"To think as you haven't heard! Why it was the talk of the place. Ross heard all about it in Perth. Didn't you come across him there? He's been in the Force quite a while now."
"No! What was it he heard about?"
"Why, about Monica."
"What about her?"
"D'y' mean to say you don't know?"
"I tell you I don't know."
"Well!" and Easu smiled with curious, poisonous satisfaction. "I don't know as I want to be the one to tell you."
There was a moment's dead silence. The sun was setting.
"What have you got to say?" asked Tom, his face set and blank, and his mouth taking on the lipless, Australian look.
"Funny thing nobody has told you. Why it happened six or seven months since."