narratorAUSTRALIA Volume One

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  ‘She’s gone, I tell you, just gone, cleared off, no sign of ’er anywhere. I turned the place upside down, coo-eed, hollered, tooted the horn, but nothing, not a bleeding thing.’

  The constable raised his eyebrows, ‘She taken her things with her?’

  ‘How would I know if she’s taken ’er things; I wouldn’t know what ’er things were.’

  ‘Could you get your missus to have a look, she’d have a better idea.’

  ‘Yes, right. Reckon she’s been gone a week or two, there’s a dead old roo, at the house fence, been shot. Don’t reckon she’d stay long once it started to stink.’

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  ‘The missus says she’d left everything; clothes, photographs, the rifle, even ’er toothbrush. Doesn’t look real good, Tom, not real good at all. She kept so much to ’erself, you didn’t notice whether she was there or not. Tried to get out there now and then, but diesel bein’ the price it is ... Some of the wives used to phone ’er every so often but the missus says she didn’t seem real keen on keepin’ in touch.’