She snorted. “No, a chest full of treasure is supposed to be the reward.” She sighed. “How bad are the Ridge’s finances”
He glanced at her. “We can’t afford to replace the ute.”
“Are we likely to lose the station?” Her voice was soft and full of concern.
“I don’t know.” He pulled her into his arms. “The campgrounds are bringing in enough for day-to-day needs.”
“For the house, not the station.”
“We’ll get a boost of funds after shearing.”
“My father could be so stubborn at times,” Georgie said. “We should have made adjustments far sooner than this.”
He wasn’t going to speak ill of Bill, but Georgie was right. Dingoes and wild dogs had been attacking the flock for years and taking away their revenue and the droughts throughout the country hadn’t been great for the price of feed. They should have moved to cattle and tourism.
They continued walking until they met Brandon and Amy coming from the opposite direction. Matt didn’t have to ask whether they’d found anything, it was clear in their glum expressions. He radioed Darcy to pick them up.
As they drove towards the gulf to join Faith and Lara, the radio crackled. “We found something!” Lara called.
Georgie squeezed Matt’s hand as Darcy answered, “Where are you, pumpkin?”
“Not far from the beach. We’re heading to you.”
They all scanned the bush as they neared the beach, looking for Faith and Lara. Lara raced out, waving her hands and Darcy stopped, winding down his window. “What did you find?”
“Another cairn, and it’s pointing east.”
Not a lot out this way. No shelter that he knew of, just the ocean and mangroves. They spread out and walked in a line moving away from the beach. A termite mound stuck up above the ground, making him at first think it was a rock.
After about ten minutes Faith called, “Over here.”
They all congregated around a cairn on top of a larger rock.
They were only about twenty metres from the beach and the grass was flattened by tyre tracks.
Georgie sucked in a breath as Matt exchanged glances with Darcy and Brandon. The sheep had been moved from this area months ago when Stonefish had killed a bunch of them, but this was still Ridge land. Someone had been trespassing.
Bushes and shrubs surrounded the area, shielding it from the ocean.
“Where to now?” Lara asked.
Darcy placed a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t think this is a treasure marker, pumpkin.”
“What is it then?”
Matt studied the mound. A hollow metal tube was stuck between a circle of rocks. If someone stuck a flag in it, it would be high enough to be seen from Retribution Island. Maybe this was where Stonefish met. The tyre marks led towards the track they’d discovered about a month ago. That had led them to take a flight over the Ridge where they discovered more tracks crossing Ridge land.
“I don’t know, pumpkin. How about we go swimming, and Matt and Brandon can look?”
“Something’s wrong.” Lara narrowed her eyes and studied the area. “Are the tyre tracks not ours?”
Darcy sighed. “No, they’re not. We’ll give Dot a call after we’ve gone swimming.”
Lara slipped her hand into his. “OK. Let’s go.” She knew how dangerous Stonefish was.
Faith and Amy joined them while Matt studied the ground. “The tracks don’t look new. Some of these plants are already brown and dying.”
“But they’ve been here more than once,” Brandon said.
