‘I didn’t see anyone,’ he admitted, ‘but Sandra’s convinced someone was out there the other night.’ He turned to his wife. ‘But even if there was,’ he said tightly, ‘it was miles back, and if he was on foot he couldn’t possibly have made his way here in such a short time. I really think we should consider the fact that our thief was a local.’

‘It was the Baker twins,’ piped up Danny.

‘You don’t know that for certain,’ admonished Rebecca. She turned back to Terry and Sandra and explained about the twins. ‘But I’m sure they wouldn’t have done such a thing,’ she finished, giving them the benefit of the doubt. ‘They’re not thieves by nature, and their pranks are often annoying, but quite harmless.’

‘I’m more interested in this mysterious man Sandra thought she saw,’ said Jane.

‘I didn’t think anything,’ snapped Sandra. ‘I know what I saw.’

‘And I think we should all take your observations very seriously,’ Jane soothed. She glanced at Terry and silenced his objection with a wave of her hand. ‘I happened to be listening to the chatter on the two-way yesterday morning and heard Bob Freeman talking to Ben about a fire that’d been put out by someone on the far south-western corner of his property.’

‘Did he say what the man looked like?’ asked Sandra eagerly.

Jane shook her head. ‘He didn’t see him, but he knows for certain it was none of his men. He found clear tracks of heavy boots and a remnant of cloth that could have been army-issue camouflage – not something worn by Django’s mob or swagmen.’

‘It was him,’ she said excitedly. ‘The camouflage explains why Terry couldn’t see him. He shifted back into the shadows as soon as we made eye contact, but I’ll never forget that moment.’ She looked at each of them triumphantly. ‘You see – I was right.’

‘Where was the fire exactly?’ asked Gwyneth.

‘By the old windmill and cattle troughs just east of the railway line and Nine Mile Creek,’ replied Jane.

Gwyneth leaned on her walking stick and looked thoughtfully out of the screen door. ‘That’s a fair way,’ she muttered. ‘Too far for a man on foot to get here by now.’ She looked at Sandra and nodded with approval. ‘It seems you have a keen eye,’ she said, ‘and the man you saw could very well have been the same one who put out Bob’s fire. But I don’t think he’s our thief.’

‘Then who?’ said Terence with a rasp of impatience.

‘I think it’s time I went and had a word with Reverend Baker,’ she said sternly.

‘See, Mum, I told you,’ shouted Danny.