The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur W. Upfield

Author:Arthur W. Upfield [Upfield, Arthur W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Police Procedural, Detective and mystery stories, Police, Police - Australia - Queensland, Mystery & Detective, Bonaparte; Napoleon; Inspector (Fictitious character), General, Australia, Queensland, Fiction, Aboriginal Australians
ISBN: 9780684850573
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1998-09-13T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The Time Factor

BONY rode away from Karwir with a shadow in his eyes and a faintly grim smile about his mouth. He had paid the call at the homestead only for the purpose of learning a little more about the meeting of the riders of the white and brown horses, knowing that Old Lacy and his son would be absent at Opal Town.

Like almost every man living in solitude, Bony found pleasure in talking aloud to his horse. And now he said to her:

“Making crosses at the end of a letter, indeed! As though I, Napoleon Bonaparte, would ever have done such a thing, when I could and did pen poetry about my love. Ah, youth is Life, but age is Triumph, triumph over Life, mocking youth and tormenting it. If you possessed a human brain, my dear Kate, you would agree with me.”

The mare softly snorted, tossed her head and increased her pace. It was as though she did understand and appreciate her rider’s confidences. Bony continued:

“I suppose, Kate, that hunting evil-doers and associating with detectives and policemen have gone far to making me a fearful liar. Who was it who said: ‘Liars are verbal forgers’? Hum! That hints at crime. I must tread more circumspectly else I become a moral criminal. Still, I suppose there are occasions when the end does justify the means. Those imaginary crosses drawn in the dust thick on the telephone instrument at Pine Hut did produce a result, a negative one possibly, but one which my imagination can make positive. That very nice and wholesome young woman, who actually thinks she is smarter than poor old Bony, answered my question so clearly by refusing to answer it at all—with words. She admitted that she had met John Gordon at the boundary fence, that she loves him and he her; and she now thinks that she unconsciously drew little crosses while talking to him on the telephone to Meena.

“The odds greatly favour that meeting being arranged between lovers for the purpose of a little innocent love-making. We know, Kate, that Old Lacy thinks he’s a wise father, thinks that his daughter hasn’t a lover and never had a lover. We know that he desires his daughter to marry well, that is to say, to marry a man of position in the social and financial worlds. Doubtless the girl knows that too. Yet she falls in love with a man who is nobody in the social and financial worlds. Not her fault, of course. John Gordon has much to commend him to any woman, and a very great deal to commend him to me and to people like me. He is respected, and admirable in all things except wealth.

“Like me, the girl is a real lion tamer. I am sadly mistaken if she couldn’t tame Old Lacy sufficiently to make him consent to her alliance with John Gordon. But, Kate, she is not yet of age; and there is the possibility that she so loves the old lion that she could not bring herself to desert him by marrying Gordon.

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