Arthur Upfield - No footprints in the bush

“Oh Bony, thank heaven you’ve come. I-I-”

“Trust old Bony to do his stuff,” he said, smiling. “That is not my expression. It has been used by those of my critics who are more direct than elegant.”

Now he knelt before her and, without asking permission, proceeded to remove her shoes and place on her feet the Kurdaitcha boots he slipped from his own feet. The shoes he joined together by knotting the laces, and then placed them in her hands, saying:

“You must take these with you. Burning Water and I have planned every detail of your escape, and you must try to ask no questions because time is of vital importance.”

He stood up and regarded her with an encouraging smile.

Looking up at him, Flora was startled by his appearance. He was wearing only a pair of trousers. Nevin’s black shirt was wrapped about his right foot, and she had seen him limping badly when he went to the table for the brandy and the cigarettes.

“Go on, Rex, do something,” Burning Water urged.

Rex McPherson laughed, and he laughed as Flora had heard him laughing in the old days.

“You’d like to shoot, wouldn’t you,” he said, with his teeth bared. “You’d be signing your own and Flora’s death warrants if you did. But my turn will come again.”

“I doubt it, Mr McPherson,” Bony said.

Now he proceeded to examine the walls behind the stretched scarlet cloth masking the wired walls of cane-grass, makinghimself sure there were no other exits from the room other than that by which they had entered. He moved the table and set two chairs opposite each other. The brandy and glasses and the box of cigarettes he placed to his satisfaction.

“If Mr McPherson would take the chair opposite. Back, Mr McPherson. Careful, Burning Water. Conduct Mr McPherson until I take over.”

“Quite like the pictures, isn’t it?” Rex sneered.

“More so, Mr McPherson. Much more so. On the screen the guns aren’t really loaded,” Bony told him, continuing to place emphasis on the title. “Kindly keep your hands on the table and remember that any involuntary contraction of my forefinger will cause an explosion. Burning Water you must start without further delay. Bring my rifle and place it against my left leg. Good! I can now keep my eyes on Mr McPherson and the entrance. We shall be quite comfortable.”

“What kind of game are you playing?” asked Rex.

“I will be happy to explain it later. We have plenty of time. Now, Miss McPherson and Burning Water, off you go.”

The girl came and stood behind Bony.

“But why aren’t you coming, too?” she asked. “You can’t stay here. There’s at least twenty Illprinka men about. You’ll never get away from them once they know you’re here.”

“There is little reason to be concerned about me, Miss McPherson.” Then in tones she had never heard him use, he added: “Now be off. You are wasting time, Burning Water! Get going at once.”

Rex watched the chief and Flora pass out by pushing aside the edge of the cane-grass curtain, and then he laughed.

“How fard’youexpect Flora to get tonight? She’ll drop with fatigue when they’ve travelled ten miles. And if she’s able to get twenty miles before sun-up my bucks will catch up with them. You must be a fool if you think those Kurdaitcha boots will stop the Illprinka tracking them.”

“Thank you for your cigarettes, Mr McPherson. I was perishing for a smoke. You may be correct in your prognostications, but their fulfilment or otherwise will hardly concern us. Of more immediate concern is ourselves. We have a long night to get through without boring each other. I overheard you telling the guard he could go to his quarters and camp for the night. The lubra was less willing to obey a similar order. She hung about outside the curtain for some considerable time, and I was beginning to think it necessary to club her when she departed and later her snoring could be heard. Now, provided you behave yourself, we can be assured of peace and content till breakfast time arrives.”

“Then, I think, we will both die-you first.”

“Melodramatic, eh?”

“Life itself is melodramatic.”

“There’s comedy, too. Why are you staying here? Why not have trussed and gagged me, or, as Burning Water suggested, have taken me some distance away and then murdered me?”

“There are objections to either course,” Bony replied. “Two days ago I was bitten on the foot by a saltbush snake. Burning Water was quick but not quick enough. Then, whilst he was attending to me, there was an intrusion by two Illprinka blacks who had to be dealt with. I am, in consequence of the snake bite and the condition of the wound, almost too lame to cross this room. My forced role is to keep you entertained as long as possible.”

“We must talk about something, I suppose.”

“By all means. Let’s talk about you, shall we?”

“If the subject interests you. Make a start.”

“Thank you. Tell me how you worked Itcheroo to steal from my swag Sergeant Errey’s attache case.”

“Yes, that’s a beginning,” assented Rex, lighting a cigarette of the dozen Bony pushed towards him from the box. There was vibration in his voice betraying seething anger, and the struggle to speak calmly evidently was made in order to maintain equality with Bonaparte’s self-control.

“When a magic man of the Illprinka party I had on hand to make sure no evidence survived the tragic accident to the car, informed me through another magic man that you had been a witness, and that you had picked up from the ground a flat and square object, I knew it must be a case of some kind. I then sent a communication to Itcheroo about it, telling him to meet you and Burning Water and see if either of you carried such a case. If not, then the case would be in your luggage. He was to obtain it if possible and burn it.

“I understand that he, having great power over a housemaid named Ella, persuaded her to take it from your swag whilst you were in the bathroom. Itcheroo subsequently burned the case and its contents. How did you come to associate Itcheroo with the theft?”

“I found Itcheroo the following morning sitting beside a little fire and sending thought messages. In the fire were still remnants of the case and the sergeant’s notebooks.”

Rex regarded Bony steadily. He was beginning to understand that this quiet man was superior to a police tracker. Contempt was being replaced by a degree of respect which in turn aroused fear.

“Itcheroo got a nasty crack from one of the horses, didn’t he?” he asked.

“Itcheroo was killed.”

“Oh! Well, perhaps that was fortunate.”

“I am inclined to think it was for you less fortunate than you believe.”

The clock chimed ten and Rex glanced at it.

“Itcheroo could have told many tales. So could Mit-ji. I am like all the great kings. When a man becomes dangerous, remove him. If one doesn’t he will removeone. I would have brought Itcheroo here in the plane, but he was tired or something and you people were in a great hurry. It was quite an exciting finish, that race, wasn’t it?”

“Very. I am glad to know that Itcheroo did not kill Miss McPherson. She was, of course, unconscious when he was carrying her?”

“Of course. He clubbed her. Too severely, the fool. Flora was unconscious for two days. Poor girl!”

“I agree, Mr McPherson. You know, you puzzle me. You were reared by two doting grandparents and an easy father. They provided you with plenty of money. You could have gone high, and yet you threw it all to the winds. Seldom has any boy and young man been so greatly favoured.”

“Favoured!” sneered Rex, leaning towards Bony. “Favoured, my foot! How the helld’you make that out?”

“Even when your income was stopped through the action of a dishonest trustee, you could eventually have become your father’s partner, and then owner of McPherson’s Station.”