"Hi, my name is Jock McDonah, Hawk said you would fix my mill today, in exchange for a flight to Lake Cargelico!"
Butch, took a couple of minutes to regain his composure, after
this sudden intrusion into his thoughts.
"Oh, yes that is correct, if you would show us the mill, we will
get started immediately!"
Then Jock nodded, and said.
"Follow me", as he turned to mount his quadbike.
The mill to be fixed, was positioned about a kilometer from the
homestead.
The prop, had already been tied off, so they could begin the job straight away.
Two hours later, the job was done, a couple of lengths of pipe
replaced, and the removal of a small stone from under the
plate, and once again water flowed freely.
Jock, offered to start a BBQ for their lunch, but Butch said a
couple of sandwiches would do, as they could eat them while flying to the lake.
Within the hour they were on their way, after everything checked out okay with the plane. Butch, enquired as to which property
was their destination, and was told, Henry McDonah my older
brothers place, why!
"I was just wondering, if the vehicle we requested, is still
available!"
"Yep, as far as I know, it is!"

Twenty minutes later, Butch spotted two vehicles, they were at
an angle facing north, just to the rear of an old lean to.
He could make out two men waiting there.
Heading into the wind, they soon landed, and began to taxi up to
the lean to.
When they stopped, the two men approached,
The one in the lead was easily recognisable as Jocks brother, the other one was shorter but more stockier.
Butch estimated he was about in his mid thirties, seemingly to
be quite fit, and much heavily tatooed, of which many were prison ones.
Butch, turned towards Tom, and began to scratch his chin with
his index finger pointed towards the tatooed man, while at the same time winking, then Tom winked and nodded in reply.
After the introductions were finished, the keys were handed over to Butch, who thanked them kindly.
All of this time, the one introduced as "Toad" Grimly never took
his eyes off them.
His eyes followed them all the way to the 4x4, even until they were sure the dust now blanketed the track.
Butch had no boubt, that he was the enemy, and that he would have had talks with the leaders.
He would wager that this vehicle was bugged, and that they would
be followed, so he turned off at the first sidetrack, and dived under the vehicle, and did a quick search, he was banking on the
brothers vehicle not stopping, because "Toad" would not activate
the tracker until he was alone.
Sure enough, they continued on past them, and headed towards Lake Cargelico.
He had to find that bug quickly, he searched for about five minutes under it, then decided to look inside, and while he was
bending over to reach up under the dash, his shoulder brushed the cigarette lighter, and the black handle came away, revealing
a transmitter, which he quickly dismantled, now he could do a
further check of the outside for explosives or anything else
that would damage them or the vehicle
The plan now was, to journey to a different destination than was
previously planned, but first he would radio Hawk, and let him know the situation.

When he had relayed the information to Hawk, they had agreed to
meet at Nymagee in three days time, so they headed back towards
Hillston, but electing to turn off beforehand at Wallanthery and
cut across to the road to Nymagee.
With a final check of the 4x4, he suddenly noticed a new clamp
on the hose to the fuel tank, so he began to tap the tank, to
ascertain the fuel level, it only seemed to be half way down from the top then stopped, then he realized the tank had been
split and only held half it's capacity, the bottom would be
filled with water, making the fuel gauge float register full.
They would have to abandon the vehicle at Wallanthery.
So they set off to try and succeed that far.

An hour and a half later, they turned into the sleepy little town, and headed for the fuel depot.
There, they made inquiries if anyone would like to buy the 4x4, or perhaps trade it for something else, they were directed to
the local store, and to ask for "Crowy" he might be interested.
"Crowy", proved to be the bush smart dealer, slow but not stupid
and they finally shook on a deal for two horses, and the saddles
and such.
They rode out towards the direction of Nymagee, only stopping
when they were clear of the town to radio Hawk, and delay the
meeting for an extra two days, because of their mode of transport.
Each rode silently onwards, contemplating their destinies.