Prison Ship (20 page)

I forced myself to look at the body. Half rotted, half pecked to pieces, two wooden spears through the chest pinned it to the ground. ‘This one fell foul of the savages,' said Bell. ‘We'd best make sure we don't give the buggers the chance to do the same to us.'

We moved on quickly. For now, the landscape varied between bush and lush grassland. Ahead, on the hills that loomed over the plain, was dense bush, as far as the eye
could see. We would be there in a day or so and the journey would become more difficult.

That first day we saw two other bodies, now just dirty, off-white skeletons. There was something sinister about the grinning skulls, but unlike the corpse we had encountered earlier they had no smell about them. I stared with fascination, and wondered what had happened to them.

Towards evening Richard held up a hand to stop us. We peered through the grass. In the distance, a party of natives were walking slowly west along the plain before us. They all carried long spears. ‘Let's stay 'ere for now,' said Barrie. ‘You never know with this lot whether they'll be friend or foe.'

We reached dense bushland as night fell. When the clear blue sky turned icy pale, the cold began to pierce our bones. Constant movement and the excitement of our escape had prevented me from noticing how chilly it was. We gathered brushwood and, as Barrie and Bell set about lighting a campfire, Richard and I scoured the surrounding forest for familiar-looking fruit. We found none. On our return we were cursed roundly for our failure. ‘Yer useless gits,' said Bell. ‘These rations aren't going to last us more than a couple of days.'

‘You go out there and have a look then,' said Richard angrily.

Bell grabbed him by the shirt. ‘Less of your lip, Yankee boy.'

Barrie put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Easy now, Mr Bell. I'm sure the boys did the best they could,' he growled.

We sat around the fire, them on one side, us on the other, and ate our salted beef and bread in silence. Looking at Bell and Barrie through the curling flames I began to imagine we had created a hell of our own, and our two disagreeable companions would only make our difficulties worse. When we finished eating the only noises we heard were gusts of wind in the trees and the squawk and flutter of the night birds. We gathered fallen branches to cover our bodies and stoked the fire high to warm ourselves. The forest enveloped us. Outside the circle of light around our fire was a sinister world of murderous savages and poisonous snakes. The trees looked down, branches nodding in the wind – cold, unthinking, indifferent to our plight.

I woke shivering. The fire was still smouldering but not aflame, and a chilling dew had settled on us. Over in the east the sky was getting light. I had slept deeply, and felt refreshed and ready for another day's march. Then drops of rain fell on my face. It was not a good start to the day.

The others began to stir as the rain fell more heavily. Bell and Barrie rivalled themselves in the foulness of
their cursing. Richard, as ever, had the best idea. ‘Let's get up and go. We'll only freeze to death here.'

We breakfasted from our dwindling supply of meat and bread, and stumbled through the dawn. First we needed to establish our direction. The sun was coming up in the east, and that was where the nearest coast was, so we headed towards the brimming sky. Bell fell badly on a tangled vine and bruised his head on a rock. Then he began to complain about his ankle. We stopped when it got properly light and took a look. The gash Barrie had made while hacking off Bell's shackles had turned an ugly green and yellow. ‘I've seen worse, Mr Bell,' said Barrie. ‘You'll just have to keep going and ignore it. It'll get better on its own.'

The rain stopped and the sky cleared to a fresh blue. We climbed up to the top of the valley and made our way along a ridge that followed the curve of a river.

‘We need to find a shallow place to cross,' said Bell.

‘Now if we could make ourselves a boat, we could float our way to the sea,' suggested Barrie.

Bell disagreed. ‘Four scarecrows in a boat in the middle of a river. Now wouldn't that make it easy for us to be spotted? We need to stick to the forest.'

‘We'd need to find a boat,' I agreed with Barrie. ‘I've seen the ones the natives make from bark. They just cut away a whole side of a tree. But then we'd need twine and a needle to sew up the ends for the bow and the stern.'

‘Boat sounds good to me,' said Richard.

I said, ‘If we had a boat, we could travel along the river at night, and rest during the day. That way they'd be less likely to spot us.'

Bell and Barrie ignored our comments. We were clearly irritating them with our ideas. Then Barrie muttered, ‘Mr Bell can't swim. Anyway, boats make me nervous.'

‘But it was your idea in the first place.' I thought it but I didn't say it. I walked off shaking my head. Sooner or later we would have to cross the rivers that lay between us and our journey east.

Once we reached the ridge we had a clear view over the plain we had left behind and the territory that stretched out in front of us. We were still close enough to Green Hills to be able to see smoke rising from settlement fires. But if we made good progress today, we could be confident of escaping the clutches of any search party from Charlotte Farm.

Although the sun was out, a sharp wind pierced our damp clothing. ‘Let's get down from the top of this hill, and get out of the wind,' said Barrie.

We argued about this. It was easier going on the ridge, with less vegetation to snag our feet. And we could see where we were going. But Barrie was insistent. I was alarmed to notice Bell beginning to walk with a limp. His wound was slowing him down.

Away from the wind the sun warmed our bodies and
we began to feel more cheerful. At noon we stopped to rest and eat on a rocky outcrop. We spread our blankets on the rock to dry them and sat looking over the lush forest below. Tall evergreens swayed in the breeze. Sandstone rocks gleamed in the bright sunshine along the dizzying drop to the valley bottom. Among the curves of the land we could see patches of the bright blue river below, and hear the screeching of river fowl. A haze lay over the forest like a light smoke, floating among the tree tops.

‘This is a beautiful country,' I said to Richard. ‘I wish we were here as explorers rather than fugitives.'

‘I wish we knew how to find food like the natives,' said Richard wistfully.

We ate our bread and cheese, and shared an apple. There was a little left for supper. After that we would have to find our food out in the forest. So far we had seen nothing we could safely eat, nor come across any animal we could spear or shoot.

We followed the ridge down. A cluster of rock formed around the dark hole of a cave. In the dim light around the entrance I could see a wall of handprints. Barrie followed me in. ‘D'you know how they do that?' he said. ‘Fill their mouth full of paint and blow around their hand. I seen 'em do it.

‘I suppose this means there's scores of the buggers round here, then,' he continued. ‘Let's hope this pistol
scares them off if they ever decide they want us for dinner.'

The afternoon was heavy going, up and down hill, and more exhausting than the previous day's walking. But the sun felt hot on our faces and the wind blew warm. We stopped at the bottom of the valley, close to the river. We were all thirsty now, and needed to drink. Barrie had cheered up, pleased by the day's progress. But Bell had barely spoken a word, and he was making an effort to be pleasant. It was not hard to see why. He was worried his ankle would slow him down and had realised he needed all the help and sympathy he could get. ‘Too late for that,' snapped Richard, when we talked as we gathered firewood.

That evening we ate our final rations – a sliver of dried pork, a carrot and a pear. From the next day we would have to find our own food. Nothing, so far, had reassured me that we would be able to. As I shuffled restlessly beneath my blanket, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep, I began to fret over the folly of escaping with these two villains. But what else could we have done? They knew someone who would help us escape. We didn't. I was certain Tuck would have worked us to death, or flogged the life out of us. Staying behind was no choice at all.

I began to think of other escapes I had heard about back in Sydney, and counted my blessings. At least we
hadn't tried to flee to Ireland heading south, assuming that as Ireland was colder than New South Wales, it must be in the same direction the cold wind came from. And we hadn't used a compass drawn on a piece of paper to guide us. Both these stories were doing the rounds when I arrived in the colony. At first I didn't believe them, thinking nobody could be so stupid. I mentioned this to Doctor Dan one night. ‘I've met some of the men who tried to do this,' he told me. ‘They're not stupid. They're just simple country people.'

As I drifted off to sleep, I was tormented by the bad luck that had landed Richard and me in this awful situation. If only I had laid there in the dust, and let that despicable John Gray laugh at me, instead of launching myself at him. Wouldn't life have turned out differently then?

We walked east the next morning. We had no breakfast so instead we drank as much as we could from the river. We stuck to the river bank too, but this was a mistake. Here the vegetation was thicker and there were many inlets and coves to navigate. To traverse them we had much climbing up and down steep sandstone rocks, and by mid-morning I was exhausted. My toes throbbed, my heart beat hard in my chest, and I was soon drenched with sweat. As we staggered along, the four of us grew more separate. Barrie leading, Richard following, me
next and Bell straggling behind. We headed up the valley and the day dragged on. I was too exhausted to feel hungry. Just one step in front of another. I gave myself little goals. Get to the rock by the far tree, and then you can have a rest. Get to the bush by the sandstone outcrop, then you can stop.

I kept thinking of Oliver Pritchard. His words at our trial came back to taunt me. ‘The boys had clearly lost their nerve … They clung on to each other like two frightened children … I thought then and there to shoot them …' The hatred I felt for him drove me on. He was not going to beat me. I was determined to survive.

Soon after midday I realised I had lost the others. I sat down to get my breath, and when my chest stopped aching I shouted at the top of my voice:

‘RICHARD!'

The word echoed around the still forest.

RICHARD!

Richard!

Richard!

I climbed the side of the valley, hoping to catch sight of the others. In my exhausted state the forest began to take on a peculiar aspect. Trees looked as if they were made of stone. White rocks, cracked into small cauliflower-like ridges, resembled the human brains I had seen in battle. The silence of the forest seemed deeper than ever, broken only by my own laboured breathing.

As I edged up the smooth sandstone rock I was afraid of falling. I could break my ankle or leg, or crack my head and knock myself unconscious, and be lost here for ever. I sat down and fought back my tears. Then I became angry. Come on Sam, act like a man. I forced my aching legs on, staggering through the green tendrils that grasped my feet.

The sun reached its highest point, and despite the cool wind, it felt uncomfortably hot. My tongue was thick in my mouth, which was as dry and foul-tasting as baked mud. I stopped for a few minutes to rest, and my stomach
began to rumble. When I felt the strength returning to my legs I blundered off again. A while later, I found a stream and drank until I could drink no more.

By mid-afternoon the shadows were growing longer and my fear returned. If I didn't find the others soon, I would have to spend the night alone. Barrie had our only sparking kit and without that I couldn't make a fire.

The moon rose in a clear blue sky and the air grew colder. I looked around the forest, wondering how I could make myself warm enough to sleep. A rocky outcrop had a small opening that was almost a cave. It was damp, but it offered some shelter. I dragged in a collection of branches and laid them down on the ground to make a barrier between myself and the cold stone. Wrapped in my blanket I tried to rest, but sleep would not come. I turned this way and that, trying to find a comfy position for my weary body. After several hours the rocks seemed to be closing in around me, so I stood up to look at the night sky.

I climbed up the rock above the cave and looked down the valley. There, miracle of miracles, some way below, I could see the glow of a fire. It must be Richard, Barrie and Bell. I gathered up my blanket and ran as fast as I could towards them. But what if it wasn't them? It could be natives. It could be soldiers.

I fought my way through the forest, often losing direction and having to climb higher to see if I could still find
the fire. I knew I was nearly there when the smell of roast meat reached my nostrils. My stomach lurched and began to gurgle loudly. I hoped it was them, and I hoped there was still some food left to eat.