Coasts of Cape York

by Christopher Cummings

  There were two newspaper articles, the headlines of which piqued Willy’s curiosity. One read: ‘Fate of Makassang Crown Jewels?’ and the other said, ‘Mystery of who took the Makassang Crown Jewels.’ ‘Hmm, crown jewels eh?’ Willy thought. He held them up. “Are either of these important?”

  Jacob shook his head. “They are but those crooks already have copies. They don’t tell you where to look.”

  “So what does?” Willy growled. He was fast losing patience with Jacob.

  Jacob touched a section of chart and two pages of handwritten notes, plus a photocopy of several pages of a book. “Those are all the clues I have,” he said.

  “Do the crooks know about them all?” Willy asked.

  “Yes.”

  “OK, they will do. Now, when I start going down the hill, you all creep up the hill another fifty metres or so, but do it one at a time and slowly so as not to alarm them,” Willy said. As he said this an angry shout from the beach made him stand up and wave. “Keep your hair on! I’m coming,” he shouted back.

  Carmen grabbed his hand. “Good luck Willy. I think you are very brave.”

  Willy managed a smile back and wondered if he was. Removing his hand he wiped it on his trousers and then picked up the vital papers. Then he began to climb back down the hill. The first few steps he found hard because his heart was pounding so rapidly he found it hard to concentrate and to focus. But then he saw the Gator lay down his pistol and take Julia by the arm.

  As Willy climbed slowly down he saw Gator and Julia start walking slowly along the beach towards the bottom of the hill. Willy took his time, every nerve alert. He was very conscious that he might be dead in a few minutes and he paused several times to savour the beauty of the scene, to sniff the fresh breeze, to admire the ruddy glow of the sunset.

  Then he continued on down. It took two minutes for him to reach the beach and he arrived at the same time as Gator and Julia. Making sure that there was a big boulder between him and the man with the rifle Willy stood and waited, trying to appear calm. Gator stopped and shoved Julia behind him. Thrusting out his hand he said, “OK kid, let’s see.”

  Willy looked back, noting the eyes showing through the holes in the balaclava. With something of a shock he realized he knew the man. “You are man who burgled the Beck’s; the man we saw in Cooktown,” he stated.

  The mouth twisted into a sardonic grin. “Yeah, I wondered where it was that I’d seen you, but I couldn’t place you,” Gator answered.

  “Do you work for Mr Jemmerling?” Willy asked.

  “Nope. I don’t work for anyone but myself. Who’s Mr Jemmerlink?” Gator answered.

  Willy shrugged. He was certain that Gator was speaking the truth and it seemed to lift a heavy cloud from his mind. Instead he said, “You have been stalking the van der Heydens.”

  Gator gave a harsh laugh. “Sure we have, the schmucks! But it hasn’t been easy keeping tabs on them, even with radar. They’ve been all over the bloody place as though they weren’t sure where to look.”

  Willy could not resist a wry smile. “Yes, I don’t think navigation is one of their strong points,” he said. That made Julia blush and he felt a tiny surge of guilt. “So why did you burgle the Becks?” he asked. He remained tense, ready to try to fight the man off if he tried to attack him.

  Gator shrugged impatiently. “Because these dopes are looking for a plane wreck and we were told that Mr Beck is the local expert on World War Two wrecks. But none of his stuff was any use to us so we had to go back to tailing this crowd. Now give me the maps.”

  That made sense to Willy so he held the papers tightly so that Gator could see them clearly. As he did he was afraid Gator would just reef them out of his grip and run. There were then a couple of anxious minutes while Gator carefully scrutinized them. Then, to Willy’s relief, he shrugged and said, “They seem to be the ones.”

  “They are,” Willy answered. “So you were going to wait till the van der Heydens had found the plane and the treasure and then you were going to move in and take it off them?” he said.

  Gator frowned, then grinned, the sight of the cruel mouth showing through the balaclava sending shivers through Willy. “Sure we were.”

  “So why didn’t you wait?” Willy asked. “Why come into the open now?”

  “We thought they had found it and when we saw them go off with that barge we decided to act. Now, let’s get on with this,” Gator answered.

  Willy nodded. “OK, you let Julia go and back off. Then I will put the papers down,” he said.

  This was the critical moment and Willy tensed ready. But Gator just grunted and shoved Julia past him, then stepped back and waited. Satisfied that neither he nor Julia was within easy lunging distance Willy bent down and put the papers down. To prevent the wind from blowing them away he placed a small stone on them. He then stepped back.

  Julia joined him and he pointed up the hill. “Go and join the others,” he instructed. She did not argue but began climbing the slope. Gator took several more steps backward and so did Willy. Their eyes remained locked, neither trusting the other. Willy gestured, “Go on, you go back and let Mrs van der Heyden go.”

  To his relief Gator turned and walked away without argument. This made Willy suspicious but he did not know what else to do. So he stood and waited, making sure he could not be shot by the rifle. A minute later he breathed out as he saw Mrs van der Heyden start climbing up the hill. Once he saw that Willy turned and also started climbing. For added safety he angled further away.

  Every few seconds Willy stopped climbing, partly to get his breath back but mostly to monitor Mrs van der Heyden’s progress up the hill. To his relief she angled over towards him. Satisfied she had a good start Willy started climbing quickly.

  It was as well that he did because Gator snatched up his pistol and started running along the beach towards the maps while Corey raised his rifle and went straight up the slope after Mrs van der Heyden.

  ‘The mongrels! They are not going to let us go at all. They are going to hunt us down,’ Willy realized.

  CHAPTER 34

  MAROONED!

  A spasm of pure fear coursed through Willy. Then he resumed scrambling frantically up the slope, still angling away to his left. He found it a particularly difficult activity. Even without being hunted it required fitness and agility and he was already feeling winded. Added to this was the need to keep looking around to try to keep track of the situation. This meant he several times stumbled or slipped because his whole attention was not focused on the jumble of rocks up which he was climbing.

  After a particularly hard fall he slowed down and took more care. ‘If I break my ankle or leg I won’t get away at all,’ he thought. Rubbing a bruised knee he again looked around. Shots, followed by yelling and shouting made him climb over a boulder to where he could see what was causing it.

  He saw that it was being done by Graham, Andrew and Carmen. They were bobbing up and down behind rocks, hurling cricket ball sized stones down the hill towards Corey. This was obviously to cover Mrs van der Heyden while she struggled frantically up to join them. To Willy’s delight he saw several stones land close to Corey, bouncing or shattering when they did. Corey cried out in anger and ducked.

  ‘That is a good idea,’ Willy thought, ‘But bloody risky!’ That gave him an idea. Looking back down the hill he saw that Gator had begun clambering up after him. A quick search provided Willy with a suitable sized stone. After a careful glance to check where his target was Willy stood and flung it as hard as he could. His eyes followed the stone as it flew down the slope.

  ‘It is going to hit him!’ he thought in disbelief and satisfaction.

  But at the last second Gator moved. The stone struck the boulder in front of him and then bounced, striking the man hard in the chest. Gator went down, shouting in pain. A moment later he reappeared, swearing and very angry. “You little bastard! I’ll kill you!” he screamed. Raising the pistol he fired.

  Willy ducked even a
s the pistol spat. The bullet struck a nearby rock and went shrieking off to ricochet around hillside. ‘That worked,’ Willy decided. He picked up another stone and hurled it, ducking back even as Gator’s pistol fired again. This time his aim was not as good but nor was Gator’s as he missed. Willy had no idea where the bullet went. Taking advantage of a third stone he scrambled up around another boulder.

  Facing back down the slope he hurled two more stones. Off to his left the others were still hurling both taunts and stones. A glance showed Willy that Mrs van der Heyden had reached them and was being urged on up the hill. Julia had joined in the stone throwing, hurling hers towards Gator.

  Willy gave her a grateful grin and moved up the hill a bit further. Then he looked around again. ‘Where is Jacob?’ he wondered. Fearing he might have been hit he looked hard but saw no sign of him. Commanded by Graham, who was shouting orders, the others were pulling back one at a time. ‘Army cadet doing fire and movement,’ Willy noted. Thinking it an excellent idea he yelled to Julia, “I’ll throw, you go back up the hill a bit and then cover me.”

  Julia did so and Willy hurled three rocks. Then he looked back up the hill and saw her wave, then throw a stone. Willy scrambled back up the slope until he was level with her. By then his breath was coming in rasping, hot gulps and he was wildly excited. A quick look back down the hill revealed that neither of the crooks had moved much further up.

  “We are winning this,” Willy cried, as much to cheer himself up as to inform Julia. “Let’s do that again.”

  Julia gave a mischievous giggle and that lifted Willy’s spirits even more. He collected four stones then called, “OK, go!”

  As he tossed the stones Julia went uphill fast. Then Willy followed. By then he was at least a hundred and fifty metres from the beach and, he estimated, about half way up the hill. Crouching under cover he looked through a bush and saw that the crooks were not following. Corey was still shooting occasionally but Willy judged he was well out of the pistol’s effective range. Graham, Andrew, and Carmen worked their way back and across to join him.

  Graham grinned and wiped sweat off his face. “That showed the mongrels!” he cried jubilantly.

  “They’ve given that plan up,” Andrew added.

  Carmen looked back down the hill and then said, “They are going back down. I hope they are going to clear out.”

  The friends crouched among the rocks, puffing and perspiring as the last of the sun went off them. Willy watched with intent interest as Gator walked along the beach to join Corey near the boats. The two men pulled off their balaclavas and wiped sweat from their faces while they talked. Then they moved to the launch and both used their strength to shove it back into deeper water. Gator scrambled aboard. Corey passed up the anchor and then his rifle. Then he walked to the boat.

  “They are going to take our boat!” Graham muttered.

  They did. The boat was pushed off and the anchor rope used as a tow rope to attach it to the launch. Corey clambered back into the launch. Then the launch got under way, backing out and turning. The friends watched in silence, although Willy felt like jeering their retreating enemy. As the launch headed North West across the channel Julia spoke.

  “How will we get help? Is there a town on the island?”

  Graham shook his head. “No. What you see is what you get.”

  “But.. but… we might die!” Julia cried.

  Graham gave a wry grin. “Hardly likely. We will just play Robinson Crusoe for a while. We might be marooned but we will survive.”

  Mrs van der Heyden joined them, followed by Jacob. He had apparently been higher up the hill. ‘Bloody coward!’ Willy thought, but he managed to hold his tongue and not say it. Mrs van der Heyden was also very worried about being left on the island but Willy snorted. “At least we are all alive,” he said, giving Jacob a pointed look.

  Mrs van der Heyden looked bewildered. “But what will we do?” she asked.

  Graham answered that. “First we will get drinking water. If we hurry we might just make it before it gets dark. Then we will wait until tomorrow and see what else can be done.”

  Willy switched his gaze back to follow the progress of the launch and boat. They went between Blackwood Island and Flinders Island, then turned to starboard and vanished from view behind Flinders Island.

  “I wonder where they are going?” Julia asked.

  “To find the treasure,” Willy replied.

  “Come on,” Graham snapped impatiently. “We don’t want to be struck on top of this bloody rock pile in the dark.”

  He set off walking diagonally up the slope to his right. The others followed. As they climbed over more rocks Mrs van der Heyden asked anxiously, “But what if they come back?”

  “They won’t!” Willy snapped irritably. “If they meant to finish us off they would have stayed to do it. They are going to get your crown jewels.”

  Graham paused on a big rock and called back, “And even if they do come back they won’t find us in the dark. Now hurry up and save your breath for climbing.”

  The group fell silent, save for heavy breathing and panting as they clambered up the slope. Ten minutes more of hard climbing had them at the crest of the hill. As they paused on top three facts at once made an impression on Willy. The first was the view. From there they had a magnificent panorama of sea, reefs, islands and the coast. The Rattlesnake Channel lay below them. The second was that the last of the sun was going off the highest peaks on the Bathurst Range and that dusk was swiftly setting in. The third was the wind. As they came up to the crest it began to buffet them.

  “Bloody wind is strong,” Andrew commented.

  “From the South South West still,” Carmen said, adding, “I don’t like that. It might mean that cyclone is coming closer.”

  “It is hundreds of kilometres to the South East,” Graham replied. “Come on, we might have days and days here to do sightseeing.” He set off down the other side of the hill.

  Going down was nearly as hard as coming up. It was certainly less safe as they had to continually lower themselves down from one rock to another. The growing darkness did not help. Willy noted a thin scatter of clouds moving with the wind. ‘It is a definite weather change,’ he decided.

  Fifteen minutes of awkward scrambling later the group were about half way down the slope. Willy was finding it all unpleasant as they were moving down the exposed side of the hill, almost directly into the rising wind. He paused to choose the best way down another rock and then a light caught his eye. It was out to his left on the sea. Shielding his eyes from the wind he looked more carefully. “There’s a ship!” he cried.

  “Yes, we see it,” Andrew replied.

  It was a big ship, a bulk carrier type. In the dusk its details were obscured but the lights on its masts and superstructure blazed out and Willy could even see the endlessly repeated puffs of white as the ship’s bows slammed into the waves. It was heading west through the Rattlesnake Channel.

  A sense of frustration gripped Willy. It was obvious that no-one on the ship was likely to see them in the gloom and he knew none had a torch. Julie voiced his thoughts by saying, “Oh, if only we could signal to it!”

  Andrew ignored that but said, “That bulk carrier is almost empty. I wouldn’t like to be on that in this weather.”

  “He might be running away from that cyclone,” Graham suggested.

  “Maybe, or heading for Weipa to load,” Carmen said.

  They watched the ship pushing along for a few minutes but it was at least 2 kilometres away and, Willy thought, it might as well have been on the moon for all the help it was to them. Led by Graham they resumed their climb down the hill. As they did the ship vanished behind Blackwood Island.

  Twenty minutes later, as the last glow of dusk was dying to the west, they reached the lower slopes just above the sea. This section of coast was steep and rugged, almost cliffs, so Graham turned right and led them along the slope. Willy found it even more awkward to make his way along t
he side of the hill and he was starting to feel tired and cold. The wind was making his eyes water and he blinked continually.

  After another ten minutes Graham led them down to where a clump of trees grew at the base of a cliff. “Wait here while I do a bit of a recce,” he ordered. “I’ve only been here once and that was by boat in daylight.”

  He vanished into the gloom. Willy joined the others in the shelter of a boulder. Even just getting out of the wind was a relief. Now he knew he needed water as his mouth felt dry and his eyes were beginning to feel scratchy. There was little conversation. Most were too worn out. Now that the fear and excitement was over Willy just felt drained.

  Five minutes later Graham came back and beckoned them to follow. Willy found that during the short halt several muscles which he had not been aware of had tightened up. He was not alone in this as there was a good deal of groaning from the others. It was a short distance but difficult because of the steepness of the slope. It took fifteen more minutes of careful detouring and lowering to reach a rocky ‘beach’ right on the tide level. Small waves were breaking on the ‘beach’ and spray began to splatter them as the moved cautiously over the wet, slippery rocks.

  The spring was in under a cliff overhang and among several large boulders. It was only 20 metres back from the sea and only a few above it. Three large mangrove trees grew among the rocks of the ‘beach’. Graham pointed to a white mark on the cliff above the spring.

  “Painted by the navy years ago to help ships find water,” he explained. He led them in under the overhang and indicated the water. In the darkness Willy could barely make out what he was looking at but he gathered that there were a couple of small rock pools. Graham knelt and used a cupped hand to scoop some water up to his mouth. “Tastes OK,” he said.

  Willy grimaced and was glad he could not see what he was drinking. When it was his turn he sucked in four handfuls and immediately felt better. Andrew and Carmen both drank without comment but Mrs van der Heyden protested. “I can’t drink such unhygienic water,” she complained.