“What a stinking mess!” said Garbarla.   He stared out the door of the hut at the mud-splattered village, which looked as though it had been through a Queensland monsoon.

“I’d better see what I can do to help clean it up,” he said.    Looking about he saw some of the iron huts had been blown down in the heavy rains and winds, and would need complete rebuilding.   Other huts had gaping rectangular holes in the roofs or outside walls, where sheets of iron had been blown off.   To either lie in the mud, or against or on top of neighbouring huts.

Slowly Garbarla and Debbie walked through the village, wary of stepping on nails or torn corrugated iron.   They were almost at Weari-Wyingga’s hut, when Debbie tapped her son’s shoulder and said, “Hut slide.”

Thinking he had misheard, Garbarla looked round and gasped, surprised to see she was right.   Most of the huts were built with little or no foundations.   Many of them had moved a few centimetres in the storm without suffering any major structural damage.   However, the big mover was the two-room hut of Nambidjimba’s twenty-eight year-old cousin, Susan Gurtima, which had slid eight or ten metres, completely cutting off one of the “streets” between the huts.

“My God!” said Garbarla, unable to stop himself laughing.   “How’ll they ever move that back?”

Debbie shrugged and said, “Walk around it.”

Garbarla laughed, then realised she was probably right.   Aborigines have managed to survive 50,000 years in Australia because they have a very relaxed outlook on life.

He stopped laughing, when they noticed a tall, lean figure standing by one of the storm-damaged huts, glaring toward them.

“Mutapina!” warned Debbie.   But the murderer made no move to attack them.

Although he could have turned and reversed direction, Garbarla realised that having been appointed Mutapina’s executioner it was important not to show weakness.   So, trying to look more confident than he felt, he strode straight up to Mutapina.   He was almost past the murderer, when Larry put out an arm to block his passage.

Garbarla considered pushing the arm away to rush past.    But in the end his bravado failed him and he turned to face Mutapina.