Arthur Upfield - Man of Two Tribes

“Who came after Dr. Havant?”

“I did. Then Brennan and after him Riddell. After Riddell came Jenks. The girl came but a little while ago. I don’t know exactly when. We’ve given up counting days. What’s that?”

Into the narrow circle of light entered Lucy, tail wagging her pleasure at finding them.

“I had forgotten about the little dog. Hadn’t you?” Maddoch cried, hugging Lucy against his chest.

“Yes… and no,” confessed Bony. “Tell me what happened to you, the manner in which you were brought here.”

“Well, in a way, it was just the same as the others, Inspector. One of the conditions under which I was released was that I was to go at once and remain on a small station property owned by my brother. I was on the way by train, when a woman who was travelling with a man in the same compartment asked me if I were Clifford Maddoch, and when I admitted it, the man said they were delighted to meet me as they were near neighbours of my brother, who had told them I would be on that train.

“I thought it was very decent of them because, after being imprisoned for several years, the outside world is a little frightening. When the train reached a junction, where it halted for twenty minutes, the man suggested that he and I might like to stretch our legs. So we did this, and, quite naturally, both of us walked towards the lavatory, which, as at most railway stops, was at the far end of the platform, and beyond the platform lights.

“As I was about to enter the lavatory, I was struck from behind, and from then on it was all sleeping, and dreaming I was on a truck going somewhere, and not caring where. I remember being lifted from the truck-it could have been a car-and then a sense of being lifted off the ground, and a louder sound was all about me like air. When I did come to my senses, I was lying on blankets in what we call the hall, being given coffee by Dr. Havant, and Igor Mitski was kneeling beside me.”

“Can you describe the man and the woman on the train?”

“Yes. The man, or the woman, or both, had a part in kidnapping all of us. The woman was dark and of slight build. She smiled often, but never with her eyes, and Myra Thomas reminds me of her. The man was slightly built but wiry and active. He had dark hair and dark eyes, too. He talked alot, I seem to remember, but am not clear on this.”

“You would know them again?”

“Oh, yes. I would surely know them again, Inspector,” answered Clifford Maddoch, and the harshness, the brittle hatred, shocked Bony.

Bony Nominates an Ally

“NOW, Maddoch,” Bony said, “relax and let me think.”

Including ArthurFiddler, and Igor Mitski who lay dead and still unburied, seven men convicted of murder and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment had been released, abducted and conveyed to these caverns. And a woman who had been acquitted of the charge of murder also had been abducted and brought here.

In every case the release waseffected before the expiration of the sentence imposed by the court. In one case, that of Mark Brennan, the prisoner had been released despite his papers having been markedNeverTo Be Released. The ethics of these persons in authority in subverting the sentence imposed by the constituted court was a matter of no official concern to a police officer.

Facts were what Bony sought. The apprehension of lawbreakers was his job, and this he often reiterated. The channels through which political influences could work to achieve the release of any of the seven murderers were unknown to him, and, in any case, were not in his territory.

Of official concern to him was that these seven convicted murderers on being released were re-imprisoned without the authority of the State, and in a place not authorised by the State. These men were made free citizens although bound for a period by certain conditions, and that they had not abided by the conditions had been due to circumstances wholly beyond their control.

Within days of release, each had been coshed or drugged, conveyed hundreds of miles by road, then most likely by air and lowered into these caverns where living conditions were far worse than those ruling in a modern Australian jail.

They were provided with food, tinned and dehydrated, a stove to cook the food, and oil to maintain half a dozen lamps. They were given straw-stuffed mattresses and blankets and the common medical remedies but the doctor among them was refused any instruments. Although not denied bare necessities, including hair-cutters and safety razors, they were denied replacement of footwear and mental food by way of books and papers.

The delivery of supplies was irregular and once, for a period of five days, they had been without kerosene for the stove and lamps, following which Jenks had been appointed custodian of the fuel and light stocks. By what type of transport they and the supplies had been conveyed, the prisoners were not in agreement, one saying that even in his drugged state he believed he saw the lifting blades of a helicopter; and another thought he had been brought all the way by truck. At times, when supplies only were brought, they thought it must be by truck, judging by the noise of the engine, but on this point Bonywas sure that transportation had been by aircraft.

“Tell me,” he said, “just what occurs when supplies are delivered.”

“They always come at night,” replied Maddoch. “We hear them coming-the engine I mean-long before it actually gets here. The first thing that happens is that a powerful torch is switched on and directed down into the hall. Then a man says: ‘All of you below, show yourselves.’ Maybe the reason for that is to prove how many of us are still alive. A long time ago, Doctor Havant objected to this, and was told that the supplies would be estimated on the number of prisoners showing themselves. The doctor continued to object, and no one showed himself. Then no supplies were lowered, and we were on short rations and practically starving when they came again.

“Since then we all show ourselves. The stuff is lowered in sacks, and the oil comes in steel containers holding four gallons. The empty cans are hauled up. Once Jenks caught hold of the rope and attempted to climb up by it, but he was told he was asking to be knocked on the head. Another time Mitski held the rope and refused to let it be drawn up. The men above fired a warning shot, and that settled that.”

According to Maddoch, boredom was their greatest enemy, especially when convinced there was no possible escape excepting by the chasm which had claimed Fiddler. After him, no one had dared it, partly because in their minds was the story related to them of Fiddler’s terror of the isolation above.

Doctor Havant had a profound influence on Igor Mitski, whom he joined, and on those to come after. Maddoch averred that Dr. Havant saved them from degenerating to the level of animals. He had hypnotic powers of a kind which could subdue Riddell and Jenks, but not Mitski, Brennan or the girl. Maddoch said he could resist Havant’s hypnotic power, but admitted he had realised that only a strong leader could save this small community from the depths.

“You know, Inspector, I believe that,” he went on earnestly. “The doctor has a never-ending library of stories; it really is a library. We listen to him telling stories, for so long as he will, such as Steinbeck’sGrapes of Wrath and Buchan’sThirty-Nine Steps. He’s like Scheherazade who saved her life by telling the tales of the Arabian Nights, and if you close your eyes and just listen, you can almost live the stories. He has saved our lives, because even Riddell came to understand that these caverns hold something worse than perpetual darkness.”

“And yet there are fights like that we witnessed today,” Bony interposed.