"Jealous?"

"No, not really. It was your night, after all. What did those chaps want, anyway? To marry you?"

"Of course. Suddenly, there's a new eligible female in the village, of course they were going to have a go. I told them it was a bit too soon for that kind of thing, I'd only been a woman since the sun set after all. Most of them seemed to accept that."

"They'll come back, you know that, right?"

Disclaimer: The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended. This story is copyright (c) 2010 Penny Lane. All rights reserved. Don't expect this to be historically accurate in any way.

---

"Strewth!" Les moaned the next morning. "Doc, you were right about that stuff we drank. My head feels fit to explode."

Doc, who had drunk a gourd of water for every gourd of the drink, still felt fairly tender as they walked across to get breakfast. He replied, "I know. You should be all right by mid-afternoon. You'll just have to go and lie somewhere quiet in the shade until then."

Les winced. "You don't have to shout, Doc."

"I'm not shouting," said Doc, but he lowered his voice all the same. "Make sure you down as much water as you can, as well. You're already dehydrated."

Most of the tribe seemed in the same state, with the exception of one or two of the elders and some smug-looking women who had not touched any of the brew. It was clearly understood by all that no serious work would get done that day, and most of the village retired to dark corners of their houses to rest their aching heads, clapping their hands over their ears whenever a particularly loud bird started up in the trees above them.

The Japanese patrol arrived mid-morning. The subaltern leading the group was puzzled when the usual crowd of villagers didn't congregate, and his shouts produced exactly the opposite effect to that which he had expected. Eventually the headman staggered out of his house and over to the officer in charge of the patrol. He explained that they had had a celebration the previous evening, on the occasion of the forest spirit appearing during the full moon. The local translator was familiar with such events and passed the explanation on, which seemed to mollify the officer in charge. He shouted at his men and they soon filed out of the village.

When they had gone, Joe and Doc came cautiously out of their houses to meet the headman.

"This cannot continue," Joe said. "The yellow-faces could have killed us all, and we would not have been able to defend ourselves."

"True," said the headman, in a voice just above a whisper. "Can we go somewhere out of the sun to continue this talk?"

They walked between two of the houses and a little way into the jungle beyond.

"If you will accept some advice," Joe said, "I think it is now time that we started taking a few basic precautions to ensure the safety of the village and all it's people. I don't think that it will interfere too much with the work of the village."

"What do you have in mind, tk'Joe? We know that you understand the yellow-faces, their ways are strange to us, just as the ways of your own tribe are."

"The ways of the yellow-faces are strange to us also, and we do not understand why they do some of the things they do. But they do things that we would say are cruel and unnecessary."

Doc joined in. "I have a little more idea that Joe does, but there is much that I have yet to understand. In my own land -" Doc stopped at the blank look on the headman's face. "Okay, on my own island, I have a special job which is to teach certain things to the young of my tribe. Not children, but the young men and women of the tribe. To teach I first have to understand, and my job is to understand the ways and customs of different tribes, and that is why I spoke some of your tongue when we first arrived here, because I've been here before."

The headman nodded. "I remembered you. I was not headman then. You came with others, although you did not stay in the village, but came each day. Your boat was damaged."

"That's right. Now, listen. The yellow-faces think that they are better than all the other tribes, which is why they are fighting them. If they win, they will treat you worse than you treat your own pigs and goats. They think that you are animals. They will not let you live peacefully in the village, but you will be worked hard doing what they want you to, and you will be badly treated and poorly fed. We have seen this happen on other islands."

"Then perhaps the tribes should join together and remove them from the island."

"We can probably do that," said Joe. "But, if we do that, they would send metal birds, like the one we came in, and drop fire and destruction on you from the sky. We don't want that to happen."

"Fire and destruction?"

"You know the mountain, km'Palaoi?" The headman nodded. "When that becomes angry, and throws rocks and ash and smoke into the air?"

"Oh. Like that? I understand."

"Except that the mountain doesn't deliberately throw hot rocks on your village, the rocks just go wherever the spirit flings them out. The yellow-faces will aim their bombs with care to make sure that your village and all it's people are no more."

"What is your suggestion then, tk'Joe?"

"We need sentries and dispersal points and..." Joe stopped, as his head had begun pounding. "I can't do this now, my head's not at all well. tk'Doco and I will work out what we think we need to do, and then come to you and the elders and we'll work out the best way of making ourselves safe."

"Agreed." The headman looked at Joe. "Come, we had best return to the houses. I think we all need to lie down again."

~o~O~o~

"I still can't get over how great you look," Jack said to Melanie, as they walked to the river for a late-afternoon drink. "Does it worry you, having such short hair at the moment?"

"Not really," she replied. "Some of the other women have short hair as well, particularly those with very curly hair. I don't think I'd want it to get too long while we're still at the village, though, because it'll start to look a bit too European. Besides which, it'll be difficult to put the brown stuff on if it gets too long."

While their skin seemed to stay much the same colour under the dark brown dye, of course the hair which grew out of their heads and bodies came out it's original colour. This required continuous touch-ups every week to ten days.

"Tell me," Jack said tentatively, "What do you feel like now, since the ceremony? Like a man or like a woman?"

"Like a woman, of course. But, it's strange since I never grew up as a girl, so I feel like there's a lot I've missed. The women here have been ace, teaching me all kinds of things and taking me into their confidences just as though I was a girl born. My big worry is," she turned a concerned face to Jack, "What's going to happen when we leave here. There's half a planet of women out there with peculiar customs and practices that'll make tribal ways look like child's play." Jack could see the real concern on her face. "But to get back to your original question, I think the ceremony helped enormously. As it was meant to do, it provided a clear line where one existence ended and another began. Wearing this outfit helps, too. I'm beginning to identify with the women in the village, and wearing the same clothes as them makes me feel like one of them. If you can call these wisps of grass clothing, that is."

"Yeah," said Jack as they reached the bank of the river to stand in the shade of one of the larger trees along the edge. "I guess that 'strange clothing' might be as much of a problem once we get out of here as the 'strange customs' will be." He lifted down one of the gourds strung on the trunk and handed it to Melanie before finding another for himself. "We'll just all have to do our best for you. We're not going to leave you in the lurch once we get back to Oz. Count on it."

They both dipped their gourds into the small river and drank deeply.

"I got several proposals last night," she said to Jack as they walked back. He stopped abruptly.

"What? Have you told Skip or Doc about them yet?"

"No worries, leastways I don't think so. No, you're the first person I've seen today. Is everyone sleeping it off?"

"Yeah, by common consent I think. That stuff wasn't half powerful, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but then I saw how silly some of the warriors were getting and I started drinking water with it like Doc was doing. I didn't have an opportunity to drink that much anyway since everyone kept coming up and talking to me."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Jealous?"

"No, not really. It was your night, after all. What did those chaps want, anyway? To marry you?"

"Of course. Suddenly, there's a new eligible female in the village, of course they were going to have a go. I told them it was a bit too soon for that kind of thing, I'd only been a woman since the sun set after all. Most of them seemed to accept that."

"They'll come back, you know that, right?"

Melanie sighed. They reached her house. "Do you want to come in and talk?" she asked.

"Okay, but -"

"But what?"

"I dunno," he said miserably. "It's not like talking to a mate any longer, is it? I have to be careful, otherwise the others are going to get ideas. I never realised it would get this awkward."

"Come inside, out of the sun," she said practically. "You're still a mate. Uh, and I don't mean that kind of mate either."

"Yeah, okay," he conceded. "My face is beginning to ache from squinting in the bright light, so it's a good idea to find somewhere with a little more shade."

Jack followed Melanie up the ladder into the house, and they sat down just inside the first partition. The family whose house it was were dozing further in, and Melanie didn't want to disturb them any more than she had to.

"That's better," he said. "Not so hot either."

"It'll likely rain in an hour or so, so it will be a lot cooler. Now, we were discussing men queueing up for my favours," she said.

"Uh, yeah," said Jack, uncomfortable with the subject.

"Don't get concerned, Jack. I'm not about to marry anyone here, or do the native equivalent. I wouldn't know what to do with any of them anyway, at the moment. You're all perfectly safe. When I talked with the headman this possibility was brought up, and he was very good about it. He knows that we won't be here for ever, and there's a war to fight, and he knows that if I hitched up with any of the young warriors, for example, it might be a problem when the time comes for us to leave."

"Yeah, I hadn't thought of that."

"No reason why you should. But it's the same problem as if you or Skip or Les or Doc hitched up with one of the young women, isn't it? So there's been a tacit agreement that anything other than the usual social fun gets discouraged. Didn't you realise?"

"No, I didn't. I'm afraid I've been too busy learning how to hunt and to find fruit and vegetables to notice, actually. I can see it makes sense. What about us four, though?"

"Me pick one of you? Not while we're on the island, no. I told you before, I consider you all to be my brothers by adoption, and that's the way it has to stay till we get back home. Then there's still the war, and who knows what will happen to any of us?"

"Have you figured out what you're going to tell them yet? I mean, have you made up a story for whoever rescues us?"

"I've got the bones of it laid out, yes. When we meet up for the evening meal I'll lay my thoughts out for everyone and we can all contribute. After all, we've all got to know the same story, and it's going to have to be watertight."

"Yeah. But do we have to have so much detail? Might be a lot to remember."

"Not so much, I don't think. You'll see. But, think about this. Suppose we run into a particularly diligent intelligence officer when we get back? If he finds any discrepancies, he might think I'm a spy that's been planted by the Japs."

"Blimey. Nightmare. You have been doing a lot of thinking, haven't you?"

"Yes," she admitted. "A lot of it to little effect, but there are so many things that can go wrong I have to keep at it. For example, there's the question of children."

"Children? What you mean, you having them? Is that even possible?"

"Not the faintest idea. But if I'm turning into an actual, real, fully-functional woman, then that would presumably include the ability to have children, yes." Melanie looked unhappy. "I'm not sure if I like that idea. The whole baby thing strikes me as being messy and complicated."

"I shouldn't worry if I were you," Jack said. "Every other woman seems to manage it reasonably well. Mind you, I can just about accept you as a woman, now, especially after last night. Seeing you as a mother is going to take a little more time, I think. Maybe a year or two, perhaps. Maybe longer."

~o~O~o~

The five were seated in a circle, eating their evening meal.

"Gentlemen," Melanie said, "My name from now onwards is Melanie Chisholm. I don't have a middle name yet, so if one of you has an idea I'll consider it. Now, I've decided that because it's obvious I know a lot about things Australian, I'd better be an Australian, but one who hasn't lived in Oz for a while. So, I think I'll be the daughter of a couple who worked out here in the islands. I haven't decided yet if they were missionaries, or anthropologists, or traders, or what.

"I'll have been to Oz a number of times, because I'm obviously familiar with ships and trains and traffic and so on, but I think that I'll have spent most of my life out here. That will explain why I don't have much of a clue about how women function in civilised parts. I'll have been home-tutored, so I'll have some level of education. How's that so far?"

Doc inspected a chicken bone for meat that he'd missed. "You said your parents were. I assume they're dead?"

"Yes. Either killed by the Japs or previously died from disease or something. Does that sound possible?"

"I think I'd stick with 'killed by the Japs'. You obviously escaped by running into the jungle, and you made your way to this village on your own. If you say that, there's no paper trail to worry about."

Joe had an objection. "If both your parents were Australian, you are therefore Australian also."

Melanie nodded. "Yes, that was the general idea."

"In that case, won't there have been a birth registered somewhere? You had to have some kind of papers to go in and out of Oz, at any rate."

She shrugged. "Yes, I realise that. I wondered if you four had any ideas."

"Well, your papers got lost when you fled from the Japs," said Joe. "But if they start looking back to find your previous visits to Oz, they're not going to find you or your parents, are they."

Doc said, "I don't think that's going to be too much of a problem. If they came and went on a schooner, like I did, no-one's going to have a record of us coming or going. Certainly didn't for the crew I was with. There was a record of the schooner itself leaving and arriving back, but that was all. I'll have to think about the business of registering births, especially for someone who might not have been actually born in Oz."

Les questioned, "What about your radio knowledge? Do you want to retain that, or do you want to pretend you don't know about anything like that?"

Melanie pulled a face. "I'd rather keep it if I could, but I don't see how I can. I'm not ever going to be allowed to be aircrew again, am I, but I thought I might be able to contribute to the war effort back at base somehow."

"That one might be more tricky," replied Doc. "Although, of course, there is radio equipment out here in the islands. We might be able to fake up a correspondence course in radio maintenance or some such, but that would mean more records that would have to exist somewhere." He tossed his chicken bone into the fire and reached into his bowl for another drumstick. "There may be a way to get round all this," he said, "but it involves significant risk and the right circumstances occurring. I'll think about it some more."

Joe said to Doc, "You're actually more than just a navigator, aren't you?"

"Yes and no," Doc replied. "I am just a regular navigator, but I have connections in the intelligence community because of my past experience in these islands. They wanted me to transfer but I said no, so they just keep pestering me with questions every chance they get. Got. What I was thinking was that I might be able to sneak Melanie in under the wire, so to speak, via my intelligence connections. But, if I do that, it would probably mean telling someone the truth, and I don't know anyone who'd believe it without having witnessed it first hand."

"It's been tough enough having actually seen it," Jack muttered.

"Okay, chaps," Joe concluded, "Melanie sounds like she has a plan, so we'll work up some kind of suitable history for her and her parents over the next few days. We don't want something that's too elaborate, because that's the way we'd become unstuck, but we might be able to arrange it so that the 'fog of war' covers a lot of the defects. Agreed?"

They all nodded assent.

"We have something else to discuss," Joe continued. "Doc and I talked with the headman this morning, and we decided that we need to lay out some kind of defence plan for the village. I don't know if you all realise it, but a patrol came through this morning while we were all hung over, and they could have finished us all off with hardly any resistance."

"Did they?" asked a startled Jack. "I never noticed."

"Ah, well, that's the problem. I'm not talking about attacking them, but we want to be able to get the villagers out if the Japs seem to be getting aggressive. We owe them that much at least. So I want to set up some kind of 'Civil Defence' measures. Sentries or lookouts. Safe areas in the forest they can escape to if anyone starts shooting. Caches of food and weapons, that sort of thing."

Doc gestured with his drumstick. "If you're going to do that, it's possible we'll have to involve the other villages. We can't just push the problem off onto them and save only this village."

"I suppose so. But the villages all have a sort of rivalry, don't they? How are we going to overcome that?"

"I think the yellow-faces did that for us. But let's first make a plan for our own village, and see if we can establish some basic principles we can then sell to the other villages for their own benefit."

~o~O~o~

The 'Defence Plan', as it came to be known, turned out to be reasonably straightforward to figure out and implement. Two rendezvous points behind each side of the village, one near each end, meant that the villagers could flee from trouble no matter which direction it came from. Deep in the jungle at either side, a further assembly point was made, where food and weapons could be cached. Food was difficult as most was perishable and lasted only a few days, but a rotation plan took care of that. One or two of the villagers resented giving up an extra pig to stock the caches, but every one of them understood the need for the precautions, and as they all helped each other anyway the ruffled feathers were soon smoothed over.

Lookout positions were established, some covering the established paths in and out of the village and some overlooking other possible approach routes. Each was staffed by one of the older village members together with one of the young girls. With two at each post there would be less chance for boredom, and they could keep each other occupied with crafts or food preparation or other quiet work. Lookouts were changed every couple of hours to keep everyone fresh, and the pairs rotated around the sentry points. At the first sign of any trouble, the younger member would return at once to give the village an initial warning, the older following later when more details of the situation could be determined.

As most of the lookouts were women or young girls, by a process of elimination Melanie ended up running the system. This suited everyone, as it gave her something concrete to do and she was close to all those involved. On occasion returning hunting parties tried to test the alertness of the lookouts, showing inventiveness to try and pass them without detection but with limited success.

Japanese patrols, by contrast, made no attempt at concealment but simply wandered along the established paths as though they were going for a picnic. If they saw a young native girl in the jungle, what of it? They had been doing these patrols for nearly two years with the only incident being the bomber crash. Most were bored and homesick.

~o~O~o~

As the weeks went on it became obvious that Melanie was blossoming. Her hair grew out to what she considered a 'proper' length for a woman of the tribe, and she discarded the additional moss padding after just a month. About that time, she awoke one morning in distress and had to be hurriedly helped down to the river by a gaggle of attendant women. On returning she informed the concerned men that she now had proof that she was a fully-functioning woman as her 'time of the month' had arrived somewhat unexpectedly.

Doc was unconcerned by the news, but when the details were explained to the others they turned distinctly pale under their dyed skin tone.

"You mean that all women go through that? Every month?" asked Les.

"That's right, mates," Doc explained. "Always have done, always will. I think our Melanie here has got away lightly, but it can cause some discomfort to some women. Stomach cramps, headaches, moodiness, temper, bloating, tender breasts, sometimes more severe symptoms. Any or all of those can happen."

"Well," said Melanie tentatively, "I did get some stomach pains just before, but I thought they were indigestion from something I'd eaten. You mean it's going to happen every time?" She didn't look thrilled by the news.

"It depends. Remember, this is just your first time. It may take a few months for your body to settle down to a proper rhythm," Doc assured her. "Besides, the women are looking after you okay? I bet they've got traditional remedies to help you over the four or five days or so when it happens each month."

Melanie nodded. "Yes, I'm well looked after. I'll just have to take it a little easy, is all."

~o~O~o~

The Defence Plan had been running successfully for a number of weeks when it suddenly became important to think about the next stage. One morning the group had come out to get breakfast when the headman walked over to them, gesturing.

"Thunder Spirit speaks from beyond the sunrise. Sound funny. Not sound of storm coming, or sound of angry mountain. Do any of you know what disturbs Thunder Spirit?"

The five stopped and listened.

"Don't hear anything," said Jack.

"Yes, listen there!" said Les. "Wasn't that something?"

"Yeah, I hear it," said Joe. He turned to the headman. "Can we go up to the top of the ridge, up the back? I think we'll hear it more clearly up there."

"Of course. You want to go now, or eat first?"

"Eat first, I think. Come on chaps, I think things are about to change around here."

"What d'you mean, Skip?"

"I think that's the sound of the war coming our way. I want to go up to the top and see if we can see anything."

While they ate breakfast, the headman arranged for six of the more experienced tribesmen to accompany them, since the area they would be going to was out of the accepted territory of the village. When some of the other villagers became concerned, it was explained to everyone that this was merely a scouting party and that no-one was likely to be endangered. However, there was always the chance of meeting a party from another village, or even a Japanese patrol, so precautions had to be taken.

The party slipped out of the high end of the village in single file and put some distance between it and themselves before turning uphill. They wove a deliberate and carefully considered route so as not to leave an obvious path behind for anyone to follow, standard technique for hunting parties. It was noticeable that the trees became less lofty, and the ground-level vegetation less dense, the further they climbed above the village.

"Is the ridge likely to be bare?" Joe muttered to Doc as the light levels continued to grow.

Doc shrugged. "Possible." The headman glared at them for not being quiet.

The slope lessened, and fortunately it appeared that the trees just covered the ridge at this point, although each stood alone and was covered in dense blankets of creeper. The 'ridge' was actually the saddle between the two non-active peaks, heavily weathered, but at this point low enough to have some vegetation cover. While several of the party dispersed to keep watch, the headman and Joe cautiously climbed one of the trees using the creepers for assistance. It was the first time since the crash that Joe had seen the eastern side of the island.

"What do you see, tk'Joe?" asked the headman in a whisper.

Joe looked over the ocean beyond the further slope, at the islands in the distance. There was a little early morning haze still, the sun would soon burn that off, but Joe could see all that he needed to.

"It is my tribe, fighting the yellow-faces. Look there! Did you see that flash? That was a bomb. See the cloud of smoke rising?"

"I see, but my eyes are not so keen. If you had not told me I do not think I would have known what it was. Are there many of your tribe, do you think?"

"I do not know. Both my tribe and the tribe of the yellow-faces have the ability to put bombs anywhere. They don't have to be near where the bombs get dropped. That's what my metal bird was doing. We had dropped bombs on some of the yellow-faces' ships and were returning home when we crashed here. What we are seeing may be more of the same."

Joe omitted to tell the headman that they had encountered not the expected resupply convoy but a major battle group. It was only by sheer luck that they hadn't been blown out of the sky within minutes, but had managed to creep into cloud and get away with one engine on fire and major structural damage to the tail. Two of the Liberators in the sortie of four hadn't been so lucky.

"I can see... many, many ships, I think. Look to the water between those two islands. It's so far away, I can't make out much detail." Joe pointed.

"Yes, I see them. Are your ships so big that they can be seen that far away?"

"Oh, yes. There are several ships belonging to my tribe that can carry more warriors on them than there are people on this island."

The headman shook his head in amazement. "Wonders indeed."

The two watched the distant battle for some minutes before carefully climbing down again.

"Skip? Sounds to me like gunfire from down here," said Les.

"Yeah. There's a major sea battle going on about thirty-five to forty miles to the east, maybe further. No idea who's doing what to who, but the fact that there's a battle going on at all means the Japs must be in retreat. I can just make out what seems to be capital ships, but that's all. There's bombing or shelling going on on a couple of the nearby islands as well, but it's too far away to make out any planes or anything like that."

The headman had brought his fellows up to date with what he had seen, and now he turned to Joe.

"Will the battle between your tribe and the yellow tribe come to this island, tk'Joe?"

"I have not that knowledge," Joe replied, shaking his head. "It is possible that it may, but it is also possible that my tribe will decide that there is nothing which they need on this island, and just pass it by. There are not many of the yellow tribe here, and there is no port for large boats to use and no flat area which they could use for metal birds." His expression was determined. "We must prepare in case they do come here, though."

The headman nodded. "That is my thought also. It means we will have to have a council of all the tribes. You will come and explain to them what this will all mean?"

Joe's reply was cut off by a brief hiss from one of the lookouts which sent them all diving for cover. Perhaps a minute later, while they all tried to make themselves into shrubs and fallen logs, a strange tribesman walked into the area where they had been standing. He looked around and then spoke softly. The headman stood and made a reply, then spoke to his party.

"Come out, it is safe. He is from one of the villages on the other side of the mountain."

As the members of the party stood forward, three other tribesmen entered the area and approached the headman. Some words were spoken quietly. The headman turned to Joe.

"We were seen climbing the tree. They guessed that we were investigating the noise."

"Can we speak to them?" asked Joe.

"You can, although they speak some different words to us. We can usually understand one another. Why do you want to speak to them?"

"They must have known about what's going on over there, because they can see it all the time. I'd like to find out what they know."

"They probably know less than I do, tk'Joe. But speak to them anyway." He gestured with a hand towards the newcomers.

Joe went forward and the newcomers immediately recognised that he wasn't a native islander. Doc approached, offering to try and cover any gaps in their discussions as best he could. It appeared that the battle had started the previous day, and the tribesmen had seen four immense grey fish-shaped boats go past Pakalui towards where the fighting was taking place. Joe explained to them what was actually happening, which impressed them greatly.

He also explained to them that he and four others were actually white-faces who had been living in disguise in the headman's village, and that they were trying to make arrangements so that all the tribesmen on the island would stand a better chance if the fight between the white-faces and the yellow-faces came to their island.

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because we can't get off the island and back to our own people, and the yellow-faces would probably kill us if they found us. Because the headman took us in and hid us from the yellow-faces at great risk, and we recognise obligation. We wish to repay that obligation," explained Joe.

"Besides," added Doc, "we have made many friends here and we want to protect them however we can. Between all the villages, we can probably kill all the yellow-faces, but the time is not ready to do that. We must wait for the fighting to come to us first, so that the yellow-faces are distracted and cannot retaliate against us."

"You would help us? Even though you are not of our tribe?"

The headman interrupted. "We have taken them into our tribe. They are like brothers to us. tk'Doco wants to hold an Island Council to discuss these matters. Will you ask your headman to send word? We will send to the villages on the sunset side of the island. We will meet as soon as possible, not tomorrow, but one day more, in the usual place. Do not let the yellow-faces find out about the meeting."

"As you wish. There is another matter before we go."

"Speak."

"Our party saw you climb the tree. It is possible that the yellow-faces did also. There is a small house that the yellow-faces have built over there," the tribesman pointed along the ridge towards the central peak. "If one were looking this way, you may have been seen."

"A house?" asked Joe. "A lookout post, perhaps? Is there a wire which leads from the small house down to the place where boats can be reached?" There was a blank look from the tribesmen. "Oh, something like a small, long, smooth vine with no leaves or branches."

The tribesman who had been speaking nodded. "Yes, there is such a thing. Is this one of the yellow-faces' talking devices? It would be simple to cut."

"It is a talking device, yes. Best not to cut it, it would only mean that the yellow-faces would come and mend it, and then they would know that you knew what it was. If they think that you don't know what it is, it will be safer for you and your village." Joe gave a fierce grin. "Then, when we take the battle to the yellow-faces, they will be even more surprised."

"True," the tribesman answered with a grin that matched Joe's. He turned to the headman. "You made a good choice taking these into your tribe. Not all white-faces are bad, it seems."

"Yes. We value them," the headman said. "Go in peace."

The two parties separated and the headman led the way back down below the mountain ridge. Using the same care they had taken on the way up they returned to the village, taking the opportunity to collect some forest fruits as they did so. Once they arrived, the headman organised two groups of warriors to take the word to the other villages either side of their own while Joe and Doc brought Melanie and a number of interested villagers up to date with what had been seen.

Over lunch, Joe announced, "I've been thinking. Now that we've got a definite objective in mind, I'd like to take a look at our stuff that's been stashed away. I know we've had a look every so often, to see if anything's got damp or started to rust or been eaten, but we might need to use some of that stuff when the fighting comes this way. In particular, I want to see if our firearms are still usable."

Les nodded. "Good idea, skip. If push comes to shove, we're going to need those rifles. Spears and blowpipes are perfect in the jungle, but they've no range to speak of compared to a rifle."

"There are other things we can do, besides the rifles," suggested Melanie.

"Oh? Like what?" asked Joe.

"For a start, we've got our own natives at home and the Abos have weapons we could use in the open."

"You're right," said Doc. "Woomeras. Boomerangs. Even slings. I don't think I've seen the locals here use slings."

"You can kill someone with a sling at a hundred yards," said Les. "Leastways I've killed a wallaby at about that distance. Good idea."

"Just what are we thinking of doing, Skip, that's going to involve such weapons? Surely, with the island covered by jungle, we have the advantage of close combat from cover," asked Jack.

"There are areas where the vegetation isn't so dense," replied Doc. "You're standing in one at the moment. If the Japs came into any of the villages and just stood in the centre, it would be almost impossible for the locals to do anything about it. They would be within spearing distance, sure, but the thrower would have to expose themselves to do it. Meanwhile the Japs will just rake all the houses with rifle and machine-gun fire." He added, "If it was true about the lookout post, what that other tribesman we saw said, that sounds as if it will be high enough up the mountain to be clear of the tree line. That would mean an attack across open ground."

"We'll see if the headman will let us check our stuff this afternoon. I want to know where we stand before we go to this big chin-wag," said Joe. "I know everyone in our own village will do what we want, but I want to be able to convince the other chiefs that we know what we're talking about."

"I'm coming, too," said Melanie.

Joe looked at her, then remembered who she had been six months previously. She had had the same training as the rest of them, and another pair of knowledgeable hands would be of great value. He nodded.

"Can't argue with that," he said. "Think you can still lift a rifle? I can't tell how your strength has changed since -"

"Only one way to find out," she said simply. "Besides, I can still deal with some of the other things we've put away, can't I?"

~o~O~o~

"They don't look as bad as I was afraid they would," muttered Les, pulling a rifle out of the makeshift wrapping. "There's a touch of rust on the outside of this one, but the barrel looks clear. Shit! There's a bug inside it."

He upended the rifle and shook out the offending insect - and it's two friends - before holding it up and working the bolt.

"Huh. Could do with a clean, but I think they'll do, Skip. What's your one like?"

"Same here. What about yours, mates?"

"Okay," said Jack. "We could probably do with getting some grease on the action before we use them."

"Pork fat any good?" asked Doc. "I understand it caused some trouble in India last century, so there's precedent for using it on weapons."

"Eh?" asked Les. "Oh, yeah, the Mohammedans didn't like pork fat and the Hindus didn't like beef fat. Don't think we'll have that problem here. Yeah, pork fat from the hog roasts, that should work out."

"Melanie?" asked Joe. "How are you managing?"

"I can clean it and hold it and fire it, but I think I'd need to be braced against something if I didn't want to fall on my backside. I'm still trying to understand my new balance."

"You should be all right if you are shooting from cover and you can rest the barrel on something," said Doc. "If you're not shooting from cover you've got bigger problems."

"I don't think these revolvers are going to be much good," said Les. "The only rounds we've got are in the cylinders. Three left in one and two in the other. The automatics are slightly better off because the magazines are bigger. Probably couldn't hit a barn door with either one, though."

"They're only really good for close-range work, like when we were ambushed back at the start. Still, they might have their uses. How about the bayonets?" asked Joe.

"Need a bit of a rub up," replied Les. "We can soon find a patch of volcanic sand and some grease to clean them up with. Were you thinking of fitting them back to the rifles or using them separately?"

"Hadn't thought that far yet," said Joe. "Right, put them all away, except for one rifle. We'll need to get them out, clean them all and stash them much closer to the village when the time comes, but for now they're safer here."

"What about the one you're keeping?" asked Doc.

"That's going to the meet with us," Joe replied.

"Skip?" asked Melanie. "The two life-rafts each had a radio. D'you think we could signal whoever's out there, let them know we're here?"

"Hadn't thought about the emergency radios. I know they're not that powerful. Would they work on terrain like this?"

"Maybe." She considered. "I think I'd like to take it up to the ridge. The coverage would be much greater from up there."

Joe nodded. "Okay, get one of the radios and bring it back with us, see if you can get it to work. That could just make our life a whole lot easier."

~o~O~o~

"The radio looks as if it'd work, but the batteries are long dead," reported Melanie. "I guess being hung up in a tree for, what, seven months in tropical heat can't have done them any good."

"D'you think the batteries in the other set would be any better?" asked Joe.

"Probably not," she replied.

"I know a place where it's almost certain there are batteries," put in Jack.

"Oh?"

"That lookout hut. Unless they have only a wind-up field telephone, there's almost got to be something with batteries, even if it's only a torch or two."

The five looked at each other.

"Looks like we have another reason for getting rid of that lookout post then," said Joe thoughtfully. "And, about the time we would be planning to do that would just be about the right timing for using the radio as well." He nodded in satisfaction. "Looks like it's all coming together just the way we want it to. Good work, mates. Now let's get some of that hot pork before it's all gone."