – 143)
As soon as Mali has left, Worrals sends
Frecks to go and untie the two horses that have been
left behind. Worrals
calmly gets a water-skin filled with precious water, essential for any trip in
the desert. They then put bridles and
saddles on the horses. Suddenly there is
a shout and an exhausted Danakil has arrived from the beach. “It needed little effort to guess the
information he had brought”. The girls
bolt on the horses as bullets start to fly around them. Once out of range, the girls slow down as
they don’t want to catch up the caravan that left earlier. Worrals is hoping
the caravan will lead to Cosmo’s main dump as that is all she wants to know and
then they can see about getting back.
The girls and the horses have to stand the fierce heat of the desert as
they journey. Eating their meagre
supplies of fruit and chocolate and drinking sparingly, they travel until the
sun goes down. “That sun would have
killed an English horse unless it was watered regularly. We’ll give ours a drink and have one
ourselves” says Worrals. Worrals explores
ahead, beyond an outcrop of rocks, and sees in the distance what looks like the
top of palms. That must be an oasis
where the caravan has stopped. Worrals plans to wait for the moon to come up and then to
reconnoitre the oasis. First they rest
and share their fruit and chocolate. “I
think it’s time we were moving,” said Worrals,
rising.
Below is the actual handwritten first page
of this chapter by W. E. Johns. Note the
addition of the chapter title in pencil, presumably at a later date. The typed text is to assist reading.
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This page appears to have become separated
from the rest of the manuscript because W. E. Johns pulled it out to write a
list on the back. The list, shown below, would appear to a
list of plants or bulbs. I don’t know if
the manuscript for this book still exists, but if it does, I would love to reunite it with this
missing page. If you have it, contact
me at rogerharris@biggles.info |
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