Now Blue could hear the rumble too, more a vibration than the noise of an engine. Tiny twin moons appeared across the plain, coming closer and closer. The beat of the train engine grew. The sharp whistle as it approached the station pierced the darkness.
‘Goods train,’ said Ebenezer.
‘How do you know?’ asked Blue.
‘No lighted windows,’ he said crisply. ‘All right, you young ’uns. Hop it. Ginger, Gertrude, Mah, Belle, into the caravans with you. No need to wash tonight.’
‘What’s the hurry?’ demanded Gertrude.
The train halted at the station. Ebenezer had been right. Blue could see more than a dozen carriages, covered in tarpaulins. Almost at once shadows emerged onto the empty platform. Why were the police there, wondered Blue, if this wasn’t a passenger train?
Ebenezer tried to push Ginger towards the Olsens’ caravan. The boy twisted away, staring at the station.
A door slammed. Someone yelled. Suddenly there were more shadows, hauled out from under the tarpaulins. Men, thought Blue, bagmen, unemployed, hiding in the train. Maybe they’d hoped there were jobs at the factory here, or just had to reach another town to get their rations tomorrow.
A scream ripped through the night, and then the sound of blows. One of the shadows turned into a puddle on the platform, a policeman kicking him while another rained blows with what looked to be a length of wood.
‘Dear Lord in Heaven,’ breathed Mrs Olsen. ‘They’re attacking them with four-by-twos.’
Blue glanced at Ebenezer. He sat, his face carefully blank. He’d expected this, she realised. He’d guessed there’d be men hiding on the goods train, that the police would be waiting for them, not just with handcuffs, but with blows.
Fred surged to his feet. ‘We got to help them.’
‘You will not.’ Madame’s voice was sharp. ‘We look after our own.’
‘They’re killing them!’ Another scream. Black shadows wrestled blue uniforms.
Blue struggled up too. ‘Why don’t the police just arrest them? Oh no! Sheba!’
The elephant was lumbering across the showground.
Madame stood, her hands out as though her fingers might see where her eyes could not. ‘Sheba!’ she cried.
‘Stay with Madame.’ Fred pushed Blue back onto a bale of hay. ‘You too,’ he added to Mah.
‘No,’ said Mah. She ran after Sheba. Ebenezer grabbed the lantern and followed them. Blue watched the light bob towards the station.
What was happening? Why was it happening?
She couldn’t wait here. She struggled to her feet again. Ginger glanced at Madame, then at the shadows in the darkness. He managed two steps towards them before Gertrude grabbed his shirt. She held his arm in her strong grip. ‘You’re staying here,’ she said. Mrs Olsen whimpered, her hands over her mouth.
‘Sheba,’ whispered Madame.
‘They’ll bring her back,’ said Blue breathlessly. ‘Just stay here, Madame.’
Blue shuffled into the darkness, her bare feet slipping on a blob of elephant dung, thistles pricking her ankles. If only she could run …
Sheba had reached the station platform now. Her trunk rose, then lashed down. One of the policemen yelled an order. Another slashed at Sheba’s head with his length of wood.
Sheba roared, in anger or in pain. She rose on her back legs, striking down. For a moment as Blue stumbled closer the bulk of the railway station hid everything from view. Blue hobbled through the waiting room, onto the platform.
But it was over as suddenly as it had begun. Sheba stood to one side, her trunk waving wildly in the shadows. Blue uniforms hustled sagging men past the circus people to the waiting paddy wagon. Slumped bodies were thrown inside. The doors slammed. Blue grabbed Ebenezer’s sleeve.
‘Sheba,’ she panted. ‘Is she all right?’
‘They hit her.’ Ebenezer seemed in shock. ‘They hit Sheba.’
‘That your elephant?’ The man had a sergeant’s stripes on his uniform, though he wasn’t the sergeant who had visited the circus when they arrived. He looked over at Blue. ‘You lad, you from the circus too?’
She nodded numbly.
‘Count your lucky stars we don’t take you lot in as well. You keep out o’ what don’t concern you. And get that creature tethered. It’s dangerous.’
She’s not, thought Blue. You are. ‘What have the men done?’ she asked quietly, watching out of the corner of her eye as Fred and Ephraim tried to calm Sheba, her head and trunk still waving back and forth.
‘Troublemakers. Unemployed Workers’ Union, from Sydney. And that’s all you need to know, lad. Now you take a message back to your circus from me. I want the lot of you gone by tomorrow morning.’
‘We’re going anyway. But it takes hours to pack up.’
‘By tomorrow afternoon then. And you keep your trap shut about tonight.’
She nodded.
The wagon roared off into the night. The sergeant slid into the passenger seat of the long black automobile. Its tyres spun the gravel for a moment, then it too was gone. Behind her the train whistle blew again. The engine grew loud once more, chugga chugga chug, as it moved on its tracks into the night, only its steam visible against the stars.
‘You all right, lad?’
Blue turned. The stationmaster, middle-aged, white-moustached, looked at her. He shook his head. ‘Didn’t know that was gunna happen. Never been any trouble at my station. Bagmen on every train, these days. Give ’em a cup o’ cocoa and a cheese sandwich, an’ off they go. Never any trouble …’ His voice died away. He looked back at Sheba, suddenly plodding into the darkness, away from both the station and the circus. ‘You better catch your elephant afore it runs away.’
‘Sheba!’ Blue tried to hurry into the darkness. The elephant must have become disoriented, she thought. ‘Sheba, come back! The circus is back this way!’
Sheba didn’t look around. Blue could hear the plod of her great feet on the grass.
‘Sheba!’ Ebenezer gave his ringmaster’s bellow. Sheba ignored him.
‘Better grab her before she gets any further away,’ panted Fred. He had a cut over one eye.
Ephraim’s shadowed face looked anxious in the light of the platform. ‘Old girl could run into barbed wire out there. Get her foot stuck in a wombat hole.’
The men ran into the darkness, with Mah following. Blue shuffled after them, then found the stationmaster next to her, staring at her odd gait. She flushed. ‘Had an accident,’ she muttered. ‘Can’t run fast.’
The stationmaster nodded. ‘Got a bad ticker meself. Not that I can’t do the job,’ he added hurriedly.
Along the concrete platform, across the train lines — Blue pushed her feet to move as fast as possible. If only she could run. Had Sheba been hurt? Maybe she was running away in terror. But that plodding had looked purposeful, not panicked.
A grey elephant in a black night. Above them the stars wheeled and glowed. It was impossible to see Sheba now there was only Ebenezer’s lantern bobbing past trees and tussocks. And then the lantern stopped.
Sheba had stopped too. In the dim ring of light Blue could see a middle-aged man lying on the ground, unconscious, blood on the grey whiskers of his face. Fred and Ephraim kneeled by him as Mah watched and Ebenezer held the lantern. Sheba raised her trunk as though protecting the stranger, gazing into the night.
‘Oh, my giddy aunt …’ whispered the stationmaster.
‘Is he still alive?’ whispered Blue.
Fred nodded. ‘He needs a doctor. Come on. Let’s get him back to the circus.’
‘No!’ Ebenezer stared at them all. ‘Can’t take a stranger back.’
‘But he’s hurt,’ said Blue.
‘No.’ The ringmaster looked strangely stubborn.
To her surprise Fred nodded. ‘Ebenezer’s right. Can’t take him back to the circus.’ He looked at the stationmaster. ‘Anyhow, he needs a hospital. Is there one in town?’
‘Nearest one’s at Willawar.’
The stationmaster hesitated. ‘There’s a phone at the station. If you can carry him to the waiting room, I’ll call a doctor.’
Ebenezer nodded, relief plain on his face. Blue gazed at him, then at Fred and Ephraim. They had rescued her. Why wouldn’t they take in a stranger now? Was it because she was a girl?
No. Something else was happening here. She stepped over to Sheba and patted her trunk soothingly. ‘Sheba led us to him. She tried to save his friends. She won’t want us to abandon him in the waiting room. Madame will know how to help him till the doctor gets here, and Mrs Olsen too.’
‘She’s right,’ said Mah hotly. ‘He needs proper care.’
‘What if the police come looking for him?’ asked Ebenezer. ‘Hard to disguise him, hurt like that.’ He met her eyes, the words unspoken: you know why we don’t want police looking at us too closely.
‘Fred’s a magician,’ said Blue shortly. ‘If he can hide a girl in a pillar, he can hide a bloke. And, anyway,’ she added, ‘the police probably don’t even know he was on the train too.’
‘All right. You hop up on Sheba,’ said Ebenezer abruptly. ‘I’ll give you a hand.’
‘I can walk back,’ said Blue.
‘If you’re on Sheba’s back, she’s more likely to go back of her own accord. Can’t look after this bloke and control her.’
Blue nodded. She let Ebenezer heave her up, then scrambled into her usual side-saddle position balancing on Sheba’s neck, behind her big flapping ears.
The elephant trembled beneath her. A thin trail of blood trickled down past one eye. ‘She’s bleeding,’ said Blue sharply.
‘The sooner she’s home, the better. Madame will know what to do.’ Ebenezer’s voice sounded more hopeful than confident. He slapped Sheba’s side, in the old signal to move on.
For a moment Blue thought she would ignore him.
‘Come on, Sheba,’ said Mah softly. She stroked the lolling trunk.
At last the elephant moved through the darkness, one heavy foot after another, her head still waving in agitation. But this time, at least, she moved towards the circus.
Blue looked around at Fred, Ephraim and Ebenezer picking up the injured man, then back towards the firelight as Sheba plodded wearily home.
Chapter 21
They laid the man on Fred’s swag in the Freak Show tent.
‘Better move Bruin,’ said Fred shortly. ‘He’ll think he’s gone to the Bad Place if he wakes up and sees a bear looming over him.’
‘Doctor’s coming.’ It was the stationmaster, puffing after them into the tent. ‘This any use?’ He handed Fred a wagga blanket, made from chaff bags stitched together and washed till soft.
‘Wha— what happened?’ The man on the ground blinked up at them.
Blue kneeled awkwardly next to him. ‘Fetch Madame,’ she said to Fred, who hesitated, clearly wanting to hear more first. ‘And you lie still,’ she said to the man on the ground. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Atkins. Ben Atkins.’
‘Well, Mr Atkins, you’re safe here.’ She hesitated. But was he really? Had he and his friends committed a real crime, or just jumped the rattler?
He guessed what she was thinking. ‘Ain’t no criminal. Dunno what that was about. Coppers are all on the take though. Always someone willing to make something extra when times are like this.’ He was bitter and hopeless. Blue’s heart ached for him even though his anger was frightening.
‘Our Sergeant Patterson isn’t like that,’ said the stationmaster defensively as Fred slipped out into the darkness to get Madame.
Blue looked back at the man on the ground. Some colour had seeped into his cheeks again. She wondered if he was hungry. Best wait for the doctor before giving him anything to eat or drink, she thought, as a car turned in the paddock gate, then drew up by the lighted tent.
Footsteps muffled by the dirt, then: ‘My patient in here?’
It was Joseph McAlpine.
Blue stepped back into the shadows. What was he doing at Gibber’s Creek? The addresses he had given her were in Sydney, and a place called Rock Farm, in a valley she’d finally found on Ebenezer’s map, feeling guilty and a bit embarrassed to even be doing that.
Joseph didn’t notice her, or Fred, slipping back in his wake, his gaze on the man on the ground. ‘Sorry, Dr Thomas is out the other side of town. Mrs Flanagan’s having a baby. It’s her first, so he might be a while. I’m only a medical student …’ He had already kneeled and taken the man’s hand, feeling his pulse as he spoke. ‘But with a bit of luck you won’t need more than I can do for you.’
‘Thank you, doctor.’
‘Not doctor yet. I just came down from Sydney today to spend a few days with my brother.’ He put the man’s hand down, held up the lamp, checked one eye and then the other. He looked professional and competent, dressed much the same way as when he’d come to see the circus, in grey flannel pants and a tweed jacket, though this one looked softer and more worn. ‘No sign of a concussion. You feel giddy? Nauseated?’
The man shook his head. ‘Hungry,’ he admitted.
‘Cocoa?’ Joseph McAlpine looked up at Fred.
Fred nodded. ‘I’ll go get some.’
Fred hasn’t recognised him, thought Blue. He had only met him the once, and the light is dim …
‘Better just make it the cocoa for now,’ said Joseph. He smiled at the man on the ground. ‘Don’t think there’s too much wrong with you, but you need keeping an eye on. You feel well enough to lie down in the back of the car?’
‘Where are you taking him?’ asked Ebenezer sharply. ‘Not the gaol?’
Joseph stood up. ‘Do I look like a policeman?’ he said evenly. ‘In any case, I don’t think this man has anything to fear from Sergeant Patterson. This has happened before, I’m sorry to say; my brother was talking about it at lunch. The wheat farmers down Mooloola way bribe their police to bring in bagmen from the rattlers. They pay the poor blighters ten shillings a week when the award is thirty. Once they have you there, there’s no way to escape, except on foot, and even then you might die of thirst before you can walk to the next town.’
‘See?’ said Atkins. He drew his collar tighter around him and tried to sit up. Joseph restrained him until he relaxed. ‘Can’t trust the jacks. Can’t trust no one.’
‘I knew those police weren’t from round here,’ said the stationmaster. ‘Look. I gotta go. Can bring you some cabbages afore you leave. I’ll come back tomorrow and see how he’s doing.’
Joseph shook his head. ‘I’ll take him back to Drinkwater. It’s a sheep station,’ he added to Ebenezer. ‘A bit out of town, but it’s the best place for him. There’s a spare bed in my room. I can keep an eye on him till the morning. If he gets any worse, we’ve got a phone to call for Dr Thomas. Then if you’re all right tomorrow,’ he added to the man, ‘we’ll see what we can do for you.’
‘A job? Heard they might be hiring at the factory.’
Joseph shrugged. ‘Can’t tell you anything about that. But things are pretty well organised around here. We’ll find you a place to stay, at least.’
‘What about me mates? If those coppers have taken them down to Mooloola to haul the wheat — there’s not even a post office down there to send their wages to their families.’
Joseph nodded. ‘You tell Miss Matilda tomorrow. She owns Drinkwater, the place where we’re going. She’ll sort it out. Now let’s get you up.’
He turned to hand the lamp to Ebenezer … and stopped and stared at Blue. ‘Miss Magnifico.’ The smile grew on his face. ‘I thought the tents were familiar. You didn’t tell me you were coming to Gibber’s Creek.’
She flushed, conscious of her bare grubby feet, her baggy shorts and short hair. He had last seen her as a harem dancer, in full make-up, and as the mermaid before that. She was amazed that he even recognised her. ‘I didn’t know we were going to. I mean, why should I?’
‘How long are you staying?’
‘Leaving tonight,’ Ebenezer answered for he
r. ‘Town rules say three nights only, and we’ve had our three.’
Besides, thought Blue, the police they’d fought might be back. Best to get away from the railway.
‘Well, I can borrow Andy’s car again. I’ll motor over to wherever you’re going next, see the show again. Perhaps I’ll see you again too.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Good evening.’ He tipped his hat to her, then helped Ebenezer lift up the injured man. They carried him out into the car.
Blue watched from the tent as Ebenezer and Joseph settled the injured man into the back of the car. She should feel tired. Instead she felt like she’d had three cups of strong tea, her emotions battling each other. Horror at what men could do to each other; despair that authority could be corrupted, as it had been with the police tonight; a strange elation, helping someone as she had been helped, and at the stationmaster’s kindness with his offer of a wagga blanket and the cabbages; and happiness like a small bright star at seeing Joseph McAlpine again …
She stopped, surprised by the realisation. No, she told herself. You’re Belle Magnifico for another four years. There are no young doctors in your future.
She smiled. Perhaps she should ask Madame to tell her fortune.
Madame! Why hadn’t she been here? Was Sheba all right? She shuffled out towards the campfire.
‘Belle!’ Mah flew through the darkness. ‘Has the doctor gone?’
‘He’s not really a doctor yet — what is it?’ she asked, looking at the fear on Mah’s face. ‘Is it Sheba?’
‘She’s lying down, sort of gasping! She’s still bleeding too.’ Mah ran past Blue. ‘Doctor! Stop!’
Joseph turned. ‘What is it?’
‘Sheba! There’s something wrong!’
‘The elephant? What’s wrong with it?’ He began to stride towards the campfire, Mah at his side.
‘She,’ said Blue desperately, trying to keep up with them. ‘Sheba’s a she. Over there …’ Ebenezer had caught up with them now, carrying the lamp.
Sheba lay beyond the firelight. Mah’s right, thought Blue in terror. There was something unnatural about the way she was lying, her legs shaking, her big mouth open, gasping for air. Madame sat next to her on the hay, her hands clutching Sheba’s shoulders. Fred kneeled next to her, the pot of cocoa at his side.
Down the Road to Gundagai Page 21