Killman by Graeme Kent

Author:Graeme Kent
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472104762
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

20

THE SAVO MEGAPODE FIELDS

On a large, sloping patch of black sand on the tiny island of Savo stood a group consisting of a dozen fascinated, perspiring tourists from a cruise ship, Welchman Buna, the Legislative Council member for the Roviana Lagoon, and a tall, stooped, grey-haired man whose name was Sanders and who worked for the US State Department in a capacity never defined on his infrequent visits to the Solomon Islands but whose occasional presence in Honiara was always sufficient to cause awe and unease among the highest echelons of the government’s expatriate administrative officers.

The two men stood a little apart from the others. Both were smartly dressed. Sanders wore a tan lightweight suit while Buna’s dark slacks were sharply pressed and, despite the humidity, his white shirt hung stiffly at attention from his torso. The female tourists were in print dresses while the men favoured shorts and Hawaiian shirts. The launch that had brought them on the fourteen-mile journey from the capital across Ironbottom Sound was anchored a hundred yards off the white sands of the shore. A little way along the beach, four Melanesian crew members, now off duty, smoked roll-up cigarettes around the dinghy in which they had rowed the visitors ashore. The official tour guide, a cheerful Guadalcanal man, was wielding a megaphone with all the flourishes of a silent movie director.

The tourists were looking in amazement at the sight before them. On the wide patch of sand, hundreds of scrawny, big-footed brown and black birds about the size of chickens were scrabbling out holes several feet deep. When each hole was large enough, the bird would roll a recently laid egg into it with its feet and then start kicking sand back into the hole until the egg was covered.

‘The megapode birds – the ngeros – will never see their eggs again,’ announced the tour guide proudly. ‘They leave them here in the holes. The sand is warmed by the volcano in the centre of the island. This is enough to hatch out the young birds in about three weeks. They will dig their way up through the sand and start running about immediately. After an hour or two these young birds will fly away into the trees over there.’

‘The ones that aren’t killed by dogs or pigs or whose eggs haven’t been dug up for food by the islanders,’ murmured Buna.

‘Nature red in tooth and claw,’ said Sanders. He touched the other man on the shoulder as a sign that they should stroll away from the main group. ‘Could you tell me exactly what is going on with our mutual friend Sergeant Kella?’ he asked.

‘Nothing, as far as I know,’ said the politician, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. How was it that mention of the ubiquitous police sergeant never seemed to herald the onset of good news? ‘In fact, the last time I saw him he specifically assured me that matters were quiet over on Malaita. I did hear that he

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