Arthur Upfield - Man of Two Tribes

“Better sit down, Myra. Might be knocked down if you won’t. Looks like ‘beg pardons’ are old-fashioned.” She sat, and Brennan continued to watch her. “I’ll make you a cigarette,” he promised, but she ignored the offer.

“That’s better,” Bony told them. “I intend to explain several matters clearly so that you will understand what is ahead and how damn silly it is to brawl among yourselves.

“I believe I know where the dog found her way out. If I am correct, it might mean days, perhaps a month of labour enlarging the passage, and you must be sufficiently intelligent to know that where Lucy can go, Joe Riddell might not.

“But no matter when we escape, the hurdles are many and severe, and you must realise just how severe if you hope to live. The best way, the surest way, is for all of you to remain quietly here while I go back for help and transport. You will have to wait only three weeks. You will…”

“Nothing doing,” snarled Riddell.

“Wait here!” shouted Jenks. “Not for a million. I’d be out and away in a flash.”

“Not for me, Inspector. I don’t like Mitski’s Dead March,” Brennan said. “What about you, Doc?”

“I am going to be sensible and hear what Bonaparte has to say,” replied Havant. “And I would be obliged did you people remain silent and listen to what he wishes to say.”

“You will not suffer that noise again,” Bony assured them. “The plug in the drain at the bottom of Fiddler’s Leap has been forced through and the waters released. That is one danger eliminated. Now listen attentively.

“When we gain our freedom we have to walk two hundred miles to the nearest homestead. We could cover twenty-five miles a day, the journey thus occupying eight days. That is, of course, if all were in training. Can any one of you honestly say he has ever walked twenty-five miles, or even fifteen miles in one day? Can any of you be utterly confident of walking fifteen miles every day for a week after being cooped in these caverns for years? Of course not. If one or more of you didn’t crack within a week, I’d turn gangster.

“Still, we could assume that all of us can walk at least ten miles a day, so that our journey will take twenty days, say three weeks. We then have to provision ourselves for those threeweeks, also arrange our own water supply, because it’s possible that for days on end we won’t find any.

“What you must understand is that it won’t be any question of the survival of the fittest. If, after I have placed all the cards face up, you are still determined not to wait for transport, then you will obey my orders without further argument, because it is my duty to return all of you to civilisation, not only the fittest, leaving the weak to perish.

“You will also understand that I am the only one among you who can lead you across the Nullarbor Plain, and that if anything should prevent me, say a blow to the back of the head, all of you will wander in circles until you drop and die. I can assure you that to perish of hunger, and especially of thirst, is the worst death you can suffer.”

Bony paused for comment. They watched him: were silent.

“Thereis a large number of people, who, because they happen to be born in Australia, believe they know everything about this Continent. They travel by car or bus to towns in the farming belts, or by bus and car on the highways spanning this Continent, even encircling it, and believe they can be told nothing. Doctors and university professors, sailors and old maids-they know everything about Australia. And I have no reason to believe you are not of that vast number of know-alls.

“Since I informed you that you are now at the northern extremity of the Nullarbor Plain, have you asked yourselves why you were brought here when there are many such caverns within a few miles of the railway, within stone-throw of the only tourist road following the southern extremity? No. You have been so occupied with your grievances, imagined and otherwise. Why were you brought here? Because if you ever did manage to get out, the Nullarbor Plain would claim you as surely as though you escaped into a forest of ravening tigers.

“In fact, if you determine to accompany me back to civilisation, you are going to be beset by worse than tigers. Fatigue will torment you. Your tortured imagination will create monsters to stalk you. And Fear will snap at your heels.”

Bony paused for emphasis.

“Remember, I shall be with you. You won’t lie down when you are tired, because I shall boot you to your feet. You won’t moan about being utterly exhausted, because I shall energise you with a burning match under your nose. If you leave here with me, you will arrive with me, even if then you are gibbering idiots.

“You won’t bluff me. The Plain won’t bluff me. But the wild aborigines might, so that those who accompany me will walk much further than ten miles per day.” With studied insolence he added: “I trust I make myself clear enough for your limited understanding.”

Again he paused for comments, and again none were offered.

“When I set out to look for Myra Thomas, I had no knowledge of the disappearance of you men, your failure to report in accordance with your release doubtless being attributed to defiance. I have been in this part of the country for three weeks, and did not once find any evidence of aborigines. I did admit to that possibility… of wild aborigines wandering this northern extremity of the Plain, but had no reason even to assume that there might be aborigines working for people who abducted released murderers, and who were instructed to await my arrival and capture me did I locate these caverns, and then add me to the members of the Institute.

“It is certain, if I accept the contacting of the aborigines before my arrival, which I do, that they will have contacted those white people who conveyed you here, and that the aborigines have been ordered to maintain watch over this part of the country, just in case I manage to escape and go back for assistance. Therefore, the wild aborigines represent the great obstacle confronting me as your leader.

“You think you know all about the aborigines, having seen them driving farm implements or trucks, their children going to school, and their women attending sewing classes. Perhaps you have seen them drinking milk shakes in town cafes, and even reading newspapers and books, and attending a cinema. Doubtless you have always regarded them as spineless nitwits, being infinitely below your own regal white-folk intelligence.

“You will not be amused when I tell you that the wild aborigine, in his own unfenced and unfarmed country, places you as little innocent, squawking ducklings, running around just waiting for your necks to be wrung. Can you see yourself, Doctor Havant, or you, Joseph Riddell, as a little duckling? I can.

“I do not assert that if we are captured by the wild aborigines we shall be massacred or we shall become the sport of savages. I state with utter conviction that if we are caught we shall be returned to these caverns and guarded well until another jail is found for us, or the exit has been sealed for ever. And I have no wish to remain here, for ever.

“If you have any sense left, you will remain here until I return with transport. I could do that within two weeks. My reputation is my guarantee that within three weeks you will be back with the crowds and the lights of your pet city. And what tales you will have to tell! What publicity, fame! Free food and drinks. The opportunity to make even enough money to muzzle the taxation bloodhounds.

“If you come with me, you cry with fatigue, you may moan with the pain of my boots, you may even die, but your body will arrive with me at the end of the journey you could have made in a comfortable car or aeroplane.”