“Carlow was last seen about five p.m. on August 1st. He was then driving out of town, Mrs Carlow saying that he was going to Manton, where he was courtin’ a woman. She couldn’t tell us the name of this woman, and we couldn’t locate her. I believe she was truthful about it, that Edward told her a yarn about courting a girl.

“The next day, shortly after eleven in the morning, Carlow’s body was discovered by a feller named Blaze, the men’s cook out there. It was by the merest chance, too. The cook shot a duck and when wading out to get the bird actually kicked against the submerged body.

“The van wasn’t found until the following day when we began examining every off track from the track to Manton. It was well concealed by the scrub, and finding the van was chancy because, during the night Carlow was murdered, it rained heavily and tyre tracks were scarce. That afternoon, Inspector Stanley and Detective Jones arrived from Brisbane and took over.”

“You had then questioned the cook and the Answerth stockmen?” Bony probed.

“Blaze, the cook, yes. There were no men in camp the night Carlow was murdered. Excepting the cook, the only man employed at that time was the head stockman. The shearing was over and the sheep put into the spring pastures, and so work was slack. The head stockman was on the booze here in Edison. Feller by the name of Robin Foster.”

“Same name as the wood cutter.”

“Yes. Henry Foster’s brother.”

“How did the cook come out of it?”

“Seemed to me he came out square. Only a weed of a man, and elderly into the bargain. Carlow was a big man and could have defended himself easily against a man like Blaze. According to medical evidence…”

“We will leave that to Dr Lofty,” Bony interposed. “Contact him now, and ask him to come and yabber… the word being yours.” Lofty was telephoned, and Bony then asked: