That rendered Tina speechless and she could only nod and resume paddling. A warm glow spread through her as his praise sank in. Her gaze then swept across to the other side of the lake and she was concerned to see that it was only another hundred metres away. In fact the lake constricted beyond that so that it was only about 300 metres wide at the place opposite the motor boat.
All this time the men in the motor boat had been working over the stern and Tina noted that Danny had slid into the water again. ‘Clearing the mist net from their propeller,’ she deduced.
As the small flotilla of canoes began snaking along beside the eastern shore Tina saw Danny climb back into the motor boat. Then Marco started working on the motor. Across the water came the splutter of engine noises as it started up. That got Sarah staring anxiously at it. She cried out, “Oh no! They are moving. Now they can catch us and shoot us!”
The tone of near hysteria in Sarah’s voice sent chills through Tina, but it also annoyed her. “They won’t!” she snapped back.
“They will!” Sarah shrilled.
“Oh shut up!” Andrew cried angrily. “They can’t shoot us all!”
Ken George nodded. “They probably haven’t got enough ammo,” he added.
“That’s enough!” Lt Ryan ordered. “Turn towards the beach and get ready to hide.”
That at least got them doing things. But it didn’t stop Tina glancing back at every left-handed stroke though. To her relief she saw that the motor boat was only moving slowly. From the irregular chugging and spluttering it had a damaged motor or propeller. She was even more relieved to see it turn and head back around the point.
Arthur Blake, another classmate pointed towards the boat. “They are running away!” he called.
Andrew nodded. “Or going back to their vehicle,” he replied.
“Vehicle?” Lt Ryan queried.
Andrew pointed. “Yes sir. They have a Four Wheel Drive with a boat trailer down on the edge of the lake,” he replied.
Peter Parsons, a cadet who sat in the front of Lt Ryan’s canoe, asked, “How did it get there?”
“There are sure to be old logging tracks leading in off the main road,” Lt Ryan replied.
“They will get away!” Tina said. Now that they were safe she was angry at having been frightened so much.
Andrew shook his head. “Not if our safety boat can get back to the dam quickly,” he replied.
“What do you mean?” Tina asked.
Andrew picked up a map in a plastic bag. “According to this map there is only one road along the other side of the lake. It winds through the jungle and passes close to the dam. If the safety boat gets there first they might get a look at the vehicle.”
Lt Ryan had also picked up his map, the army topographic 1:100 000 scale. He studied it and shook his head. “No. It is about three kilometres from where we left our vehicles to that road junction. Besides, the road over there also goes on southwards. I think it links up with several other roads down that way.”
“Worth a try sir,” Andrew persisted.
Lt Ryan shook his head. “No. Too dangerous. We will hand this over to the police. Everyone start paddling and we will try to keep these fellows in sight and at the same time get closer to the dam.”
Tina heartily agreed with that. The glance at Andrew’s map had made her very aware of just how isolated they were. She knew that it was roughly 3 km to the dam where they just might find a workman of some sort, but then it was at least 40 km of winding jungle road back to the nearest town, with only a few farms near it. There were buildings at the Tully Falls Weir about 10km back but there had been no-one there when they had visited the previous day.
By this time the motor boat had vanished around the point on the other side. Tina found she was fuelled by a strong desire to see the men brought to justice and that gave her the energy to keep paddling. To her satisfaction only a short paddle allowed them to see around the point and along the long arm of the lake where the men had their vehicle.
“There they are!” cried Dimity Bates, a First Year Ordinary Seaman in Petty Officer Hayley Booker’s canoe.
Tina had to strain her eyes to see clearly as the motor boat was now over half a kilometre away and was just a tiny greyish shape. The men looked like tiny ants as they climbed out onto the beach.
“They are going to pull the boat onto its trailer,” Andrew observed. “Oh damn it! Now they will get away!”
“There are three of them,” commented Ken George.
“No, I can see four,” corrected Lt Ryan, who was now using a pair of small binoculars.
“One of them might be the man they shot?” suggested Tina, puzzled.
Lt Ryan shook his head. “No, I can see the body on the beach,” he replied. “There is a man wearing dark shorts and a white, short-sleeved shirt. He has dark glasses on.”
“We didn’t see him,” Andrew commented.
Lt Ryan frowned. “Hello! They are not putting the boat on the trailer at all,” he said. “They are loading boxes in.”
The group had now come to a bobbing standstill. All stared across the lake and watched as the man in the white shirt climbed into the boat with a man in grey clothes Tina recognized as Marco. The boat started up and turned to go slowly away from them. Tina was surprised to see it head directly for what she took to be a small cape or point jutting into the lake. She was even more astonished by what happened next.
The motor boat stopped at the edge of a green mass which suddenly seemed to lift up. For a few minutes she could not make out at all what it was she was seeing. It was Lt Ryan with his binoculars who enlightened them.
“By thunder! That is a camouflage net they are moving. There’s a plane under it, a floatplane!”
Now it made sense. Tina was able to make out the straight line of the aircraft’s wing. The floatplane was painted a dull grey colour and was very hard to make out. She shook her head in disbelief, then nodded when Andrew said, “They probably use the floatplane to fly out to meet ships at sea and transfer the wildlife.”
“That makes sense,” Lt Ryan agreed. “They are loading those boxes into it now.”
“Oh where’s that safety boat?” muttered Tina in annoyance. She was troubled by the fits of shivering which were now sweeping over her and she let out a groan when she tried to ease her sore shoulder.
Several minutes went by before the watching cadets saw the net hauled down and rolled into the motor boat. The man in the white shirt climbed into the floatplane. A few moments later the sharp vibrations of its engine starting up carried across the water to them.
Sub Lt Sheldon, the second officer with the group shook his head. “It’s going to take off, he commented
Andrew scowled. “Oh bummer! They will get away,” he cried angrily.
“Not much we can do to stop them,” Lt Ryan replied.
The motor boat turned and made its way back towards the place where the other two men and the 4WD waited. There was a surge of revving sounds as the pilot warmed up and tested his engine and then the floatplane began moving forward. Tina found it very frustrating and not a little scary to be able to do nothing but sit and watch.
The floatplane moved faster and faster until great creamy waves of white spray were being hurled out by its two floats. It was running on a course diagonally across their front but to her surprise it did not seem to accelerate to the sort of speed she expected for a take-off. Then, when the plane was about a kilometre to the north of them, it suddenly slowed down.
To Tina’s puzzlement it began slowly turning in a wide circle. “What’s it doing?” she asked.
It was Ken who answered. “I think he was just warming up the engine and churning up the surface of the lake at the same time.”
Lt Ryan nodded. “I agree. There’s no wind so his take-off direction is irrelevant.”
“But why roar up and down sir?” Tina asked.
Andrew answered her. “I read somewhere that floatplanes have trouble unsticking from per
fectly calm water. They need a few waves to get a bit of a kick.”
Tina nodded and studied the widening ripples now spreading across the lake. The first of these arrived to set the canoes rocking gently as the floatplane completed its turn. Its engine now roared and it began what was obviously a take-off run.
“No markings,” Ken observed.
“No, just that dull grey and black underneath,” Andrew agreed. “They are up to no good alright.”
“What type is it?” Lt Ryan asked.
“No idea,” Ken replied.
“Willy would know,” Andrew added. Tina nodded. Willy Williams was an air cadet at their school and an authority on all things that flew.
Nobody else knew. All they could do was sit and watch the machine race across the water. It began bumping over the small waves which were the resonating backwash of its own earlier progress. Small clouds of spray were flung up and then suddenly the aircraft ‘unstuck’ and began climbing. By then it had travelled more than half way back across the lake.
The floatplane made no attempt to gain altitude, other than to clear the tree tops on the far side of the lake. Within seconds it was lost to sight, heading west.
“I wonder where his base is?” Andrew said.
“I.... hello, here’s our safety boat,” Lt Ryan said.
Tina looked towards the sound of buzzing off to her left and saw the unit’s white coloured power boat racing towards them. ‘At last!’ she thought. Then she looked across the lake and saw that the men there were just hauling the motor boat onto the boat trailer. “Sir, if the safety boat is quick it might be able to get across there and see something, the vehicle’s number plate maybe.”
Lt Ryan shook his head. “Too dangerous. I will send it to the dam.”
“What about that man they shot sir? Shouldn’t we check if he is really dead?” said Tina, stubbornly wishing to catch the men.
That got Lt Ryan tugging at his beard and he had to nod. As the safety boat came skimming up to join them he nodded. “Yes, you might be right. But it will be adults only. As soon as I leave, you kids start paddling north as fast as you can.”
That answer both pleased and relieved Tina. She did not really want to see a dead man but was gripped by a dreadful anxiety now that it had occurred to her he might still be alive. “Oh hurry sir!” she cried.
CHAPTER 3
CLOSE!
Lt Ryan at once clambered from his canoe into the safety boat. He then ordered the two cadets already in the safety boat: CPO Josh Neville and AB Tracey Atwell, to transfer to his canoe and to another canoe which had only two cadets in it. As soon as the two cadets had done so he called out to Sub Lt Sheldon, “Sub Lieutenant Sheldon, you are in charge of the canoe group. Start paddling for the dam. Get there as quickly as you can and load the vehicles. We will follow you. Now get going!”
Sub Lt Sheldon replied, “Aye, aye sir!” then called to the cadets to start paddling. Tina did so but found her shoulder so sore she groaned as she forced her muscles to move. The safety boat then roared away, curving to port and heading directly across the lake towards the 4WD and motor boat.
“Those men are looking,” Andrew commented. He was grunting and panting and Tina suspected he might also be feeling the strain. As her body twisted with every second stroke she looked across the lake to watch.
To her consternation she saw one of the men was walking towards the body. ‘Going to make sure he is dead, or to take the body to hide it,’ she thought. Then she saw the man stop and look towards the approaching safety boat. It was too far for her to be sure but she thought that one of the other men called him back. At any rate the man suddenly turned on his heel and walked quickly back towards the vehicle.
By the time the safety boat was a couple of hundred metres away the three men had all climbed into the vehicle and it had vanished from sight into the jungle, towing the boat and trailer behind it. ‘Oh drat! They are getting away,’ she thought.
The safety boat slowed down and very cautiously went past the place where the vehicle had been, keeping a couple of hundred metres out. It then turned and slowly nosed in to where the body lay on the beach. Tina saw Lt Ryan and Petty Officer Evans, both easily recognizable even at that distance by their beards, get out and go up the beach to the body. They knelt and began examining it. Tina’s stomach turned over at the thought of what they might be seeing.
By then the canoes had paddled several hundred metres and they were approaching another narrow stretch of the lake. A small jungle covered island stood in the narrowest point but even that was 200 metres wide so they slipped past with no concern. As they did the safety boat was lost to sight but Tina was so interested in the drama behind her that she was attuned to every clue. Thus she distinctly overheard Sub Lt Sheldon say, “Alive!”
At that Tina stopped paddling and looked over towards the officer’s canoe. He was talking on one of the CB Radios each adult carried for safety. As he put down the handset Tina could restrain her curiosity no longer.
“Sir, what did they say please?” she called.
“The man is still alive but very seriously wounded. They are loading him aboard and are going to rush him to the dam,” Sub Lt Sheldon called back.
“Oh, thank God!” Tina cried. She felt tears prickle and she sighed with relief and pent up emotion. She went to resume paddling but found she could hardly make her left shoulder work. Shaking her head she gritted her teeth and made a determined effort. A wave of dizziness then swept over her and she found her eyes going out of focus.
‘I’m going to faint!’ she thought in dismay.
Andrew cried out in annoyance as her paddle began to drag in the water. Then he reached forward and tapped her back. “Hey Tina, are you alright?” he asked.
Tina gripped the paddle and fought off another wave of dizziness. A throbbing pain burned hotly in her left shoulder and suddenly she felt Andrew’s hand on her arm.
“Hey! That’s blood! You’ve been hit!” he cried.
Tina struggled to stay conscious. Glancing at her left arm she noted that the white Able Seaman’s badge on the long sleeve of her dark blue uniform shirt was stained red. She reached across with her right hand and touched her shoulder, then looked in dismay at her fingers. They were red with blood.
She could smell it now and that did make her faint. She just blacked out and slumped into the canoe. Even in that state she was dimly aware she had dropped her paddle as Andrew cried out and she got splashed with cold drops as he retrieved it. That helped her open her eyes and regain consciousness.
Andrew placed the dripping paddle beside her in the canoe, then yelled out, “Hey sir! Tina is wounded! She has been shot!”
That stopped all the paddling except for Sub Lt Sheldon’s canoe which came sweeping alongside a minute later.
“Where? Show me!” he snapped.
Tina struggled to sit up and managed to lean over and point. “Here sir. I don’t think it’s very bad,” she said.
As the officer leaned over to look at it Hayley Booker called from another canoe, “Sir, you’d better look at Andrew as well. He’s got blood on his neck and back.”
That got Tina sitting up. She twisted around, in her anxiety ignoring her own pain. “Oh Andrew! Are you alright?” she cried.
“Aw! I reckon,” Andrew replied.
“Why didn’t you say?” Tina snapped angrily.
“Because I didn’t want to frighten you or Sarah,” Andrew replied. “Besides I didn’t think it was much.”
Sub Lt Sheldon had now transferred his attention to Andrew. “Where exactly are you hit?” he asked.
“A few pellets in the arm and a couple in the back and neck and one or two in the back of my head,” Andrew replied.
Tina twisted round to look at him in horror. He gave her a lopsided grin but she could tell he was in pain. “Does it hurt?” she asked.
Andrew nodded. “The ones in the arm are starting to really throb and I’ve got a splitting headache,” he replie
d.
Sub Lt Sheldon reached up and got Andrew to turn his head. Tina was dismayed to see that the back of his head was a sticky matt of bloody hair. The officer sucked his teeth and shook his head. “Bloody hell! This could be serious. You just sit still,” he ordered Andrew. Then he snatched up the radio handset. “Safety boat, this is Sub Lieutenant Sheldon, over.”
“Go ahead, over,” crackled the reply.
“We’ve got a couple of cadets here with gunshot wounds. Get here fast, over.”
“On our way! Over,” replied Lt Ryan’s voice.
Sub Lt Sheldon next asked Sarah if she was alright. She said yes but then burst into tears and sat sobbing uncontrollably. Tina again felt dizzy and slumped down, the shock making her shiver violently. Thankfully she heard the sound of the safety boat’s engine growing rapidly louder and a minute later it roared into view, bow wave creaming. Another minute later it was bobbing alongside and Sub Lt Sheldon was explaining the situation.
Lt Ryan nodded grimly and snapped, “Andrew! Tina! Get into the safety boat. We will get to you to hospital Hold the canoe steady you others.”
Tina felt so groggy she had difficulty getting her balance. Lt Ryan gripped her arm and helped her to half-slide, half-step into the launch. As she stumbled over the gunwale she saw the wounded man lying at her feet. His back was towards her and it was just a soggy red mass of tattered shirt and blood-soaked bandages. That made her blanch and go nauseous but Sub Lt Mullion steadied her and sat her down at the stern.
As Andrew was helped aboard Tina found her eyes drawn back to the wounded man. Despite her own shock she was able to note that the officers had done the right thing and had laid the man on his injured side. ‘So he doesn’t drown in his own blood,’ she remembered from her First Aid training. It was obvious he had taken most of the shotgun blast in his left side and that the lung must have been damaged.
She also noted the round, coloured cloth badges on the sleeve of the man’s khaki shirt. ‘A Parks and Wildlife Ranger,’ she told herself.
By then Lt Ryan had moved CPO Neville and Arthur Blake to her canoe. He gave instructions to keep paddling for the dam. “Stay in radio contact every two minutes,” he said, “and don’t stop for breakfast.”
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