Barry gave a joyful cry and dashed ahead. They heard him shout again as they hurried after him.
The path ended in a wide space clear of trees. On their left, the creek had broadened out until it was a great pool; a whirlpool of wild water that boiled and foamed and eddied, before it rushed away over the stony bed between the walls of scrub. Behind it the hill rose sharp and rugged, a mass of grey rocks, where mosses and lichen clung, and stunted bushes struggled for a foothold. A huge, rough mass showed near the top, fifty feet above them: and over it, in a smooth and glistening curve, lit by a dancing rainbow where the sun’s rays struck it, poured the waters of the Fall.
Half-way down, the wonderful wall of shining water was broken by a fang of rock that jutted from the hillside. The fall split upon it, shooting out on either side, to meet again, lower down, so that the united curtain flung its whole weight into the boiling waters of the pool. But where it was cleft by the jutting rock, a dancing curtain of spray hung like a misty veil before it, catching the rainbow light from above and multiplying it into a myriad gleams of flying colour. One might fancy one saw all the fairies of air and water dancing in the opal mist.
“Oh!” said Robin—“oh!” She sat down on the grass, hugging her knees, and stared up as though she were worshipping. It was long before any of them spoke.
“Well!” said Dr. Lane at last—leaning near her, because of the roar of falling water. “It was worth the walk, don’t you think, kiddies?”
They nodded: there was awe on each young face.
“Come along,” Dr. Lane said. “We can’t afford to wait too long, considering the track home; and the billy must be boiled. Let us get a little farther back, where we can watch the Falls and hear ourselves speak as well.”
But no one seemed to have much wish to speak: the wonder of the Falls held them all silent. They boiled their billy and ate lunch under a big tree at the edge of the scrub, saying little, but watching the dancing mist-rainbows on the face of the water, and the splendid curve above, like polished black marble. Robin sighed heavily when at length Dr. Lane gave the word to march.
“Well, I was always sorry that I didn’t see it,” she said. “But it was worth waiting for. It’s like a dream, to take home for keeps. If only I could make Mother see it too!”
“We don’t know what is going to happen next year,” Dr. Lane said, wisely. “If we managed to camp where we halted to-day—and found a man who could tell us more about the track—and got the two Mothers into hard condition by judicious exercise—who knows what we may not arrive at! At any rate we’ll have a try. Red Robin!”