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fell on Aki’s lifeless body.
    *
    Sergeant Maxwell was about to climb into his
utility when Joe reached the police barracks on the Esplanade. The
policeman looked tired and grim-faced. When he saw Joe he managed a
tight smile.
    ‘So you made it back all right, Joe?
Someone said they thought they saw Faraway coming into Frances Bay. I was just about
to go home and tell Faith. She’s at my place. I expect she’s awake
by now. She worked fourteen hours straight at the hospitals last
night.’ The sergeant opened the door of the van. ‘Hop
in.’
    ‘Thank God, she’s all right.’ Joe’s relief
showed on his face but he made no move toward the vehicle. ‘Tell me
what the hell is happening here, George. I just brought some
children and a shot-down American pilot over from Bathhurst. I
anchored at the edge of the mangroves and when we walked down to
the railway station we were held at gun point by the Army
provosts.’
    Maxwell sighed and shook his head. ‘They are
in charge now, Joe. They are mostly just young militia conscripts
and they’re being a bit heavy-handed. But the town went mad
yesterday after the raids. Everyone was scared the Japs were going
to land any minute. People just dropped everything, abandoned their
homes and businesses, and headed south any way they could. And it
wasn’t just civilians. Most of the airmen at the RAAF station
deserted and they were joined by a lot of soldiers and sailors. It
was like rats deserting a sinking ship. Then the looters went to
work. There’s hardly a house in town that hasn’t been
vandalized.’
    ‘Mine included, I suppose?’ Joe said
resignedly
    ‘I expect so, Joe. But I drove by it earlier
today. It looks okay.’
    ‘But, if everyone’s gone, who doing the
looting?’
    ‘Mainly servicemen. The barracks in town have
been deserted. The soldiers are carting stuff off to bush camps.
Some of them told me they’d been ordered by their officers to swipe
anything that was useful. The rest are stranded civilians who can’t
get out of town, or sailors off ships that got wrecked or sunk in
the harbor. They’re breaking into homes just to get a feed and a
roof over their heads.’
    ‘What a damn mess,’ Joe said angrily. `What
am I supposed to do with the children I brought from Bathurst?’
    ‘The Army told me there’s a freight train
leaving Larrimah for Darwin late tonight. It probably won’t be here
until sometime tomorrow. As soon as it’s unloaded it will going
straight back. They won’t allow civilians to board it; it
contravenes some stupid regulation I suppose. But I got the
Territory Administrator to persuade the Army to turn a blind eye if
the few remaining civilian women in Darwin travel on it as far as
Katherine. They’ll have to ride on open flat-top wagons but it’s
the only way out now. I’ve told Mrs Maxwell and Faith that they’d
better be among them. Perhaps we can get your kids on it too. Where
are they?’
    ‘Still at the railway station. The provost
sergeant won’t let them move. He thinks they’re from the
leprosarium on Channel Island.’
    ‘Oh, God.’ The sergeant threw up his hands.
‘And what about the American pilot?’
    ‘He’s staying with them until I get
back.’
    ‘Come on.’ Maxwell opened the door of the ute
and climbed in.
    Joe quickly got in beside him. ‘Where are we
going, George?’
    ‘There are some American military police
further down the beach. We’ll tell them about their pilot, then
we’ll all go back to the station.’
    ‘What are the MPs doing on the beach?’ Joe
asked as the ute swung out onto the Esplanade.
    ‘ They’re trying to identify Americans
among the bodies that keep coming up out of the harbor. We’ve been
burying men on the beach all day with no way of telling the
nationality of most of them. In this heat we’ve had to move
quickly. There were so many bodies we even had to send some out to
sea for burial. And we’re not getting them all. The ones that
surface down near the