Wake In Fright Read Online Free PDF Page B

darkness.
    ‘This is a mate of mine, John Grant,’ said Crawford. ‘You can let him in any time, he’s all right.’
    The two men grunted, and Grant and Crawford went through the gate into what seemed to be a yard at the back of a shop-building. Grant wondered why such care should be taken to guard an establishment which was so obviously tolerated by the police.
    As if answering him Crawford said, ‘They won’t let you in unless they know you.They’ve had a lot of trouble with newspaper blokes. They come out here every now and then and write the place up—you know, sort of make a fuss about the gambling and the drinking.Then we’ve got to shut the Game down for a while and make the pubs close at ten.’
    Crawford paused a moment, then added bitterly: ‘They’re a bloody nuisance, I can tell you.’
    They passed through the yard into a large room fitted with wooden benches and plank seats. A number of men were sitting at the benches eating. One side of the room was fitted out like a hamburger stall. Two men in open-necked shirts were cooking steaks on the stove.
    Crawford went up to the counter and said, ‘Fix a steak for me mate, Joe.’
    One of the men said, ‘G’day, Jock,’ and slapped another steak down on the grilling plate.
    ‘That’ll cost you six bob,’ said Crawford, ‘and it’ll be the best six bob’s worth you ever had.’
    Grant wondered whether the organisers of the Game leased the catering rights, or simply provided the restaurant as part of the general organisation. Crawford’s enthusiasm for the meals served would have suggested that he had some interest in the business if Grant had not known that Bundanyabba people were all proud of the Game. Presumably this pride extended to the facilities.
    Through a door at the other end of the room Grant could see about a hundred men crowded around an open space in which two men were conferring. That undoubtedly would be the famous Game.
    ‘Come and I’ll show you inside while you’re waiting,’ said Crawford.
    The section where the Game was in progress had probably once been a large storeroom. In the centre was a patch of green carpet about ten feet square. This was edged by a wooden bench about nine inches high, which was crowded with players.
    Behind them, thrusting between their shoulders, squatting and standing, rising in tiers of humanity until they reached the side walls, were the rest of the players. Now that he could see the whole room Grant guessed there must have been about three hundred men in there. They were all dressed in belted trousers with open-necked shirts, except for a few with only singlets over their torsos. Grant felt a little conspicuous in his safari jacket.
    In the centre of the carpet square were the two men whom Grant had seen conferring.They were both big, gaunt, rapacious-looking; quite obviously the controllers of the Game. With them was a small nondescript man holding a slip of wood in his hand. Grant saw him drop a bundle of notes to the ground at his feet.
    ‘You know about the Game?’ asked Crawford.
    ‘Only vaguely,’ said Grant.
    ‘Well that bloke with the kip is the spinner.’
    ‘Oh?’ said Grant.
    ‘He’s dropped fifty quid in the centre. That’s got to be covered before they’ll let him spin.’
    Various players around the square were throwing notes on to the carpet.The controllers were gathering them up.Then one called out: ‘He’s set!’
    ‘That means the fifty quid in the centre’s covered,’ saidCrawford. ‘Now all the others can have their side-bets.’
    Around the square, men were dropping little piles of notes and crying out: ‘Ten quid tails,’ or ‘Five heads,’ or ‘Ten bob tails,’ or ‘Twenty quid tails,’ according to their purses or ambitions.
    As soon as the money hit the ground, other men dropped bundles the same size on top of it, declaring their intention to bet on the opposite side of the coins.
    To Grant, who was none too clear-headed anyway, it seemed that