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a step closer.’
    ‘They’re not from Channel Island. We’ve just
sailed in from Bathhurst Island.’
    The sergeant hesitated. He seemed unsure what
to do next.
    ‘It’s okay, Sergeant,’ the captain called
out. He walked toward the platform. ‘It’s true. I sailed over with
them. I’m Captain Dan Rivers, United States Army Air Force.’
    ‘It’s only okay when I say it’s okay,’ the
sergeant shouted. ‘So don’t come any closer, Yank. Nobody’s going
anywhere. Darwin’s under martial law now. That means Australian
military provosts are in charge here.’
    ‘Sergeant,’ Joe said quickly ‘take a look at
these children. They’re not lepers. They’re all healthy. Look at
their skin. It’s quite normal. None of them are disfigured or
deformed. I just want to hand them over to the authorities for
evacuation.’
    ‘It’s too late to evacuate anyone, now. All
the government people and civilians have gone south and all the
Abos have gone bush. As I told you, the provosts are in charge of
everything now. So I’m telling you lot to go back where you came
from.’
    ‘You’re not in charge of me.’ Captain Rivers
walked towards the sergeant. ‘I’m going back to my unit if there’s
anything left of it. Are there still Americans left at the RAAF
station?’
    ‘There’s not much left of the station. The
Yanks have set up bush camps out of town the same as we have. But
if you’re lucky you might find some of your MPs around town.’
    ‘What about the Northern Territory Police?’
Joe asked. ‘Are there any officers still here?’
    ‘Yeah, they’re still here. Most of them are
still burying dead sailors down on the beach by the harbor.’
    ‘Is Sergeant Maxwell there?’
    The sergeant nodded. ‘I think so.’
    ‘I want to go and talk to him about these
children.’
    ‘You know Sergeant Maxwell, do you?’
    ‘Yes. My father was with the Territory Police
for years.’
    ‘ All right then. But those kids don’t move an
inch.’ The sergeant holstered his revolver. He turned to Captain
Rivers and cocked his head toward the platform. ‘All right, you can
come up now too.’
    Dan Rivers looked at the children gathered around
him. They all looked very frightened. He turned back to the
provost. ‘If it’s all the same to you, Sergeant,’ he said quietly.
‘I figure I’ll just hang around here until Joe gets back.’
    *
    Koko ran across the mile and a half wide neck of land
which separated Frances Bay from Myilly Point without stopping.
Streets he had known since boyhood now suddenly seemed alien and
strange. Open doors of deserted homes swung eerily to and fro. Now
and then, plaintive sounds pierced the night as abandoned household
pets searched for absent owners and scraps of food. There were bomb
craters everywhere, and on many blocks of land there was only
rubble where houses had stood the day before. Apart from the
passage of an occasional military vehicle, Darwin had become a
ghost town.
    As he neared Myilly Point, Koko was glad to see the
destruction didn’t seem to be quite so bad. Apart from the new
hospital which had been hit and obviously abandoned, there seemed
to be little damage to the nearby houses. Without breaking his
stride he bounded over the low white picket fence surrounding his
mother’s garden and rushed through the back door.
    Koko called out his mother’s name. There was no
answer. He called out again but still there was no reply. He
fumbled in the darkness in the kitchen drawer where he knew his
mother kept a torch. Finding it, he shone it ahead of him as he
hurried through the passageway to the front of the house. Koko
stopped in his tracks when he saw an empty whisky bottle on the
floor outside his mother’s bedroom. Then he saw her black kimono
lying in shreds on the living-room floor. At once he knew something
was terribly wrong. The bedroom door was ajar. With his heart
pounding, he pushed it open and shone the torch inside. He cried
out in anguish when the light