Travellers #2 Read online

  “We’ll have to think how to get down the lake,” I said to Jak. He leapt and barked until a hawk flew out of a gully, cried, “Kek! Kek!”.

  For some reason it reminded me of that time on Marn Island when Taur hid on top of the knoll and barked until Jak and Jess were so excited they did not know whether they were barking back at him or at their own echoes. When the Bull Man was there, something was always happening, I thought, and found myself laughing and crying all at once.

  “I wonder what Taur would have done to get down the lake?” I asked Jak, and he put his head to one side as if wondering, too. “Do you think there might be people there?” A leaf blew across the beach, and Jak pounced on it with both front paws, tossed it up with his mouth, jumped, snapped, and caught it as it floated down.

  About the Author

  Jack Lasenby was born in Waharoa, New Zealand in 1931. During the 1950s he was a deer-culler and possum trapper in the Urewera Country. He is a former school teacher, lecturer in English at the Wellington Teachers’ College, and editor of New Zealand’s School Journal.

  Jack Lasenby held the Sargeson Fellowship in 1991, the Writer’s Fellowship at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1993, and was the Writer in Residence at the Dunedin College of Education in 1995. He is the author of many novels for children and young adults, including award-winning books The Lake, The Conjuror, The Waterfall and The Battle of Pook Island. He has been the recipient of New Zealand’s most prestigious children’s fiction awards: the Esther Glen Medal, the Aim Children’s Book Award, and the NZ Post Children’s Book Award.

  Because We Were the Travellers, the prequel to Taur, received an Honour Award in the 1998 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards.

  Also by Jack Lasenby

  Charlie the Cheeky Kea 1976

  Rewi the Red Deer 1976

  The Lake 1987

  The Mangrove Summer 1989

  Uncle Trev 1991

  Uncle Trev and the Great South Island Plan 1991

  Uncle Trev and the Treaty of Waitangi 1992

  The Conjuror 1992

  Harry Wakatipu 1993

  Dead Man’s Head 1994

  The Waterfall 1995

  The Battle of Pook Island 1996

  Because We Were The Travellers 1997

  Uncle Trev’s Teeth 1997

  Copyright

  I am grateful for the assistance of Creative N.Z. – The Arts Council of New Zealand. Their grant in 1996 made this novel possible.

  I also wish to thank Paula Boock for an excellent suggestion at an early stage of the work, and Noeline Stoops and Des Kelly for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

  Published with the assistance of

  This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior permission of Hyland House and the author.

  Jack Lasenby asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  © Jack Lasenby

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in publication data:

  Lasenby, Jack.

  Taur

  ISBN 978 1 77553 227 9.

  I. Title.

  NZ823.2

  First published in Australia in 1998 by

  Hyland House Publishing Pty Ltd

  Hyland House

  387-389 Clarendon Street

  South Melbourne

  Victoria 3205

  First published by Longacre Press 1998

  9 Dowling Street, Dunedin, New Zealand.

  Book design and map on pages 6-7 by Jenny Cooper

  Front cover photograph of ice by Lloyd Davis

  Printed by Australian Print Group