Unaware of this, Graham was enjoying himself immensely. This was real adventure and it was something he was good at. Several times over the last few years he had been involved in real life and death dramas involving men with guns and he had coped. That knowledge gave him a lot of confidence.
The three cadets moved in single file ten paces apart. There was no moon but the stars were clear and brilliant. LCpl Halyday led as scout. He was given a direction by Graham and set off, most of his attention devoted to looking and listening for any hint of danger. Every half-minute he would stop in cover and look back at the CUO to check his direction, listen, then walk on for another fifty paces. It didn’t matter if he deviated from the direct line as long as he carefully searched the front.
Graham divided his attention between navigating and searching for danger. The lights of the army camp were already visible as they crossed the low rise at the top of the gravel scrape. If he had to he could have just walked through the bush and come out in the right place unerringly as he had an excellent sense of direction and ‘feel’ for ground, but as a precaution he made himself navigate by compass.
Hodgins brought up the rear. He not only kept checking behind and on either side but also counted paces, tying a knot in a piece of cord every hundred paces.
Years of experience made it easy for the cadets. Their eyes quickly adjusted to the starlight and they moved confidently down the slope. They skirted the top edge of the large open gravel scrape, keeping off the stones which would crunch under their boots. In ten minutes they were well clear of the bivouac area. By then they could no longer see the lantern, only its glow on the tree tops. The sound of the security vehicle was lost in the wind noises.
Their route took them down a long gentle slope on which the grass was cropped short by cattle and with only a scattering of Chinese Apple Trees (a variety of large thorn bush) and eucalypts. There was very little ground litter, only a few leaves and dead branches, so walking was easy and silent. There wasn’t much traffic on the highway which they slowly angled towards. Only two cars and a truck went past, their headlights flickering through the trees. Each time the three cadets froze against a tree.
A few minutes before 23:00 Hodgins quietly called that they had covered 1200 paces. Graham had planned a dog-leg course and the end of the first leg had them down near the dark line of trees and rubber vines marking the course of Scrubby Creek. The patrol changed direction to the right through nearly 90 degrees and set off again. After a hundred paces the fence bordering the highway was reached. The cadets crouched beside trees in silence, searching for any sign of hidden watchers.
After two minutes Graham signalled and Halyday crawled quietly under the fence (in proper infantry style - on his back to hold the bottom strand of barbed wire from snagging him). He vanished into the long grass in the drainage ditch beside the highway. Graham followed. There were small two-pronged burs which stuck in his knees and hands and the ground was very dusty. As he rolled out from under the fence he rustled the grass a bit. Hodgins followed.
By the time Graham had crawled the ten metres to the edge of the highway Halyday was across, a silent black shadow which seemed to lift and float out of sight into the grass on the other side. Graham crawled forward to the edge of the bitumen and looked both ways. Somewhere a few hundred metres to his right there was a NORMAC vehicle parked at the turn-off to the army camp but he could not see it. Nor was there any glow of headlights from approaching vehicles and no person silhouetted against the stars. Heart beating with excitement he rose to his feet and walked across, his rubber-soled boots making no sound.
Hodgins followed. Graham joined Halyday at the fence on the far side. As he went down to roll under it he placed his hand on a patch of burs and let out a stifled yelp. Hodgins heard him and moved further along the fence. They both rolled under.
“Oh shit!” murmured Hodgins in disgust.
“Quiet!” hissed Graham.
“Oh sir, I’ve rolled through bloody wet cow dung.”
This caused Graham and Halyday to have a quiet chuckle. The three moved into the cover of some nearby bushes while Graham pulled out as many burs as he could and Hodgins scraped at the manure on his trouser legs using a stick. Graham then checked the time on his watch and they set off again.
After a hundred paces they came to another fence. This one bordered the railway. Again they crouched to listen before rolling under. The railway was harder to cross quietly but because the line was on a low embankment it was easier to see if there was anyone watching. One by one they crossed, boots crunching a bit on gravel, then silent on the sleepers and steel rails, then crunching again as they went down the other side. This brought them to another fence.
After crawling under this fence they went up a long, gentle slope, this time through knee high grass, scattered iron-barks and small prickly bushes, which they soon learned to avoid. Now the lights of the army camp spread across a quarter of the horizon ahead of them. The lights were a nuisance as they tended to spoil their night vision.
The camp was an old World War 2 construction - a scattering of widely separated wooden or sheet-iron huts and store sheds, showers and toilets. There were a few security lights and an occasional street light beside the bitumen roads. There were extensive open areas with a few large Burdekin Plum trees or Eucalypts left for shade and a fair number of concrete slabs where buildings had once stood. A number of concrete drains led away from the area and it was avoiding these that now became their main concern as a fall into one could sprain an ankle or even break a leg.
After 500 paces they halted behind a small shed containing water purifying equipment beside a large tank stand, part of the camp’s water supply. The wind had died down and it was very quiet. Graham crouched behind the shed and peeked around the corner. There were a few lights in the buildings which contained the kitchen and dining halls but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
“You two stay here. I’m going to have a look around. I’ll be about half an hour. Keep out of sight,” Graham whispered. Then he left them and marched openly forward across the grass, past a darkened hut and onto the bitumen road. In doing so he was acting on the advice of one of his army instructors on a promotion course in this very camp. The instructor had been an SAS sergeant and had advised the cadets never to creep or scuttle in an enemy camp. “It immediately looks suspicious and attracts attention,” he had said. “Just march around as though you own the place and nobody will pay you any attention.”
So Graham did. Once out on the bitumen road that ran through the camp he halted under a street light and looked around. He was near the Canteen and Q Store. A murmur of voices came to him from the front of that. Turning right he walked past the front of the Canteen, then left into the shadows. Here he moved soundlessly, jumping a deep concrete drain to a car park at the rear of the Q Store.
There were four vehicles parked there: two army Landrovers, and two cars. Graham noticed that Captain Conkey’s car was not there. This gave him a feeling of disquiet. He moved forward and cautiously looked around the corner between some stacks of wooden pallets. ‘I don’t want to be seen unless the OC is here,’ he thought. ‘That will arouse curiosity.’
Three people were sitting at a table under the veranda roof, from which a single light shone starkly down. They were the Quartermaster, Lt Hamish Hamilton; the CSM, Barbara Brassington and the CQMS, Cadet Staff Sergeant Bert Lacey.
The three were drinking coffee and talking. Graham knew them all well but was still loath to let them know he was there as they would puzzle over what would be, to them, strange behaviour. ‘And there may be that security man here and he could overhear us,’ he thought. He decided he didn’t want to try to explain to anyone but the OC. Instead he sat and listened to a long, boring discussion of tennis by the QM and the CQMS. The CSM appeared to be busy with paperwork.
After a while Barbara put down her pen. “Anyone want more coffee?” she asked. She stood up and picked up some cups. Graham noted with appro
val that even now - close to midnight, after all the cadets had been asleep for an hour, she was completely and correctly dressed except for her hat. ‘She’s a good sergeant major,’ he thought. The previous year he had been the company sergeant major and he had recommended Barbara as his replacement. As always he admired how the light sparkled in her cropped ginger hair. He thought Barbara was a very attractive girl who had a very nice figure, even in army uniform. If it had not been for their relative ranks in the cadets he would have asked her for a date.
Barbara walked to a tap at the corner of the building near where Graham crouched in the shadows. As she rinsed the cups she said, “What time did Captain Conkey say he and the 2IC would be back from Townsville in the morning? Will it be in time for check parade at zero six hundred, or by eight O’clock parade?”
“Don’t know,” replied the QM. “He didn’t say, just said ‘see you in the morning’.”
This told Graham that he had no chance of getting the full story to Capt Conkey until some time the next day. The reason the OC had gone, it seemed, was to visit friends from his University days. The 2IC had relations in Townsville they were staying with. Normally it would not have mattered but now it was annoying. There were still two other adult staff in camp (Mrs Standish was no doubt asleep) plus Miss McEwen with 4 Platoon so there was still adequate adult supervision.
Graham sat and considered his next move. For a minute he weighed up whether to take the QM and the other two into the secret. But he was reluctant to do so, not because he didn’t trust them, but simply because the more people who knew, the more likely an unguarded comment would give the game away.
As he lay there a car came along the road through the camp. Graham hoped it was the OC but caution made him keep out of sight. The car didn’t come into the car park but stopped on the road in front of the Q Store. It was a NORMAC car. A man in a white shirt and dark long trousers got out and walked onto the low veranda. He carried a powerful torch and a sporting rifle. The car drove off. Graham noted there was only one man in it and that it went back out of camp. That the new arrival was known and expected was at once obvious from the conversation.
“Did you see her?” asked the QM.
The man in the white shirt shook his head. “Nah! Not a sign. Stupid looking now anyway, driving up and down the bloody highway in the dark! She wouldn’t have got all the way to Five Mile Creek, even without a sore foot,” he replied, while placing the rifle and torch on a bench and sitting down.
“You want some coffee? The water’s hot and there are cups there,” said Barbara.
“Do you want a stretcher and blankets?” asked the QM.
“I’ve got a sleeping bag here but a stretcher would be better than this bench,” replied the man.
“Bert, get Mr Watkins a stretcher,” the QM said. Graham heard the CQMS get up, pick up a key ring, then open a door just around the corner from him. Bert went in, rummaged for a minute and came out again carrying a stretcher. This was handed to the NORMAC man. Bert then turned out the light but didn’t close or lock the Q Store door.
Noting this gave Graham an idea. He had been about to give up and set off back to Sandy Ridge. The arrival of the NORMAC man, who was obviously spending the night there, had settled whether he would tell the QM or not. Now he thought that, if he had to hide Elizabeth for part or all of the next day, she must look the same as the others. That meant some webbing, otherwise she would stand out. ‘Also she has my sleeping bag and it is going to be bloody cold tonight,’ he thought, already aware of the chill. She also had his spare uniform.
Graham decided to raid the Q Store, and to do it there and then while the door was open. The decision made, he took off the pack and put it against the back wall. Then he eased off his webbing. He regretted leaving them but thought it a reasonable risk.
A minute later he was on his hands and knees at the corner of the veranda. There was a table and chair there. The table had an army blanket over it as a tablecloth and a litter of books and papers on it. The blanket hung half way to the floor and provided some cover. Graham crawled quickly under it when no-one was looking.
He now rested for a minute, peering out at the group at the other table only three metres away. His heart was beating fast and he was excited but also knew he would look very foolish and have to invent a story if he was seen. He waited till Bert, who was sitting facing him, rose to go to the toilet.
Seizing his moment Graham moved quickly across the metre wide gap from the table into the open doorway. There he stood up and paused, quite surprised by the rate of his heartbeat. He hadn’t been seen! The room was in darkness but enough light came in through the barred windows and open door to let him see. He set quickly to work.
First he took a pack from a bundle on a shelf. Into this he added a belt, two ammunition pouches, suspender straps and two waterbottles. The waterbottles he thought particularly important as he had been sharing his with Elizabeth and as a consequence had become a bit dehydrated from not drinking enough and he hadn’t made up the deficiency. He realized he was very thirsty as well as cold. Graham was reasonably confident the items he was packing wouldn’t be missed as it was unlikely the Q Staff would count everything until the last day of camp and he was careful to take loose items, not untie bundles. Mess tin, knife, fork, spoon, towel, a jacket (hope it’s the right size), trousers (ditto!), sleeping bag. He stood looking around in the gloom thinking what else would be needed.
Voices penetrated his consciousness. Barbara was saying goodnight. Graham saw her silhouette through the barred window. ‘I’d better get going,’ he thought. He began moving towards the door.
Then the QM spoke. “You’d better lock that door, Bert,” he said.
Footsteps came along the veranda. Graham stopped then crouched behind shelves stacked with clothing. He hadn’t thought of that. He almost cried out in alarm but decided not to. The door swung shut and he heard the bolt shot home and the padlock click. He was locked in!
CHAPTER 11
A MIDNIGHT WALK
Graham stood up, his mouth agape. Again he considered calling out as he heard Bert’s footsteps go away along the veranda but the thought of the NORMAC man lying outside on a stretcher stopped him. So for a couple of minutes Graham stood there with his mind in turmoil, berating himself for being so stupid. Then he remembered his pack with the documents and his webbing with the pistol both just lying against the back wall and his mood changed to consternation tinged by fear.
The veranda light went out and he heard the Q Staff talking in the next room. Graham sat down on a pile of blankets and tried to think of a plan of escape but he couldn’t. Instead he just became alarmed and upset at his own foolishness. It was cold too and the sweat from his exertions now cooled and a chill began to creep through him. Time passed and he saw it was nearly midnight. The voices in the next room stopped and someone began snoring. The camp was asleep.
Another problem now began to insistently make itself felt. He badly needed a pee. The cold weather made it worse. The effort of holding on become a real pain. Graham considered doing it in a corner and hoping no-one would notice but the bad manners and poor hygiene implicit in this petty act repelled him. Instead he began to quietly search for a container of some sort to use. He began to grope his way around in the gloom.
Clang! Clatter!
His boot kicked over some empty oil cans which fell, making what seemed to him to be a very loud noise. Graham froze. ‘Surely that will wake people and bring them running?’ he worried.
“Pssst! Hey sir, you in there?” came a whispered voice at the door. It was Hodgins. Graham had forgotten Hodgins and Halyday. It made him feel even more foolish. Carefully Graham made his way to the door.
“That you Hodgins?”
“Yes sir. What ya doin’ in there? We got tired of shiverin’ behind that shed so when ya didn’t come back we decided to have a bit of a poke around. If ya hadn’t kicked that tin I woulda gone away. I was just lookin’ at yer pack and reckon
ed yu’d be around here.”
“I came in to get some gear for Elizabeth and got locked in. Do you reckon you can find the key and let me out? I think Bert’s got it. It is on a big key ring. He’s asleep in the next room but watch out and keep it quiet, there’s a NORMAC bloke asleep on that stretcher,” Graham whispered.
“Leave it ter me sir. Won’t be a mo.”
Hodgins went off. Graham remembered to pick up the pack full of gear he’d collected. ‘I’d look even sillier if I left that behind after all this!’ he thought. He was sweating with concern now, despite the cold, in case Hodgins got caught or couldn’t find the keys.
He needn’t have worried. After about two minutes Hodgins was back and only an occasional faint ‘chink’ of metal on metal betrayed that he was sorting and testing the keys. There was a click and a hiss of satisfaction. The padlock was open! The bolt was eased out and with relief Graham saw the door open. He stepped out, his gaze darting to the sleeping person on the stretcher. The NORMAC man snuffled and grunted and Graham froze. Then the man groaned and rolled over.
Graham nudged Hodgins. “Lock up and put the keys back,” he whispered. Then he walked quickly around the corner to his gear. The precious pack was still there. He began putting on his webbing and was joined by Hodgins. Halyday rose from between the vehicles and made Graham jump with fright.
Graham looked at his watch. It was midnight. “Come on. Let’s get out of here, explanations later. Hodgins, carry this pack,” he whispered. He handed Hodgins the stolen pack and swung his own on. For the return route he now went a different way, leading them across the concrete car park and around a grass parade ground until they came to a railway line. This was a spur line which led into the camp from near the Bunyip River Siding.
“We follow this out of camp,” he said in a low voice, “But wait a minute.” He stood beside the railway and relieved himself.
The Cadet Under-Officer Page 10