FRANCIS: [to MELORNE] We saw a dead man on the mountain. Back there. He had flowers in his hair and gold in his mouth.

MELORNE sits, uncomprehending. FRANCIS points to BETSHEB.

She came and cried beside him.

STEF lies on his back and makes wind noises at the sky.

PETER: He wasn’t buried, but he was dead.

No-one seems to understand. BETSHEB hands meat and fruit to FRANCIS and PETER in the only two porcelain bowls.

[To FRANCIS, sotto voce] I see we get the best china. [To BETSHEB] Thank you.

FRANCIS: How long have you people lived here?

Silence.

Do you understand us?

Silence.

MELORNE: [thickly] Fer skilly we gobble in awe.

BETSHEB and AYRE both laugh, as at a private joke. Everyone starts to eat. They have spoons and/or battered forks. There is an embarrassing silence as people try and think of ways of bridging the gap.

FRANCIS: [at last] I come from Melbourne. Peter comes from Hobart. I’m an engineer. I design bridges. Peter is a geologist. He studies rocks. He knows all about things like that gold there.

No-one seems to understand. BETSHEB feeds STEF by the same method she used before. AYRE sees the visitors’ surprise.

AYRE: Born o’ cat ’n’ rack ’n’ goldy sow.

They don’t understand. Annoyed at being fed when he doesn’t want to be, STEF cries out and rolls away. ANGEL begins to hum a tune.

He fed on tarse o’ dark in the black quim o’ a belle.

STEF joins ANGEL in humming the snatch of melody, but soon he grows very loud.

[Trying to make herself understood] Skittle. Skittle. Blackfortune.

The two men nod as though they can understand. STEF’s humming is almost yelling now. PETER recognises the tune and begins to sing over the top of STEF; he goes beyond the snatch of tune and sings the whole verse.

PETER: [singing]

‘I finally found you,’ Edward said,
‘I’ve just returned from the salt, salt sea,
And it is all for the love of thee.
They say you married a hanging judge,
O don’t let the news, the news be true.
But a friend, he said you didn’t wait for me
As I have waited on the sea for you.’

There is a silence, except for the quiet humming of STEF. PETER is embarrassed.

Those are the words of that song. My grandmother taught them to me.

ANGEL gives an 1850s top hat in very good condition to MELORNE. He makes a performing space. BETSHEB drags STEF to lie at AYRE’s feet. STEF stops humming and briefly cries out in alarm. AYRE pats him on the head and sings a murmuring song.

AYRE: [singing]

In the night,
In the day,
Blue ruins, blue ruins
In Jack’s Inn Bay.