Arthur Upfield - The Bone is Pointed

“The word ‘cable’ reminds me,” said Young Lacy, who had returned with the magnifying glass. “I remember ordering green cable silk from Phil Whiting for Jeff Anderson. As a matter of fact Anderson always used green silk for his crackers.”

“I wonder, now,” Bony said, slowly. “Did Anderson have a special liking for green as a colour?”

“Two of his suits are dark green,” replied the young man.

“He must have had a strain of Irish in him.”

“What’s that!” exclaimed Old Lacy, his body jerking upward.

Bony repeated the remark, and then, accepting the magnifying glass, he studied one of the whip crackers. Several minutes were spent on the study of the four whips.

“Undoubtedly Anderson made his whip crackers with cable silk,” he said, breaking a long silence. “Now let us observe with the glass a wisp from the frayed end of this cracker with a wisp of silk I have found.”

Bony produced from a long slender pocket-book an envelope, and from the envelope a spill of cigarette paper. Immobile, as though each of them held breathing suspended, the others saw Bony take from the paper a wisp of silk and lay it upon the envelope. No one offered comment when he set beside it a wisp of frayed silk from one of the crackers, and with the glass examined both with studious care. When he looked up at them they saw satisfaction depicted on his face.

“I should like you all to examine these two wisps of silk with the glass,” he said, the satisfaction now in his voice. “Both specimens are much faded in colour, but they are sufficiently alike for us to assume that both came from the same material-cable silk.”

One by one they accepted the glass and agreed that both wisps of silk were alike in colouring, though both faded.

“What’s it all mean, Bony?” demanded the old man.

“One moment, Mr Lacy,” said Bony. He returned the wisp of silk to its cigarette paper and the paper to the envelope which he marked Exhibit One. Then he removed one of the crackers and placed this in a used envelope which he marked Exhibit Two.

“I am unable to satisfy your natural curiosity,” he told them smilingly. “My own curiosity is not yet satisfied concerning the scrap of cable silk I discovered in a somewhat remarkable position some five months after it was detached from the cracker of Anderson’s whip. While I am not sure, I can hazard a guess in which particular square mile Jeffery Anderson played a part in the drama which closed his life.”

“Do you really think he was killed by someone?” asked Diana, that hard expressionless mask again on her face.

“Of course he was,” interjected Old Lacy. “The blacks killed him for what he did to Inky Boy. I told Jeff to be careful and always to keep his eyes well open.”

Bony nodded his head in the affirmative, and neither the girl nor Young Lacy could decide if the affirmation referred to the old man’s statement or to Diana’s question.

The Shadow of Civilization

WHEN the maid brought him a cup of early morning tea, Bony was smoking his second cigarette and making notes on a sheet of note-paper, his puckered eyes indicating his displeasure with the progress of this case at Karwir.

After breakfast with theLacys, during which the case was not mentioned, he rang Sergeant Blake who told of his interview with the Opal Town shopkeeper on the subject of green cable silk, an interview giving no definite results since the storekeeper reported selling green cable silk fairly often. With regard to the time when half an inch of rain had fallen on the eighteenth of April, Blake’s news was more encouraging, for one of theMackays, of Mount Lester Station, agreed that the half-inch had fallen by seven o’clock.

Bony was on his way to join Young Lacy, who was working this Sunday morning on his aeroplane in preparation for the flight to Meena Lake in the afternoon, when he met Bill the Better coming from the cow yard with two buckets of milk.

“Good day!” Bony greeted the little man with the watery blue eyes and the gingery moustache.

“Good day-ee, Inspector! Keepin ’ dry, ain’t it?”

A smile flitted across Bony’s dark face, and he said:

“I do not approve of gambling on Sunday, but I’ll bet you five shillings even money that it rains before Christmas Day.”

The groom set down his milk buckets.

“Lemmesee,” he said. “To-day’s the eighth of October. Yes, I’ll take you. Rain to register not less than one point.”

Bony produced his long, narrow pocket-book, and on the back of the envelope marked Exhibit One he noted the transaction. As he watched the detective doing this, Bill the Better asked:

“Any chance of you finding the body?”

“Body! What body?”

“Handerson’s body, of course. I don’t know of any other likely ones.”

“Why are you so interested in the discovery of Anderson’s body?”

“Well, you see, Igotta coupler quid on Handerson’s carcass. That night ’e didn’t come ’omeI bet Charlie a coupler quid he’d be found a corpse. That’smore’n five months ago, and the bet’s still ’angingfire. Trouble is that Charlie might be left when the carcass is found, and then I can whistle for me money.”

“Yes, I can understand how awkward the position is,” Bony agreed. “However, I am doing my best. Meanwhile, if you’re game, what about another little bet?”

“Too right, Inspector. Anything will do me.”

“Good! I’ll bet you a level pound you cannot tell me, without hesitation, just what you did on the eighteenth of April, the day that Anderson disappeared.”

The watery eyes blinked.

“Done!” cried Bill the Better. “I’ll recite it like apome. I gets the ’orsesin by half-past seven. I ’as me break and then walks over to the wood ’eap. I seen Handerson coming outer the yards with The Black Emperor. ’E walks ’imacrostto the Green Swamp gate, and when ’e gets on inside the paddock the ’orseplays up and Handerson belts ’imwith ’is stockwhip. After that he rides east along the south fence.”

“Anderson had his stockwhip with him?”

“Too right ’e did. ’E never moved without ’is blinding whip.”

“Did you happen to notice what kind of cracker was on the whip that morning?”

“I did. It was a brand new one on ’is newest whip. Thick green-coloured silk ’e always used on ’is whips. I reckon Inky Boy won’t ever forget the colour. The nig wasn’t awake when the green was changed to scarlet. Well, after I chopped the wood I went out after the ration sheep wot always runs in the night paddock.”

“That is the paddock that lies eastward from here and south of Green Swamp Paddock, isn’t it?”

“That’s it. By the time I’d-”

“You didn’t see Anderson when you were out after the ration sheep, I suppose?”

“Gripes, no! ’E’dbeengorn a coupler ’ours by then.”

When Bill the Better had completed the list of his tasks that day, Bony presented him with a pound note in settlement of the debt.

“You didn’t like Anderson, did you?”

The watery eyes peered upward, and in them Bony saw hate.

“No, I didn’t,” came the assertion. “I’ll lay you a whole fiver to a shilling you can’t produce anyone who loved the swine. And if you finds ’is carcass, which I’m ’oping you will, I gives the coupler quid I wins from Charlie to St Albans ’orspital.”

“You may have to do that, and I will remind you of the hospital,” Bony said. “You don’t think, then, that Anderson cleared out of the district for some reason?”

“Cleared out! Not ’im. Why, ’e wanted to marry Miss Lacy to get theflamin ’ stationso’s ’e could sack me.”

“Indeed!”