Tarrapaldi

by Wayne T Mathews

  “You can’t be serious,” Caruthers said. “I’m an officer and a gentleman. I’m not going to be stripped down naked out here in the wilderness. Certainly not in front of the women.

  “Good for you, Clive,” Harrington said. “I don’t think you should be left naked out here either. I think we should drag you to Sydney behind one of the brumbies. Then I think we should put you in the lockup for a week or two, so the lags can have a little sport with your gentlemanly arse. And then I think we should hang you by your thumbs ‘til you’re dead. But that’s not going to happen, mores the pity. You’re just going to be left out here naked. You’re going to have to be still though, while I cut your clothes off. And before you do.” Harrington dug the point of his knife into Caruthers’ side. “I hope you don’t, mate.”

  “But you can’t be serious, Harrington. I’m injured. Both my arms are out of commission now. How am I going to be able to drink, or eat, or anything?”

  “Don’t you be worrying about it, Sir. I’ll look after Mr. Caruthers while you’re gone.” MacLaughlin said to Harrington.

  “You’ll have to take the horses down yourself, Nathaniel,” Billy said. “Me an’ Andrew have to go up country and see to Richard’s body. The dingoes’ll be at him if we don’t. And then we’ll be off for a while, to tell Mum and Dad what’s happened.”

  “I understand, Billy. Will you come back once you’ve done what you have to do? There’ll always be a place for you and your kin at our fire. You know that don’t you?” Nathaniel said.

  “Yeah, we know. And we’ll be back, don’t you worry.” Billy swung onto Bo’s back, turned the stallion to leave, but found his path blocked by Muchuka.

  She was naked, mounted bare back on the best of the green broke brumbies. Apart from the spears she held in her hand, the only possessions she had were in the dilly bag she’d slung over her shoulder. “I’ll travel with you both,” Muchuka said, in the Dharug language. “You’ll need a woman’s comfort while you weep for your brother.”

  Billy and Andrew looked at each other. Billy nodded once, then turned to Tunggaree. “Will you approve of your youngest sharing my brother and my fire?”

  Tunggaree looked at Andrew, then back to Billy. “You know this is a sacred site. Will you return when you’ve done what you have to do?”

  Both of the brothers looked at the naked white men, before turning back to Tunggaree. “We’ll return when the goonais, the death-wails, are finished.” Billy said.

  Tunggaree stepped up to Muchuka and took her hand in his. “Stay well my girl. Treat the men fairly, and do not be cruel.” Then turning to the brothers. “Muchuka will go with you. But I want you to know this,” Tunggaree said. “I have chosen Nathaniel as my son. I have trained him in the ways of the Koradji. I have trained him to fly, and watch the land, as an eagle. He knows the way to Bullima, and I have heard Baiame speak to him. If I am not here when you return, he will speak in my place. Tarrapaldi is his wife. Muchuka is his sister. Remember that if ever you think to hurt him.”

  Both brothers were startled. “You’re telling us your death story? Why? You should be telling it to the elders.”

  Tunggaree frowned. “You are elders now. You have sat round a council fire today, and there are no others here. These are hard times. Our people’s culture is being destroyed by the Goobahs. We need to make some changes if the secret skills of the Koradji, and the Kadatchi, are to survive in the coming generations.” Tunggaree chuckled when he saw the looks on the brother’s faces. “Don’t look so surprised, boys. I’ve known you’re Kadatchies from the beginning,” Tunggaree said.

  “Then you know we cannot allow you to discuss these matters in front of women,” Andrew said.

  “Well, I already have. These women know more of the Koradji and Kadatchi secrets than they should,” Tunggaree said. “But what was I to do? My sons have all died from the Goobah diseases. These girls are all I have left. Was I to let the secrets die with me?”

  “Tunggaree, you’re putting us in an awkward position. We have to tell the elders of violations we see. You know that.” Billy said.

  “Yes. And we’re doing that. Tarrapaldi, are you translating this for Nathaniel?” Tunggaree asked.

  “Yes, Father. He has understood every word that has been said.”

  “Good. Then there you have it. A council of elders, four men and two women, are aware of my violations. How do you vote?” Tunggaree held out his hands. “Am I to be put to death, for working to preserve the secrets of our people? Or will we agree this is one more secret that we’ll keep to ourselves?”

  Andrew turned to Nathaniel and spoke in English. “What do you think we should do?”

  “I think you, Billy, Tunggaree, and Muchuka should go and bury Richard. While Dennis, Claire, Tarrapaldi and I take the horses down to Sydney, and get the grants, pardons and appointments ratified by the Governor. We can ask the Governor what he wants done about these two. And then come back and get them. With no clothes or boots, they won’t go far.” Nathaniel said.

  “You can’t do that,” Caruthers shouted. “I’m wounded. I can’t use my arms. You can’t just leave me here like this.”

  MacLaughlin took hold of Caruthers arm and pulled him up close, whispering in his ear. “Shut your mouth, Clive. We can get out of this if you’ll keep your mouth shut.” Then looking at Nathaniel. “It’s all right. We’ll stay here until we hear from the Governor. I’ll look after the Lieutenant while we wait.”

  “Fair enough.” Nathaniel looked to the others. “Let’s mount up and get under way.”

  “Nathaniel,” MacLaughlin said. “Can you at least let us have a couple of blankets and a flint while we wait? It can get cold out here at night.”

  “True.” Nathaniel walked over to the horses the men had been riding, and took their bedrolls from their saddles. Unwrapping them, he checked the contents, and found the pistols and knives MacLaughlin had wrapped in his. “Nice try, Bob.” Nathaniel took a single blanket from the roll of each, and tossed them to the naked men. “You can forget the flint,” Nathaniel said. “Keep our fire going if you want the heat.”

  “All right, we can do that. Thank you.” MacLaughlin covered himself with the blanket. “You wouldn’t have it in your heart to let me have a knife, would you? It’s going to be really difficult to feed ourselves for the next few days, without at least a knife.”

  Nathaniel shook his head. “Work it out or go hungry, Bob. It’s your problem. Not ours.”

  “You’re right, I’ll work out something.” MacLaughlin draped the second blanket over Caruthers and tucked it around him. “Thank you for letting us have these.”

  “Thank you for letting us have these,” Caruthers mimicked when they were alone. “You sniveler. They’ve left us here to die. And you’re trying to kiss their feet.”

  MacLaughlin turned from watching the people leaving. He took hold of Caruthers’ blanket with one hand, while with the other, he sent the little man reeling with a back handed slap.

  “If you had another brain, Clive, it’d be bloody lonely,” MacLaughlin said. “When those Pike boys find out we stabbed their brother in the back, they’ll be back here to cut our hearts out. These blankets are what’s going to save our lives.”

  “How? How’re a couple of blankets going to save our lives?” Caruthers asked.

  “I’m going to make coverings for our feet. And bags to carry gold. I saw where Johnson and that black fellah went into the tunnel. I’m going in there. I’m going to bring out as much gold as I can. And we’re going to walk out of here, just as quickly as we can, with as much gold as we can carry.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  “The bloody bastards!” Billy knelt beside Richard’s body, looking around at the marks on the ground. “They stabbed him in the back. The poor little bloke didn’t have a bloody chance.”

  “And will you have a look at what Caruthers di
d to Claire.” Andrew pointed to the tree that Dennis and Claire had been chained to. “Only nice thing I can see here, is it looks like she got a couple of good ones in while he was raping her.”

  “She landed a couple of good ones all right,” Billy said. “But I don’t think he actually raped her. He was going to. But something stopped him.”

  “Billy’s right,” Muchuka said. “He didn’t penetrate her. But what he did is still rape. And to kill her baby is unforgivable. The man will die for what he’s done here. And if I have my way, he’ll die slowly.”

  Tunggaree looked up from studying the ground, saw the three of them looking at him, and nodded once. “We are the Kadatchies. The council has decided they’ll die. It is our decision, as to how.”

  MacLaughlin found the opening to the tunnel that led to the cave. But he couldn’t hold his breath long enough, and was afraid to go in. His dog paddle style of swimming was very tiring, and he could feel himself becoming weak.

  “You’re not swimming the same way they did,” Caruthers said when MacLaughlin surfaced again, spluttering and gasping, his arms thrashing below the surface. “They seemed to float in the water, and used their arms and legs like a frog does.”

  “If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you come in and show me?”

  “I wish I could, but my arms are broken. Why don’t you try it? Hold your breath, put your face in the water, and let yourself float face down.”

  MacLaughlin glared at him before taking a deep breath and trying to float with his face in the water. It worked for a few seconds. But when he began to topple, he had to thrash again to get his head clear of the water.

  “You’re getting the hang of it,” Caruthers said. “For a few seconds there, you had it. Keep trying to move your arms and legs gently, like a frog does.”

  With Caruthers giving him advice, MacLaughlin slowly learned. Eventually he could glide around the pool without having to beat the water into submission. When he tried to duck dive, like he’d seen Nathaniel and Tunggaree do, he was surprised how easy it was to propel himself below the surface. It was even easier when he opened his eyes under the water, and found he could see.

  With his confidence climbing, he duck dived down to the opening, and looked into what he’d only felt before. It was black, with no sign of there being an end to the tunnel. But as his eyes became accustomed to the gloom, he saw a faint light. Surfacing, he propelled himself across to the edge of the pool, and climbed out to rest.

  “It’s dark down there. But I can see a little light at what must be the end of the tunnel.”

  “Uh huh. Do you think you can get to it without drowning?” Caruthers asked.

  MacLaughlin looked sideways at the little man. “You better hope I can, fellah m’boy. Because if I don’t come back, you’re going to find you’re up the creek, with no way to paddle.”

  Entering the water, MacLaughlin took several deep breaths before filling his lungs with as much air as he could. With his lungs full, he dived for the opening. Without hesitating, he entered the tunnel and swam for the light. When he came out of the tunnel and his head broke the surface, he laughed with relief while gasping for air. Dragging himself out, he sat with his feet still dangling in the water.

  Feeling around with his hands, he selected a rock and held it up close to his eyes. In the dim light, he couldn’t be sure of the rock’s color. But from its texture and weight, he felt sure it was a nugget.

  Giggling childishly, he rolled onto his hands and knees and crawled around the floor, randomly picking up nuggets to heft in his hand and press to his cheek, before discarding them and moving on to the next.

  Suddenly he stopped, peered down at the wood his hand had touched, then started patting around. More by feel than sight, he located the cold ashes of the fireplace, the stack of wood Tunggaree had stockpiled, and the steel and flint.

  With mounting excitement, MacLaughlin built a fire, and in the glow of the flickering flames, he confirmed the floor was covered with nuggets. He saw the paintings on the walls, but paid no attention to them.

  Holding a nugget the size of an orange in each hand, he entered the water and duck dived for the tunnel. It surprised him how difficult it was, to swim with the nuggets in his hands, but he didn’t drop them. When he emerged in the open pool, he was gasping for air, and only just made it to the edge.

  Caruthers’ eyes locked on the nuggets in MacLaughlin’s hands. “Jolly good show, sergeant. You did it. You found where they’re hiding the gold. How much is there?”

  “There’s a floor in there, three or four hundred square feet in area, that’s covered with these. There’s thousands and thousands of them. Maybe even millions for all I know. Far more than we’re going to be able to carry. We’ll have to find a cart, and somehow, come back.” MacLaughlin said.

  “Yes, well, that may be what we can do in the future. But for right now, don’t you think you could bring out more than two? We can carry a lot more than two.” Caruthers said.

  MacLaughlin laughed. “You greedy little bastard. It’s not you who has to swim through that bloody tunnel, with these things in your hands.”

  “That’s only because I can’t. It’s not because I don’t want to.”

  “I’m pleased to hear that, Clive. Because you’re going to get your chance to do your share. When I’ve brought out as many as we can carry, I’m going to hang them in a blanket, from a pole that we’ll carry between us.”

  “What a capitol idea. Hanging them in a blanket, I mean. I don’t think the pole part is such a good idea. You keep forgetting my arms have been damaged.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with your right shoulder, Clive.”

  “But I won’t be able to hold the pole in place.”

  “You won’t have to. I’m going to put the pole on your shoulder, and then tie it to your neck.”

  “But that’ll hurt,” Caruthers said.

  “It won’t hurt me too much,” MacLaughlin said. “Maybe a little when you fall over. But I’ll chance it.”

  MacLaughlin laughed at the expression on Caruthers’ face. Taking up a blanket, he rolled it into a sausage, placed it over his shoulders, and reentered the water.

  Harrington wheeled his gray mare and reined her into station beside Claire’s trotting gelding. “How’re you holding up, old girl? The pace not too much for you?”

  Claire gave a tight smile through pale lips. “I’ll admit I’ve had better days. But I’ll be with you at the end. Make no mistake about that.”

  “You’re game, Claire. I’ll give you credit for that. But there’s no need to keep this much pace clapped on. We can slow down some. We’re not in that much of a hurry.”

  “I don’t agree. I think it was a serious mistake to leave those two out there alive. And I think you’re going to find Macquarie agrees with me. I’ll not be surprised to see he packs you straight back out there, to finish the job.”

  Nathaniel, mounted on Richard’s horse, wheeled in on her other side. “I’d not be getting too concerned about the two we left out there, Claire,” Nathaniel said. “I doubt very much if we’ll ever see them again. We’ll never know, and I for one, will never ask, but I’d wager the farm on this. When Billy and Andrew read the tracks where Richard was killed, Caruthers and MacLaughlin will only have a very short time to live.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Claire said. “But until we know you are, please forgive me for being in a hurry. I want Macquarie to grant us our land before anyone has a chance to empty the chamber-pot on our heads.”

  “Fair enough,” Harrington looked over at Nathaniel. “You getting the hang of that whip?”

  Nathaniel held up the stock whip he’d found tied to Richard’s saddle. “I can make it crack. But I don’t know that I could hit anything with it,” Nathaniel said. “I know what it feels like, and I’d not wish the pain on anyone, or anything.”
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br />   “I understand,” Harrington said. “But if you want to be appointed a judge in this colony, you’ll not want to be saying that to anyone else.”

  Nathaniel raised the whip and touched the brim of what used to be Richard’s hat. Shifting his weight and laying the reins on the horse’s neck, he wheeled and cantered over to the right side of the mob.

  “Do you think Macquarie will agree to make him a magistrate?” Claire asked.

  “God, I hope so,” Harrington said. “He’s a good man. And he gets on better with the blacks, than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

  “Hmm,” Claire said. “Well let’s not make that common knowledge either. It’d be a sure way not to have him appointed.”

  Muchuka began to keen when the last shovel of earth was being patted into place. Billy leaned against the shovel for several minutes, looking at his brother’s grave, and listening to the young woman wail.

  “I can’t weep for him yet,” Andrew said. “My heart’s still full of hate for the men who did this.”

  Billy looked at his brother. “I know what you mean.” Then turning to Muchuka. “Please stop, woman. There’s work to be done before we will weep.”

  Tunggaree stepped up to Billy, and handed him his gun. “There’s an emu in the valley, It’d be too long a throw for my spear,” Tunggaree said. “But with your gun?”

  Billy nodded, took the gun and walked to the spot he knew his brother had first been stabbed. Looking down, he saw the emu feeding. Supporting the gun against the tree, he drew a bead, laid off for the breeze he could see rustling the leaves, and corrected for the elevation. When Billy fired, the heavy ball took the Emu’s head off cleanly. The bird flopped to the ground, its stubby wings flapping.