"The Unlucky Stone"

by David J. Hussey.

The man leaning back precariously in the tilted chair on the veranda of the bar,sipped at his beer and wondered, not for the first time, why it was that this Australian stuff, though satisfying enough in the hot dusty heat of the Northern Territories, was not as enjoyable as the draught ale that he was used to back home in England. He was thinking that it would most probably be a long time 'til he went home as he idly watched the dust trails of the occasional cars and trucks on the distant main road. The vehicles calling at Tennent Creek - nearly three hundred miles North of Alice Springs - were usually trucks from the mining areas in the district.

The chair went over with a crash as he stood suddenly, having noticed, with a shiver of apprehension that a car had turned off at the junction and was now heading towards him. He moved quickly inside the bar and watched from its dim interior as the police four-wheel drive vehicle pulled smoothly to a halt. The dust from its tyres enveloped it with a grey sigh as two men alighted and moved slowly and carefully towards the bar. He left the window, walked quietly through the kitchen - and was met at the back door by one of the two men.
"Goin' somewhere mate?" said the policeman. "Let's go back inside and talk to the sergeant."
The other officer stood waiting. "Are you Limey Johnson?" he asked, abruptly.
The man pulled himself erect. "My name is Charles Johnson." he said stiffly.
The policeman shrugged his shoulders irritably. "If you are Johnson the Englishman then I guess that you're the one we've been looking for."
Johnson sat down quickly in a chair, giving the impression that, had he stood for much longer, he would have fallen. "What is it that you want.?" he asked nervously.
The two officers glanced at one another and the older one asked. "Do you know a man called Taylor?
Johnson hesitated before saying angrily, "I most certainly do, he is my partner and has done a bunk and left me in this God-forsaken dump without any money."
Again a look passed between the two policemen. "You had better tell us the whole story and by the way, we know about the mine."
Johnson sighed and slumped in his chair. "I'll tell you the whole thing from start to finish." he muttered sulkily, and paused for a moment obviously gathering his thoughts.

"I met Ben Taylor," he said wearily, "About a year ago in "Alice". We were bumming around looking for work and he suggested that we come up here and check out any neglected claims." He looked up hurriedly. "Oh I know it's against the law, but, the way I see it is, if no one wants to work the claim then it can't harm them if we have a grub around." He paused and, heartened by the silence of the two officers, continued.

"Ben and I pooled our resources - I put in three times his contribution by the way - and came up here, to poke about. We split up, meeting in this bar each evening, and, after a couple of days, Ben told me that he had found a likely mine. The next night we took a look at it. The entrance was near to the new Aboriginal sacred ground and was abandoned, presumably because of that reason. Ben showed me where the mine entrance had been covered with a heavy corrugated iron cover which took the two of us to prop fully open.
We had brought a torch each and lots of rope as Ben had said that the ladders would most probably be in poor condition.
"I roped up Ben and he started on down. At the first level I joined him, leaving the rope tied off on an iron ring that was hammered into the wall. We walked for some distance, conscious of a fetid smell that grew stronger as we progressed along the tunnel. Ben joked that it was the spirits of the Aboriginal Gods trying to scared us away. We came eventually to another shaft. Ben elected to try to reach the bottom which was just visible at the end of the torch beam. With much grunting and gasping he disappeared from view. After a considerable time the rope went slack and Ben shouted up that he had reached the bottom and was having a look into some side tunnels. After about half an hour the rope shook and Ben came up the shaky ladder. When he had hauled himself out of the shaft I could see that he had a wide grin on his face. "Look at this." he said, and showed me a magnificent Opal ring on the third finger of his left hand. "There is a partially decayed body downthere and this was on its finger."
"I looked at him in horror, "You don't mean that you robbed a dead body?" I gasped.
"Well he didn't hand it over willingly!" Ben said with a snort.

Johnson paused to see how his tale was affecting his listeners.
The elder of the police officers glanced at his companion and said quietly, "Go on: What happened next?"

Johnson looked relieved and continued. "I was for pulling out and leaving the ring at the bottom of the shaft but Ben would have none of it." " I'll keep this, he told me, "Mainly because I can't seem to get it off; but we will share everything else, fifty-fifty."
"I reluctantly agreed as Ben was sure that there would be other items to be found."

"Just a moment" interrupted the younger policeman, "Didn't you wonder why there was a body with a valuable ring down there in the first place?"

"I must admit that, when I asked that same question," said Johnson, "Ben's answer that it must have been doing what we were doing and had fallen to its death, seemed to fit the bill." Johnson paused and looked uncomfortable, no doubt realising that he was convicting himself as he spoke; but, having started there seemed no choice but to carry on. "You might not believe what happened next," he started to say.
"I'm sure we won't" grunted the younger officer sarcastically and would have said more, but was stopped by his more senior colleague.

Johnson paused at the interruption, but was persuaded to resume his narrative.
"Ben went down the shaft and the arrangement was that, as soon as he reached the bottom, I was to join him and we would search the other tunnels separately. I was about halfway down when I heard a scream from Ben! 'The, the body; it's moving!' he yelled in terror. There was a scuffle and a groan and the ladder shook.
There was another scream as the light went out. I struggled to get my own torch from my belt but, before I managed it, there was a rush of wind, the ladder shook, bits of it fell off to fall down the shaft and I was preoccupied in hanging on and dropped the torch as Ben rushed past me at tremendous speed with the smell of death clinging to him, nearly knocked me off the ladder and, with a bloodcurdling, triumphant scream, disappeared up the shaft and on to the secondary tunnel leading to the mine entrance."

Johnson's hands started shaking and he gratefully accepted the proffered drink from one of the officers.
After a moment he pulled himself together and resumed his story. "I was hanging on to the ladder and the rope in the pitch darkness when I felt the ladder shaking.

There was a faint sigh from below and I thought that I heard a voice," he shuddered, "A long dead voice saying croakingly, 'Wait for me.' Needless to say I went up that ladder as fast as I could but all the time something was following me. Something that I couldn't, and had no desire to, see. I reached the tunnel and stumbled along it to the final shaft with this voice coming ever closer and crying for me to wait. By this time I was staggering with terror and, as my hands closed on the last ladder to the surface, something clutched at my jacket. I threw it off with a scream and plunged upwards still being pursued by this thing. As I got to the top a hand fastened onto my shoe; I dragged myself away and kicked desperately at the wooden prop. As the heavy iron cover came crashing down I heard a cry of despair which echoed in the stillness of the night. I can still hear it now." said Johnson with a shudder.

The police officers looked at one another. "That was nearly twelve months ago" said one, "and you have been here ever since?"
"I've no money to go anywhere else," said Johnson simply, " and I reckoned that, sooner or later, Ben would return."
"There is one thing you might like to explain." said the senior officer. "You say that Ben Taylor dashed past you up the ladder in the dark?"
Johnson stared at him. "Of course it was Ben. Who do you ----?"
He stopped as the officer raised his hand and spoke slowly and deliberately. "When we discovered the mine entrance, there was a human hand trapped under the ironcover. As we lifted the cover the body slipped back down the shaft, but before it did, we noticed that on the middle finger of the left hand, there was a large Opal ring."