Picnic at Hanging Rock: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

On Friday night, as Albert heads back to Lake View, he is perturbed by how worried he is for Mike—he’s not used to being concerned for anyone but himself. After stabling his horse and eating supper in the kitchen, the cook warns Albert that Colonel Fitzhubert is cross that Mike isn’t back yet. Albert, knowing he must make an excuse on behalf of his friend, goes up to the Colonel’s study and tells the man that Michael wanted to stay at the Macedon Arms—a shabby pub several towns away—rather than ride back so late at night. Fitzhubert is annoyed, but happy that Michael is all right.

Albert retreats to his room and tries to fall asleep. Though he’s normally out the second his head hits the pillow each night, tonight, he’s disturbed by dreams of Mike screaming for help from far away. The next morning, Albert is relieved to see the dawn. He wolfs a quick breakfast and immediately goes to the stable to fetch a horse so that he can ride back to Hanging Rock. On the way, Albert notices that there are no new tracks on the path he and Mike took yesterday—but at the picnic ground, he finds Mike’s prize Arab pony untethered and unsaddled, roaming anxiously.

Albert ties up both horses and sits near the creek, wondering where Mike has gone—and fearing the young man has gotten himself lost on the treacherous rock. Albert locates Mike’s boot tracks and follows them up the rock. Soon enough he finds Mike himself unconscious on the ground, looking deathly pale and covered in scratches on his arms and face—there is a particularly deep gash in his forehead. Albert shoos away the ants and flies that are circling Mike’s body, gives the barely-conscious Mike some brandy, then leaves him to go for help.

Albert saddles up Mike’s pony, knowing the horse will be fresher and more energetic. Not too far down the path toward Woodend, Albert encounters a shepherd and flags the man down for help. The shepherd, it turns out, has just said goodbye to Doctor McKenzie, and urges Albert to follow the doctor down the road. Albert soon catches up with the doctor, explains the situation, and leads him back to the rock. Albert leads McKenzie up the rock to Mike. McKenzie cleans and tends Mike’s wounds, telling Albert that Mike’s suffered no serious damage—he just needs to get to a bed where he can rest. Albert and the doctor carry Mike down the mountain and load him into the doctor’s cart. Albert shows the doctor the way back to Lake View.

Back at the house, servants and housemaids hurry to help Albert, McKenzie, and the Colonel get Mike into a warm bed. The Colonel, furious and concerned, wants to question Michael, but the doctor insists the boy be left alone to rest. The Colonel rounds on Albert, calling him out for lying about Mike’s whereabouts the night before, but McKenzie points out that Albert actually saved Mike’s very life. The Colonel extends his hand to Albert and thanks him for his help in getting Mike home, then urges him get some rest himself.

Albert eats, feeds the horses, and flings himself onto his bed, where he falls into a deep sleep. At first light, however, he wakes with a start, plagued by questions of how Mike’s journey up the rock went so horribly wrong. He quietly dresses and hurries up to the house, where he enters Mike’s room. Mike’s breeches are slung over the back of a chair, and Albert searches the pockets for his friend’s notebook. He sees a recent entry which reads “ALBERT ABOVE BUSH MY FLAGS HURRY RING OF HIGH UP HIGH HURRY FOUN”. Realizing that the clue signals the fact that Mike did find something important up on the rock, Albert tears the page from the book.

Albert asks a housemaid to rouse the Colonel. He tells the man what he’s discovered, and Fitzhubert sends an errand boy to the police station to notify them. Albert rides off to the rock to join the search party there—meanwhile, the young policeman Jim Grant and an on-call physician, Doctor Cooling, make their way to the rock as well. Albert, Jim, and Cooling head up the rock in search of Mike’s hazy clue. As they climb, Jim remarks how amazing it is that Mike—a novice climber new to the bush—made it this far up. Albert defends Mike, stating that he has “more bloody brains and guts” than the three of them put together. The doctor, unconvinced that they’re on anything but a goose chase, decides to sit and wait while the other two men go on up ahead.

Jim and Albert continue to climb, working to decipher Mike’s bizarre note as they do. As they approach the large boulders which originally stopped Mike’s path, they spot something on the ground. On a rock near the lower of the two boulders, one of the Appleyard girls is lying on the ground. The men whistle for the doctor, though from the flies buzzing about the girl’s head, they fear they’re too late. When the doctor catches up to them, however, he finds that the girl has a pulse. Albert runs for the stretcher while Cooling and Jim inspect the girl. Her bare feet are clean and unbruised.

Jim Grant returns to the police station and gives his report to Bumpher. Albert and Cooling bring the girl back to Lake View and place her under the care of the gardener’s wife, Mrs. Cutler, who is surprised when the girl arrives wearing no corset—a “valuable clue” which will, the narrator says, never be communicated to the police or to the other students at Appleyard, who know Irma Leopold to be “fastidious” and never without a corset.

Doctor Cooling examines Irma further and reports that she is in good health but for shock and exposure. The Colonel states that Irma can stay at the house until she’s well enough to move. When Doctor McKenzie arrives that evening to check in on Michael, he and Cooling meet to discuss the odd developments in the case. Both doctors admit that they’d do anything to know what happened up on the rock—and where the other girls are. McKenzie stops in at Irma’s room. He wonders what—if anything—she’ll report when she wakes up. 

Mike spends several days suspended between dreams and wakefulness, vaguely aware of the comings and goings of his nurses and family members but trapped in a thick half-sleep in which he is “forever seeking some unknown nameless thing.” One morning, he wakes up to find a doctor standing over him. He asks how long he’s been unconscious, and McKenzie reports that it has been five or six days since Mike was brought back from Hanging Rock in bad shape. Mike has no memory of what’s happened. 

The next day, Mike asks his nurse if he can see Albert. The nurse says that Mike isn’t allowed visitors—but lets him know that Albert has come to his rooms every morning asking after him. Mike tells the nurse that he doesn’t care about his doctor’s orders—he demands she let Albert in to see him when he calls later that morning. The indignant nurse instead fetches the Colonel, who surprisingly echoes Mike’s orders and demands the nurse let his nephew visit with the man who saved his life.

Later that morning, Albert arrives for a visit. Mike is grateful to see his friend, but wastes no time in asking for the details of what transpired at the rock—he doesn’t recall going back, but has discerned from conversations between his aunt and his nurse that the two of them went out there to search for the girls. Albert tells Mike that he’s correct—and adds that Mike found one of the girls, “the little dark one,” who is alive and living at Lake View for the time being. Mike seems disappointed that Miranda was not the one recovered from the rock. Sensing Mike’s sadness, Albert stands up and leaves.