Part 28 (1/2)

Percy hands me back the looking gla.s.s. He walks leisurely towards the water. 'I'll tell them there's someone in the house with a fever,' he says over his shoulder. 'The last thing they'll want is a dose of our foreign germs.' Something about his voice gets my attention.

I notice again that careful intonation that I'd puzzled over back in Brisbane. Percy's told me nothing about his life. Perhaps he originally had a c.o.c.kney accent, and has carefully coached himself out of its tw.a.n.g and into the more gentlemanly style of the Queen's English. Everyone wants a fresh start in the colony. And Percy is more ambitious than most ...

I stand there, braving the mosquitos and the rapidly cooling air, watching as the boat lands. Percy gestures up towards the house, then towards the man-o'-war. After a few minutes, he climbs in. Two uniformed crewmen leap over the gunwale and push the boat back to sea.

Percy comes back while Carrie and I are eating dinner. He tells me the French s.h.i.+p has anch.o.r.ed in the bay for some minor repairs and will be gone by morning. The captain told him they're on their way to New Caledonia and that they wish our patient well.

'Patient?' Carrie's ears p.r.i.c.k up.

He doesn't blink. 'Did I say patient? I meant operation. Our slug operation. Both vaguely medical, I suppose. I suspect I'm getting my murds wixed because I'm overtired. Ladies.' He stands abruptly, picks up his hat and disappears into the darkness.

'I'm surprised you didn't show an interest in the new visitors,' I say to Carrie.

'I saw the s.h.i.+p. A weird-looking thing. But then I decided to go on an expedition over to the other side of the island.'

'You've been told countless times not to wander too far.'

'What can happen in the daytime? If I see a lizard now, I just glare at it until it goes away.'

'I'm not worried about the lizards. Charley Sandwich thinks there are blacks on the island.'

'Bob said there aren't any and why would he lie?' she counters. 'I've seen no signs of them.'

After dinner, she starts a whole new line of enquiry.

'What did your friend say in the note? And which friend was it? Can I read it?'

I bend over the kitchen bench in my ap.r.o.n, scrubbing at a pan. The caked-on residue has defeated both Ah Sam and me. It's a relic from Bob's bachelor days, when cleaning cooking utensils apparently just diluted the flavour of the next meal. In a last, futile attempt, I put some elbow grease into it and almost knock over the kerosene lamp that is sitting on the bench.

'The letter was from Hope. You wouldn't know her. A nice girl I met in Brisbane. And it was just the usual gossip. Nothing of interest to you.'

She picks up her embroidery. 'Hope. That's a pretty name.'

And an even prettier sentiment, dear Carrie.

It isn't really a lie. The note was full of trivia. I barely had time to glance at it, before I pa.s.sed it over to Percy, but I saw enough to know it contained bland pleasantries about the weather and social goings-on in Brisbane. My eye was drawn to the items of most interest to us: the prices of overstrap shoes and ladies' light-tweed coats for spring. When the template, with its cut-out holes, is laid over the note, the prices will miraculously become dates, co-ordinates and times for light signals.

It's just after nine when the tied-up dogs growl, the sound like sacks of rocks rolled back and forth over sets of rusty pipes in their throats. They are rarely allowed off their tethers as they hara.s.s the chickens and put them off laying.

'What's wrong with them?' Carrie peers through the slush of cold cream smothered on her face.

'I don't know. Probably a lizard at the fowl pen. I should go out.'

As I say the words, the barking starts: a warning sound, with teeth in it. My eyes drift to the rifle propped against the wall near the door.

'No! Don't.' In the shadows, with her white nightdress and face cream, Carrie's a luminescent ghost.

There's a shuffle of pebbles just outside the door. Hard to discern under the dogs' high-pitched cacophony, but there. More like an extra texture than a sound.

Carrie's heard it too.

'Goanna,' I say. 'You know how they come close looking for meat sc.r.a.ps.'

I go over to the shutters, thinking to open them just enough to look out.

'No, don't,' she says again. 'They'll spear us dead.' She worries at the neck of her nightdress with little picking fingers.

'You've changed your tune. I thought you were sure there were no natives on the island.' I'm trying to make light of it. But I feel nervous myself. 'I'll just have a look around.'

'No! You can't leave me here!'

I'm stymied. Left wondering what would greet me if I did open the door and step outside. Perhaps in the distance, the sea covered in its white-veined caul of moonlight. To the east, the distant boom of the reef. Maybe a lizard near the house, lumbering side to side like a chain-mailed wagon. Its eyes like the devil's beaming out at me just before it runs away.

There's a bang on the door. I jump. Carrie screams.

'It's just me. Porter. Let me in.'

I lift the wooden bar. He's dishevelled, as though woken from a deep sleep. The dark-streaked moon peers over his shoulder. There's something in his hands. A small, pale thing. A lady's woollen hand-warmer, with paws. Virgin Mary's pup. Its neck's been wrung. The head's a limp ball, hanging much too far over the side of Porter's hand.

'Oh, no.'

Porter steps inside.

'What happened?' Carrie chews on her fist, her eyes glossy pennies.

Porter says something to her in a low but firm voice. She drifts like a little cloud behind the curtain. A small squeak as she sits on her bed.

I put a finger out to stroke the fur on the puppy's back. Still warm. I take the little body into my hands.

'Who did this? Where's Percy?'

'He's taken the rifle and is scouting around with Ah Sam.'

I immediately think of Ah Leung. I'm almost positive that this is my punishment for our talk over at the farm. But I can't tell Porter that. Not without having to reveal the whole story.

'The other dogs?'

'They're all right.'

I hand the pup back, gently. 'Will you tell Ah Sam to bury him? Somewhere deep. Where the lizards won't dig him up.'

His eyes reach out to me. I know what I'll see in them: caring, comfort. But I can't be weak. I turn away before I change my mind. 'I must go to Carrie.'