The Silent Frontier

by Peter Watt

  ‘We have a big bird up here called a cassowary,’ Lachlan said. ‘You don’t want to get on the bad side of one without a good gun to defend yourself. It’s a bit like an emu but its axe-like horn can smash your chest.’

  ‘With any luck we may come across one that I can bag,’ Sir Percival said, emptying a hip flask of whisky into an enamel mug and passing it to Lachlan. ‘Here, old chap, have a swig. You have done pretty well yourself today.’

  Lachlan accepted the mug and poured half its contents into another mug, passing it to Matthew.

  ‘Cheers,’ Sir Percival said, raising his flask. ‘To sighting the mountain on the morrow.’

  Lachlan glanced across the flickering flames. Amanda appeared exhausted at the end of the day. Riding sidesaddle along the narrow tracks had sapped her strength. Wisps of hair had come free and fallen across her dirt-smeared face.

  ‘You appear ready to put your head down,’ Lachlan said.

  She glanced up at him with a wan smile. ‘I am very tired,’ she admitted. ‘I think that I shall retire to leave you gentlemen to your own devices.’

  ‘I will ensure that your tent is clear of snakes or spiders,’ Lachlan volunteered.

  ‘I would be grateful for that,’ Amanda said.

  ‘With your permission, Sir Percival,’ Lachlan said, rising from beside the fire with a fit lantern.

  ‘You have it, old boy,’ Sir Percival replied, content to sit and sip his whisky.

  Amanda followed Lachlan to the tent that had been pitched to accommodate her and her husband.

  ‘You have not revealed that you knew me in the past,’ Lachlan whispered when he calculated that they could not be overheard.

  ‘I do not think that is necessary,’ Amanda replied quietly. ‘The past is the past and cannot be relived.’

  As Lachlan opened the flap of the tent for Amanda to enter, she stumbled, falling backwards against Lachlan. He quickly put his arm around her waist to steady her.

  ‘Why, Amanda?’ he asked in a hoarse whisper. ‘Why did you suddenly leave New Zealand without a word to me and marry another? You know, when I returned to Sydney I swore that I would hate you for the rest of my life.’

  ‘And do you?’ she asked, gazing directly into his eyes.

  Lachlan released his grip on her and stood back. ‘No,’ he sighed. ‘That feeling disappeared a long time ago, when I was deep in the rainforests. I had the opportunity to remember how your letters kept me going in the war. All I could think of was seeing your beautiful face for that first time in Sydney.’

  Amanda looked away. ‘That was a long time ago, Lachlan, and much has changed. You can see that I am a married woman.’

  ‘I understand your marital position, but do you love your husband as you once professed your love for me?’ he asked.

  ‘It should not matter to you how I feel about my husband,’ she replied, biting her bottom lip. ‘What we had is past, you must accept that.’

  ‘I never thought that I would see you again,’ Lachlan said.

  ‘And I believed the same. I thought that I might faint when I saw you standing with your brother at the river.’

  ‘So, you still feel something for me?’ Lachlan asked.

  ‘It does not matter about my feelings. I am married and will remain so as long as my husband is alive.’

  ‘Please,’ Lachlan said in a pleading voice, ‘I do not want you to think that I am asking anything of you other than an answer as to why you left me without a word.’

  Amanda looked at Lachlan with tears welling in her eyes. ‘I did so only because my brother threatened to use all in his power to have you shot – and I know that he was in a position to do so. I could not bear the thought that my presence might cause your death. When I returned to Sydney, Charles pressured me to marry Percival. My brother had squandered much of our inheritance on the card tables and saw my marriage as a means of redeeming himself. I was obliged to accept Percival’s proposal to help my brother, who had always supported me after the death of our parents. The marriage has proved to be convenient, as my husband has often been away on his trips. This is the first time I have actually accompanied him. I wanted to return to the colonies, which I have grown fond of. Meeting you again is something I never expected to happen. I always wondered about your fate and prayed that you would find the happiness you deserved.’

  Lachlan was stunned by Amanda’s revelation. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but he couldn’t find the words. She had sacrificed her love for him rather than see him dead. ‘I do not see anything here that might harm you,’ Lachlan finally said quietly. ‘So, I will bid you a good evening.’

  ‘Ah, all safe in the tent?’ Sir Percival asked when Lachlan returned to the camp fire.

  ‘Nothing to worry about, Sir Percival,’ Lachlan replied, taking a seat on a log, his mind still reeling.

  ‘Your man here was telling me the extraordinary story of how you two met in New Zealand. I believe you both tried to kill each other. And now Mr Te Paea informs me that he considers you a brother. What a tale to tell the chaps back at my club in London.’

  Lachlan glanced at Matthew, who ducked his head sheepishly. They were friends, but Matthew had never expressed the true depth of his feelings in that way before.

  ‘It was a bad time for . . . ’

  Lachlan did not finish his sentence but reached for his revolver as Matthew snatched up his shotgun.

  ‘What in the devil . . . ’ muttered Sir Percival, startled at the sudden urgent action on the part of his companions by the fire.

  ‘Hello there!’ a voice said from the dark. ‘We smelt yer coffee and was wonderin’ if you had any to spare for a couple of poor travellers on this dark night.’

  Lachlan had his pistol levelled at two figures who had appeared at the edge of the light thrown off by the fire. The strangers were dressed in dirty clothes that reflected they’d been a long time in the scrub. Neither appeared to be armed, but Matthew kept his shotgun in his lap pointed in their direction nonetheless.

  ‘Come,’ Lachlan said, slightly dropping the barrel of his revolver.

  The two men shuffled forward, wary of the guns pointed at them. They squatted on the opposite side of the fire. ‘You got any coffee or tucker to spare?’ the older one asked. His companion appeared to be around his late teens and sported a wispy beard.

  ‘Help yourself,’ Lachlan said. ‘There is a damper loaf you can share.’

  ‘Thanks, matey,’ the older of the two said, reaching for the flat loaf. ‘Been a while since we had any tucker.’

  ‘Where you from?’ Lachlan asked.

  ‘Been on the Palmer but didn’t have any luck,’ the older man said, stuffing his mouth with a chunk of the warm bread. ‘Now headin’ south to Townsville lookin’ for work.’

  Lachlan stared hard at the two men. They did not look like they had been starving. Indeed they both looked well fed. ‘Where are you lot travellin’?’ the man asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  ‘Just travelling,’ Lachlan replied, noticing that the younger man seemed very interested in everything around the camp site. He did not speak but his eyes flitted from one thing to another. Lachlan did not trust the two – there was something wrong and he would be glad to be rid of them.

  ‘You can take a tin of coffee, a bag of flour and some sugar and a tin of treacle with you,’ he offered politely but firmly.

  The older man rose from where he squatted and Matthew passed him the items Lachlan had nominated.

  ‘Thanks, matey,’ the man said, accepting the small hessian bag. ‘Me and me mate will be off. Hope you have a good trip.’

  ‘Don’t trust them,’ Matthew muttered as the two men disappeared into the dark. ‘I thought I heard horses a while back before they turned up.’

  ‘I agree,’ Lachlan said. ‘Sir Percival, are you armed?’

  ‘I have this,’ Sir Percival said, producing a small-calibre revolver from his trouser pocket.

  ‘Ke
ep it close by you tonight,’ Lachlan cautioned. ‘There are some pretty desperate types who roam these areas. A traveller can go missing and the police would have trouble finding any evidence of foul play in these lands.’

  ‘Quite agree, old chap,’ Sir Percival replied. ‘Do we post a guard tonight?’

  ‘Matthew and I will keep a lookout,’ Lachlan said, easing the hammer off his pistol. ‘I am sure all will be well. If those two had been making a reconnoitre of our camp, then they would have seen that we are well armed. Maybe they will move on.’

  Although Matthew and Lachlan took turns to stand watch through the night, the only sounds that came to them were the mournful cries of the curlews and the howls of dingoes deep in the scrub. At sun-up Lachlan organised striking the camp and after a breakfast of tinned meat with damper they saddled up the hobbled horses to continue south to the Black Mountain.

  Although Amanda did not avoid Lachlan, they had little opportunity to speak privately on the trip. Lachlan felt the pain of seeing her riding just behind the man she admitted marrying for her brother’s sake. Lachlan had to stop himself from telling her all that he knew about her murderous brother. It would only sound like sour grapes to do so. He could no longer hate her, but still he would be glad when the assignment was over and Amanda would forever leave his life.

  At a rest break around mid-morning, Matthew signalled to speak with Lachlan in private.

  ‘I think that I should drop back and sit off our track,’ Matthew said quietly. ‘Then I will catch up with you when you camp tonight.’

  ‘You have the same feeling as me,’ Lachlan replied. ‘It could be blackfellas, but I don’t think so. Jupiter told me most of his clan were wiped out around this area.’

  When the break was over, Lachlan approached Sir Percival. ‘Matthew has to go back down the track for a while,’ he said. ‘We might have lost one of our loads from the pack-horses. He will catch up to us when we camp tonight.’

  ‘Nothing wrong is there, old chap?’ Sir Percival asked with a frown. ‘Not those two we met last night by any chance?’

  ‘No,’ Lachlan lied, wanting to spare Amanda any concern. ‘We will mount up and head on to the Black Mountain. All going well, we should reach it about mid-afternoon.’

  Sir Percival stood in his stirrups to gaze at the low jumble of black boulders that made up the hill. ‘By Jove, it certainly is an interesting outcrop!’ he exclaimed in his excitement. ‘I can hardly wait to have a close look at it.’

  Lachlan glanced at Amanda, who looked weary, and decided that he should pitch camp to establish a base for Sir Percival. With a hand from Lachlan, Amanda slid from the saddle.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I think I should have a drink of water.’

  Lachlan passed her a canteen and she drank in great gulps.

  ‘Sit in the shade of a bush while your husband and I pitch camp,’ Lachlan said, observing that Amanda appeared to be suffering a touch of heat stroke. She did not protest as Lachlan helped her across to a small tree, Sir Percival seemingly oblivious to such matters as keeping an eye on the condition of his wife.

  ‘My husband does not agree that ladies should be on such an expedition,’ she said. ‘He believes that our place is in the parlour or bed only.’

  ‘Well, if you are to be here he could at least keep an eye out for you,’ Lachlan growled.

  ‘I know that you are doing that,’ Amanda said. ‘That is enough.’

  Her words bit deep into Lachlan’s heart and he turned quickly away.

  Just before sunset, Matthew rode into the camp and slid from his horse. Lachlan strode out to meet him at the edge of the clearing amongst the low scrub at the base of the hill.

  ‘Five of them following us,’ Matthew said, bending to examine one of his horse’s hoofs. ‘The two that came to the camp last night and three others. All are armed. They are being cautious, hanging back so we don’t see them.’

  ‘Did they see you?’ Lachlan asked.

  ‘Did you see me when I killed that bastard, Forster?’ Matthew grinned.

  ‘So you think that they are up to a great mischief?’

  ‘More than likely, brother.’ Matthew straightened his back and gazed at the great rock pile. ‘I told you this place has bad spirits.’

  Lachlan ignored his friend’s observation and walked back to the camp with troubled thoughts. Was he being overcautious or did he have a genuine reason to fear these men? He questioned himself. He was less afraid for himself than for Amanda. The worst any man could do to him was kill him. But five men could do far worse to Amanda before killing her. The odds were not looking good.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Lachlan did not embark on the exploration of the hill that day. Instead he spent much time carefully setting out the camp site. The arrangement soon attracted Sir Percival’s attention. ‘If I did not know better,’ he said, walking the perimeter of the cleared area and beyond, ‘I would say that you are establishing lines of fire around our bivouac.’

  Lachlan ceased striding through the scrub to stop and retrieve his pipe. ‘Just normal precautions in this country,’ he said, tamping down a plug of tobacco with his thumb. ‘There is always the danger of some hostile tribesmen launching an attack on the unwary.’

  Sir Percival accepted Lachlan’s explanation. After all, the man had once been a soldier in the famed Forest Rangers.

  That evening dinner was prepared and eaten in relative silence. Amanda was less weary from travelling that hot day and appeared to be acclimatising to the rigours of the journey.

  When she and Sir Percival retired to their tent for the night, Lachlan and Matthew rostered themselves on guard duty.

  Lachlan sat away from the camp fire, in the shadows of the night. He regretted that he had not brought dogs on this trip as he had on some of his other explorations. They were the best early warning system he could have and several times had saved his life from prowling tribesmen.

  The constellation of the Southern Cross was low on the horizon as Lachlan sat out his watch, his rifle across his knees and his Colt revolver close at hand. All seemed well in the scrub immediately surrounding their camp, but when he looked to the southern horizon he could see the sinister outline of the hill. He suddenly felt uneasy, as if the geological formation was watching them, waiting for them. Lachlan cursed himself for thinking such ridiculous thoughts. It was just a strange formation and nothing else. Lachlan remembered the stories Jupiter had told him of the hill’s creation. One was of a man who had been a cannibal and devoured a popular young chief of the local clan. He had been banished to the surrounding hills but would occasionally sally forth to snatch the unwary. On one of his forays he turned into a goanna to escape his tribe’s wrath but was struck by a bolt of lightning, causing him to explode and shower the earth with burnt rocks. Yet another story told how the creation of the hill came about as a result of two brothers getting into a fight over a girl they both desired. They had rolled huge rocks down the sides of hills until they eventually formed the great pile that was now the mountain.

  Jupiter’s last version of the story was somewhat ironic, Lachlan thought. That two men fighting over a woman would create a mountain. No matter how strongly he might feel about Amanda, he was not in a position to fight for her love. She was married. Fate had dealt a cruel hand but he must accept how things had transpired, even if in his heart he knew he would never forget her. If only matters had turned out differently.

  ‘Granite,’ Sir Percival said, stroking a huge black boulder.

  The previous evening had passed without incident and after breakfast he, Amanda and Lachlan had set out on foot to explore the boulders. Matthew had been more than happy to remain with their camp, as he still eyed the strange rock formation with foreboding.

  The great rocks were beginning to warm under the rising sun and a shimmer of heat haze lay over the scrubby hill as the trio scrambled up the first layer of stones. Amanda did so with some difficulty, encumbered by her long dress.

&
nbsp; ‘That terrible sound,’ Amanda gasped when they stopped for a rest above a crevice. ‘It sounds like someone is moaning.’

  Lachlan felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He too could hear the faint sounds emanating from deep in the crevices. ‘Could be the wind blowing through the cracks,’ he said. ‘Or it could be bats.’

  ‘Wind, most probably,’ Sir Percival said, tapping the surface of the boulder he was perched on with a small geological hammer. A hollow, ringing sound echoed around them. ‘No earth to absorb the transmission of a knock,’ he continued.

  He was like some schoolboy opening his Christmas presents, Lachlan thought. Amanda cast him an exasperated look at her husband’s seeming indifference to all around them except the hill. Looking down at the crack between the rocks, all Lachlan could see was an infinite darkness. He was about to stand when the popping of gunshots drifted to them on the tropical breeze.

  Peering over the sea of low trees, Lachlan could see a tiny wisp of gunsmoke rising above their camp.

  ‘What the blazes is happening?’ he heard Sir Percival ask from above him.

  ‘We’re under attack,’ Lachlan said, reaching for his revolver. ‘Get Lady Amanda under cover.’

  With a frightened face, Amanda looked from Lachlan to her husband. ‘Get down in the crevice,’ Sir Percival said, reaching for his wife’s hand.

  Lachlan scrambled down the rocks, his pistol drawn. When he reached the bottom he pushed through the scrubby trees in the direction of the camp. He could still hear sporadic gunfire. It was obvious that Matthew was fighting an unequal battle and Lachlan had a good idea against whom. He prayed that he would reach his friend in time. But before he could reach the camp he became acutely aware that the gunfire had ceased. It was not a good sign.

  Lachlan heard a slight noise behind him and spun with his weapon levelled at its source.