Free The man at Kambala by Kay Thorpe Page B

States some time?'
    `I don't suppose there is.' Sara wondered why she couldn't rouse herself to more enthusiasm for this conversation than she felt at the moment. Here was a very attractive and rather nice young man paying her just the kind of attention all girls were supposed to like, whether they believed it or not, and yet she might just as well have been talking to Chipper for all it meant to her. Travis was so young, and it was a well-known fact that girls were always emotionally ahead of boys hi s their age group. But it was more than just that, she realized. The whole atmosphere between them was lacking in any kind of excitement. Yesterday with Steve in the car, her pulses had been racing and her heart hammering into her throat before he had even touched her. Not fear, more a kind of quivering anticipation. And yet he wasn't half as nice as Travis. He bullied her, mocked her, even threatened her when he felt like it. It didn't make any sense.
    She came back to earth to find Travis standing right in front of her, his face resolute. 'I don't usually have to do any asking,' he was saying, 'but I want very badly to kiss you, Sara. Are you going to let me?'
    Her mouth went stiff. 'Chipper . .
    `He's off exploring. We'll probably have to look for him when we want to go back.' He put a hand on her forearm, smiling, his face a little flushed. 'You're so different. I don't think I've ever felt quite like this about anybody before.'
    She gazed at him like a child at a problem picture, not at all sure how to handle the situation. She liked Travis so much — what she knew of him — and she knew that if she said no then he'd accept it without attempting to force the issue. It was perhaps this latter fact which helped to make up her mind — that, and a certain curiosity. She smiled back suddenly. 'Why not?'
    His mouth was cool and gentle and tasted of mint. Sara found the experience pleasant and somehow
    comforting, and felt no particular wish to stop it. Only
    when his arms started to tighten and his lips to move against hers did she stiffen slightly and draw back.
    Travis let her go at once. He looked a bit sheepish. `Sorry,' he murmured. 'I got a bit carried away. Haven't you been kissed before?'
    `Not since I was sixteen,' she admitted. 'And the boy was the same age, so it didn't get far.' She pushed her hair back and summoned a smile. 'You don't have to be sorry, Travis. You didn't do anything out of place. We'd better look for Chipper and get back.'
    Looking for Chipper proved no great difficulty. His voice came excitedly from the other side of the big rock over which he had scrambled a moment or two before. `Hey, come and look ! I've found a big one !'
    `Stay away from it Chipper!' called Sara urgently. She took a hasty step twards the voice, slipped on some loose stones and fell heavily against a jutting piece of rock at her back. There was a burning sensation under her left shoulder-blade and an arrow of pain as she pushed herself upright again, but she shook her head when Travis asked if she was hurt. 'No, I'm all right. Get to Chipper before he does something silly.'
    They found the boy peering regretfully down a slit between two rocks. 'It got away. You should have seen it, Travis. Real long, it was, and thin with a funny
    pattern. I wonder what kind it was.'
    `It could have been a lot of kinds,' said Sara steadily, pushing away the terrifying image of what it sounded like. 'You mustn't ever go too near a snake, Chipper, unless you're quite sure it's harmless. They'll nearly always get away if they can, but if they're cornered they'll defend themselves.' Her back was really hurting now and she was having difficulty in not showing it. `Come on, it's time we were going back.'
    The climb down was painful. She could feel her shirt clinging to her back and hoped that it was perspiration and not blood. She kept her back to both Travis and Chipper as much as possible as they walked through the low scrub to the fence, and for