LITMIR.BIZ

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usual, Mr Wootton slipped a key into the office door lock and entered. He was invisible for two to three minutes and Linda knew he was studying a big book kept on his desk, and knew, too, that he looked into the book to tell him all about the station, and what needed to be done. On reappearing, he stood in the doorway and called for Arnold.

      Arnold was the very large man who could do anything from blacksmithing to making a motor engine go. Because of the wind and the cawing of passing crows, Mr Wootton had to speak loudly.

      “Want anything from town today, Arnold?” The big man shook his head, saying:

      “Don’t think so, Mr Wootton. Not for the station, anyway.”

      “All right. The wind oughtn’t to be strong out at Boulka. You might take the truck and go for another load of iron. And take your time to get the iron off without tearing holes in it. You know.”

      “Good enough,” drawled Arnold, and Linda asked:

      “May I go with Arnold, Mr Wootton?”

      “If your mother says so,” he assented, and called Eric.

      Linda raced to the house. Eric was lanky, raw-boned, slow. When Linda returned he was saying:

      “The mud’ll keep ’em from crossing for another six weeks even if it don’t rain, which ain’t likely. Them steers know enough to shy off getting themselves bogged. ’Sides, before the lake is hard enough to take ’em, the flood oughta be right down the Coopers and the Georgina, an’ spilling over from the Diamantina.”

      “Could be, Eric,” agreed Mr Wootton. “Well, take a ride out to Number Fourteen and look over the stores. Anything you want from town today?”

      Eric chuckled dryly, and winked at Linda.

      “Well,” he drawled, “you might bring me a box of them lollies with the nuts on ’em. Seems like I got to give a present to my girl. Must keep in with her, y’know.”

      “Yes, you must get a present for your sweetheart,” agreed Mr Wootton, seriously. “Is her name Linda, by any chance?”

      “That’s tellin’, Mr Wootton,” and again the wink which produced beaming adoration in the little girl’s face.

      The next man called to receive orders was the young man named Harry. He came forward with rolling gait, and even the wind could not drown the tinkle of his spurs. He was sent out to ride a section of the boundary fence. The fourth man, named Bill, was instructed to ride into White-Gum Depression and report on the feed. To him Mr Wootton put questions concerning the aborigines.

      “Any sign of Canute and his people, Bill?”

      “Sort of local? Naw, Mr Wootton. They’re never to hand when wanted. They’ll be away up on the Neales by now, living on lizards and ants, going for corroborees and such like, and putting the young fellers through the hoop.”

      “Charlie promised he would come back early to give a hand with the muster.”

      “You’ll see Charlie when you see Meena. And that’ll be when Canute says so. He’s their boss. You can send ’em to the Mission Station, teach ’em to read and write and sing hymns, but in the end they do just what old Canute tells ’em.”

      “Yes, yes, I know,” Mr Wootton agreed explosively. “All right, Bill. Want anything from town?”

      “Well, you could bring me a coupla pairs of them grey pants you got me last winter. Oh, an’ what about a couple of ladies’ handkerchiefs? Small ones with lace round the edges, and the letter ‘L’ in the corner. The store’ll have them kind. I got a sort of sister called ... why, hullo, Linda, I didn’t see you.”

      “You did so, Bill,” argued Linda, from whose face disappointment had been banished by joy.

      “Oh, Linda!” said Mr Wootton. “Will your mother allow you to go with Arnold?”

      “Mother says not to, Mr Wootton. Mother says I have to stay and help her because Meena and the others are still away.”

      “I didn’t think of that, Linda. Of course you must help your mother. All right, Bill. I’ll not forget the handkerchiefs and the box of nut chocolates.”

      Mr Wootton re-entered his office, and Linda accompanied Bill to the yards, where the other riders were saddling up. She watched them leave, and then went back to the house, and demurely dried breakfast dishes for her mother.

      After that, lessons at the kitchen table until nine o’clock, when Mrs Bell sounded the house gong, made tea, and provided buttered scones. Mr Wootton came to the kitchen for morning tea, standing the while, and noting on a pad the items Mrs Bell needed. Linda accompanied him to the car shed, and stood watching as the dust and sun-glare took the car up into the sky over the track to Loaders Springs.

      She was now free for the remainder of the morning, free to be herself, free to chide and scold and love, instead of being chided and loved. There beside the car shed was her own circular house, a circular house having canegrass walls and a canegrass thatched roof, and a wood floor three feet above ground to keep the snakes and ants out; a little house for a little girl, built by the girl’s sweethearts.

      Thus far, just another day for Linda Bell.

      She ran up the two steps and through the thick grass doorway to enter her house, leaving the buffeting wind outside, and meeting with calm silence. There was a real window set in the thick grass wall, and the window faced to the south, from which the cool winds of winter came. There was a table with the legs shortened, and a chair with the legs shortened. There was a rough bookstand and real books on the shelves, and on top of the stand were four dolls.

      One doll was the exact likeness of her mother. Another was the image of Mr Wootton. The third was a lovely young woman with straight black hair and large dark-brown eyes, and the fourth was an elderly man with weak blue eyes, a long face, and drooping grey moustache.

      Linda stood before the dolls, and said:

      “Meena! What’s the date? No, it’s not February 10th, Meena. You should know the date. You went to Mission School. All right, Ole Fren Yorky, you tell me the date. February 9th! Of course it isn’t February 9th.” Linda glared at the doll with the weak blue eyes and the absurdly drooping grey moustache. She mimicked her mother: “Ole Fren Yorky, I’m asking you to tell me the date today. Oh dear! Won’t you ever learn!”

      So the conversation with the four dolls continued over a wide range of subjects, including a box of chocolates with nuts on top, and lace-edged hankies with the letter L in the corner. She was seated in the chair, the dolls on the table before her. She had straightened Mr Wootton’s tie, and had combed Meena’s hair, and was intently trying to twirl points of Ole Fren Yorky’s moustache when the report of a rifle obliterated the low buzzing of the blowflies.

      “Now, Ole Fren Yorky, stay still,” she scolded. “Your moustache is getting disgraceful. That’ll be Mr Wootton out there shooting the crows. You know very well how naughty they are, and have to be shot sometimes.”

      Ole Fren Yorky wouldn’t be still, and Linda had to concentrate on gaining compliance with her efforts. Minutes later, she remembered that Mr Wootton had left an hour before for Loaders Springs. A tiny frown puckered her dark brows. She pushed Ole Fren Yorky to one side, and had put her hands to the table to push her chair away from it, when there appeared in the doorway the original Ole Fren Yorky.

      Terror leaped upon her. The man’s weak blue eyes were now hot and blazing. He ran forward, a light swag at his back, a rifle in his left hand. Linda sprang out of the chair, and then found herself unable to move. A bare arm gripped her about the waist and she was lifted. She opened her mouth to scream, and her face was pressed hard into a sweaty chest, and no longer was it just another day.

      Chapter Two

      Murder in Eden

      Until four o’clock it was just another day for Arnold Bray.

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