The officer smiled. ‘You talk sense, young man.’ He shook hands with Hal. Roger and the captain.
In the meantime the inspector had been making a careful examination of the treasure. He came up to say, ‘I can’t make any estimate down there. You’ll have to get these bars up and spread them out on the deck so I can make a count.’
One of the police said, ‘I don’t see why your friend Kaggs can’t help you. Do you have the key to the brig?’
Captain Ted gave it to him. The three came up in a moment with the wriggling, ranting Kaggs, loudly protesting his innocence. He was told that he had to knuckle down and help bring up the bars.
‘You don’t know what you’re asking,’ he said. ‘I’m no labourer. I’m a minister of the Gospel. I don’t work with my hands.’
‘You don’t work with your head either,’ said one of the officers, ‘or you wouldn’t be in this mess. You’re going to do hard labour in prison the rest of your life so you may as well get in a little practice now.’
The two boys and the captain went to work bringing up bars. The inspector and police officers helped. Only Kaggs was sulky and unwilling. He refused to take part. An officer gave him a prod with his gun, and Kaggs changed his mind. As he went up and down an officer kept close to him, ready to use his gun if the criminal tried to escape.
When all the bars lay on the deck like a pavement of gold, the inspector made his count. Then he spoke to Hal.
‘Forty-four hundred bars. That’s twenty-two hundred for the government and the rest for you. This will have to be handled through a bank. What bank do you prefer?’
Hal said, ‘You know the Brisbane banks, I don’t.’
‘I suggest the Queensland National,’ said the inspector. ‘It’s the biggest, and it’s close by. I’ll telephone and see if they can send over a man.’
What he said over the telephone must have been impressive, for the person who came was none other than the manager himself. He gasped when he saw the golden pavement.
‘Verify my count, please,’ the inspector said. Then will you cart this stuff away, have it appraised, divide the value in half and give us two cheques - one for the government and one made out to Hal Hunt.’
‘Not exactly,’ Hal said. ‘Don’t make out a cheque to me. Kindly divide our half in two and write one cheque to the Undersea Science Foundation and the other to John Hunt and Sons.’
‘What’s the big idea?’ objected Captain Ted. ‘You found the treasure. Undersea City has no claim to any of it.’
‘That’s the way I want it,’ Hal said. ‘I know my father would want it that way too. They are doing a great work down there. They could do a lot more if they had more funds. My father is doing a wonderful job too, protecting wild animals that might otherwise become as extinct as the dinosaur and the dodo. He can do even better with this help.’
‘Have it your own way,’ the banker said. ‘The bank’s armoured car will be here in a few minutes to pick this up.’
One of the officers telephoned police headquarters for a patrol car. When it arrived, Kaggs was bundled into it and had a free ride to the jail. His last words to Hal were, ‘When I get out I’ll have a score to settle with you.’
There remained the job of transferring all the tanks of fishy treasures to a cargo vessel that would take them to the Hunt Animal Farm on Long Island. Then the Flying Cloud went into dry dock to get the hole in her hull patched up. Hal cabled his father:
SPECIMENS COMING TO YOU BY MOTOR SHIP ‘KANGAROO’. LOOK ALSO FOR SLIP OF PAPER FROM QUEENSLAND NATIONAL BANK. WHA’I DO YOU WAN’I US TO DO NOW? CABLE LENNON’S HOTEL BRISBANE.
It would take two or three days to get an answer, and about that long for repairs on the Flying Cloud.
The hotel seemed pretty luxurious after the simple quarters they had occupied at the bottom of the sea.
‘And the food is better too,’ Roger said, as they sat at table in the Rainbow Room listening to the orchestra and absorbing kangaroo tail soup, rock oysters on the half shell, and baked Alaska.
Three days later they received John Hunt’s answer:
DON’T KNOW EXACTLY WHA’I YOU’VE BEEN UP TO BUT AM PROUD OF YOU ANYHOW. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SLIP OF PAPER? I SUGGEST YOU EXPLORE WORLD’S WILDEST ISLAND, NEW GUINEA. BUT LOOK OUT FOR CANNIBALS. KEEP YOUR SHIP. WE NEED CROCODILES, SEA COWS, TIGER SHARKS, KOMODO DRAGONS, BIRDS OF PARADISE, CASSOWARIES, KANGAROOS, BANDICOOTS, CUSCUS, FLYING FOXES, PHALANGERS, GIANT SCORPIONS, DINOSAUR LIZARDS, DEATH ADDERS, TAIPANS, KOALA BEARS, CANNIBAL SKULLS FOR MUSEUMS.
Chapter 23
Cannibal adventure
Hal stared at his brother.
That’s the biggest job we’ve had yet,’ he said. ‘Wonder why he chose New Guinea.’
‘Because it’s close by,’ Roger guessed. ‘Isn’t it up at the end of the Great Barrier Reef?’
‘Yes. Just off the north tip of Australia. But as different from Australia as a tiger is different from a lamb. I suppose it’s the most dangerous place on earth for a kid like you to go roaming about. He expects me to take care of you. What does he think I am, a baby-sitter?’
Roger flushed. ‘I could poke you in the nose for that. What makes you think I can’t take care of myself?’
Hal said, ‘You have a talent for getting into mischief.’
‘Well, don’t I get myself out again?’
Hal thought about this. ‘Yes, I guess you do, But you’ve never had to face a pack of cannibals.’
‘Cannibals, my eye! Dad was just kidding about that. There aren’t any cannibals any more - anywhere. Don’t Australians run New Guinea? They wouldn’t allow headhunting there.’
‘They wouldn’t if they could stop it,’ Hal agreed. ‘But it’s not easy. Think what they’re up against. New Guinea is the largest island on earth, except Greenland. And New Guinea is practically all mountains. High mountains, up to sixteen thousand feet. In most of the country there are no roads. Wild tribes are shut away in the mountain valleys. Many of these people have never seen a white man. How do you expect Australian patrols to police tribes they can’t even reach?’
Roger objected, ‘But Dad wouldn’t be sending us there if it weren’t safe.’
‘He told us it wasn’t safe,’ Hal retorted. ‘He said look out for cannibals. Well, I can’t look out for cannibals and look out for you too. You can take a plane home and I’ll go alone.’
Roger was in a towering rage. ‘You send me home? Just try it. Don’t forget - the name of our outfit is John Hunt and Sons. Sons, mind you, not Son. I’m part of the firm. I have the same rights as you. Besides you may need me to help you. Perhaps it’ll be you, not me, who’ll get into trouble.’
Hal smiled. He realized that there was a man in this boy. ‘All right, I surrender,’ he said. ‘We’ll stick together.’ He cabled his father.
ON OUR WAY TO NEW GUINEA.
And what happened to them in the world’s wildest island is told in Cannibal Adventure.
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