Nash McLeod, Hard to Figure

Roger Waterman barked into his two-way radio.

Nash asked Lisa was she really prepared to attempt to get down the shaft.

"Yes, we have to get them all out. I won't be able to see if I do get down there."

"You'll have a light pack attached to your helmet. We'll tape the battery pace to your waist. Keep your clothes on. Well coat you in oil to help you slide if you hit the walls. Yell stop if you feel you are becoming trapped but it's a drilled shaft so the diameter ought to be the same all the way down."

"What do I so when I get down?"

"Dunno. Roger the engineer will brief you."

After a tense seven minutes Lisa radioed she was on the tunnel floor.

"Great Lisa. Let us retrieve the cable. Are you okay about that?"

"Yes."

"Then stand well clear and we'll lower proper lighting supplied by a generator up here. Don't be frightened by the noise. Then we'll lower two air hoses down. Are you breathing okay?"

"Yes."

"Well those guys trapped between airshafts might not be. When you have the improved lighting we'll lower you a stepladder. I then want you to climb right up the rock fall closest to you and up at the roof against the sidewall I want you to call out and if you hear voices just shout, help is on the way. We will lower thin aluminum tubing. You can then try to get that through to the guys you answered. You'll have to tell them where it's coming through. They'll pull that through and the line that goes through the tubing. You then tie the air hose to that line, tying it carefully, and they'll pull that through.

"What if no one answers?"

"Then you go back to the other rock fall and repeat the process."

"And what if no one answers?"

"Jesus Lisa."

"Sorry Roger. I can guess how you are feeling and I have no desire to spook you. Is there a chance I'll die down here."

"No way Lisa, don't even think about it."

"I'm fine Roger. Just don't lie to me again. Over and out."

Time seemed to crawl by.

"Lisa to Roger."

"Roger."

"I'm in contact with the night shift. Phil Smith says they were getting low on air."

"Great, you little beauty Lisa. Over and out."

"Roger, Phil has the tubing. That's almost four lengths so he says only 10ft of rock to get through, but it's jammed hard."

"Great, get the hose ready to be hauled through.

"Roger, Phil says air is reaching them. They can smell the sea in it. He's lying isn't he?"

"Yes Lisa, it's filtered air and very good for their health. Go down and repeat the process but tell Phil you are heading off to do that."

Ten minutes later, high up the ladder, Lisa called, "Hi, can anyone hear me?"

"Lisa what the hell are you doing? Get out of there."

"I'm here to help rescue you daddy. Report your situation."

Lisa found she had to get back to the airshaft to communicate clearly to Roger."

"Roger?"

"Yes Lisa."

"Daddy says the big fall must have trigger two further falls and they were caught between them. Clive Jenks is dead and two others have head wounds and two more broken legs. They are crammed between the two falls."

"Get air to them Lisa. Fill in details later."

"Roger, daddy and his crew have air."

"Okay they probably can hear our guys digging through to them. They are within fifty feet of the cage, which is good. We already have a mobile digger and compressors down at their level. How many pipe lengths did you have to push through.

"Six."

"Fuck... or pardon me Lisa. We must assume we are in for the long haul. We'll send down wider diameter piping that I want you to get to the night shift if you can. When we can get water and skinny canisters of food to them and give you a light and extension from this generator as their lights will be exhausted by now unless turned off for emergency use. I want you to brief them but..."

"Be honest but saying nothing negative."

"Aye, good girl. Stand clear, here comes the wider tubing."

Lisa untied that and took it to where she'd begun her work.

"Phil."

"Hi baby. And the others?"

"One didn't make it, two have cracked heads and two have broken limbs. Don't ask me to tell you who the fatality is."

"But not your dad."

"No he sounds fine."

"Thank Christ for that. He's our top man and the company will work hard to free him and that will be good for us."

"Phil I have wider tuber to try to get though to you. The first section has a pointed end."

"Good pull the air hose back to you and get started. Oh, don't cut the line."

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"You wouldn't be down here doing this if you were honey. I was just assisting your thinking process. You won't be mine adapted."

"I have been down here twice a year since I was twelve. It's became a ritual between daddy and me. He brought me down on Sundays for an underground picnic and to show me process."

"Thank Christ for that."

Lisa got the thicker tubing two-thirds of the way through when for the third time it almost jammed. She went back and reported to Roger and he said to unscrew the pointer nose and he'd lower a much heavier nose that could be used to try to ram it though. "But if it's a solid piece of rock impeding progress then we are stuffed."

She brief Phil. He said to untie the air hose line and tie it in behind the heavy head. "I'll pull to give the ram greater momentum.

"No, that's your safely line."

"Just do it Lisa. The boys and me are hungry."

On the third attempt the line broke.

"Oh Phil!"

"No sweat Lisa. Screw on another length of tubing and then withdraw the tubing about three feet and then go take hold of that last section about one-third from the end and charge forward. Let go when you meet resistance otherwise you might harm yourself."

Lisa thought no way would she let go because if she did it might nullify the shunt. She hurled forward and as she felt resistance grunted and threw all her weight behind the shove and felt it break through.

"Good girl Lisa. Where's our lunch?" Phil said laconically.

"Roger."

"Yes Lisa."

"The night shift boys are ready for lunch."

"God, marvelous Lisa. The press are beginning to arrive and TV is here and saying because of the nature of the rescue attempts this will be going out internationally."

"So what? That does nothing for these guys trapped down here."

"Spoken like a miner Lisa. Good girl. Coming down is a crate of water bottles and a ram. Load three bottles at a time, point the tops forward, but no more than three, and push them through with the ram. Then will come containers of hot beef stew and then buttered bread rolls. Don't hurry and push through everything three at a time. Ask do they require medical supplies and then get them to pull the air hose through."

The line pulling the air hose through.

"Phil called, "You have plenty of line. Pull the air hose back out. Tie it round the neck of one of the bottles and ram it through."

"Lisa to Roger. We are ready to put the air hose back on Phil's side."

"Good girl. I have reporters round me listening to this. They want your age."

"Eighteen. Over and out."

Phil confirmed the line had come through. He didn't require medical supplies but before Lisa pushed the emergency lighting through could she request toilet paper and towels.

When that was done Lisa called Roger.

"Hey you assholes. I've been down here working my butt off. Where's my beer and lunch?"

That comment of course was used in newspaper and in other media throughout Australia and circulated round the world.

While Lisa was eating her lunch she consented to headphones and attached microphone being lowered for a radio reporter for a live broadcast.

* * *

At 3:20 the rescue team working in from the cage broke though and the dead man and his inquired companions were evacuated. Jake then led the concerted effort to break through to get to Lisa and go on to the next rock face.

One TV cameraman and one newspaper photographer selected by lucky draw were allowed down when the cage returned to the mine level to film and photograph the rescue effort and were still there at 7:48 to capture the moment when Lisa climbed over and through a gap to be hugged by her father.

Lisa and the media were then escorted to the top of the shaft and the jostling media people crowded around her.

"What is it like to be hailed a heroine," asked a female TV journalist from Sydney.

"If you call me a heroine, what do you call that guy in dad's rescue team who gave his life for his comrades and those other guys brought up earlier who looked in pretty bad shape?"

For seven or eight seconds the media people were silenced and then the questions being flying.

White-faced and dusty, looking exhausted the 18-year old spoke with confidence and maturity, skills she must have acquired since being rescued herself by Nash MacLeod.

When the questions were becoming ridiculous, such as asking Lisa what tonnage was the mine producing and of what value and when would the second lot of trapped miners be brought to the surface, Nash strode in and pulled Lisa out and she was taken with her mother to wait with other families. Many of them hugged and said lovely things to Lisa.

The first of the released evening shift miners and followed by their near-exhausted rescuers began coming up at 11:40, none of them injured.

* * *

Lisa was treated as a heroine when she arrived home at Pihama Station and she really enjoyed that. Everyone had stayed up watching satellite TV and then the boss had called Irene to arrange a feast for everyone. Lisa and he were on their way home.

* * *

Media people began calling from overseas before daylight next morning and Nash said the police and mining officials would be calling her before too long to go to Adelaide to be interviewed as part of the official inquiry.

Still a bit bleary-eyed Lisa said at 7:00 when everyone was in the kitchen, "Irene could you please pack rations for seven days for the boss and I. He has more of the property to show me. I haven't seen any deer yet."

"Sure darling, anything for you."

"I was going to a sheep fair today," Nash complained.

"Just pack for one then Irene."

"No for two, I'll come with you," Molly said. "I'm not allowing you out there alone."

"Christ all right, I'll go," said the boss. "And we are going without radios. "If anyone calls wanting Lisa or me say we went out with packhorses this morning but you don't know in what direction."

They drove out to Middle Creek and saddled up with just the one packhorse and no fencing materials.

"No fencing materials?" Lisa asked disbelievingly.

"No this is a holiday for us. It's time I really got to know you."

* * *

A month later Nash McLeod married Lisa Findlay in the small Anglican Church in Respite Crossing. Lisa invited her family of course and some former school friends while Nash invited most people he knew reasonably well so only half of the 144 invited guests could get into the church but everyone was seated in the high school gymnasium for the wedding breakfast.

Nash hadn't been sure who to have as his best name because he really didn't have many friends. He couldn't decide between Lance and Gary and happily decided to accept Lisa's offer to fix it. Two weeks earlier Lisa had introduce mining engineer Roger Waterman to Matilda Green, having invited both to have afternoon tea with her at Mrs Brown's coffee and cake shop. As pre-arranged Mrs Brown called Lisa to have a look at some recipe books and later when Matilda asked where was Lisa, Mrs Brown said vaguely Lisa had left more than an hour ago.

Later that evening Mrs Brown saw the newly introduced couple going into Smith's Family Restaurant and called Lisa to report that sighting. So Lisa called on Roger for a favor. He said he'd do anything for her and without hesitation accepted the invitation to be best man at her wedding without.

"Who will be chief bridesmaid?"

"Matilda Green."

"Oh great. Matilda and I have been out together twice."

"Are you having sex with her?"

Roger colored and asked, "Isn't it a bit early in the relationship for that?"

"I wouldn't think so Roger. Matilda is a red-blooded woman and I know for a fact is keen on you and is keen to have you in bed with her."

"Gosh Lisa. Thanks for that."

Nash had proposed during that six-nights tour of the eastern sector of the station. When stopped on a hill and looking down at beef cows with calves, Lisa had said, "God I love this land."

"And I love you," Nash had drawled. "Marry me please."

"But I'm not pregnant?"

"Who's to say you won't be in four weeks?"

"What has four weeks to do with it?"

"The first Saturday from four weeks today will be out wedding day."

"Jesus," said Lisa. "Nash McLeod, you get off that horse and kiss me and really tell me you love me."

He climbed off and was walking behind his horse when Lisa dug her heels into Star and shot away, breaking into a gallop.

"Come back here you teasing bitch," Nash had yelled grinning and settled down, leaning low, to wear down Lisa and that brilliant Star of hers.

Lisa had to slow of course otherwise Nash would have never caught them or would have been forced to put a bullet into Star to stop her. But Lisa knew Nash liked horses better than people and never would have done that.

They went to Sydney for their honeymoon and spent the time gawking around at things they'd never seen before and taking the underground train for their first ride really scared them. Nash wanted to buy Lisa a diamond necklace and the price of one of those really scared them. Lisa pointed to a display of cheap beads being sold by a street vendor and said, "Buy me one of those darling. They have been reduced to five bucks."

"They are a steal lady," the vendor said truthfully, keep on the lookout for approaching cops.

"My new wife had been hoping for diamonds but I guess beads will do."

"Then what about this little beauty," said the shifty-eyed guy pulling out a gold necklace from a pocket. "I snatched er traded this last night. A hundred bucks."

"No way. That's a rip off."

"Pay the guy Nash. He looks hungry."

Back in Adelaide Lisa had the necklace valued. "I estimate its value between $25,000 to $35,000 but if you leave it with us I work on it and provide you with a registered valuation."

"No way you jerk, hand it back," Nash said.

"I resent your attitude," said the jeweler.

"Tough."

As they were leaving the highly reputable jewelry store Nash had the staff gasping when he said loudly, "That creep wanted us to leave your necklace so he could melt the gold off it and replace it with brass. Gold is valuable you know. I saw a ring in there that cost more than a leading pedigree Angus sire."

"Cities are full of robbers and muggers darling," Lisa said. "We are better off being back on the land. And safer too. Fancy that guy kidding us the necklace is worth more than twenty-five thousands bucks?"

"Perhaps if he had an honest face I might have been prepared to believe him," Nash said. "That guy who sold us the necklace looked more honest than that fat jeweler."

"Well a hundred bucks or ten hundred bucks it doesn't really matter darling. I just love it because you bought it for me on our honeymoon. Oh by the way, I may be pregnant."

THE END