Adventure by Moonlight
SPLINTERS OF MOONLIGHT lay upon the floor of the cane-grass meat house. The wire-netted door was wide open, and beyond it could be seen a section of white sand beneath the star-filled sky. The wind still blew, whispering secrets into the clefts of the sand ripples, and hissing with the soft music of bursting sea suds through the tough grass of the hutment. Discordantly, without rhythm but with an inevitable regularity, there came to Bony’s straining ears the “clang
… clang… clang” of the windmill in action.
Surely he had not released the mill to take the wind! For an instant he checked upon himself, knowing then that he had not even interfered with the mill. It was not an old mill. The original paint was still in good condition. When he had visited the tank to draw water for his own use the tail fan was swung into line with the wind. That position of the tail was maintained by a strong wire fastened near the ground to a lever bar, which in its turn was kept in position by an iron pin. For the mill to gainfreedom, that iron pin would have had to be withdrawn or, alternatively, the wire would have had to break.
The remote chance of the wire breaking was debated by Bony whilst he pulled on his riding boots. The chancewas remote, for the mill was not old and that wire was not likely to be worn in any place.
There could be no legitimate reason for anyone to release the mill. The reservoir tank was almost full and there was hardly any stock as yet coming to drink here. Leylan and all his hands at the homestead knew that he, Bony, was camping here this night, and it could not be imagined that any of the hands would be sent to release the mill after ten o’clock, the hour that Bony had retired. From the position of the moon, it was now verging upon two o’clock.
The banshee? Oh rot! Cut out that stuff, Bony!
Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte moved toward the open netted door on his hands and knees. When he emerged into the moonlight he almost faced the front of the hut. For nearly a minute he regarded that sinister dwelling, noting how deserted it looked and that the door was fastened shut. He tried to recall if he had closed it. Unsuccessful, he began to crawl round the circular cane-grass meat house, keeping tight against the wall, until he reached the narrow segment of black shadow on its south-eastern side. In this shadow he stood up, pressing with his back against the wall and wishing that it had been made of brick, not grass.
The scene presented to him was almost as clear as at high noon. The Walls of China rose tier upon tier in snowy whiteness. To the south was the reservoir tank on its tall stand. He could see the black shadow about its wooden supports, and he could see the moonlitsandscape beyond and between the supports. The mill towered higher than the reservoir tank, its iron stand laying a maze of narrow shadows below it. The “wheel” of wind vanes was revolving fast. Almost facing Bony, the light of the moon blended the vanes into a solid disk of bright silver. And outward from the mill above the covered well radiated the three long lines oftroughing, black upon the brilliantly lit white sand.
Nothing moved in all that far-flung waste of white sand save the wind vanes of the mill. The sheep that had come to drink at sunset had gone away out into the feed.
The control wire must have broken.
Unhurriedly, almost casually, Bony visually examined every object made by man and set down there on the white sand. There were no shadows cast by Nature’s handiwork. There was no living thing beneath the mill, and after a full minute he was convinced that nothing alive lurked in the shadow cast by the reservoir tank. A man could remain concealed by lying down beyond any one of the trough lines, but to do that he must continue tolie full length.
Yes, that control wire must have broken this very night through a million-to-one chance. And yet…
For the third time during his stay at Sandy Flat the icy arrow sped up the flesh covering his spine and became lodged in his scalp. Somewhere in Bony’s sensitive being a warning chord was being struck.
All was not right with the place, despite the power of the moonlight and the paucity of objects casting shadows to conceal danger. The entire picture was illumined clearly enough, and the shadow-casting objects easily totalled. The mill, the reservoir stand and tank, the three lines oftroughing, the hut, and the meat house against which he was leaning made but seven objects set upon a ruffled sheet of white cloth. Yet the number seemed to be wrong, either one too many or too few compared with the number which had been impressed upon his mind whilst he sat on the hut doorstep the previous evening and smoked cigarettes. The westering moon shed its glare full upon the vast face of the Walls of China. Upon it there were no shadows.
The minutes were ticked off the sheet of Time by the moon’s inevitable passage down the pale blue bowl of the sky, and still Bony continued to remain passive, leaning back against the cane-grass meat house, now and then changing his weight from foot to foot. That inherited sense of unseen danger remained strongly in him. Therewas something wrong about the place, a something which had not been wrong with it when he made up his bunk in the meat house and fell asleep.
The vanes of the mill followed each other round and round to fashion an opalescent disk, raising and depressing the long iron rod connected to the pump deep within the well. Why should anyone release the mill in the middle of the night when water was not necessary? Well, one objective could be to awaken him, to take him to the mill to shut it off and so make a target of him with a rifle. Why that? The killer of Kendall and the swagman, the man whom he was seeking, might have learned who and what he was, and might be lying down on the far side of one of the trough lines, waiting for him.
Then abruptly Bony froze.
The wooden floor of the stand upon which the tank rested was larger than the tank itself, and coming round into Bony’s view on the edge of the tank flooring was the dark figure of a man. He was holding to the top edge of the open tank as he stepped round the edge of the flooring, to reach the iron ladder leading to the ground. He was halfway down that ladder when Bony left the shadow of the meat house.
Determined to identify this man who released windmills in the middle of the night, Bony’s objective was to get as close as possible to him before he reached the bottom of the ladder down which he came with his face to it. The sand smothered all sound of Bony’s racing feet, and when he was still twenty yards from the tank stand the man stepped down from the bottom rung.
Bony fell forward, scooping a small rampart of sand before him as he did so. In those swift seconds whilst the man was bringing his second foot to the ground and then turned to face towards the mill, Bony’s body was concealed by the sand rampart he had flung up.
The man did not turn fully towards where Bony lay, but began to walk towards the mill. Each of his feet was bound loosely with hessian sacking, and the heart of the foxing half-caste exulted and sent the blood pounding through his arteries. He desired mightily to rush forward and arrest this climber of tank stands, this mover over sand with hessian-covered feet, and it was one of the rare occasions that he lamented an objection to carrying a gun, without which to attempt the arrest of a man so suspect would be folly.
Recognition, possible in the moonlight, was out of the question, for about the fellow’s head was a cloth hood.
He walked to the mill, where he pulled down the lever bar of the control wire and shut off the mill, and, having done that, he left the mill, stepped over a trough line, and set off southward, keeping roughly parallel with the Walls of China.
Bony permitted him to proceed for a hundred yards before he rose to his feet and followed, determined to keep him in sight and to follow him to his abode, confident that he did not carry a rifle, and mindful that shooting with revolver or automatic pistol is at such a range extremely erratic.
The man went through two wire fences; and through those fences went his tracker. Thence onward to the south, hugging the great sand range, illumined by the full moonlight, onward for half a mile when the quarry abruptly stopped and looked back.
Bony had not time to go to ground, but he did have time to freeze into a tree stump, one knee bent and one upraised bent arm, his face partially hidden by the angle of his head, in which position he was just able to watch the man ahead. His quarry was standing quite still as though trying to recall if he had passed a tree stump.
It became obvious that he was uncertain about it. To make sure, he began to retrace his steps, and he had not covered twenty yards towards the motionless detective when Bony saw in the hand of the crooked right arm the glint of metal, a weapon held ready for action.
The aspect of that hooded man whose feet were submerged in flapping strips or sacking was a little unnerving. He came towards Bony like a soundless wraith accompanied by an equally soundless shadow lying from him towards the Walls. The “tree stump” came alive and moved backwards. The man appeared to hesitate, then came on till, eventually, he stopped. Bony stopped… and waited. The distance between them was less than ninety yards.
Bony was in command of the situation. He could follow at a distance dictated byhimself. If the other man returned in an effort to checkmate him, he could retreat and continue to maintain what was reasonable to think was a safe pistol-shooting distance.
The hooded man made another move, coming forward swiftly, and, as quickly, Bony went back towards the mill. Again the hooded man stopped and again Bony stopped. Across the intervening white sand they stared, to one the necessity to throw off his tracker, to the other the determination to continue tracking his quarry. And not far off the new day.
Movement in the hooded man ceased after his two arms seemed to cross in front of his body. Bony instantly broke into movement, for the meaning of those crossed arms was that the pistol hand was brought to rest on the left forearm to gain steadiness. The pistol snapped and the bullet whined past Bony’s left side. The weapon was an automatic, possibly a. 38, and if accuracy at approximately one hundred yards is most difficult, the distance was certainly not beyond the range of the discharged bullet.
Bony’s movements became a crouching dance, and he danced back and back from the hooded man, who was now coming on once more. Again he stopped, rested the weapon on his forearm, and fired.
The noise was carried by the westerly wind towards and over the Walls of China, and he knew that there was no possibility of anyone in Merino hearing the shooting, even if anyone in the township was astir so early in the morning. Nevertheless, he desisted from further shooting and stopped once again.
Bony decided to increase the safety limit before he also stopped.
“Now you’re biting your fingernails, aren’t you, my friend?” he said conversationally. He knew that his voice could not reach the other, but he went on: “You are finding yourself in a bit of a hole, eh? You cannot very well chase me around the country, and you cannot have me chasing you around either. You have to get out of that rig before daylight when someone mounted on a horse might observe with interest this little comedy of ‘I chase you and you chase me’. And to add to the complications is the fact that, despite your footwear, I still can track you… should I lose sight of you… which I won’t.”
Abruptly the quarry turned and again proceeded to walk southward, moving very fast over the white sand; and, maintaining the distance between them, Bony followed.
So far the situation was quite satisfactory to Bony. The moon would not set until after day broke. There would be no period of darkness to give his quarry the chance of slipping away or of hiding up and taking a better-aimed shot at him. Well, well, was he, Bony, not correct when he told Sergeant Marshall that Providence was always kind to detectives? Kind especially to patient detectives!
There now appeared even greater purpose in the quarry’s walking. He was moving diagonally away from the sand range, and if he should continue along that line for two miles he would then reach the timber edge. That was probably not his objective, for had it been he would have turned due west to reach the timber in less than half a mile. And then, suddenly, he vanished into the ground.
Again Bony halted. He could not see it, but he knew that his man had jumped down into a dry water channel coming down from the west to end at the Walls.
Now what? The fellow could adopt one of at least two movements. He could remain in that gutter and defend himself from physical arrest, or he could sneak along the gutter till he reached the timber country, where he would have a much better chance to evade his tracker.
But would he? Come on, Bony, use your brain. He could not stay in that gutter for ever because if he did his tracker would also keep his position. He couldn’t wait even till after day broke, for, like Cinderella, he must get home before daylight revealed his garb to all and sundry. He must be making for the timber. Well, in that case, why not walk to it in the open? Did he want to gain time? Time for what? Ah… time to reach a horse, and, once astride a horse, he could ride his tracker down and shoot him at close range.
The initiative had passed from Bony.
Bony could not be caught out on that open country. Even against a man on a horse, he would be far safer within the timber, for trees balk a horse as well as providing a degree of shelter from pistol bullets. He began to race for the timber.
It was half a mile distant, the white sheet of the sand ending abruptly against its black border. Only half a mile! But the soft sand cloyed his feet and before he had covered half the distance he began to experience the sensation of a man in a nightmare.
Then out into the open sprang the hooded man, running fast despite the hessian about his feet, running parallel with the gutter towards the timber line. His tall and robust figure appeared to move without effort, and Bony began to deplore his cigarette-smoking habit. His quarry had appeared at least two hundred yards ahead of him, and now seemed to be increasing the lead.
Yes, there it was. Bony could now see the horse neck-roped to a tree. It was standing motionless, watching the men approach, standing in the shadow cast by the leafy cabbage tree. Useless now to continue in the direct line to the timber, following as he was the hooded man, who would certainly first reach the horse, and, having reached it, mount and come riding back to meet him on the open ground.
Bony veered north-west. The timber still offered him better protection than the gutter, deep and angled though that would be. He clenched his teeth for an instant when he saw the hooded man gain the shadow of the tree beneath which stood the horse. Then he opened his mouth wide to gulp in air and steady his heaving lungs.
Providence had been kind, indeed, and now she was teasing him, teaching him more respect for her, teaching him not so easily to accept her for granted. He was two hundred yards from the timber edge when the hooded man came out from the tree shadow on the horse, plunging into a gallop, riding straight towards him.
Bony halted. He had to conserve his strength. To run was to use up what was left to him. With breath rasping through his mouth and nostrils, he bent forward, arching his body, his hands resting on the ground. With all the might of his mind exerting control over his body, he waited.
The moon was just above the rider’s left shoulder. The man’s hood was almost in alignment with the horse’s head. He held the reins in his lefthand, in his right was the pistol. For the waiting Bony, much depended on the training received by the horse.
As is normal on such occasions of mental stress, time ceased to have meaning. The very condition of mental stress cleared Bony’s brain. He wasno longer conscious of bodily fatigue, no longer conscious of his rapid breathing, and no longer was there any effort required to remain still, to wait. The instinct of self-preservation was now in full control of him.
He could see the rider’s purpose. The hooded man was not going to be foolish enough to ride him down, followed by the probability of his horse tumbling and throwing him. It showed that he hadn’t that confidence in thehorse, or in himself as a horseman. He intended to ride past on Bony’s right and attempt to shoot him. And he held the reins only in his left hand.
The very manner in which he held those reins gave Bony hope. And the very manner in which the fellow rode the horse increased hope. Still Bony waited, crouched forward upon his hands. He waited till the horse was but ten feet from him, headed to pass him, when he sprang upward, jumped high with arms flung wide, and shouted at the top of his voice.
The horse flung up its head in swift fright, and with it missed the head of its rider by a fraction. It swerved far to the rider’s left, almost unseating him, so that he had to bring the pistol hand up and across the other to bear upon the reins. Now the horse was past Bony, and now the rider was engaged in mastering it as it continued to gallop down the slope towards the foot of the distant Walls of China.
And Bony continued his race towards the timber, refreshed by the short space of waiting. He had two hundred yards to cover.
He had halved the distance when, looking back, he saw that the hooded man had mastered the horse and was turning it to ride back to get him before he could cover the last hundred yards. He had reduced that last hundred to fifty yards when he was forced to halt and again meet the charge.
This time he did not wait. Horse and man were fifty feet from him when he began to run towards them, crouching low and zigzagging. The manoeuvre nettled the rider, who came on direct and opened fire. Where the bullet went Bony could never subsequently make up his mind. It was instantly evident that the horse was not accustomed to a pistol being fired close to its ear, for the shock of the explosion so astonished it that it faltered in its stride, almost tripped, and almost sent its rider over its head.
That was when Bony was approximately twenty feet from the horse’s bridle bit, and during a split second he debated whether to rush forward and grab that bit and toss the rider off, or to continue his progress to the timber. He decided on the latter course, and made for it.
He had almost reached the nearest tree when the report of the pistol followed the impact of the bullet into the trunk of a tree to his right. Again the pistol cracked. The bullet must have gone high, for he did not hear its whine.
No lover ever caressed his loved one with such fervour as Bony laid hands upon the trunk of that tree he reached, a nice substantial mulga-tree of about a foot in diameter and as hard as teak. There he halted himself, swung round to its farside, and with astonishment saw the hooded man riding south as hard as he could press his mount.
When he recovered normal breathing the hooded man and horse had disappeared along the timber line, and Bony’s strained face was subsiding to normal.
“Ran out of ammunition… That’s amonty, as son Charles would say,” he said aloud.“But what a nice, determined gentleman! Now what will he do? What will he be planning to do whilst I make and smoke a cigarette, just to calm my nerves? Why, he willbe wanting to get home as soon as possible for two quite simple reasons. One, to shed his ballroom clothes for his workaday clothes among the cinders, and two, to get his horse over the ground as soon as possible in order to give that damned wind every chance of smothering his tracks so that he can’t be tracked to his home.”
Leaning back against the tree trunk, he felt elated whilst he smoked. This case was breaking his way at last, even though fresh questions rose like an army of enemies from the Walls of China. What had that man been doing on the reservoir tank stand? He had been there for some time certainly, because he must have been there all the time Bony had been standing with his back to the cane-grass meat house, and that had been for at least forty minutes.
Examination of the ground about the tank stand and mill, as well as the mill and tank stand itself, might solve that question and provide, possibly, other information. The wind was going to obliterate the faint tracks left by the hessian-covered feet, and it might well cover the horse’s tracks on the white sand and red sand which came down to border it. And, further, with the dawn, the wind would probably increase in velocity.
That the fellow had ridden off to the southward did not indicate that he had come from the south. He left with the knowledge that he had been observed, and he would ride in order to frustrate that observation.
Well, Bony could do little until day came, for the moon even now was against tracking the horse, its light too oblique. He could wait there for daylight and then do all possible to track the horse, or he could return to the hut, boil the billy for a badly needed pint of coffee, and then go out to the horse paddock and catch and saddle his own station horse. Or… But wait…
Tossing aside the cigarette end, he rose and began a long easy trotting run to the township. He covered the distance in three-quarters of an hour, reaching a position due south of the parsonage when dawn was barring with white the sky above the Walls of China. Maintaining that easylope, and conscious of the risk he was taking of being shot at, he skirted wide southward of the township till he came to the wire fence surrounding the butcher’s horse yards and stables.
He was climbing through the fence when he heard a horse shake itself inside the enclosure. He found that horse, felt it with his hands all hot and sweat-grimed. It had but recently been freed from saddle and bridle. The blaze on its forehead proved that it was the horse owned by the Rev. Llewellyn James.