"Ripped By mstoll" "Cease running!" "Cease running." "Go any deeper, we die." "Fire two." "Fire three." "What happened?" "I went for a swim, boss." "I got into difficulties." " Got into difficulties?" " Yes, boss." "His words exactly." "You tried to drown yourself." " No, boss." " 100 yards out, pitch black." "You were drowning yourself and in the course of drowning yourself, you swam into our bloated blacksmith." " No, boss." " Yes, boss!" "You know what that will get you, Katherine McVitie?" "One hundred lashes." "Now, you might think your life miserable now but it will be a lot worse after 100 lashes." "How dare you do this to me?" "How dare you prefer death?" "Get out." " Sir." " Get out, get out now!" "How dare you prefer death to these?" "How dare you try to humiliate me in this way?" "I will not be humiliated by a whore." "If that was your aim, you have failed abysmally because I do not give a damn for the opinion of a whore." "And if it was guilt..." "This is the second time you've contemplated killing me and I tell you, Corporal, if there is a third time, you will die." "Is that understood?" "Yes, sir." "If you wished to burden me with guilt, if you wished me to think I drove you to your death, you have failed there, too." "We live in unusual circumstances." "Lots of soldiers, very few women." "No woman can have one man." "She must share." "How dare you even think it?" "You stupid, selfish bitch!" "I have something to show you." "Come on, move it!" "How many of your men fired at Freeman?" "Four, sir." "And they all missed?" "Perhaps, sir." "There's been more recent gunfire." "I have no doubt whatsoever that he's dead." "Your friend did this." "Really, boss?" "Do you think he acted alone?" " No idea, boss." " Could you lift him?" "Just about." "Oh." "Could you drag him along the beach, get him into a boat and then dump him in the sea?" "No, boss." " No, you would need help." " Yes, boss." "His skull has been crushed by a truncheon or a cosh." " He's been hacked with an axe..." " A spade." "Sorry?" "I know I said axe, but on reflection," "I think a spade." "A cosh and a spade." "That suggests more than one attacker, yes?" " Yes." " You?" "No, boss." "Our blacksmith, worth more to us than 10 of you." "I'm sorry about that, boss." "Dig his grave." "Right, boss." "Reverend?" "A young woman named Katherine McVitie found the body in the sea." " Yes." " She was trying to drown herself." "No, she was swimming." "Got into difficulties." "That's what she says." "The truth is she tried to drown herself." " Do you know why?" " No." "Because you have been forcing yourself upon her." "Forcing myself upon her?" "No," "I have been sharing her, as all my men do with their women." "Katherine McVitie is not the sort of woman you share." " She's a whore." " She is no whore." "Do not be deceived by looks, Mrs Johnson." " She is a whore." "Captain Collins?" " Major." "Based on your knowledge of Katherine McVitie, is she or is she not a whore?" "She is a whore, sir." "A whore does not try to drown herself because she is being pestered by a man." "It must stop." " What?" " You must stop seeing her." "Governor." "Perhaps you should find someone else." "Forgive me, the stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming." "Will you stop seeing your housekeeper?" "What?" "Do you think Deborah and I are lovers?" " Yes." " We are not." " I see." " We are not!" "Major Ross, I will ask you again." "Please think before you answer, because it will have serious consequences for your spiritual wellbeing." "Will you leave Katherine McVitie alone?" "No." "In that case, you are no longer welcome into any of my services." "Governor, this is unjust." "He is the only vicar in this entire country." "He could do this in England and that would be fair, for in England I would find another vicar, another church." " This is a spiritual matter." " Here, he has a monopoly on all things spiritual and it is wrong for him to exploit it." "This is a spiritual matter and no concern of the Governor's." "Damn you." ""I am the resurrection and the life." ""He who believes in me, even though he dies, shall live." ""Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." ""Ashes to ashes," ""dust to dust," ""in sure and certain knowledge of the resurrection to come."" " Amen." " Amen." "You are a very clever woman, Anne Meredith." "You can put yourself in other people's shoes and feel what they feel and that should make you their friend." "But it does not, it makes you their enemy because you exploit this great gift that you have, yes?" "Yes." "Yes." "Please stop, stop!" "You admit it." "Your husband is watching us." "You admit that you trick people?" "Yes." "Here is a woman who's lost two children at birth." "She's pregnant again." "She will not tempt fate, she will not name the child before the child is born." "What woman would?" "So simple, Anne, yes?" "Yes." "I know you want me to deny it, but I cannot." "I lied." "You cannot speak to your children, you'll never speak to them." "I'm sorry." "What did you expect to get from it?" "Food?" "Come." "They wanted to flog you." "I managed to dissuade them but it was not easy." "Suicide is the gravest sin of all, you see, because it comes from despair." "Lack of faith in the mercy of God." "A hundred lashes at least, usually." "Thank you." "I believe you." "I believe His Lordship tried to rape you." " You believe me?" " Yes." "Then send me home." "Only the Governor can do that." "May I resume my work?" "Is it the sex?" "If it is, we could... refrain." "You could come to me, lie with me, talk to me." "Naked or fully dressed, whatever you wish." "Fully dressed." "Fully dressed, then." "And... no sex." "No sex." "Not until you are ready for it." "And if I am never ready for it?" "So be it." "Christ carries his own cross." "Not for him the joy of a new church." "Only agony awaited him." "Here." "Almighty God, please show us the way to complete this church." "It is truly our one desire." "Amen." "Amen." "What did you talk about?" "You and Anne Meredith?" "She told me she lied." "She told me I could never talk to the children." "Good." "Good?" "Not good that you cannot talk to our children." "Good that she heeded my warning." " Your warning?" " Mmm-hmm." "I warned her not to speak to you." "And if she insisted on speaking to me?" "If she insisted?" "If she insisted on speaking to you about our dead children," "then she could be seen as a witch." "Oh, Stephen." " Deborah." " Hello, Governor." "I, uh, have something to tell you." "You'll not like it." "I certainly do not like it." "Is that fish?" "Mr Bryant caught some today." "I asked him for one for you." " What kind is it?" " He did not know." "He said they taste pleasant enough." "Oh, share it with me." " No." " You must." "I will not." "I was remonstrating with Major Ross about his feelings for that young woman, and he..." " Yes?" " He, well..." "Well, he accused me of having an affair." " With who?" " You." "Oh." "What did you say?" "Well, I'm not sure I said anything." "It, uh, took the wind out of my sails." "It was a revelation, actually." " Yes?" " Yes, your... behaviour the other night." "You'd obviously heard something and as preposterous as the idea is, it has certainly affected you." " It has not." " No, it has." "I know it has." "We need to nip this in the bud." "I do not want your husband to return" " and have to deal with..." " No need." "...nonsense such as this." " No need." "There's no need for that." "I'm sure he will think it preposterous, too." "Mmm." "Mr Bryant said they were rather bony." "These fish." "There's always the possibility of changing, of maturing, of becoming a better husband." "A better father, a better man." "I know what my husband said to you, Anne." "I know how frightened you must be to see me here, but I promise you I'll never breathe a word of this to a soul." "I will swear it on the Bible if necessary." "You want to speak to them?" " Why do you do it here?" " No one comes here after dark." "Do you want to speak to them?" " Yes." " Then we shall." "I do not wish to intrude." "I will sit here and..." "Mrs Johnson." "We will be speaking to your children." "We should do that alone." "At least for the first time." "Reverend?" "Major Ross." "Enter." "I am sorry." "My faith is everything." "Being barred from attending chapel is too much for me." "I'm afraid I am truly sorry." "Thank you." " Mrs Johnson not here?" " No." "How is the church coming along?" " Oh, we've abandoned it." " Oh." "It's impossible for just the two of us." "Will the convicts not help?" "The Governor will not allow it." "Their normal work exhausts them." "He says to do more would kill them." "My men do not work." "They could build it." "And in return?" "Nothing." "Well, the satisfaction of having done something for the faith, huge reward in itself, but apart from that," "nothing." "Thank you." "Katherine McVitie." "You were right there as well." "Forcing myself on her was wrong." "It will not happen again." "Thank you." "But may I still entertain her?" "Fully clothed." "No sex." "Would you give your blessing to that?" " When will your men start on the church?" " Immediately." "And yes, you have my blessing." "Are the four of them here?" "Yes." "You see them?" "I feel them." "Would you like to say something to them?" "What would you like to say?" "I'm sorry for letting you down." "They have never blamed you." "In London, we lived amongst prostitutes." "Ugly, foul-mouthed, drunken, screeching whoredom." "But they could give birth, breastfeed, nurse, mother." "Whilst I was..." "You gave only two of them names?" "Yes." "Would you like to name the other two?" "The boy would have been Thomas, after my husband's father." "And the girl?" "Joan after my mother." "I am in touch with two worlds, Mrs Johnson." "Those who have passed on and those who are unborn." "There is a soul there waiting for you to give birth to it." " It will die." " Perhaps." "But we are in New South Wales, upside-down." "What dies in England might thrive here." "Yes?" "Yes." "# Oh, Tommy, my dear I'd like to wed you" "# Oh, Tommy, my dear I'd like to bed you" "# Smile, don't reply Don't think I'll explain #" "And again." "Keep your guard up." "Is it true?" "You tried to kill yourself rather than..." "Yes." "I can smell the sea." "I went to Minehead." "Boarding school." "Produces good soldiers, good sailors." "My father went there." "And his father." "There was a boy in my class called Carrington." "I think there was something wrong with him, something amiss." "We hardly spoke." "One day," "Dobson punched him." "And when punched by Dobson, you went down and you stayed down, otherwise he'd kill you." "But, uh..." "Carrington did not go down." "Never forget the look on his face." "Horror and confusion." "Horrified that Dobson was doing this to him, and utterly confused as to why." "I think it was that horror and confusion that stopped him doing what any other boy would do and go down." "Stay down." "So, Dobson goes on punching." "I run for a teacher." ""Sir." ""Sir, there is a fight in Alpha yard."" "He... dawdles back towards Alpha." "I want him to run because Dobson is still punching Carrington, but he dawdles." "We get there." "He shouts." "At last Dobson can stop punching." "Then that teacher tells Dobson and Carrington" "and every other boy in that playground," ""It was Ross here who grassed on you."" "There have been many times since then that I've felt the urge to show compassion." "I've always managed to resist it." "What is that?" "Cicadas, I think." "They're small, but there are millions of them, hence the noise." "Make love to me." "What?" "Make love to me." "We agreed not to." "I don't care what we agreed." "Make love to me." "And if you get pregnant?" "I want to get pregnant." "And go through all that again?" "No, we will never again see you in such pain." "It will not die." " They have all died." " This one will not." "How can you know that?" "Because... this is an upside-down world." "What dies in England will thrive here." " This is nonsense." " It is not." "Make love to me." "May I go now?" "If you wish." "There is some rice on the desk." "Thank you." "I used to go to confession at St Cecilia's." "There was a statue of the Virgin Mary there, and I would look up at her as I said my penance." "She wobbled." "The truer my confession, the more contrite," "the more she wobbled." "Goodnight." "Goodnight." "Do you want to go down to the sea?" "He kept his word." "We just talked." "Some rice." "I will do it." "Did he make you undress?" "No." "What did he say?" "He told me about when he was at school." " And you?" " I listened." "You did not speak?" "No." "I just listened." "What did he say about when he was at school?" "He told me a story." "He tried to help a boy, but it all went wrong." "What?" "I would sooner you had..." "No..." "Jefferson." "We..." "We thought you were dead." "Freeman!" "Freeman!" "Did you follow the smell of the meat?" "The natives call it "kangaroo"." "Come and share it with us." "How long has it been since you ate and drank, eh?" "I know what you are thinking." "You will come back at night." "You will rob us." "You know there's no water for miles, Freeman." "The river shows itself here, disappears again." "Freeman!" "I will smoke you out." "That's how the natives catch a kangaroo." "They set the bush alight, kangaroo comes running from the fire, straight on the natives' spears." "Show yourself or burn." "Freeman!" "Freeman!" " Hello, Stubbins." " Captain." "You are our blacksmith now?" "Afraid so." "Mr Molloy told me about that lovely letter from your wife." " Yeah?" " You think I might read it?" "It came the day before we left England." "I was in despair." "Felt abandoned." "I prayed to Christ, you know, 'cause he felt the same when he was hanging on the cross." ""Oh, why, my Father, has thou forsaken me?"" "And no sooner had I finished praying but my prayer was answered with that letter." "It's lovely." "Thank you." "I could keep it in my file, look after it for you." "I like to carry it around with me." "Thank you." "You are busy?" " Yes." " Much busier than when you were simply working the land?" " Yes." " So, you might want to forget learning to read right now." "Why?" "Well, because your work here is so important and you have so much of it." "Where will you find the time for anything else?" "I'll find the time." "Captain Collins, I dream of writing a letter in my own words," "telling my darling wife how much I miss her." "And how much I long to hold her in my arms once more." "Now, as dreams go, it's a modest one, Captain Collins, but by God, it fires me." "Very well." "I shall, um..." "I'll see you later for another lesson." "Thank you, Captain." ""Thou art Peter and upon this rock," ""I shall build my church."" ""The drought of March has pierced unto the root" ""and bathed each vein with liquor" ""that has power to generate therein and sire the flower." ""When Zephyr also has..."" " Four?" " Four." "Where's the other one?" "You have it." "No, I..." "I do not." " You have it." "You do, you do." " No, I do not." "No, no." "Hands." " Hands." " Hands." "Hands." "Uh-huh, uh-huh." "Mmm-hmm." "Mmm-hmm." "Ooh, ow." "Uh..." "A-ha." " Yes?" " Oh." "I think I might have found something up here." "Oh, oh." "How did you do that?" "How could you possibly do that?" "James." "James!" "You fool." "You bloody fool." "They will hang you for this." "Water!" "Someone bring this man some water!" "James." "James." "James." "Get a move on!" "It is true, then." "He's back." "I missed you too much, Major." " You told me you shot him." " Yes, sir." " Pints and pints, and pints of blood." " Yes, sir." "We will discuss this later." "Sir." "Give me that." "Go and fuck yourself." "Give me it." "What can you do to me?" "Apart from that." "Who gave him it?" "We did." "He's a dead man." "Do not waste food on a dead man." "My men did not wound you in any way." "Not even close." "You will tell the Governor that their shots whistled past your ear." "Promise me." "Swear by Almighty God that you will tell him that and you may eat." "I swear by Almighty God that I will tell the Governor that their shots whistled past my ear." "Which ear, incidentally?" "Let us see how funny you are with a rope around your neck." " Did you eat?" " In the bush?" " No, boss." " Drink?" "Yes, boss, but it was bad." "Gave me diarrhoea." "So, how did you do it?" " Sorry, boss?" " How did you kill the blacksmith?" "I coshed him." "And where did you get the cosh?" "I made it, Governor." "I put pebbles in a canvas bag." " Someone helped you." " No, Governor." " Who was it?" " No one helped me." "The scaffold is a lonely place." "You'll want company." "So, tell me now." "Who helped you?" "No one." "Tommy Barrett?" "No, boss." "You were not wounded in the escape?" "No, boss." "Their shots whistled past my ear but none hit me." "You'll hang just before dawn." "Any objections?" "I object." "Oh, well, I'm sure you do." " Sadly, it does not count." " I acted in self-defence." "He was stealing my food, starving me to death." "I tried to reason with him." "That failed." "I tried to fight him." "That failed." "I even tried grassing on him and that failed because you refused to act." "What else could I do?" "We cannot have convicts taking the law" " into their own hands." " There was no law!" "You put the blacksmith above it!" "I'm sorry." "You have killed a man and you must hang for it." "Take him away." "I will haunt you." "I will come back and haunt you." "I swear to it." "I will haunt you." "I will haunt you all from the grave!" " Who will hang him?" " I will." "No, it is a non-military matter." "A civilian must hang him." "A fellow convict." "Will we find one?" "One?" "Hundreds." "They'd hang their mothers for a tot of rum." "I meant what I said about keeping the law here bright and shiny." "I want us all to obey the law because we respect the law." "But it is too soon for that." "Respect has to be earned over a long period of time." "Until then, we have to make do with fear of the law." "Fear requires a hanging." "Who will do it?" "Who will be our hangman?" "What do you think will happen here?" "Please." "There'll be a bloodbath." "Not enough women." "Not enough food." "Men will turn on each other." "And that is why we need a hangman." " Yes." " Will you do it?" "I couldn't harm a fly." "I know." "Then how would you expect me to hang a man?" "By being the hangman, you are maintaining law and order." "There are those who will hate you for it." "Fools, scoundrels, they will wish you harm." "They will not do you harm, however." "You will have an armed guard with you wherever you go, whatever you do." "Sleeping, waking, eating." "An armed soldier with you at all times." "No one will be more secure than our hangman." "So, step forward." "What will happen to the hangman?" " Someone will cut his throat." " Yes." "Unless he is a man who deserves sympathy and respect." "A man who finds it almost impossible to hang a man." "A man who is sick each time he has to do it." "A man who finds it so repellent he can be doing it only because we need him to do it." "A hangman such as that would be allowed to live." "But I am not that kind of man." "The hangman will be entitled to extra food." "Extra pork, even." "And that is not a bribe, that is simply our way of keeping him fit and well, because we do not want him to die on us and make us go through all this again." "So, extra pork for the hangman." "Tot of rum, as well." " Someone has to do it." " Yes." " You agree?" " Yes." "And you have stood there." "You've felt the noose around your neck." "You know what it is like." " Yes." " And you have principles." "You have shown yourself prepared to die for them." "No one would say Tommy Barrett is doing it for the extra piece of pork." "They would say, "Tommy Barrett is doing it because it has to be done."" "Tommy Barrett is not doing it." "You're the only man who can, Tommy, because you are truly Christlike." "I am not Christlike, believe me." "I've done some terrible, terrible things in my life, Reverend, and I am not Christlike." "Who should do it, then?" "Go to hell, Reverend." "I have the power to reduce your sentences." "If you are doing 14 years, I will reduce it to seven." "If seven, I will bring it down to three and a half." "As soon as you volunteer," "Captain Collins will find your file and we will cut your time in half." "The second thing is this." "You might be too embarrassed to step forward in front of your friends." "If so, come to Captain Collins's tent and volunteer there." "In secrecy." "Total secrecy." "Hmm?" "No hangman, no law." "No." "Hmm." "They will not inform on anyone and they will not hang anyone." "On those two points, huge integrity." "If you could take that integrity and apply it elsewhere to other aspects of their lives," "this colony would thrive." "I'm not sure it is integrity, Governor." " No?" " No." "If they inform, if they hang someone, they get their throats cut." " It's as simple as that." " You think so?" "Yes." "Whenever I am impressed by a convict, a noble deed, a generous gesture, I come back here and I look at his file." "And his file, and this has always been the truth up to now, Governor, his file reminds me that he is incapable of nobility" "or generosity." "And whatever he did that so impressed me, he did for his own ends." "Hmm." "Well, do not read them, then." "Do you think anyone will come?" "No, sir." " Is he in?" " Yes." "He's expecting you, Sergeant." "Sergeant Timmins, sir." "Sir." "The shots we heard, they were fired into the air." " Yes?" " Yes, sir." "You disobeyed my direct order." "I knew that Freeman would die in the bush, sir." "Or come back here and hang." " I saw no need to pursue him." " You saw no need?" "He was a dead man, sir." "Why pursue a dead man if it puts your living at risk?" " At risk of what?" " Attack by natives, sir." "You were armed to the teeth." " Permission to speak freely, sir." " Granted." "When we came ashore, you promised the men you'd get them all home safe and sound." "Your good sense would make up for the Governor's misjudgement." "I made a similar promise." "Only my good sense would make up for your misjudgement, sir." "My misjudgement?" "My misjudgement!" "You gave me permission to speak freely, sir." "Being armed to the teeth will not help you in the bush, sir." "The natives have never seen what guns can do, so they do not fear them." "You go into the bush with dozens of men or you do not go at all." "I order you to flog a whore and you do so only with great reluctance." " Sir..." " I tell you that the next time you hesitate to obey an order of mine, I will have you shot." "You obviously think it an idle threat, because now this outright disobedience." "I do not think it an idle threat, sir." "So, you do expect to be shot." "Yes, sir." "Is there anything you can say that might dissuade me?" "Only this, sir." "I solemnly swear" "I will never again disobey your order, sir." "What if, once again, you think it a misjudgement?" "I will obey." "No matter what." "I will hold you to that." "And Jane is your..." "Your wife?" "Sister." "I have no wife." " Dear Jane..." " Dearest." "Dearest Jane," "I am to hang just before dawn..." "What is it?" "I've written many letters for men about to hang." "Tommy Barrett was the last, as a matter of fact." "And they all want to start like that." " And that is wrong?" " I think so." "She will get this letter six months from now, at the earliest." "You'll be long dead." "She will think about the way that you died." "Hood over your head, noose around your neck." "Your fear, your terror would haunt her for the rest of her days." "Far better for her to think that you simply slipped away." " Yes." " With the fever, perhaps." "Hmm." "Dearest Jane," "I have the fever." "Good man." "They have a hangman?" " So they say." " Who?" "I do not know." "He's a dead man, whoever he is." "I had this coming." "Just a few nights ago, you see," "Tommy was here, I was there." "My best friend was about to hang, and I did not want him to hang." "I can say that with total honesty." "But I did think that if Tommy hanged, it would not be all bad news," "because you would be free." "Because of our friendship, you might say yes to being my woman." "Not right away, not while you grieved for Tommy, but eventually, perhaps." "And that would be a dream come true." "Because I think you are beautiful and strong." "Principled." "Mmm." "And generous, and just just wonderful." "Thank you." "May I kiss you?" "Yes." "May I?" "Yes." "Open." "Major." " Give him your gun." " Sir." "Move." "Hands." "He found the Garden of Eden, boss." "Hundreds of acres of thick, green grass." "No rocks, no trees, perfect for farmland." "Spare him and he will take you to it." "And he has kept that secret until now?" "Say goodbye to your friends, Freeman." " We're coming with him, Governor." " No, you're not." " Keep them here." " Sir." "Say your goodbyes." "Take my food." " Let us go." " Move." "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom..." "Who is hanging me?" "I am." " Give us this day our daily bread..." " I saw Jefferson, boss." "Garden of Eden and Jefferson?" "I did not see the Garden of Eden, boss, but I saw Jefferson." " Where?" " In a clearing." "In the jungle." "A huge country such as this and you just happened to bump into each other?" "I followed the dried-up river in the hope that it would lead me to water." "I saw smoke." "I followed it" " and I found..." " Who?" " Jefferson." " I'm sure you did." " Yes, sir." "I could take you to him." " He is dead, Freeman." "You will be with him very shortly." "Oh." ""I have cried to thee, O Lord." ""Lord, hear my voice!" ""Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."" "Oh, no." "Don't do it." ""For with the Lord is plenteous redemption..."" "Goodbye, Freeman." "You want to live?" "Yes." "What?" "Yes!" "Yes!" "Yes!" "Yes!" "Yes!" "What would you do to live?" "Anything." "Would you be our hangman?" "Whenever we tell you to hang, you hang." "If you do not do it, we hang you." "Do you understand?" " Yes." " Do you agree?" "Yes." "Free this man." "What now?" "You can go." " I can just leave?" " Yes." "Flog me." "They will all know I have done a deal." "No." "Tobacco." "For the hangman." "Ripped By mstoll"