“Good night, Sergeant. I’ll get a tracker or two across to Karwir as quickly as I can. I can be almost sure of Jimmy Partner.”
But Jeffery Anderson was not found by the Karwir searchers or by the blacks brought to Karwir by John Gordon three days after The Black Emperor was seen at the gate by Bill the Better.
May passed and June, and still the bush held Jeffery Anderson.
Old Lacy openly accused the Kalchut tribe of murdering him and burying the body, and theGordons, mother and son, stoutly defended them. Sergeant Blake and his constables visited many people and obtained statements from them, but no two statements could be correlated and all of them together failed to provide a clue. Then Old Lacy took to writing to the Chief Commissioner, candidly giving his views on police systems in general and the Queensland force in particular.
June passed, and August gave way to September, and still the bush kept Jeffery Anderson.
Chapter Three
A Stranger to Opal Town
THE mail car from St Albans arrived at Opal Town every Tuesday about noon, weather permitting, and the twenty-third of September being fine and warm, it arrived this day on time. A shock-headed youth relinquished the wheel, backed out of the car, surveyed the township, saw Sergeant Blake standing before the door of the post office, and called, cheerfully:
“Good day-ee, Sergeant!”
Sergeant Blake, wearing civilian clothes, returned the greeting and transferred his interest to the passengers. The two young men who were obviously stockmen he greeted, each by name, but the third and last passenger caused him to narrow his eyes. This third passenger was plainly stamped as a city man by his clothes and heavy suitcase. Of average height and build, he was remarkable for the dark colouring of his skin, which emphasized his blue eyes and white teeth when he smiled at something said to him by the driver who was delving for the half-dozen mail-bags.