CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Mrs Llewellyn soon became distraught beyond words. But she remained outside the haberdashery until it was almost time to meet the carriage in the main shopping district, in the hope Kiri and Sky would appear with some sort of an explanation for their disappearance.

Minutes after she arrived at Jarrah alone, Ben saddled up and took off at a full gallop for Brisbane. He went directly to the little haberdashery and stood outside it for several hours in the darkness, hoping as Mrs Llewellyn had, that somehow Kiri and Sky would return there eventually. Few locals passed by at that hour, but Ben anxiously asked those that did if they had seen any sign of Kiri and Sky. None were able to say they had.

It was after ten o'clock when he went to a nearby police barracks, and a sleepy and seemingly disinterested constable told him to return the next morning to see the sergeant if Kiri and Sky were still missing.

An ageing police sergeant with a red face and thick grey hair opened up the station-house the next morning to find Ben, tired but still awake, huddled on the steps outside. Ben explained briefly what had happened and the sergeant told him to come inside, take a chair, and wait.

A full half hour passed before the sergeant returned, then pen in hand, he stood behind a tall narrow oak desk to take down the particulars of Ben's missing persons report.
`Alright now...the names of the missing persons?'
`Kiri and Sky.'
The sergeant frowned.
`Unusual names Mr Luk.'
`They are Melanesian Islanders.'
The policeman's eyebrows rose.
`Kanakas! Your missing persons are Kanakas? I thought they were your wife and son'
`They are Sergeant.'ﾁ
The sergeant looked thoughtful as he penned the names into a thick leather-bound journal. When he had finished he said: `If you don't mind my asking Mr Luk, just when and where were you and your wife married?'
`What has that got to do with finding them Sergeant?' Ben snapped angrily.
The sergeant sneered knowingly
`You are married aren't you Mr Luk?' Because the law clearly states that Kanakas can only be admitted and remain in the colony as plantation workers. There are penalties for using them in any other way. The penalties are particularly severe if Kanakas have been used for sexual gratification. Now tell me. Are you legally married to this woman or not?'
Ben sighed in exasperation and shook his head. `There is no official record of marriage at any church or at the registrars office Sergeant. And there is no official registration of the birth of the boy either.But I am the common law husband of this woman, and I would appreciate your help in finding her and her son.'
`Her son? So now, not only is the woman not your wife, but the boy isn't even your son.' The sergeant put down his pen and closed the thick leather journal with a loud slap. His lips curled into a sneer. `You know...I've been a policeman for a long time. I've seen how you Chinese lure destitute women and young runaways into your opium dens, use and abuse them, then pass them on from hand to hand like old shoes.' The policeman grinned. `You know what I think?I think your Kanaka got a chance to escape from it all with her son, and she took it. I say good luck to her.'
The sergeant walked across the room and opened the door onto the street. Ben suppressed his anger. He knew well the dangers of a full blown confrontation with the sergeant, and also the utter futility of trying to explain his relationship with Kiri. Without saying another word he stood up and walked out the door.
Ben returned to Jarrah and tried to sleep. But sleep wouldn't come. He got up and paced around the house.By nightfall he was so tired that he fell asleep in a chair in the drawingroom.He woke in the early hours and went back upstairs to bed. He lay awake for an hour or so staring into the darkness. Then mercifully, he fell asleep again.
ﾁWhen Ben woke, the sun was already high in the sky. He got up quickly, bathed and dressed and went downstairs. Mrs Llewellyn offered him breakfast. He shook his head. Ben could tell Mrs Llewellyn had had little, if any sleep, and could hardly hold back her tears. Without a word he walked briskly to the drawing-room and took the carbine down from above the mantelpiece, loaded it, then headed for the stables.
Minutes later he mounted his mare and galloped off towards Brisbane again. *
Silas Moser was in his office going over the schedules of projected income and expenditure that Charles had prepared for the refrigerated meat vessels, when he heard a commotion outside his door.
A moment later, Skinner, the sullen faced office boy who was now a clerk in the front office, burst into the room.
`Mr Moser, there's a man with a gun out there and he's demanding to see you. He said....'
`I said I will not go away until I have spoken with you Silas Moser.' Ben's voice roared over Skinner's, and he sent the clerk sprawling headlong as he strode into the room. `Do you wish to speak in private or do you wish this clerk to remain?'
Moser's face paled. `Leave us Skinner.' He fanned a hand toward the door. `I will speak with Mr Luk alone.'
`So you remember my name.' Ben said as Skinner backed out through the door.
Moser eyed Ben and the carbine he held at his side with caution. `How could I possibly forget it Mr Luk. You are a dangerous man. I remember well, that only hours after we met at the Colonial Club, you forcibly kidnapped the Kanaka girl from Madam Jane's.'
`I would say rescued her is closer to the truth.'
`Call it whatever you wish Mr Luk. The incident at Madam Jane's is of no consequence to me. Under the circumstances everyone just thought it better to drop the matter and not seek retribution.'
`But for how long Moser?'
`Just what is it you came here to say Mr Luk?'
Ben cocked the carbine and raised it to his shoulder. He leveled the short barrel directly at Moser's heart. `Kiri has vanished. So has her child. I believe you know where she is. I am giving you this one chance to tell me... now.'
Moser's face tightened, but he remained calm. `I know nothing of her or any child. I cannot tell you what I don't know. I wasn't even aware that she was still with you. Now please Mr Luk. I have a company to run here. I have neither the time nor the desire to engage in personal vendettas of any kind.'
Ben kept the carbine raised. `And I suppose you are going to tell me you know nothing of the fire which destroyed my property two years ago.'
Moser threw his arms open wide. `As God is my witness, Mr Luk, I know nothing of any fire. Please I beg of you, don't blame me for every adverse thing that happens in your life.'
Ben slowly lowered the rifle. `I have no proof Moser, so there is little I can do. But if Kiri does not return and I find out later that you are in any way responsible for her disappearance, I shall kill you, of that you may be certain. But if you do know where she is, and you send her back to Jarrah within the next twenty four hours, you have my word no harm will come to you.'
As Ben turned to leave, the door crashed open, and Charles and a dozen of the biggest stevedores Skinner could round up on the Stonehouse wharf poured into the office. In an instant Ben was disarmed and knocked to the floor in a hail of blows.
`It's all right gentlemen.' Silas Moser was quick to call off the dockers. `It's all right. Thank you for your concern. Mr Luk here was under a misapprehension. But I'm glad to say we have resolved the misunderstanding amicably.'
Moser took the carbine from one of the dockers and handed it back to Ben as the men filed out of the office.
Ben wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. He looked Charles in the eye.
`Don't I know you?'
`I'm Charles Worthington-Jones. I was on the dock the day you whipped the sailors.'
`Oh yes,' Ben said. `And you were present also when Kiri was taken to Madam Jane's and sold as a whore.'
Charles flushed at the mention of the incident he would just as soon forget.
Ben noticed his reaction.
`Mr Worthington-Jones. The little misunderstanding Mr Moser just mentioned was about Kiri. She and her child have disappeared. I told him if I discover he is in any way responsible, I will kill him. And I want you to know, here and now, that if it comes to light that you had a hand in all this, I will kill you also.'
*
A week after the incident at Stonehouse's, Silas Moser arrived at Castlecraig to drive Charles to the nearby Newstead wharf to board his steamer to England. Charles was ready and waiting at the front door, sitting on a large hard canvas-bound wooden trunk, its lid buckled down tightly with two thick straps.
When the carriage entered the driveway Catherine looked up from directing the placement of sunshades over tables which were set up on the lawn, in readiness for a ladies reception to be held later in the day. She walked quickly up towards the house, and reached the door just as Moser's driver and Jenkins finished struggling to load the trunk into the carriage.
She kissed Charles quickly on the mouth then drew away. `Bon Voyage my darling.' she said. `I shall miss you.'
Charles was surprised to see her blink back a tear. Over the past weeks and months he had been so absorbed in his work he had time for little else—particularly Catherine.During that time, although nothing was said, he knew they were drifting apart, and he wondered how his upcoming six month absence would affect them.
The SS Lady Diamantina lay between two sleek English clippers which were loading wool at the Newstead wharf. Unlike Charles' steamer which would burn coal along the shorter route to England around northern Australia, the Indian Ocean, and the Suez Canal—the clippers would spread every inch of canvas they dared, in the race home through howling winds around Cape Horn, to arrive in London in time for the spring wool sales.
It had been a perfect morning, but the weather began to deteriorate soon after Charles and Moser boarded the steamer. Anxious to avoid being caught in a summer storm as he drove home, Moser stayed aboard just long enough to go over one last time, the most important matters which he required Charles to attend to in London and Scotland.
Two hours later the Lady Diamantina passed beneath Hamilton Heights on a course which would take her northward inside the Great Barrier Reef to the Torres Straight and beyond.
Charles stood on the steamer's deck. He looked up at the big gaunt house high up on the hill which was now his home, and for a moment he pondered how his life had changed since he first sailed up the Brisbane River aboard the English Rose.
He had thought perhaps Catherine may have been looking down at the ship. But the battlements at the top of the tower stood stark and empty against a graying, blustery sky. He felt a drop of rain on his face. When he turned to go down to his cabin he smiled briefly at the prospect of a deluge washing out Catherine's gathering of immaculately dressed ladies. *
The weather was still dark and stormy late the next day when the Lady Diamantina stood off the mouth of the Burnett River. She pitched and wallowed bow-on to short choppy seas, taking on mail brought by tender, from the sugar cane town of Bundaberg a few miles upstream.
Charles was standing at the rail watching the mail come aboard when he noticed a ship sailing out of the river-mouth. The little vessel heeled over hard when the strong wind blowing outside caught her beam as she came out of the lee of the land. But she seemed to take the onslaught in her stride, as sheets eased, she dug in to the angry waves and headed directly out to sea. The vessel somehow looked familiar. Charles took another look. The ship was a brigantine. It was the Faithful.
*
Isaiah Cockburn's small cabin aboard the Faithful was his home. For most of the more than fifty years he had spent at sea, he had been obliged to lay his head on whatever he could— wherever he could. But now his well-worked, often bruised, and sometimes broken body, demanded respite from the physical punishment a wind-ship sailor was required to endure on a daily basis.
Accordingly he had fashioned his cabin to give him some small degree of comfort. Now as the Faithful battered her way off-shore, through angry wind-driven waves rolling in from the open ocean, he was glad he had.
He sat poring over papers and making entries in a ship's journal at the chart table which also served as his desk when he was attending to ship's business. He worked strapped into a well padded swivel chair which was bolted down securely to the cabin floor.
Without warning, the brigantine suddenly heeled over even further as it was hit by yet another strong wind gust. Cockburn cursed as the journal and most of the papers flew across the cabin, and the brass lantern above his head swung wildly, threatening to pull out its anchoring hook in the cabin roof.
Long experience had taught him it was foolish to put to sea in such unsettled weather— especially in the cyclone season. He knew there was a strong summer storm brewing somewhere, and even the greenest sailor knew that the best place to be in a storm was in port, tied snugly down.
But Cockburn also knew well, that working vessels made no profit laying idle alongside a wharf, or tugging at an anchor rode. And a contract inside his chart table, which Stonehouse's had won as a result of submitting the lowest bid when tenders were called by a Bundaberg plantation for the supply of eighty eight blacks, contained a clause clearly stating that time was of the essence.
Cockburn retrieved the journal and papers from the cabin floor and resumed making entries. There was a knock at the door. It was Clancy the mate.
`She's blowing hard out there Isaiah. I've put two strong lads on the helm. I think it's goin' to be a long wet night.'
Another powerful gust slammed the Faithful and Clancy grabbed a stout handhold in the cabin roof with both hands. Cockburn swung his chair around to face the mate.
`How's the woman and the boy Clancy?'ﾁ
Clancy grinned.
`I just checked. They're all right now, but it's rough as hell up there in the bow. I reckon they'll be sicker than dogs before long.' Clancy's grin changed to a frown. `What in hell we goin' to do with them anyway?'
Cockburn shrugged. `I'll do what Moser told me to do-take them back to the islands.'
`But we can't go to any of the New Guinea islands. They're out of bounds these days. If the Royal Navy catches us, the Faithful gets confiscated—or more likely sunk.'
`We won't be going to the Trobriand Islands Clancy. Moser won't risk the Faithful. He told me to drop them off at the first island we call at in the Solomons.'
`And which one will that be?'
`Probably Guadalcanal or Malaita.'
`That could be three weeks from now. That's too long. Some of the crew will be sniffin' around the woman long before that.' Clancy shook his head. `That Kanaka has always been more trouble than she was ever worth Isaiah. If it weren't for her, Higgins would still be alive today. And Bates, the recruiter wouldn't have the scars he's got on his face from that whippin' he took on the dock. I talked to him this mornin'. He reckons we should just drop the black bitch over the side and be done with it.'
Cockburn slammed his fist down hard on the chart table.
`So you and Bates would just kill her,' he roared angrily, `like you killed the old Chinaman at the brickyard that night. Let me tell you something Clancy. Moser told me to land the woman and the boy in the Solomon Islands, and that's exactly what I intend to do. He also said that no harm was to come to either one of them—especially the boy. Now have you got that straight?'
The Faithful rolled wildly as she fell off a big wave.
`It's gettin' rougher Isaiah,' Clancy said quietly. `I'd best get back up topside. We may have to shorten sail.'
*
The motion in the forepeak, the angular section of the Faithful bow where Kiri and Sky were confined, was incredibly violent. And each time the vessel crashed into the trough between the steep seas, there was an ear-splitting crack, followed by a long shudder as the bow rose up to the next wave.
Kiri and Sky lay clinging desperately to each other in total darkness on old mildewed sailcloth, wedged into the corner of a tiny locked compartment. To add to their misery, there was no escaping the salt water which constantly dripped down on them through the caulking between the decking planks, and from around the edges of a small hatch above their heads.
Kiri knew the filthy compartment well. It held ugly memories. It was here that Ned Higgins had kept her locked up in solitude, away from the ship's crew and the other islanders, when he was not having his way with her in his cabin on the voyage to Queensland from Kiriwina.
Now as then, it was the darkness she hated most. During the short voyage up the coast from Brisbane to Bundaberg, the weather had been fine, and the small hatch in the compartment had been left open during the daytime, allowing the sunlight to stream in. But it had been several days since the ship had arrived at the sugar cane port to take on crew and provisions. Since then the hatch had been closed down tight, shutting out the light of day.
Each morning, Kiri and Sky were given a wooden bowl containing hard biscuits and salt beef which they washed down with lukewarm water from a goatskin sack. It was only at night, under the cover of darkness, that they had been allowed to go out onto the deck for just long enough to attend to personal hygiene.
Another enormous wave roared over the deck above them. Kiri drew Sky even tighter to her. The motion of the vessel was becoming much worse, and the thunder of the waves crashing over the bow was getting louder and louder. Sky had thrown up soon after they left the mouth of the Burnett River. Now his stomach had nothing left in it and his little body began to writhe with the dry heaves.
Tears streamed down Kiri's cheeks. And she wondered what was happening to them and why, and if it were possible for them both to survive the terrible nightmare they were living.