A Kindness Cup Read Online Free PDF Page B

third.
    No, Lieutenant Buckmaster insisted.
    Do you not know of one for Mr Lunt’s blackfellows?
    Mr Dorahy from the body of the court noted with interest Buckmaster ease his thick fingers about his collar.
    There was no warrant.
    But you acted as if there were one?
    Perhaps.
    For what? Mr Sheridan asked, softly, so that Dorahy in the thickening fetor of the little court had to strain to hear him.
    The murder of a gin.
    But, Mr Sheridan said irritably, the murder took place after you acted, not before. Is that not so?
    I don’t understand, Lieutenant Buckmaster said.
    You will, Mr Sheridan assured him.
    At this point the assistant magistrate intervened.
    Therewas a coroner’s report, he said. Was it that you heard of?
    I’m not sure, Lieutenant Buckmaster replied sulkily.
    Are you or have you been liable, Mr Sheridan went on, in the course of your patrol to meet any of Mr Lunt’s blacks?
    It is possible.
    Of course they keep out of your way if they know you are after them; but if they came within your reach you might meet them?
    There might be a chance—a very little chance.
    But there was no actual warrant, was there? It had not been decided by whom this gin had been murdered?
    Lieutenant Buckmaster declined to reply for a moment.
    Mr Dorahy leant trembling against the hard arm of the wooden bench.
    We will return to that, Mr Sheridan said. Tell me, he inquired, fixing his Bible-stained eyes on the sweating lieutenant, do these blacks not cross to the coast?
    It is possible.
    And make their way to the island?
    It is possible.
    I understood you to say earlier in your evidence that there had been one complaint by Mr Barnabas Sweetman and another from Mr John Watters with regard to depredations on their property?
    Yes.
    Then you were informed by Mr Sweetman what tribes had done these things?
    Yes. He mentioned the tribe.
    And are you going to tell us what tribe it was?
    Lieutenant Buckmaster shifted his feet which felt larger than the world.
    The Lindeman tribe.
    Ah, said Mr Sheridan. And do you know, to change the subject a little, of other cases of rape besides that whichyou have mentioned? His interest was terrible to see.
    Not exactly rape, Lieutenant Buckmaster replied. But assaults on little girls at Bingin and an attack on a woman at the Mulgrove station.
    Their eyes met and held.
    Do you think the crime of rape is common among the blacks? Is it on the increase among them?
    It is on the increase as they become civilised.
    As they become civilised? That is a strange answer, lieutenant.
    As they become civilised, the cases of rape become more frequent, Lieutenant Buckmaster repeated stubbornly.
    You are suggesting that white customs lead to degradation in an observant other race?
    I suppose so.
    Mr Sheridan was feeling completely bemused. Idiotically he asked, Do you observe much mortality among the blacks?
    Lieutenant Buckmaster blew his nose. There have been a number of cases since I came to the district.
    Mr Dorahy began to laugh out loud. A great racking bawling sound escaped his throat.
    Remove the witness, Mr Sheridan ordered without taking his eyes off Buckmaster.

S NOGGERS INTONED , interruptingsome easy-chairmanship tralala at the end of the room,
Domine non sum dignus
, and there was an instant babble and quacking of agreement with him.
    Bloody
thinks
himself, the chairman complained softly, unaware that Snoggers had publicly denied this. Order! he cried over his agenda sheet and unblotted papers. Order!
    The council ripples petered out. The moment became a blemish.
    Snoggers Boyd was the town’s printer. He had found himself in this town more by accident than anything else, dedicated to bring out a struggling broadsheet weekly. Not one of the big men, but a necessary irritant. Not an active member of the Separation League, but a man who printed their agitations. He owned a pleasant home and a beautiful wife who had been in love, as far as he could judge such a private matter, for a