 From the studios of books in motion. This is Chris Faulkner reading Wallaby track book for in the Outback saga by Aaron Fletcher Now let's begin with chapter one Like she usually did after attending to a childbirth through the night Stephanie Thorpe had fallen asleep while returning home Her horse accustomed to finding its own way to the house drew her buggy down the road at a slow walk a Wheel jolted through a deep rut waking her Stephanie sat up and yawned and then glancing around in the thin light of dawn. She saw splatters of dried blood at the edge of the road Jerking the reins to stop her horse Stephanie scrambled out of the buggy The lily-pilly brush and kangaroo grass beside the road were crushed down Someone had fallen into it bleeding profusely and then crawled into the thick trees and undergrowth back from the road Darkness lingered under the eucalyptus trees Cockatoos and other birds had roosed in them just starting to stir But Stephanie could see well enough to follow the trail of broken foliage as she stepped through the undergrowth Glimpsing a man on the ground ahead she rushed toward him He was on his stomach either dead or unconscious In the tradition of generations of women in her family Stephanie was trained in medicine as well as midwifery Kneeling beside the man she felt his pulse He was alive, but only barely his pulse weak and irregular She carefully turned him on to his back About 40 he was stalky and had craggy features that were ashen from blood loss His coat and shirt were soaked with blood two bullet holes in the right side of his coat Stephanie ran back to the buggy grabbed cotton compresses and bandage rolls out of her bag on the seat and returned to the man One wound was in his right shoulder and the other high in his chest She placed compresses over the wounds and hastily wrapped bandages around the man's chest in shoulder to hold him tightly in place And then she began dragging the man toward the buggy to take him home to her father who was a physician 23 years old Stephanie was tall and slender the man weighed over 50 pounds more than she But she had wiry strength and was accustomed to moving heavy patients about She backed slowly through the underbrush being as gentle as possible while pulling the man along the ground At her buggy Stephanie hoisted the man across the floor of the small vehicle Squeezing into the buggy with the man she grabbed the whip out of its socket on the splashboard She cracked the whip above the horse's back and it leapt into a brisk trot down the road Stephanie and her father lived in Wallaby track a rural district with a village as its civic center In a region once inhabited by large numbers of wallabies The district was named for the ancient animal path that ran through it The widespread community lay in a long broad valley flanking the Hawkesbury River With farms and sheep runs and cattle pastures covering the fertile land back from the river to the tree-crested hills Overlooking the valley dawn Brightened into daylight But the Sun was behind thick clouds on the cold winter day in June of 1845 Raw gusty wind shredded smoke rising from chimneys at farmhouses where people moved about at morning chores Stephanie's house was on the right side of the road that led up a slope to the village With the forest farther up the road in the village at the top of the hill When she turned in at her house a large half-timbered structure that had been a farmhouse Stephanie saw smoke rising from the kitchen chimney She and her father shared household tasks Dispensing with a maid or a cook and he was preparing breakfast Stephanie tethered her horse at the side of the house and dashed into the surgery formerly a parlor Father she called down the hall Father I found a wounded man and he's in my buggy. He's been shot Her father rushed up the hall from the kitchen following her outside to the buggy Stephen Thorpe a ranger man of 52 was the origin for Stephanie's tall slender form blue eyes and finally modeled features Along with their close physical resemblance They shared devoted love for each other and a total unstinting dedication to their profession Stephen leaned into the buggy checking the man's pulse I believe I know how this man was shot. He must have been the cause of the bother that took place here about last night What sort of bother the convict evidently escaped from the prison in the village last night Sample complete ready to continue