The Golden Soak by Hammond; Innes

very crowded. Can’t wait to get back to JJ .
    â€˜You’ve let your coffee get cold.’
    I looked up, startled, to find Janet standing across the table from me and my coffee cup still full.
    â€œSorry, I hadn’t noticed.’ I was still in the past thinking of his wound and how he’d died an alcoholic.
    â€˜Shall I heat it for you?’
    â€˜No, it’s all right.’
    â€˜I had a little argument with a goanna – that’s why I’ve been so long. Didn’t you hear me shoot it?’
    I shook my head. I couldn’t remember hearing a shot.
    â€˜One of those big lizards – they’re always trying to get into the chicken run.’ She came round the table. ‘You’re back on the early part now.’
    â€˜You didn’t tell me he’d been wounded.’
    â€˜He only mentions it that once. He doesn’t refer to it again – not once in the whole Journal.’
    â€˜And you say he went mad in the end. Was that the cause of it?’
    â€˜Maybe. I don’t know. I never knew him, y’see. And Daddy’d never discuss it with me.’
    â€˜Then how d’you know he went mad?’
    â€˜It’s what I’ve heard, that’s all. The older people, those who knew him, they don’t talk about it in front of me, but I’ve heard it all the same.’ And she added, ‘He must have been a most extraordinary man. It wasn’t only that he was tough physically. It was his personality. D’you know, even those who lost their money because of him – they still speak of him with a sort of hero-worship as though he were a man quite beyond the usual run of men. Did you read that bit where he described what he’d done to the land to keep those blasted miners in booze and women?’
    â€˜Yes,’ I said. ‘I read that.’
    â€˜To think that he knew.… I was so appalled when I was typing it that I burst into tears. He knew what he’d done – the problems Daddy would have to face.’
    I turned to the last page, to that abrupt ending with its reference to Munich. ‘It’s strange,’ I said, ‘that he kept this Journal all those years and then ended it here.’ I looked up at her. ‘Are you sure there isn’t some more of it?’
    She shook her head. ‘I’ve searched the house – everywhere. The same thought occurred to me.’
    â€˜Then why did he stop at this point? Was he afraid of another war – that your father would have to repeat his own experience?’
    â€˜No, I don’t think it was that. Though it’s what happened, of course.’ She was silent a moment, her brows wrinkled, gazing into the candles. Then she said, ‘I think myself he came ashore from that pearling boat, went up to the bank and was suddenly faced with the news that the company was broke and owed money all over the North West. It must have been a terrible shock. I think if I were keeping a Journal I’d stop there myself. All the rest was disaster – the sheep and the leases being sold off, the fishing boats, the bank building, and the mine a sort of golden elephant that nobody wanted. It was the end of an era, everything he’d worked for …’ Again she shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think I’d want to continue my Journal after that.’
    It seemed reasonable enough. ‘Could I see the original?’ I was thinking that the handwriting might give some indication.
    â€˜I’ll get it if you like. D’you want to see it now?’
    â€˜No, it doesn’t matter.’ I was running backwards through the pages, searching for some reference to his partner. But I couldn’t see anything about McIlroy or his Monster, and when I commented on this she said, ‘They were business partners, nothing else. And he was nearing sixty, his mind harking back to the old days.’ She had moved to the patio entrance.