‘Yuh don’t learn about mining from books.’
‘But you can learn how to recognize a mountain of copper when you see one.’ I said.
‘Mcllroy’s Monster!’
They were all laughing, their faces glistening in the lights. Somebody thrust another can of beer into my hand.
‘When did he become interested in McIlroy?’ I asked.
They didn’t know. It was just a joke to them. And then Lenny said quietly, ‘Funny thing, yuh asking that. He was interested in McIlroy right from the word go. Come to think of it, he knew about Wolli, too.’
‘And he came here immediately he was discharged?’
‘Yep.’ The brown eyes in the mummified face were suddenly full of curiosity. ‘Straight out of hospital.’
‘Where’s he from originally, d’you know?’
‘Sydney, so he says. Got his family there.’
‘He’s married then?’
‘Wife an’ two kids. The brown eyes staring at me and both of us thinking the same thing. ‘Says he’s come to work here so as he can grab himself enough to buy a house and a small business.’ But I can see Lenny didn’t believe that any more than I did. ‘He’s a rum’un, Phil is.’
‘D’you believe this story of Wolli’s?’ I asked him.
”Bout his father being with McIlroy?’ He shook his head. ‘I dunno. Makes sense to take an abo along if you’re headed beyond Disappointment. It’s all desert there, or as near as makes no odds.’
‘And what about Golden Soak?’ I asked. ‘Did you know he and Wolli broke into the mine last night?’
‘He was off sick yesterday. How would he get down to the Garrety place?’
‘He was driving a Toyota.’
‘The only person that owns a Toyota around here is Prophecy.’ He glanced quickly round the room, then shook his head. ‘Bloody fool!’ he muttered. ‘That mine’s dangerous.’
‘What was he after?’
He gave me a toothless grin. ‘What’s any bloke after having a look at a derelict mine?’
‘Has he got enough money to buy it?’
”Course not. All he’s got is his pension and whatever they give ‘im for his leg when he got his discharge. Even a dud mine like Golden Soak’s worth more’n that these days.’
‘Then what was he doing there?’
A hand gripped me by the shoulder and I spun round to find Westrop there, the sweat damp on his face and his eyes blazing. ‘ Yuh want to ask questions about me, ask them to my face. Got it?’ He’d had a lot of beer by then. So had I. We all had.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘What was it you were looking for last night?’
‘Yuh really wanter know?’ His voice was loud and truculent.
I was looking for McIlroy.’ He laughed and the others laughed with him. But facing him as I was, I knew he wasn’t being funny. He was deadly serious. ‘Yuh go back to your pal Garrety — tell ‘im wot I said. He’ll laugh.’ His face was close to mine, his eyes reflecting an emotion I didn’t understand and his body trembling so that I could feel it through the hand still gripping my shoulder. ‘He’ll laugh himself sick.’ The pressure of the hand increased and suddenly he was shaking me. ‘Yuh go back there and tell’ im. See wot he says.‘And he was shouting at me, ‘Yuh Pommies — yuh’ve got a nerve you bastards have. Yuh don’t give a bugger for this country, but soon as we start striking it rich, then yuh’re out here like a swarm of locusts.’ His fist was bunched, the sweat on his face shining, and I stood there, waiting, feeling isolated. And then suddenly his mood changed and he let go of me. ‘Yuh mind your business, I’ll mind mine.’ He was relaxed now, smiling and clapping me on the shoulder, and then he turned and ordered another round.
They left shortly afterwards, and I went with them, glad of the chance of a lift to Lynn Peak. They were going there for a meal. At least that’s what they said, and I was sucker enough to believe them, anxious now to be on my way to Kalgoorlie.
TWO
There were no trees where they dumped me, just the dark outline of low hills and stars brilliant in the still, arid air. There was a big anthill close by — magnetic ants, the pointed side facing north. I sat down with my back against it, still hearing their drunken laughter as they dropped me over the side on to the edge of the Highway and Westrop saying, ‘Just keep going south an’ you’ll arrive at Kalgoorlie an’ don’t let me set eyes on yuh again.’ Somebody — Lenny, I think — had had the decency to dump my suitcase on the gravel beside me, and then the Chev roared off up the side track to Grafton Downs, the red tail lights and their laughter fading in the distance until they were lost behind the dark shoulder of a hill and I was alone with only the silence of the night for company.
I closed my eyes, a little sobered now, but still feeling sore at being made to look such a fool, cursing all Australians for their crude sense of humour. And thinking about it there in the stillness, remembering the violence in Westrop’s voice, the trembling of his hand on my shoulder, I wasn’t at all sure he had meant it as a joke. More like a warning, it seemed.
I was still thinking about that, my back against the hard-baked surface of the anthill, when the lights of a vehicle appeared over a rise, coming from the direction of Nullagine. It was already slowing down, the headlights catching me in their glare as I stood waiting beside the road. It was a Toyota and when it stopped Prophecy put her head out of the window. ‘I came into the bar just as you were driving off with those jokers. Thought I’d better come and pick you up.’ She was grinning as though she, too, saw the humour of it.
Thanks,’ I said and retrieved my suitcase. Then, as I got in beside her, she said, ‘I got a full tank.’ She was watching me, her eyes gleaming black in the dashboard light. ‘Yuh ever been down Golden Soak?’
I shook my head.
‘Well, now’s your chance to have a dekko before Phil Westrop. After all the questions you bin asking, he’ll be down there at the weekend for sure and Ed’ll have a fight on his hands if he tries to run him off the property again.’
I didn’t know whether it was the thought that Ed Garrety might get hurt or whether it was simply that Prophecy infected me with her own curiosity, but I said okay and we started driving south. ‘How do you think I’m going to get down the shaft?’ I asked. But she had rope, torches, a miner’s helmet, everything we’d need in the back. She always carried them, she said. And then we were talking about Westrop and what it was he was after. But it seemed she knew no more than I did. ‘Looking for McIlroy,’ she said. ‘That’s a bloody odd thing for him to say.’ But she’d no idea why he’d said it and the noise and the heat of the truck made talking very tiring. With all the beer I’d drunk, my head began to nod and soon I was asleep. Even the jolts as we crossed the creek beds didn’t waken me.
It was almost two when we reached the turn-off to Jarra Jarra and at Prophecy’s suggestion I took over the driving. I had to concentrate then, for in places the track was difficult to follow and in the hill country there were the gullies to watch for. It was still dark when we came to the paddock fence and I felt like a thief in the night coming back to Jarra Jarra uninvited in a borrowed truck with a woman like Prophecy lolling in a whisky-loaded daze in the seat beside me. I saw the outline of The Governor humped against the stars, and then I had crossed the Mt Newman track and was on to the back trail that led down to Golden Soak.
The first pale light of dawn was seeping into the sky behind us as I turned the red outcrop and saw the chimney thin as a pencil above the rusted mine buildings. I was driving without lights then, feeling my way, with Prophecy awake and sitting bolt upright. I stopped by the mine office, switched the engine off and got out. There was no wind, everything still and very quiet. The dawn was brightening, a thin line to the east, and I stood there on the threshold of the day, listening. Prophecy joined me, a hag in the pallid light, her eyes gummed and her blown hairy dry as furze. No jingle of a bit, no exhaust blown whisper of the engine — no sound except the soundless promise of heat to come. ‘Yuh expecting somebody?’ Prophecy asked.