Maxwell didn’t turn to discover who might be watching. But he didn’t lay the boot into Ant as had been his intention, and as Stowers had known he was about to do.

‘Get back to work, nigger,’ he said instead. Then he strode away without looking back.

Kasey reported the episode to Rupe. ‘Maxwell’s obviously chosen Ant as his next victim,’ he said. Kasey couldn’t help feeling guilty somehow, as if this was all his fault. ‘It used to be me, but now Ant’s the one copping it. And that’s not fair, Rupe, Ant can’t handle the pressure the way I could, it’s just not fair.’

‘I’ll see if he’d like me to take some action on his behalf, Kase,’ Rupe promised. But he already knew what the answer would be.

Reading the Just So Stories together as they did, and helping him write his letter to Mrs Sanderson, Rupe had come to know exactly the type of young man Anthony Hill was.

Early that evening after the meal break, he paid a visit to the four-man tent Ant shared with three others. Fortunately the others were not there, which was not unusual. Ant spent much of his time alone in the tent reading his book by the light of a torch, while most men preferred to socialise.

‘Oh no, I don’t want to cause no trouble, sir,’ Ant said when Rupe suggested he might intervene on his behalf and seek the assistance of Captain Robinson. ‘Oh no, sir, I wouldn’t want that.’

Away from the parade ground and the call of duty and the work details to which they were assigned, the men of Company C knew Corporal Rupert Barrett as ‘Rupe’ and they addressed him as such. But not Ant. To Ant, the corporal was always ‘sir’, even when they sat huddled over the book sharing how the leopard got his spots.

Rupe had certainly come to recognise that for young Anthony Hill, there was something far more frightening than being bullied by a white man. Such bullying was no doubt something he’d suffered for so much of his life, it had become the natural way of things. The ‘something else’ Ant feared far more was being made the centre of attention among white men. The very thought of having his predicament reported to a higher authority terrified Ant.

‘Very well, then,’ Rupe said, ‘you just tell me if things get out of hand, Private.’

‘I will, sir,’ Ant said, ‘yes I will.’

But they both knew he wouldn’t.

CHAPTER TEN