He watched the different expressions flit across Danny’s face and heard the longing in his voice, but he said nothing as he poured the tea into the tin mugs and added some sugar.

‘My dad was a vet – the best vet in Sydney. The bloke we’ve got here is a grumpy old man who lives way out of town and charges everyone too much.’ He looked over his shoulder at him. ‘I was very proud of my dad,’ he said, before heaving a deep sigh and returning to watching the water. ‘He used to play games with me after tea, and sometimes we’d go camping in the bush and we’d play Cowboys and Indians and eat bush tucker.’

‘He sounds like a bonzer dad,’ he said through a throat that was tight with emotion. ‘You must miss him.’

‘Yeah, I do. He was my best mate.’ Danny knuckled away a tear and then shuffled back from the cave mouth and faced him. ‘How come you knew about this place? Are you from around here?’

He blew on the hot tea, playing for time. ‘Reckon I know lots of places like this,’ he said quietly. ‘Where there’s water and a spring there are usually rocks and caves. It wasn’t hard to find.’

‘Why didn’t you take me back to Morgan’s Reach?’

‘I wasn’t sure if that was where you lived,’ he replied. ‘You were out cold, remember, and we hadn’t had the chance to get properly acquainted. Besides, I’m a stranger here,’ he added, ‘and it would have caused a fuss if I’d turned up carrying you like that.’

Danny’s eyes sparkled. ‘Are you on the run?’ he breathed. ‘Are the police hunting for you? Is that why you’ve been hiding?’

He smiled and shook his head. ‘I’m just a bloke minding me own business and trying to get from one place to another. I prefer my own company, that’s all.’

Danny eyed him thoughtfully as he picked up the tin cup and blew on the hot tea. ‘George said his dad was a bit like that. John Blake was a drover, and liked being out in the bush with the black fellas.’

‘You can learn a lot from the black fellas, Danny. That’s no bad thing.’

Danny grinned. ‘That’s what my dad said – and he knew all about bush tucker and finding wild honey.’ His expression became more serious as the memories flooded back. ‘He promised we’d visit his dad’s big cattle station over to the east. But that was before the war, and now Grandpa Jackson has sold up and gone to live in Darwin with my auntie.’

‘Perhaps when you’re older your mum will take you there on a visit.’