The Danger Hill Range, was a place of lofty peaks down whose steep sides flood waters would rush in the rainy season to fill the deep valleys which lay at their feet, methodically washing away the shacks of the intrepid people who squatted on the hillside, on lands adjacent to the bauxite mining company’s mined-out   had been only partially reclaimed, so that they could claim benefits when the time came for the mining company to expand their operations. Some distance away from the foot of Danger Hill, lay Cajenton, a small country village. The community which had nothing to do with the  hillside squatters, but its inhabitants suffered just the same, because of its proximity to people who, whether by choice or by necessity, lived just outside the ambit of the law. 

Dee met her father for the first time under rather unusual circumstances, while she was living with her mother and brother in Cajenton. It was a place where solid citizens lived.  The place was well established, and most of the people held common-law titles to their small holdings which had been passed down in their families over three generations. Dee lived and her younger brother lived with their mother a house which she rented from Busha Dawes, the principal landowner in the area. It was a solid house, although it had clearly been constructed in an earlier time before concrete and steel were common as building material. However, over time attempts had been made  to modernize it. A modern kitchen had been added to replace the original stone fireplace and the cement floor stained red had been replaced by terrazzo tiles. Dee was a happy child until that night.  They went to bed as usual but neither of the children could fall asleep, so their mother took them into her room where they snuggled on either side of her.  At about midnight, judging from the length of time that they had slept, Dee was awakened by a scratching sound in the verandah outside and shook her mother awake. “Mumsie, I hear something moving outside.  Is it the wind that you told us about that will come to blow us all away to the North Pole if we are not good?”

“Hush, child” answered Mumsie, annoyed but trying not to show it.  “It’s nothing, go back to sleep.”