The Kiwi Target

dirt road. A few minutes later, he pulled up before the big, rambling ranch house that was now his home.
    As he got out of the car, Jack McHugh came to greet him. He shook hands with a firm grip and then reached into the car for the luggage. “Come in, Peter,” he said. “Tea will be ready as soon as you are. And there’s a message for you. You’re to call a Mr. Swarthmore in the States. He said you have the number.” That called for immediate action. He went to the telephone in the large living room, raised the operator, and put through the call. In a surprisingly short time Charlie Swarthmore was on the line.
    “Peter, how are you?” he asked.
    “Fine, just fine.”
    “I’ve got very good news for you. You came through. I have a very nice letter from Mr. Bishop enclosing his proxy. That seals >t—there’s no way Pricane can take us over now.”
    “Wonderful,” Peter said.
    “Now, I’ve heard about the property you inherited from your mother’s estate. What are you going to do about this?”
    ‘Charlie, I’m not sure yet. I may divide my time between S and S and my station here. Can you give me a few more days?”
    I’ll give you a whole damned year if you want it. Just let me know when to expect you.”
    Good enough, thank you,” Peter said. “I’ll keep you in the Picture.”
    “I was glad when I heard that you were boning up on station management at the library,” Jack said during lunch. “I knew then that you were going to come and stay here, at least for a while.”
    Louise added to that. “You see, we had a fear that when you finally turned up, you might take a quick look at the station and then put it up for sale. You know there’s a foreign group that wants to buy it right now.”
    Peter nodded. “As I told you, I’m not selling. This is my home now. Just don’t leave me here alone with no experience in running a place like this.”
    “You’re safe enough in that,” Jack assured him. “But you can see why we’ve been worried. The whole area around here is nice and peaceful; we want to keep it that way.”
    Peter finished his sandwich and reached for another. “When can I start work?” he asked.
    “How about your job with the tourism people?”
    “I was told to come here and stay until they send for me.” Peter glanced at his watch. “I think it would be a good idea to check in with them.”
    Following the instructions he had been given, Peter placed a call to the office of the Honorable Warren Cooper. When he mentioned his name, the secretary on the line put him through to the minister personally.
    “Good afternoon, Peter,” Cooper greeted him. “How are things going?”
    “That’s what I called to report, sir. While we were at the Bay of Islands, I received a message from Superintendent Winston. He recommended that my companion and I leave there and that I come here to my station. I took that to be an official directive; I hope I did right.”
    “No doubt, Peter. You’ve probably heard that two of the Australian gang we have been after are now in custody. We don t know at present where the other three are. Since dealing with them is strictly a police matter, we felt it would be best to keep you out of the way until it’s concluded.”
    “What are your instructions, sir.”
    “Stay right where you are until we contact you. By the way- you seem to have made a good friend up north, Constable Pettibone. He speaks highly of you. When we next meet, I’ll want to hear about your encounter with Mr. Kincaid.”
    Peter replaced the phone with a tinge of regret, but Cooper had been right—it was a job for the police and one they were trained to handle. He went back to the kitchen and reported the gist of the conversation to the McHughs.
    “Not to worry,” Jack told him. “You’ll need the time to get used to the station.”
    To start things off, Louise took him on a detailed tour of the house. They went first to a huge attic where a variety of things, decades old, had been carefully stored. There were many impressive rooms in the house, all of them well furnished and maintained.
    Back in the big, airy living room Jack added some more details. “We have to be careful of fire here. A while ago the house at Walter Peak Station burned down and they had to build a whole new one—not as good as the first. Because we’re so much on our own here, I spent some money to put in a protection system. There’s a new tank up above that will supply plenty of water by