The Cadet Under-Officer

by Christopher Cummings

  Graham kept watching the security man. The man was shuffling in indecision as though their sudden move had caught him unawares. Margaret’s section moved in single file past him. To Graham’s eyes Elizabeth’s sandshoes really stood out but at least three other cadets who had sore feet were also wearing them, including Roberts who was sitting beside Lt McEwen’s car. Roberts had sprained his ankle on a compass march two nights before. The security man apparently saw nothing unusual as the cadets walked past. He just looked bored and worried.

  Graham started walking, passing between the man and Margaret’s section, which was already going out of sight down into the head of the gullies. Within a minute the Pl HQ had followed them. As they dipped out of sight Graham looked back and saw Cpl Kenny’s section following and Lt McEwen putting some gear in the car. The man remained standing there.

  ‘We have got away with it again!’ Graham thought. He found it an enormous relief to be out of sight of the NORMAC people with Elizabeth still safe. Graham could see her limping badly behind Margaret. He walked quickly to overtake them.

  “Take it slow Cpl Lake,” he said as he tramped past through the bush. They only had to cover about 800 metres and he had allowed half an hour for the move. He kept the pace slow until Cpl Kenny’s section caught them up. Their route led them down past the dyke where Elizabeth had been hidden the previous day and then along beside the dry creek. It was all open savannah woodland with almost no grass on the sandy soil. As he led the way down the creek line, sometimes walking on the dry sand and sometimes cutting across small bends on the harder ground Graham kept looking to his left front. He also kept to the right bank of the creek to stay well away from the Canning Road because he believed there was a NORMAC vehicle ahead of him at the junction of the Canning Road and the side road that led to the junction of the Canning River and Bunyip River. ‘I don’t want to just blunder into them,’ he thought.

  And he was right. There was a NORMAC Landcruiser there. It was parked in the shade across the road. At that point it was a good 150 metres away and Graham thought that far enough to make it difficult to identify people. ‘But I don’t want to arouse their suspicions,’ he thought. So he led the platoon up on the bank in clear view of the man sitting in the vehicle. To Graham’s relief the man looked at them but remained in his vehicle and made no attempt to stop them or call them over.

  To maintain the deception that they had nothing to hide Graham led the platoon up onto the left bank of the creek and then followed the creek down the gentle slope. Still the man did nothing.

  At that moment Lt McEwen drove her car down the hill. She stopped her car at the junction and walked over to talk to the NORMAC man. He appeared to pay no attention while the platoon passed him. Graham saw that Elizabeth was not limping as she passed the security man but that she was soon after. Lt McEwen gave the man a cheery ‘Goodbye’, got back into her car and drove down to park on a side track ahead of them. She and Cadet Roberts got out and waited, the cadet hobbling painfully with the help of a stick.

  Graham led the platoon the two hundred paces down the gentle slope to where the vehicle track came in from the road to the creek. Just beyond this point was a dip where the Canning Road crossed another dry creek. Beyond the dip were the lower slopes of Black Knoll although the actual knoll was not visible. The road went over the right hand slope of the hill, passing through a fence which ran East-West across the slope.

  On reaching the vehicle Graham told Roger to lead the platoon across the creek to where Cpl Sheehan’s section already waited in the shade of two Burdekin Plum trees, the dark green leaves of which gave much better shade than the eucalypts. Roger nodded and turned right and led the platoon across the washed out crossing of the main creek.

  Graham told Cadet Roberts to follow, then turned to Lt McEwen. “What’ll we do Miss? Will we go and see Captain Conkey now?” he asked.

  Lt McEwen nodded. “That would be best. I’ll go now. Give me your pack and I’ll take Brenda Woodhouse with me. She’s complaining of stomach pains. You keep Elizabeth here.”

  Graham felt a niggle of worry. “Do you think it will be alright Miss?” he asked.

  Lt McEwen shrugged. “It should be. I don’t think those men will search an army; or not all that thoroughly. I am more worried that it will leave you without a safety vehicle.”

  “I will get Hodgins to do a radio check,” Graham replied. “We should be alright.”

  “Perhaps you should stop training until I get back?” Lt McEwen suggested.

  Graham considered this for a moment then shook his head. “No Miss. If we aren’t busy the boys will get bored and then they will start poking each other with sticks or throwing stones at each other.”

  Lt McEwen smiled. “Perhaps you are right. Alright, we will make sure you have radio contact first,” she replied.

  Another niggling concern came to Graham and he voiced it. “Miss, Cadet Woodhouse might be trying to get away from here because she’s scared. I’m worried she might say something when she gets back to camp.”

  Lt McEwen nodded. “So am I. I will warn her not to and stay with her.”

  Graham still wasn’t happy with that but had to accept it. Lt McEwen and he walked down across the creek and the hundred paces along the old dirt road to where platoon HQ now sat on their packs in the shade. As he walked Graham noted that it was already quite warm. The sky was again the clear blue cloudless sky of a perfect North Queensland day. The time was 0830hrs.

  Hodgins was just able to get contact. “There’s a lot of ‘screening’ sir,” he reported.

  Graham nodded. “That is likely. We are down behind Sandy Ridge now and there are a lot of trees.” He handed over his pack to Lt McEwen with some misgivings and told Roberts and Elizabeth to sit under the tree where all the other packs had been dumped in section lots. “Your story is that you are sick and are guarding the gear,” he said.

  Lt McEwen collected Cadet Woodhouse and walked back to the car. As they did Graham eyed Cadet Woodhouse with real misgivings. ‘I hope she doesn’t blab!’ he thought. When the car drove away Graham briefed Roger and the section commanders. The sections then began training. The three sections were to rotate for three periods of an hour each:- one to practice Fieldcraft in this area, one to revise cross-country patrol movement and the third to practice moving casualties by improvised means: dragging, making chairs with their arms, and on bush stretchers.

  Graham and Roger stood under the tree near Elizabeth watching and talking. After about ten minutes a NORMAC Landcruiser with four men in it came down the road from Bare Ridge. It went past and vanished over the low rise in the direction of the Canning. Graham noted that the men in it looked at them as they passed. As the dust of the vehicle was settling the boys became conscious of that peculiar vibration in the air which indicated a helicopter was coming. Being down in a hollow and under reasonably close forest cover they heard it long before they saw it.

  Roger pointed east. “There it is,” he said.

  “It’s that NORMAC chopper. They’re still searching,” Graham replied.

  The helicopter was glimpsed in the distance through the trees before going out of sight behind the high ground of Black Knoll.

  “Sounds like it is landing over at that station homestead across the river. What’s its name?” said Roger.

  “Canning Park,” Graham replied. He could not see the helicopter anymore and the engine noise stopped. The two of them sat and watched Cpl Sheehan’s section doing fire and movement across the bare sandy soil, cadets running from bush to dead log, to tree trunk to hollow. It was very hot and sweaty work.

  Graham turned to Elizabeth. “How do you feel now Elizabeth?” he asked.

  “Still pretty sore. I’m a bit feverish and my right foot stings a lot,” she replied. She looked flushed. In fact she was feeling very miserable and afraid as she had time to reflect on the previous day’s events.

  Graham nodded. “Take out your groundsheet and lie on that,’ he suggested
.

  Nearby Margaret had her section using sticks to make the frame for an improvised stretcher. She couldn’t hear what Graham and Elizabeth were saying but she could tell by the way he was sitting and the look on his face that he was showing her a lot of interest. Once again she experienced feelings of inadequacy and doubt.

  Half an hour passed. Graham and Roger got up and walked over to watch Cpl Sheehan’s section training. As they did the sharp buzzing of the helicopter came to their ears again and they saw it lift above the trees in the distance and head off at low level to the North East.

  “Following the Canning,” Roger offered.

  Graham looked at his map. “Or going to this windpump here – ‘Guppy Mill’.”

  Cadet Tully, who was lying nearby, called softly. “Sir, here come two blokes.” He pointed up the creek. They all looked. Two armed security men, one of them the man from their old camp, were walking towards them through the bush.

  Graham felt his gut tighten and his heart rate shot up. “Ok Cpl Sheehan, have another practice. This time try creeping in along that dip over there,” he said.

  As the two security men got closer Graham became even more anxious and again he mentally revised what he might do. But the men barely looked at them and just nodded a greeting as they went past down the creek. They went out of sight, forced to follow the creek bed after failing to push through a tangle of springy rubber vines.

  At the end of the hour the sections changed over. Cpl Sheehan’s section headed off down the creek and Cpl Kenny’s began the casualty movement. Graham and Roger walked back to join Elizabeth under the tree. Both had a big drink as it was getting hot.

  “Bit warm,” said Roger.

  “Wind has dropped,” replied Graham.

  “Here comes a car. It’s Miss McEwen.”

  The car pulled up and the OOC and Cadet Woodhouse got out. The fact that Lt McEwen had returned without the OC plus the look on her face caused more doubts and worry to cross Graham’s mind.

  “Where’s Captain Conkey Miss?”

  “You just lie there in the shade Cadet Woodhouse and rest. I haven’t seen him Graham. I was told he’d been called to an army conference at Lavarack Barracks and won’t be back till this afternoon,” she replied.

  Graham bit his lip. “We will have to keep hiding Elizabeth a bit longer then,” he said. They all looked worried and were silent for a minute.

  Roger asked, “Did you tell the other Officers of Cadets Miss?”

  “No. I thought of it but there was a NORMAC man sitting there with them and I decided I’d better not. The fewer people who know the better. It only needs one unguarded comment.”

  Graham glanced at Cadet Woodhouse. “What about Cadet Woodhouse Miss?”

  “She will be fine with a good rest and more fluids,” Lt McEwen replied. With her eyes she conveyed the message that Cadet Woodhouse had not had the opportunity to talk alone at the army camp.

  Graham nodded with relief. “I’d better get my pack out of your car. It’s better hidden in a pile of packs,” he said. He went to collect it. When he returned he said: “I don’t like this Miss. Things don’t seem to be working out. We need some alternative plan, just in case.”

  “I agree. It’s been worrying me. I’m thinking of driving to Townsville but I’m worried about doing that as I’m told there is still a road block at Mingela and that they are searching all cars. We might get the briefcase through with no trouble but it’s a risk I’d rather not take.”

  “I agree,” replied Graham. The thought of the pretty young teacher taking such potentially deadly risks filled him with apprehension.

  Lt McEwen nodded. “And not just for my safety because it would mean we would lose all the evidence.”

  “Could we send the stuff by mail, with some explanatory letters,” suggested Roger.

  Lt McEwen shook her head. “No, it would take too long. But then... yes... you might have an idea,” she said.

  Roger nodded enthusiastically. “We could split the stuff up. Keep some on us here, have a bundle with a letter for Captain Conkey and send one or two more lots with letters by mail. There’s a Post Box over at Bunyip Bend at the Roadhouse and they sell stamps,” he said.

  “Who would we write to Miss?” Graham asked.

  “To the Federal Police and to our School Principal. He’d know what to do and would believe it wasn’t a hoax or something,” she said.

  “How long would it take?”

  Lt McEwen looked thoughtful. “If we post them this afternoon they should be delivered tomorrow in Townsville and in Cairns the day after,” she replied.

  Graham nodded. “It’s a good idea Miss. Then it doesn’t all depend on us or on Captain Conkey,” he said.

  “We should copy what we send though, just in case,” Roger warned.

  “We will. Come on. Let’s get busy,” Lt McEwen said.

  They opened the pack and unwrapped the briefcase. The contents were sorted into four piles. The largest bundle went back into the briefcase which was placed back in Graham’s pack. Lt McEwen got a writing pad and clip board from her car and seated herself. “Start copying while I draft the letters,” she ordered. They all sat and set to work.

  11 o’clock came. The sections changed over again. Graham looked up from his writing. “I’d better see how the training is going. I want to see if there is still a checkpoint down at the Canning too. I’ll go on my own. I shouldn’t be long, half an hour at most,” he said as he got up. He followed Margaret’s section which was just going out of sight down the creek into the rubber vines.

  Graham crawled under the fence and then hurried to catch the section up. Having done so he walked along behind ‘Cactus’ Carleton, the very small, very hairy cadet who was acting as ‘Tail end Charlie’. The section moved slowly in the dry sandy bed, practising passing field signals while each cadet searched on either side. The creek banks got higher and steeper until they were almost vertical slopes lined with a thick tangle of rubber vines. The rubber vines were an introduced pest slowly spreading and choking the waterways of North Queensland. They grew in great thick belts and had a height of about three metres. Graham knew from experience that it was possible to force or cut a way through but only very slowly. It was easier to crawl through them, but not safer as they grew in thick clumps and wild pigs and snakes hid in them.

  ‘At least they don’t have thorns,’ thought Graham, remembering the ‘wait-a-while’ vines of the rainforest around Cairns. ‘The rubber vines would make a good hiding place if a person was careful,’ was his next thought.

  The section wound its way along at a slow walk for 200 metres, keeping well spaced but maintaining visual contact along the line. The signal for ‘obstacle’ came back. The cadets stopped and crouched, peering into the thickets on either side. Graham walked on past until he reached the section commander.

  Margaret had joined her scouts: Sharon Morrow and Deborah. They were lying in the shadow of a large Chinese apple tree. The overhanging vegetation gave the tiny dry creek the impression of being a tunnel here where it joined the Canning. Ten metres to their left the gravel road crossed the river bed on a concrete causeway. The Canning was about 200 metres across, mostly flat sand and water-smoothed pebbles reflecting the sun in a white glare. Just near them was a trickle of relatively clear, ankle-deep water a metre or so wide. The far bank was a dense mass of thorn trees, gum trees and rubber vines. The only obvious route through this tangle was the deep cutting up which the road climbed to the flood plain.

  There was a NORMAC Land Rover parked at the far end of the causeway with two men lounging beside it. Both were armed but dressed in overalls rather then security uniforms.

  Graham lay in the shadows beside Margaret. Their eyes met. Her soft hazel eyes seemed to enfold him with support and affection making him both glad she was there and uncomfortable. He knew she loved him and the knowledge of his own interest in other girls made him feel guilty and embarrassed. Several times over the last few years she
and he had been very close. The previous year everyone from the OC down had just taken it for granted that she was his girl. The fact that he recently seemed to develop a crush on every pretty girl he met bothered him.

  Shaking his head to try to dispel the problem Graham pointed at the men. “I’d better tell them what we are doing. They haven’t seen us yet and might take a shot at us,” he said. He rose and walked out into the glare of sunlight onto the causeway. It was a long way across and it gave him some sardonic amusement to notice that he was more then halfway there before the two ‘guards’ noticed his approach.

  They were friendly enough and knew the cadets were in the area. “Saw some of youse crossing upstream there an hour or so ago. Nearly fired a shot the first time, they gave us such a fright,” said one.

  Graham warned them of the training activity and then turned and waved to Margaret to carry on. Then he stood and watched. There was a glimpse of movement as a group crawled into position among the trees. Then one of the scouts - Sharon with the ‘peaches-and-cream’ complexion - began walking quickly across the sandy bed. She made heavy going in the soft sand.

  When she was half way across the second scout followed.

  One of the miners gasped and pointed at her. “Hey, that’s a girl!” he cried.

  Graham nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. So is the next one, so is the section commander. A third of my platoon are girls,” he said.

  “Gawd! Girls! Wasn’t like that in my day! You young fellers must do alright,” said the first miner with a lecherous wink.

  “Don’t you believe it,” Graham replied in some embarrassment. This was partly because, over the years, there had been opportunities and he had been sorely tempted. To counter any possible slur on the reputation of the Cadets he replied hotly, “They are good, well-disciplined kids.”

  Sharon went past into the edge of the vines and was joined by Deborah. The pair scouted along the edge of the bank for fifty metres either side of the road; then signalled ‘All Clear’. Margaret appeared, followed by the other cadets.