Arthur Upfield - The Bone is Pointed

Fencing wire was run through the holes and then fastened to strainer posts. Rolls of wire netting were run out along the ground and then lifted to be suspended from the new-run wire while the lower selvedge was wired to the top of the netting in the actual fence. And so the waterfall of fur was stopped from splashing in brown foam down into Karwir.

The stoppage was effected shortly after twelve o’clock, by which time Bony had taken the billy back to the campfire and had made more tea for lunch. He shouted that lunch was ready.

The men drove across in the utility, and Jimmy Partner obtained a wash basin, soap and a piece of bagging. Hands were washed. On a length of American cloth Bony had set out the pannikins, the sugar tin, the tomato sauce, the meat and bread. A bag covered something laid down beside the American cloth.

“Feeling hungry, Jimmy Partner?” Bony inquired mildly.

“Too right, Mr Bonaparte. I could eat a whole sheep.”

Jovial, his round face was expanded in a hearty smile, and one never would have thought he had instigated the boning of a man to death.

“Well, here is the sheep,” Bony said invitingly, and stooping to the bag, he lifted it away to uncover three dead rabbits. Even Gordon chuckled.

“You eat-em-down,” urged Malluc, again pressing both his hands to his flat stomach.

“Too right, next year,” countered the aboriginal wrestler.

“Oh no,” objected Bony. “You eat them now, fur and all. Remember, you said you would when I was leaving your camp that time you were footing the fence.”

The smile faded from Jimmy Partner’s face.

“I said-” he began and stopped. “I said I would eat three rabbits, fur and all, if you found Anderson within ten miles of this boundary fence.”

“Well, keep your promise. I’ve found Anderson, and he is not even a mile away from the boundary fence.”

Bony stepped back. Jimmy Partner slowly stiffened his huge body and a scowl spread over his ebony features. Gordon had bent to reach down for a filled pannikin of tea, but now he became like a statue. Malluc appeared to be mystified. And then Jimmy Partner’s arms became bowed and slowly he advanced upon Bony. The movement continued until the automatic pistol halted him.

“Sit down!” came the order like the crack of a stock-whip.

Slowly the great athletic body went to ground.

“It is as well for you, Jimmy Partner, that I am not a vengeful man,” Bony said, quietly. “When I tell you that I found Jeffery Anderson buried beneath a claypan, you will not, I think, demand to be shown which claypan. And I will relieve you of the task of eating three rabbits, fur and all, in consequence of the work still to be done. Do not again be so rash when meeting Napoleon Bonaparte.

“Now, Mr Gordon, let us begin lunch. Do not permit my little revelation to spoil your appetite. I am happy to assure you that, being in possession of all the vital facts concerning the Anderson affair, I am not going to make any official move against you or Jimmy Partner.”

Gordon flushed, and came alive.

“That’s very decent of you, Mr Bonaparte. Knowing the facts, I’d like to explain why I acted as I did.”

“Not now, Mr Gordon,” urged Bony, smiling. “There is still more work to be done at the fence. Later, I should like to hold a conference when all matters can be explained and settled. Having completed my investigation, I must leave Karwir to-day. For the wonderful service youGordons have rendered to the Kalchut tribe, I am going to make reward. Hullo, I hear the Karwir aeroplane!”

“Car, I think,” Gordon said listening.

“Plane all right,” said Jimmy Partner.

“Him motor feller,” voted Dr Malluc.

A Mountain of Fur

HAVING written his letter to the Chief Commissioner, in which he stated the blacks’ bone-pointing as a fact and not as a suspicion, Old Lacy considered that he had done his duty. He continued to worry about Bony, however, and Diana came to understand that her father had been captivated by the man in spite of the stigma of his birth. When Old Lacy suggested that she should spend the afternoon in the open air, she sought her brother and persuaded him to take her in the aeroplane to visit Bony and then-if it could be managed-theGordons at Meena.

At one o’clock brother and sister were in the air, at the girl’s feet a box of comforts specially ordered by Old Lacy. At four thousand feet the air was cool and invigorating, making her face glow, her eyes sparkle.

The sun-heated world so far below was bisected by the subdivision fence and the road to Opal Town that skirted it. The horizon was sharp against the cobalt sky and broken only in the north-west by the Meena Hills, lying like blue black rocks set upon a black sea.

Diana delighted in these air trips, and she adored her pilot brother, so different, immediately he left the ground from the seemingly carefree man whose laughing eyes so effectively concealed thwarted ambition. Never had her confidence in his flying skill been shaken, and up here, so high above the heated earth, she thrilled to the sense of freedom from material bonds.

Young Lacy turned round in his seat in the forward cockpit to draw her attention with a hand to something ahead of them. For nearly a minute she could not determine what it was he wanted her to notice. There was nasty lookingwhirlie staggering towards where Pine Hut was hidden by the timber-belt, and there were several eagles beyond the boundary fence. The edge of this timber, in which ran the boundary fence, momentarily revealed individual trees as the belt slid over the curve of the world to meet them. She saw the road running more plainly through the scrub to the white painted boundary gate which, from a pinhead, was growing magically into a perfect oblong.

Now she saw the abnormality to which Young Lacy had drawn her attention. Over the gate, and where the fence ran towards Green Swamp, hovered a tenuous red haze, so fine and so still that it could not have been made by sheep or cattle. Then she saw that this haze extended far back from the boundary fence, and her interest was increased to astonishment by the extraordinary number of eagles flying above it.

The road gate passed under them. The red haze was more dense at the gate, the road beyond was hidden by it and the usually sharp outlines of the trees were blurred. When over the border, Diana saw, partially obscured by the dust, what appeared to be a muddy stream of water.

Abruptly the earth swung upward on her right side. The engine roar almost died. The earth swung to for’ard and now there was the blur of the propeller between her and the scrub. The gate swung into her radius of vision, remained there for a little while, swung away and returned to appear ever so much bigger. Then the fence took position on her left side, and remained there with the tree tops only five hundred feet below. The ship rocked in the air pockets, but Diana did not notice this.

Down there against the fence the muddy water had resolved into animals. Rabbits! Rabbits running as close as sheep in a yard race. Outward from the fence the ground was alive with running rabbits, rabbits all running the same way. The rabbits had left Meena Lake!

The engine burst into its song of power, and now they were flying low along the road to Pine Hut and Opal Town. The girl could see beneath the red haze the army of rabbits crossing the road in the direction of Green Swamp, marching like an army without a van or a rear.

So absorbed was she by the animals on the ground that she failed to notice the birds until the machine almost collided with an eagle. There were hundreds and hundreds of eagles, like aeroplanes engaged in a titanic battle. Many came so close to the machine that she could see their unwinking agate eyes, and beyond the countless near ones could be seen countless others all the way to Meena Lake.