Bony is Sentimental
LIKE Captain Loveacre, neither Diana nor John Gordon could understand why Bony made his little fire when a breath of cool wind would have been a relief. Dusty and begrimed, the man appeared in striking contrast to the girl who was wearing superbly fitting riding kit and knew how to sit gracefully on the ground. Bony was sitting on his heels making a number of cigarettes, and only now did his companions clearly see the physical effects of the pointed bone. His face was almost fleshless. His eyes were sunken and lit with blue gleams. Neither Gordon nor Diana Lacy had spoken a word since Bony had brought them from the lunch camp, and now they waited for him to speak with such anxiety that the extraordinary scene at the fence angle was forgotten.
“You two need not fear me,” he told them almost pleadingly. “No one fears me except evil-doers. Had you known me in the beginning as well as I hope you will know me after I leave Karwir, you would have been spared a load of worry and I a dreadful experience. Now listen to my story, and do not interrupt, for we haven’t much time.
“On the eighteenth of April of this year, John Gordon and Jimmy Partner left Meena homestead to work in the Meena East Paddock and Jeffery Anderson left the Karwir homestead to ride the fences of Green Swamp Paddock. It began to rain about two o’clock, and at this hour the three men were able confidently to predict a heavy fall. They also knew-a fact known possibly only to a fourth man, Young Lacy-that John Gordon and Diana Lacy were in love and met secretly at points on the boundary fence. Two matters, therefore, they were all agreed upon: the love affair and the prospect of an excellent fall of rain.
“When it began to rain Anderson decided to he need not visit Green Swamp itself. He continued riding the paddock’s fences. Gordon decided that, because the Channels become sheep traps in wet weather, he and Jimmy Partner would ride the southern boundary of the Meena East Paddock and muster northward any mobs of sheep they found.
“They came upon a mob of sheep and Jimmy Partner was asked to drove them well away from the danger zone while John Gordon rode on looking for others. Thus it was that he and Anderson met on either side of the boundary fence. It was raining steadily and the sky promised a continuance of the rain.
“We know that Anderson wanted to marry Miss Lacy and that he regarded John Gordon as his successful rival. We may also assume that he disliked Gordon for another reason, namely Gordon’s indignation and actions following the atrocious treatment of Inky Boy and a lubra.
“Well, there he was this wet afternoon miles from the homestead and without protection from the rain. His mood was evil before he saw John Gordon riding towards him on the far side of the fence. The man’s record proves the ugliness of his temper when aroused. His anger, already sharpened by the rain, was whipped to fury by the sight of his rival.
“It is likely that at once he began to insult Gordon. Probably he threatened to reveal the secret love affair to Old Lacy. More probable still, in order to taunt Gordon into furious action, he referred insultingly to Miss Lacy. My reading of Gordon’s character leads me to think that he would not quietly ride on, that he would resent insults to himself and violently protest against insults to his sweetheart. Angry words were flung to and fro across the netted barrier.
“Early this day, Anderson had what is termed ‘taken the sting’ out of The Black Emperor, and no doubt his subsequent riding had further subdued that great horse. He dismounted and secured the end of the reins to a fence post. The use of the neck-rope for this purpose seemed to his angry mind an unnecessary delay. Over the fence he vaulted, and John Gordon also dismounted from his horse.
“We know that Anderson was a big, strong man, much heavier and stronger than his rival. He smashed Gordon, knocking him partially unconscious, and then, before Gordon could recover, Anderson decided to treat him as he had treated Inky Boy. With the horse’s neck-rope he secured Gordon to the tree by passing the rope round the trunk and the victim’s neck, and knotting the rope in such a position that Gordon could not release himself.
“Without doubt, Gordon recovered his senses to find himself at the mercy of a raging sadist who delighted in outlining the programme before executing it. Gordon realized that once his knees relaxed in a struggle to escape the whip the rope around his throat would take the weight of his body and suffocate him.
“From what I have learned of Anderson, it is probable that he gave his victim an exhibition of his dexterity with a stock-whip, and at about this time Jimmy Partner rode back to assist in the muster of further sheep. Anderson, governed by sadistic rage, did not see Jimmy Partner dismount from his horse some distance away, and approach as an aboriginal does when stalking a kangaroo. Every time Anderson turned his way, Jimmy Partner froze into immobility and the unwary man received the impression that the blackfellow was a fence post or a shortened tree trunk.
“Now Anderson came to stand at the exact distance from his victim at which he could use the whip effectively. When he made a trial cast with the whip, the cracker made with green cable silk smacked against the trunk above Gordon’s head. Gordon jerked his head back in an effort to avoid the whip lash, and his head came in violent contact with the trunk, the rough bark of which retained at least one hair from his head.
“Whether or not Anderson had time to make another cast I am unable to determine, but Jimmy Partner now rushed him. We all know that Jimmy Partner is superlatively strong and an expert wrestler. It was comparatively easy for him to master Anderson, and during the struggle John Gordon shouted to him not to kill Anderson. He knew what many of us know, that once an aboriginal is thoroughly aroused he is a terrible person. Having Anderson at his mercy, Jimmy Partner recalled the treatment of Inky Boy, and a lubra, and the treatment about to be meted out to a man dear to him and to his people. It is not surprising that he killed Anderson with his hands.
“Leaving the dead man, he ran to the tree and released John Gordon. I am inclined to assume that during his struggle with Anderson one of Jimmy Partner’s hands was wounded and bleeding, and that when he was releasing Gordon, blood from the wound stained the neck-rope.”
“That’s quite right,” interrupted Gordon. “In fact, so far you are remarkably accurate.”
“Good!” Bony said, with great satisfaction. “But to proceed. John Gordon was a quick thinker and clever. He realized that other than Jimmy Partner and himself, who were directly concerned in the tragedy, there were no witnesses whose evidence would prove justifiable homicide, and that inevitably the law would arraign Jimmy Partner for murder, and, probably, himself as accessory. The effect of the tragedy, however, would reach out far beyond himself and Jimmy Partner. Miss Lacy would be brought into it. Anderson’s history would become public property, and the affair with the lubra, and that with Inky Boy, would be broadcast. There would be an outcry because those affairs had been hushed up, and the Kalchut tribe would be drawn into the limelight.
“We know that three generations ofGordons have followed a splendid idea, which is to preserve one aboriginal tribe from the evil shadow of civilization as long as is possible. We know that three generations ofGordons have, by wise overseership, maintained the Kalchut tribe in its original state. TheGordons have encouraged the Kalchut people to maintain their rites and customs; they have frowned on anything tending to destroy the practice of those rites and customs. They have shielded the Kalchut tribe from Government officials and from missionaries, in fact from every kind of white and yellow men. And so this people has remained happy and healthy, while neighbouring tribes have become debased and wretched. That the shadow of civilization will eventually fall on the Kalchut tribe we are agreed; but its blighting effect can be deferred as long as is humanly possible.
“And so, with the dead body of Anderson lying at his feet, John Gordon clearly saw the threat to the ideal handed down to him by his father. He realized that this man, who when alive had delighted in sadistic cruelty, would in death thrust the shadow of civilization upon the Kalchut aborigines and thus hasten their de-tribalizationand ruin. Public bodies would demand what is called ‘official protection,’ and religious bodies would demand a different kind of interference that would have the same fatal result. I concur earnestly and without reservation in the decision made by John Gordon, the decision to hide the corpse so that the disappearance of Jeffery Anderson might not be associated in any way with the Kalchut tribe.
“As I have said, fortunately for many, John Gordon was a clear and a quick thinker. He and Jimmy Partner had with them no digging tools, but they knew that at Green Swamp hut there were shovels and a crowbar, and that no stockman was living there. Gordon sent Jimmy Partner on The Black Emperor to fetch the crowbar and a shovel, and while Jimmy Partner was away he selected the site of the grave. He is to be complimented on his choice.
“He decided to bury the body beneath one of the ribbons ofclaypans skirting the dunes. Already water was collecting on thoseclaypans, and, selecting one but a few yards distant from the solitary mulga-tree, Gordon dammed back the water gathered in the pan above it. When Jimmy Partner brought the tools, he, being the stronger of the two, used the crowbar to crack the surface of the claypan as though it were a sheet of thick ice. The cement-hard surface blocks thus created were carefully removed. Then the grave was carefully excavated, the soil being shovelled out and on to the claypan lower down the slope. Into the grave were placed the body, the stockwhip, the neck-rope and the dead man’s hat. The removed earth was then solidly packed about and over the body until the grave was filled to the proper level to take the surface material. Like the pieces of jig-saw puzzle the blocks were fitted together over the grave, like tiles laid and fitted on a cement hearth bed. The interstices were filled in with water-softened clay, human fingers doing this work. Finally the water from the claypan higher up was released, to flow into that beneath which was the grave, and so to the one below whereon was still the residue of excavated earth, which was carried away on to the flat, porous land.
“The rain eventually filled all thoseclaypans, but in due time the water was evaporated by the sun’s heat and the wind, and during the last stages of evaporation the cement-like clay of the pan beneath which Anderson was buried settled into its natural level and became so hard that the wheels of a ten-ton truck would have made no indentations. It remained only for me to see the infinitesimal abnormality in the surface of that particular claypan, and I would not have seen it had I not known for what to look. Is my reconstruction correct?”
Gordon nodded. Diana continued to stare down into the little fire.
“By the time Jimmy Partner came back from returning the tools to Green Swamp hut it was early evening,” Bony went on. “The Black Emperor was let loose, the end of his reins being permitted to trail upon the ground, and we know that several hours afterwards he reached the homestead gate.
“On the way home, John Gordon instructed Jimmy Partner to inform Chief Nero of all that had happened. The tribe was to go on walkabout being the tale that a lubra at Deep Well was dying. Jimmy Partner was to accompany the tribe. The aboriginal attached to the police at Opal Town was to be recalled, the method of communication with him being the age-old one of telepathy. Abie at once obeyed the summons, and so when the police were called in to investigate the disappearance there was not one black tracker available for several days. When they were employed, they had been carefully instructed.
“I am not going to weary you by detailing how I found where you two met that day I arrived, and how I found that traces of the meeting had been removed. That was a secret you wanted to keep from me, not knowing that Napoleon Bonaparte has a soft spot in his heart for lovers. I haven’t time to explain how I learned that I was being tracked and watched by men whose feet were covered with feathers, or how I came to suspect that you, Miss Lacy, knew something concerning Anderson’s disappearance and were opposed to me, fearing for your lover. In my inner heart I never believed that you, John, instigated the blacks’ boning of me, and I am delighted that you did not and that you stopped it when you learned of it.
“However, your stopping of the bone-pointing resulted quickly in my completing this investigation, for immediately my mind was freed of the terror created in it by those other minds, I reasoned that only theclaypans had not been examined, that one of them would provide a perfect grave, and that over at Green Swamp hut was the ideal tool ready for use. I regret that you will have to replace the battery jars in the instrument at Pine Hut, smashed by my order to interfere with Miss Lacy’s communication with you.”
Bony now produced from his pocket-book six envelopes. That addressed to Old Lacy he put down on the ground beside him. The remaining five he held as though they were playing cards, saying:
“Exhibit One, the strand of green cable silk found attached to the rough bark of the mulga-tree to which John Gordon was tied.
“Exhibit Two, a cracker removed from one of the whips owned by Jeffery Anderson, and manufactured from green cable silk similar to that of Exhibit One.
“Exhibit Three, a human hair found on the bark of the tree to which John Gordon was tied.
“Exhibit Four, hair from Anderson’s brushes.
“Exhibit Five, hair from John Gordon’s brushes all similar to that one named Exhibit Three.
“These envelopes contain sufficient proof for the indictment of Jimmy Partner and John Gordon. It has not been a difficult case, and I should have solved it weeks ago had not the boning blurred my mind. The grave I have not disturbed, nor have I marked its position. As for these exhibits, well, what shall I do with them?”
The question was asked directly of Diana Lacy. Looking up, she encountered his feverish blue eyes.
“Do you really mean that you would do with all that proof just what I might ask?” she said.
Slowly Bony nodded his affirmation, and when she spoke her voice was barely heard above the cries of the birds.
“Burn them.”
Now Bony smiled, saying:
“That is why I made this little fire. Burn these envelopes and their contents we will. Then you will be free, both of you.”
Silently, they watched the envelopes become black and grey ash. Then the girl’s eyes again sought the blue ones so deep-set in a softly smiling dark face.
“I think you are a rather wonderful man,” she said earnestly.
“A large number of people think that, Miss Lacy,” Bony told her gravely. Then: “I asked you once to be frank with me. You then found that you were unable to be frank. Would you be frank with me now?”
“I couldn’t be anything else, Mr Bonaparte.”
“Then, tell me, why are you afraid to announce your love for John?”
“Because father doesn’t like John.”
“Only for that reason?”
“No. Were John and I to be married it would mean leaving Karwir, and father is growing old and has no woman to look after him.”
“To announce your engagement would not mean having to marry immediately, even next year,” Bony said, as he took his letter to Old Lacy from its envelope. “I want you to read this letter. Afterwards, you may deliver it to your father, or you may burn it now.”
While she was reading, Gordon watched her and Bony stared down into the now smouldering fire embers. Gordon saw her face flame, saw her teeth press hard upon her lower lip. Then she stared at Bony, and he said:
“Well?”
“I don’t know what to do. Perhaps John-”
“Yes, perhaps John could assist you.”
Gordon was given the sheet to read. He said, unhesitatingly:
“Deliver it. Old Lacy will read as much between the lines as we read. Even if we can’t marry for a long time, dear, it would be good to shout to all the world that we are lovers!”
“That is what I have been thinking,” Bony told them. “Do not let your father know that you know the contents of my letter to him, but hint that you suspect I know something concerning the parentage of Jeffery Anderson. You, Miss Lacy, and I are experienced lion tamers, and we know that sometimes we need assistance. Your father does not really dislike John. He only thinks that he does.” Diana was presented with the letter, sealed within the envelope, and then Bony struggled to his feet and they stood with him. “Tell your father all I have told you. Omit nothing. He will agree with my handling of the case, and with my disposal of it.”
Involuntarily Diana held out her hands to accept his.
“I-I wish you were not leaving to-day,” she said, her voice trembling. “I wish you were staying for a week or so, so that I could show you that I am not naturally hateful.”
“I saw that when I first met you at the Karwir horse yards that afternoon I caught The Black Emperor. I shall not quickly forget your loyalty to a man needing it so badly as John did. Now let us go across to the others watching that extraordinary spectacle.”
This time they each slipped an arm round his, and he was glad because the action not only bespoke full hearts, it assisted him to walk when he wanted to lie down. He was very tired.
The sun was low when the Karwir truck arrived loaded with rolls of netting, coils of wire, swags, rations, and men among whom was Bill the Better. The sun was now a huge scarlet orb floating in a scarlet mist that stretched from the apex of the fence angle to its couch of leaping flame. The eyes of the birds were winking scarlet lights. The tips of the fur streaming along the fence footing were varnished scarlet, the glossy plumage of the crows flying in the mist was tinted mauve.
From under the scarlet mist, the units of the mighty migration continued to come in endless procession, but there was a slackening in the tide of fur, indicating that the procession must have an end, and that the end might arrive before the scarlet sun rose again.
Everywhere were eagles perched motionless on trees and on the fence itself, birds gorged and tired of slaughter. Countless others stood on the depression eastward of the fence, unable to fly. At most they could only hop over the ground. The crows on the wing were like flakes of a black snowstorm. They chased eagles and each other for no reason except that it was their nature to want something others possessed.
Jimmy Partner, assisted by Malluc, had used the remainder of the wire netting brought by John Gordon to raise the netted barrier for fifty feet outwards from the corner, and Bony estimated that the height of the fur mountain at the apex of the angle was almost twelve feet. The surface was still etched by living rodents frantically searching for ingress to Karwir.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Captain Loveacre said for the hundredth time.
“Nor I,” stated Superintendent Browne. “I’m glad that Bony is a bit of a rebel, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen this show.”
Gordon drove away on his truck to Bony’s camp to fetch the detective’s few personal belongings. Young Lacy and the men he had brought unloaded the Karwir truck and began the work of extending the fence topping and raising it still higher.
Gordon returned with Bony’s effects from the camp, and these few articles were placed in Bony’s case and the case in the aeroplane. Captain Loveacre required all hands to turn the machine so that it might have a clear run along the depression towards Green Swamp. He was the first to say good-byes to theLacys and to John Gordon. Bill the Better came to Bony and asked in a strained voice:
“I understand you’releavin ’, Inspector. Have you found the body?”
Bony shook his head. Bill the Better looked glum.
“Well, I don’t win me two quid, but I don’t lose no two quid, either. So long!”
John Gordon and his sweetheart came to Bony, for whom Browne and Sergeant Blake were waiting patiently. Gordon took Bony’s hand, and he said only one word:
“Thanks.”
Diana took both his hands and squeezed them as she looked up into his wasted face.
“Thank you, Inspector,” she said softly.
Bony smiled and bowed over her hands, saying:
“My friends all call me Bony.”
“Bony-our friend,” she cried.
Bony waved a special farewell to Jimmy Partner, to Dr Malluc and to Bill the Better. To Young Lacy, he said:
“Good-bye, Eric. Please remember me kindly to your father and convey to him my wishes for a speedy recovery.”
“Good-bye, Bony. We’ll all be glad to see you should you ever come to this part of Queensland.”
Bony smiled at them all.
“You know, I really believe you would.”
Browne and Blake had to lift him up into the ’plane, and they waved to the small crowd before they disappeared inside the machine. The crowd ran back towards the timber to escape the dust. The scarlet mist and the scarlet sun painted the machine with glowing colour, and made scarlet search-lights of its windows.
She did not seem to know it, but Diana, clinging to her lover’s arm, was crying. They saw Bony waving to them from behind one of the windows as the engines broke into their thunderous song of power. They waved back to him as the machine glided away towards Green Swamp, to rise and turn in the direction of the town. They continued to wave while the machine dwindled in size to an eagle, a fly, a dust mote.