Blood Is a Stranger by Roland Perry Page B

bleeding nose. He stumbled over the logs to his damaged cabin and cleared it of splintered glass.
    â€˜I’ll get you fuckers!’ he said.
    He reversed his vehicle across the causeway. Cardinal lowered the rifle and joined Elaine and the men who were attending to Burra. A bandage was wrapped over the wound.
    Burra looked up at Cardinal whose face was drained of colour. ‘Thanks, mate. That’s two I owe you.’
    â€˜Would you have pulled the trigger?’ Beena asked Cardinal. He managed a wan smile but said nothing as he returned to the ute to replace the rifle.
    â€˜Would he have?’ Beena asked Burra.
    Burra looked up at him. ‘I don’t think the gun was loaded.’

    An hour later O’Laughlin arrived at the head of the convoy and was driven across the causeway accompanied by three officers. Burra had the logs removed and met the police delegation in the clearing’s shade where the temperature was a debilitating fifty degrees.
    Cardinal stayed out of sight in the ute and watched. Burra had promised a meeting with Jimmy Goyong, andCardinal hoped to speak to him that afternoon, although he was beginning to feel the trip to Arnhem Land had been a waste of time. He could see Malone, distinguished by his bright red hair and bulk, standing by his vehicle, which was in the convoy line that stretched from the other side of the causeway along the track like a sleeping reptile. Groups of truckies were sitting around in the limited shade drinking. O’Laughlin’s men were assembled between them and the crossing, which was blocked by police cars and a van.
    The atmosphere felt dangerous, and the heat promised to put a limit on everyone’s patience. A breakdown in the meeting would mean that the truckdrivers might try to run the blockade.
    The only person who seemed pleased with the confrontation was Beena. He offered the officers beer. They stepped forward, but when O’Laughlin refused the drink, they changed their minds.
    â€˜Your boys are well trained, Chief,’ Beena said, as he zipped a can for himself. ‘I once had cattle dogs like that.’
    â€˜What happened to Malone and his juggernaut?’ O’Laughlin snapped, his anger directed at Beena.
    â€˜What did that prick say happened?’ Beena asked.
    â€˜He said he ran into a flock of big birds,’ O’Laughlin said in disbelieving tones. ‘They did quite a bit of damage to his cabin.’
    â€˜Poor Mick,’ Beena said in mock sorrow. He guzzled his beer.
    â€˜And what happened to you, Burra?’ O’Laughlin asked. ‘You run into the same flock of birds?’
    â€˜I slipped on the causeway,’ Burra said.
    He beckoned O’Laughlin towards the river.
    Cardinal watched the two men arguing but could not hear them. After about fifteen minutes they parted, grim-faced. O’Laughlin led his officers over the crossing, and Cardinal jumped from the ute to learn the outcome.
    â€˜We’ve got until seven tomorrow morning, at thelatest,’ Burra said. ‘If we don’t produce evidence of desecration of sacred sites by then, those trucks will be allowed through.’
    â€˜You gave him that assurance?’ Beena said.
    â€˜We have no choice!’ Burra replied. ‘Look at them!’ He pointed at the convoy. ‘They have the law behind them, unless we can prove they have broken the law!’
    â€˜Spoken like a true lawyer,’ Beena said. Burra restrained himself.
    â€˜I want a meeting of everyone,’ he said to the others. ‘I want this done democratically. But not here. Kelly’s Clearing is better.’

    â€˜I want to be able to assist you,’ Burra said. They finished their steak lunch on the wooden table in his house in the reserve’s town. ‘It would help if you told me more.’
    Cardinal sipped his drink and told him the hunches he was running on.
    â€˜That explains why Richardson went out of his way to