Pete actually recognised one of the young men. Ron Kibbey was a Townsville boy, and he knew the Kibbey family well. Handy, he thought.

‘G’day, Ron,’ he said, rising from his bar stool. ‘Can I buy you a drink? You and your mates of course.’

‘G’day, Pete. Sure, why not.’ The two shook hands and Ron made the introductions.

‘Pete’s a crash-hot journo with the Bulletin,’ he announced to his mates, Pete rather wishing that he hadn’t. ‘This is Frank Midgely and Paddy Sullivan,’ he went on, ‘we’re stationed at Mount Louisa with the 51st.’

‘Yeah, I thought you were.’ Cover now blown, Pete decided there was no point pretending his was just a passing interest, so when they were settled at a table with their beers he cut straight to the chase.

‘Everyone’s talking about last week’s riot,’ he said casually. Everyone wasn’t, as a matter of fact, the general talk around town had already died down. ‘So what exactly happened, do you boys know? Strictly off the record, of course,’ he added hastily. ‘They wouldn’t allow me to write anything, and if I did they wouldn’t print it anyway. I’m just interested as a local, you know, from a historical point of view.’ He smiled amiably from one to the other, sharing his camaraderie particularly with Ron Kibbey, the impression being they were just a few North Queenslanders having a chat.

Ron was flattered by the ‘matey’ treatment he was getting from Pete Vickers. Pete was a really intelligent bloke who was held in high regard by the people of Townsville.

‘We were called out to block off the Ross River Road,’ he said, eager to impress and, focused upon Pete as he was, unaware of the warning look from Midge.

‘You mean to halt the blokes from the 96th Battalion,’ Pete chipped in encouragingly. Unlike Ron, he was only too aware of the warning signal cast by Frank Midgely and knew he was on borrowed time.

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ Ron said, ‘but we didn’t see any action, they didn’t come our way. They took the other route into town.’

‘So what happened there —’

‘We can’t say, mate,’ Midge cut in. ‘We weren’t there, we weren’t in on the action.’ Midge’s tone was not rude, nor even unfriendly, but he was definitely calling a halt to the conversation.

Paddy added his say, too, he and Midge exchanging a glance. Ron wasn’t really that bright. ‘We weren’t there and we don’t know,’ he said, directing his comment as much to Ron as to Pete. ‘You’ve got to be aware there’s such a thing as the Official Secrets Act, mate.’