part0037

J amie came awake suddenly when he felt someone shaking his arm and realised it was Jacko. Jumping to his feet, he followed Jacko a little way up the trail where Sarah was waiting. In the darkness, Jamie could only see her teeth when she smiled. It was very quiet, the only sounds being Tommo snoring quietly and nocturnal birds chattering in the bushes.

“We’ll go up to the top of the trail in sight of the caves and Sarah’ll go on from there,” whispered Jacko. “We should wait there to back her up in case something goes wrong.”

“Right. No point in having the whole army up there stomping around at this stage. I’ll bring my Hornet rifle,” Jamie whispered back. “Are you okay, Sarah?”

“Orright, bikpela boss,” she muttered.

It took them about twenty minutes to reach the top of the trail where they could see the caves in the starlight. Sarah disappeared into the darkness.

“She’s good, Jacko,” whispered Jamie. “I can’t see her at all.”

“Yeah, well, she’s naked,” Jacko told him, holding up her dress. “She’s invisible as long as she keeps her mouth shut. She’ll be bringing her friends out the same way. That’s the reason for the extra shirts.”

“Yeah, stark bollocky naked,” whispered Jacko. “She didn’t want me to tell you but she moves more quietly that way, as well as being invisible.”

They waited anxiously for about another twenty minutes until there was a slight rustle of movement close to them and Jamie saw three sets of white teeth that seemed to be floating in the air. Jamie threw Sarah’s dress at the first smile and the two shirts at the others. Without saying a word, they all retreated down the trail until they arrived where the others were still sleeping. Jamie coughed and shaking each of them by the arm, waited until they were all fully awake.

“Time to go?” asked John.

“Yeah, absolutely,” said Jamie. “We’ve got Suzie and Lucy with us and now is the time to get the other girl, Cassie, and bail up the baddies.”

“You’ve got Sarah’s friends out already?” said Dick, shaking his head.

“Yep, all safe and sound. Now for the difficult part.”

“How’d you do that?” asked John incredulously.

“Sarah did it on her own and she’s going to show us where Cassie is,” said Jamie. “We know that Matt and the German are the ringleaders and they have their own cave, beyond the first cave where all the others sleep. Jacko and I’ll take care of the ringleaders in the second cave first, after which John and Dick can arrest the three thugs in the first cave.”

“Hey, Cap!” said Jacko. “I’ve just been talking to Sarah. She says there’s no sign of the blonde German. Only Matt and Cassie were in the second cave.”

“Blast! Do you think he could be in the first cave with the others?” asked Jamie.

“No, she says there are two empty swags in the second cave,” said Jacko, “I’d reckon one’s dead Freddie’s and the other must be Chuck’s.”

“What a bugger!” said Jamie. “We’ll have to go ahead anyway.”

“What about me, Jamie?” asked Tommo.

“Ah yeah, Tommo, could you take Suzie and Lucy back to the vehicles and give them something to eat and somewhere to sleep?” replied Jamie.

“Yeah, boss. Not a problem,” said Tommo. “Sure you don’t want me to help up here?”

“No, Tommo. Just take care of the girls,” said Jamie. “They need a bit of looking after. They’ve had a rough time.”

After Tommo and the two young girls had left, the men checked their firearms, discarded any light-coloured pieces of clothing and set off up the trail towards the caves. When the caves were in sight, Jamie instructed John and Dick to stand in the dark just outside the first cave and wait for his signal, which would come after he and Jacko had secured the second cave.

Moving quietly through the darkness, Jacko, Jamie and Sarah crept through the mouth of the second cave where they could hear loud snoring coming from one of the side caverns 10 yards in from the mouth. Sarah pointed towards the cavern and with their eyes accustomed to the dark, it was possible to discern two figures stretched out side by side on matting.

Jamie crept up to the snoring figure and gave him a sharp hit on the side of the head with the butt of his rifle. Matt gave a loud grunt and then dropped into unconsciousness while Jacko put a hand over Cassie’s mouth and whispered in her ear. She opened her eyes wide and nodded as Sarah helped her to her feet and took her to where her meagre belongings were stored in another cavern. Sarah picked up the two dresses discarded by Suzie and Lucy and then accompanied Jamie and Jacko around the cave, showing them the empty swags. After handcuffing the inert figure of Matt and with Sarah taking Cassie in hand, they left the cave.

As they passed the first cave, Jamie gave a low whistle to the two policemen who turned on their torches and rushed into the cave.

With Sarah leading Cassie down the trail, Jacko and Jamie joined Dick and John in the first cave where John had just started to handcuff behind their backs the three confused and bleary-eyed criminals, while Dick kept them covered with his rifle. There was a strong smell of body odour and rum in the cave and Jamie found several cases of liquor and canned vegetables stacked near the back of the cave. After John had finished handcuffing all three of the gang, he looked at Jamie who nodded.

“You and Dick take this scummy lot down to the area where their vehicles are but keep them away from any of the girls,” said Jamie. “You could use some of their rope to tie them to a tree down there. Jacko and I’ll stay up here for a while and search for their loot. We also have to try to find Chuck.”

“Okay, Jamie,” said John as he pushed the three criminals towards the mouth of the cave. “C’mon, you scumbags. Let’s move it.”

As the first of the handcuffed trio stepped outside, there was the sound of a rifle shot and the gang member fell down with a loud grunt like a bag of potatoes, while the others jumped back inside the cave.

“Quick, switch off those torches,” said Jamie. “That’ll be the bloody German firing from somewhere up in the hills above us. He won’t know whether he shot one of them or one of us. Make the other two lie face down, John, and you keep them covered, Dick.”

Jacko knelt just inside the mouth of the cave with his rifle aimed at the hills, trying to detect any movement. He was holding the M2 .30 carbine which he had taken from the dead red-headed man and now he switched it into automatic fire. He asked Dick to point his torch outside and switch it quickly on and off. As he did so, another loud crack broke the stillness of the night and a bullet entered the cave, ricocheting harmlessly off the limestone floor. Jacko let go a volley of shots in roughly the direction of the shooter but an answering shot told him he hadn’t hit the gunman. All the time the prone figure outside the cave loudly moaned and groaned. After a while Dick switched the torch on and off again with no reaction.

“I think he might’ve moved on,” said Jacko.

“While it’s still dark it’d be a good idea for you, Dick, to take these two down the trail and tie them to a tree down there,” said Jamie. “If they give you any trouble, whack ’em over the head with your pistol. Leave two of those torches with us so that Jacko and I’ll be able to look for the loot in the other cave where Matt is. We’ll pull this poor sorry bastard inside and you can watch him, John. See if you can find some bandages and sheets to stop the bleeding.”

As soon as they had pulled the wounded gang member back into the cave, Dick set off with the other two down the trail in the dark and Jamie and Jacko crept to the second cave where they heard Matt starting to groan.

“Might give him another small bump on the head,” said Jacko.

“Yeah, but don’t kill him,” said Jamie. “I want to take him back alive.”

“Okay, Cap,” said Jacko, going into the side cavern where Matt lay. Jamie heard a thud and the groaning stopped.

Their search took them to the far end of the cave before it dipped down to a lower level where there was another stack of cases of tinned food. Behind this, they discovered a large pile of loose rocks. Removing the rocks one by one they finally uncovered six jute bags and an old metal tool case. The jute bags contained gold nuggets and jewellery as well as significant quantities of pure panned gold in various smaller bags. The toolbox was full of money.

“Bloody hell! We’ve found the treasure trove, all right,” said Jamie. “Apart from the gold there must be several thousand pounds in that toolbox. These buggers have certainly been busy. They’ve done a lot more thievery than we know about.”

“Yeah, they make the old bushrangers look like amateurs,” said Jacko.

“Except most of those old bushrangers would have been more careful about getting caught, Jacko,” said Jamie.

“Aw yeah, but those old bushrangers didn’t have us on their trail, Cap,” said Jacko with a grin.

“No, that’s true,” said Jamie, laughing. “Unfortunately, we’ve still got that bloody German running around out there somewhere.”

“We’ll have to wait until daylight before we can track him down,” said Jacko.

“We’ve got to get him before he gets us. I don’t think he’ll take too kindly to us carting his loot away,” said Jamie. “Do you think you can track him, Jacko?”

“Yeah, I reckon.”

“Okay. It should be light in an hour or so.”

About a mile to the northeast of the caves, Karl sat down under a coolabah tree and studied the dark hills. He was thankful that his sense of foreboding the previous evening had made him restless, causing him to go for a walk carrying his sniper’s rifle in the middle of the night. Climbing up in the hills he had heard some strange loud voices down in the cave area and seen lights moving around in the cave where the men were camped. He was quite sure he had shot one of the intruders but someone had shot back at him. He asked himself, who are these people? Where did they come from? How many of them are there? Matt had assured him that the police were bloody hopeless in this part of Australia and no one could ever find them in these ranges. He should never have trusted Matt, the dummkopf! What’s happened to Matt and the others, and Eddie of course, he wondered. If they’ve all been taken, this mob of coppers must be damn good.

He now regretted shooting the man at the mouth of the cave. He thought that if he hadn’t done that, they might never have known of his existence and might not find the gold and the rest of the loot. He figured that he could last out here for a few weeks and wait until they had gone. There were plenty of pools of water and game. No! They were sure to come after him since he had shot that man. He was the dummkopf! His only chance was to move around and leave no tracks, if he could, and try not to get lost. Who the hell were these people? He sat contemplating these things as he saw the sky beginning to lighten in the east with the dawning of a new day.

“My hat’s got so many holes in it now, it looks like a sieve,” said Jamie.

“Natural air flow is good for the hair,” said Jacko. “Wobble it out on the end of a stick and if he shoots I’ll see if I can see where he is.”

Staying out of sight inside the mouth of the cave, Jamie held his hat out. There was no response. Jacko carefully studied the hills opposite and finally decided that the German sniper must have gone. The only sounds were the pitiful groaning of the wounded man in the other cave and the mournful cries of a few crows. Finding some rope in the back of the cave, they tied securely the legs of the still unconscious Matt, hid the jute bags and the old toolbox in another part of the cave and walked over to the first cave. After borrowing a set of handcuffs from John, Jamie asked him to keep watch in case any other baddies showed up. He explained that he and Jacko were going after the sniper who had shot at them during the night. They then started climbing into the hills in their quest to see if they could pick up the tracks of the German.

They searched around the hills for some time until Jacko noticed something glinting in the early morning sunlight. It turned out to be an empty cartridge from a 7.92mm Mauser Kar 98K rifle. This was similar to the one they had found with the dead sniper, killed by Jacko’s miraculous .303 shot. In the immediate area, Jacko discerned the footprints of the missing German.

“Looks like he’s headed north-easterly from here,” he said. “He leaves a fairly heavy footprint.”

“Do you think you can track him through these hills?” asked Jamie, who found it difficult to tell a footprint from a small depression in the rock and gravel ground.

“Yeah, I reckon,” said Jacko as he followed the tracks over the rocky surface. “It looks as if he was stumbling around a fair bit because of the dark. Look, he skinned his hand on a sharp bit of limestone.”

“Yeah, I see the blood. I wonder if he knows where he’s going.”

Jacko was kneeling and looking closely at the ground. “Well, he’s not exactly pacing along. In fact the tracks show he’s meandering all over the place. He doesn’t seem to have a specific objective, but that could be because of the dark.”

“We don’t want to unexpectedly walk into him so that he can shoot us,” said Jamie.

“No worries, these tracks are several hours old,” said Jacko.

“How can you tell that?” asked Jamie.

“The fine dust cover that falls overnight tells me a lot of things, Cap.”

After another twenty minutes following the trail, Jacko pointed out a spot under a coolabah tree and told Jamie that the German had sat down there for a while, probably until dawn. Behind the tree Jacko found two cigarette butts which had been thrown into some small bushes. From this location the track set off in a more easterly direction, generally following the contours of the hills, and it appeared the German was moving more quickly than before. As they skirted around a hill, they found a place where he had slipped and fallen but had got up and continued on his way. They came across a small spring where he had knelt to drink before walking on from there. The hills were silent except for a flock of chattering lorikeets and some bright red finches flying overhead. They came across a flat surface of smooth rock and Jacko was trying to work out which way the trail led when they heard a soft voice behind them. They both spun around to see a well-known diminutive black figure in a dark blue dress only twenty yards behind them.

“Him badpela alonga rock,” said Sarah softly, pointing at an outcrop of quartzite rock which rose 10 feet above the surface about sixty yards to the north of them. “Him limplimp sore foot.”

“Are you sure?” whispered Jamie.

“If Sarah says he’s behind that rock, he probably is, Cap,” said Jacko. “I’m sure he won’t know we’re here.”

“We can flank him on either side of the rock and we’ll see if we can convince him to surrender without a fight. I’d like to capture at least one of the Krauts alive. There are a few people including MI6 and OSS itching to interrogate him. You take the right-hand side and I’ll take the left.”

“Okay, Cap. No worries,” said Jacko. “Stay here out of sight, Sar.”

In wide circles, they worked their way around until they could see the other side of the rock where the German was sitting with his back against it, staring at a small waterhole in front of him. They settled down where they could aim their rifles at him as he watched a flock of lorikeets wheeling overhead and finally landing on a tree on the fringe of the water. The German reached for his rifle when a small Kimberley wallaby approached the far side of the waterhole and as he raised his rifle, Jamie yelled at him from his left to freeze and drop his rifle. As the wallaby leapt away, the German froze in shock for about 15 seconds and then, recovering himself, moved to aim his rifle towards the voice when a shot rang out from his right and the rifle was lifted out of his hands, one of them nicked by the bullet. Slowly he stood up, clutching his left hand with his right, a look of shocked resignation on his face.

“Good shot, Jacko!” Jamie yelled. As he approached the forlorn blonde man he said, “Just stay there and don’t move.”

“Scheisse!” the German muttered, watching Jamie and Jacko approaching him from both sides.

There was a squeal of delight as Sarah ran around the outcrop clapping her hands and giggling at the sight of the German.

“So what’s your name?” asked Jamie.

“Leck mich am Arsch!” said the German defiantly.

“Nice. Never mind, we’ll just call you Chucky,” said Jamie. “That’s not your real name, is it? Give him a set of bracelets, Jacko.”

“My pleasure, Cap.”

“There are a few people from Allied war offices who are dying to meet you,” said Jamie as Jacko secured his hands behind his back with the handcuffs.

“Ow! My hand hurts. Who are you people?” the German blurted. “White man, coloured man and black girl. Ach, schwartze schlampe! You found me, how?”

“Not exactly the master race, are we, but we manage to bumble along,” said Jacko. “We’ll leave what remains of your rifle behind and stumble off back to the caves, shall we? Get moving, Chucky.”

“I know that Sarah had no trouble tracking us but I’d like to know how she knew Chucky was behind that rock,” said Jamie as they were walking back.

“Colour birds ply,” said Sarah in reply.

“Yeah, she saw that Chucky had disturbed the lorikeets and other colourful birds away from a waterhole which had to be behind that outcrop,” said Jacko. “If there wasn’t a waterhole the birds wouldn’t have been there at all and they wouldn’t have flown around in that way if they hadn’t been disturbed. I was too busy looking at the ground to notice.”