‘
Oh, yes, please do.’ Faith sighed with
relief. ‘Does this mean Joe will be coming home too?’ she asked as
Herbert stepped into the hallway.
‘Not for some time, yet, Miss Brodie.
Although several men in the Observer Force are being transferred to
the AIF for service in New Guinea because the threat of invasion in
the Top End has diminished, I expect Joe will remain up there for
some time yet. You see, he has special anti-espionage duties.’
Later, over tea and scones in the lounge
room, Sergeant Herbert gave Faith and Helen all the news about Joe.
He spoke in great detail about what Joe had been doing, where he’d
been and his joy at being put in charge of one of the Nackeroos’
small craft. It was late when Herbert finally got up to leave.
‘So you must forgive Joe for not
writing to you about all this, Faith’ Herbert said. ‘The Army
censors wouldn’t let any of the information through anyway.
Especially about the fifth columnists Joe holds responsible for Aki
Hamada’s death.’ Herbert hesitated before stepping out the front
door into the night. ‘You know Faith, now Joe knows where Koko is,
he was hoping you might be able to find a way of letting him know
what’s going on—somehow get word to him that something is being
done to try and track down the
Groote
Eyelandt Lady
while he’s cooped up at
Cowra.’
‘I don’t know how I could do that, Sergeant,’
Faith said. ‘Now that Koko is classified as a prisoner of war and
not an internee, I don’t think the authorities would be likely to
let me or anyone else see him.’
‘Never credit the military or the bureaucracy
with any brains, Faith. Sometimes their stupidity is nothing short
of astonishing.’ Herbert shook his head. ‘I’d go to Cowra myself if
it would do any good. Koko’s father was a friend of mine, you know.
But they’d never be stupid enough to let me near him. You see, this
discharge I’m getting from the Army, it’s not a transfer, it’s…
well, actually, they’re sort of throwing me out.’
*
Dan was placed in a semi-private ward with
another Guadalcanal veteran when he arrived at the hospital in at
Richmond. Captain Lloyd Freeman was a young, Marine officer from
Butte, Montana, who had also been stricken with chronic malaria
complicated by blackwater fever. He had been a patient at Richmond
since late December 1942 when the First Division had been relieved
at Guadalcanal and his recovery was much further advanced than
Dan’s. Within weeks he expected to be shipped home.
Dan’s condition was improving steadily and
the Air Corps had told him that in time, he too could look forward
to going home and being discharged from the service. In the
meantime he was often allowed to wander around the hospital
corridors and occasionally sit outside in the garden with Freeman.
Dan enjoyed the company of the big, good-looking young man from
Montana. He thought that before the debilitating effects of
blackwater fever, the young captain must have looked like the
closest thing to the wholesome, fearless warrior depicted on the
Marine’s Corps recruitment posters back in the States. The likeness
was still there now, but only on the surface. Dan knew that beneath
Freeman’s virile image, lay something less than a man.
‘I think I’ll miss this town, Dan,’ Freeman
said one morning. They were sitting in their dressing gowns by the
window of the ward enjoying the winter sun streaming through the
glass. ‘For a lot of Marines it’s been the only slice of heaven
we’ve had since we were shipped out to New Zealand last year. When
we got here from Guadalcanal, half of us were in bare-assed, filthy
rags with only the daily dose of Atarbrine keeping us from having
the screaming meemies. Just about the whole damn division had
malaria. Most of the men couldn’t walk down the gangplank of the
ship without assistance. Even the guys who weren’t hospitalized
were having bad attacks and dropping like flies on the streets. I
suppose the locals just thought they were a bunch of drunks.’
Dan smiled. ‘I saw plenty of those here last
year when some of the first GI’s arrived in Australia. But most of
them were just homesick kids. Never been further away from home
before than a few miles on a Sunday afternoon drive. I don’t know
how a lot of them would have coped with it all without the
hospitality of the people here in Melbourne.’
‘From what I hear there’s still lots of that
around,’ Freeman said. ‘The entire First Division was billeted in
and around Melbourne when we shipped in from Guadalcanal. The
favorite place was the temporary camp at the Melbourne Cricket
Ground, because the guys there had the jump on corralling the girls
in town.’ Freeman grinned. ‘Quite a few have married local girls
and a lot of them plan to settle down permanently in Australia
after the war. It’s the same all over the country. I’ve heard the
Army is even planning on setting up discharge centers in major
Australian cities for US servicemen wanting to stay here after the
war.’ He suddenly became more serious. ‘What are you going to do,
Dan?’
‘About what?’
‘About this girl, Faith. The one you’re
always talking about. Are you going to ask her to marry you?’
‘
I think so.’ Dan smiled at the
prospect. ‘That’s assuming the Atarbrine and all the other things
they’ve been pumping into me hasn’t turned me into a dud,
too.’
As soon as the words came out Dan regretted
having said them.
‘Come on, Dan.’ Freeman brushed off the
reminder of what the prolonged use of morphine based drugs had done
to him. Just because I’ve been turned into a eunuch, it doesn’t
mean that you will be too. The doctors say it’s extremely rare.
‘So is blackwater fever, and we both got
that. Anyway, you can’t expect the military to admit to
anything.’
‘It only seems to affect a very small
percentage of people. It…’
‘Look…’ Dan broke in quickly. ‘I’m sorry,
Lloyd. I didn’t mean to mention it.’
‘I don’t mind, Dan.’ Freeman smiled and
shrugged his shoulders. ‘But since you have. I can tell you it’s
stupid to get paranoid about it. If you think you’ve lost the urge,
you’d better get the doctors to do some tests.’
‘Oh, I haven’t lost the urge.’
‘Then what are you worried about?’
‘If a man wants a family, firing blanks can
be a lot worse than being impotent.’
‘Then ask them to run the tests.’
‘I have. But they said it’s too early to run
them just now. I have to wait awhile.’
‘So you want to put any plans for the future
on hold until you know for sure?’
Dan nodded his head.
‘And if you marry this girl. What happens
then? From what you’ve told me about her and New Mexico, I can’t
see her being in a big rush to live on an Indian reservation, or
even in a one horse town like Gallup.’
‘I wasn’t planning on that, Lloyd,’ Dan said.
‘Like a lot of your Marines, I’d be happy to live right here in
Australia. It’s a big country with hardly anyone living in it. This
war has made the Australians realize that. You can’t build a
country this size or even hope to defend it without people. After
the war there’s bound to be mass government-sponsored migration
here. There’ll be endless opportunities. There’ll be houses, roads,
railways and communication lines to be built all across the
country. I’ll do what I was going to do back in New Mexico, start
my own construction company. It won’t cost that much to set up.
There’ll be billions of dollars worth of the best American
equipment left here after the war. It will just be dumped into
holes in the ground or sold off for peanuts.’
Freeman’s eyebrows rose. ‘Looks like you’ve
got everything figured out. When are you going to apply for
permission to live in Australia? Those things take a long time, you
know.’
‘I know,’ Dan said quickly. ‘I’ve already
sent for the papers.’
*
Although the feared Japanese invasion of
northern Australia by land forces from Timor failed to materialize,
the enemy was still regularly bombing targets in the Top End,
especially military installations in the Darwin area. There had
also been air strikes as far south as the Naval base at Exmouth in
Western Australia. From the pinpoint accuracy of many of the raids,
it was plain that the Japanese were still receiving timely and
accurate information from fifth columnists.
There was positive proof of the web of
espionage operating in the Northern Territory, when the American
Flying Fortress squadron based at Katherine was moved a hundred
miles north to Adelaide River. Although it was a top secret
operation, at the midway point of the journey up the newly sealed
highway, a huge convoy of US transports was strafed and bombed by
Japanese aircraft. As always, after suspicious and timely raids by
a well informed enemy, vigilance for enemy spies was stepped up on
land and at sea. The crew of the
Walrus
was kept up to date of enemy activity by
coded radio signals from Nackeroo headquarters.
Even though the Weasel had never been
within sight of the ocean before going to Sydney to train with the
Nackeroos, he took to the sea like a fish. Six months of plying the
Top End coast under sail, transporting supplies to remote Nackeroo
outposts and searching for fifth columnists afloat had made him a
competent sailor. And it was only when the crew of the
Walrus
received orders from Katherine
or listened to reports on the radio that they were reminded there
was a war on.
Weasel’s dislike for the harsh
conditions in the Northern Territory had been replaced by a genuine
love of life afloat on it’s pristine, coastal waters. He often told
Joe that the time he had spent aboard the
Walrus
was the best period of his life. As for
Monday, his joy at finding freedom again after being released from
servitude, however benevolent or well-intentioned, knew no
bounds.
Joe was content also. He was sailing
again. And under the circumstances, the restrictions put on
the
Walrus’
movements by the
military were a small price to pay for being able to lead the kind
of life he loved, even in wartime. His only frustration came from
being unable to learn anything about the whereabouts of the Horan
brothers or the
Groote Eyelandt
Lady.
Since taking over the
Walrus,
he had twice sailed the entire length of
the Top End from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Wyndham in Western
Australia. Each time he had checked most of the anchorages favored
by Top End sailors and he had made enquiries with missionaries at
all the offshore island settlements.
But it had been to no avail. It was as
if the
Groote Eyelandt Lady
and her motley crew of traitorous croc-shooters had
disappeared without a trace from the face of the earth.
*
Soon after Xavier Herbert’s visit to New
Farm, Lyle Hunter announced to his staff that he had been appointed
liaison officer to an inter-service military delegation flying to
the United States for meetings in Washington and at the Pentagon,
the new Defence Department headquarters at nearby Arlington,
Virginia.
‘I’ll only be gone for about three or four
weeks,’ he told Faith over dinner at Lennons the night before he
left. ‘There was a conference in Quebec last month between
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill where a new
overall strategy for the Pacific was worked out. One of the main
objectives has always been to capture Rabaul. But things have gone
so well in New Guinea and the Solomons recently, that the Chiefs
are looking at bypassing New Britain and taking the islands to the
north. That way, Rabaul would be cut off from Japan and there would
be no need to waste time and lives fighting for it, because the
huge garrison there would be effectively neutralized anyway.’
‘So what will the delegation actually be
doing there, Lyle?’ Faith asked.
‘They’ll be giving an up to the minute
appreciation of how things are in the Pacific, so the brass can do
a little fine tuning to the overall plan.’
‘And what is your role in it all?’
Lyle grinned. ‘Same as usual, I suppose.
Trying to keep the peace between the Army, the Navy and the Marines
as they all try and take the credit for everything.’
He reached across the table and put his hand
on hers. ‘Why don’t you take a break while I’m away, Faith? Go down
to Point Danger and relax. The office can manage for a couple of
weeks without you. You haven’t taken a day of your leave
entitlement you know.’
Faith was about to scoff at the notion of
time off. But suddenly, the suggestion seemed like a very good
idea.
*
The day after Lyle Hunter and the
delegation of high ranking Americans officers left for Washington,
Faith had lunch with Gus Welenski at the American Centre. Since the
incident with Dan and the SS
George
Washington
they hadn’t talked to each other as often
as they used to. Now, with Lyle Hunter away they were both glad of
the opportunity to have a long chat without the risk of ruffling
the major’s feathers.
‘He told me you’ll be taking your two weeks
leave shortly’ Gus said as they were finishing steak sandwiches and
milk shakes. ‘He told me to arrange for transport and accommodation
at Point Danger. Just tell me when you want to go.’
‘I am taking leave, Gus. But I’m not going
down to the coast.’
‘How come?’ Welenski looked surprised. ‘I’d
give my eye teeth to spend a week or two down there.’
‘I thought it would be a good time for me to
go interstate and visit some friends.’
‘Where interstate?’
‘New South Wales. And perhaps, Victoria.’