Ann's Wake

As mentioned, Julian and Dick had left their sister, Georgina her cousin, and the rest of the crew their friend to attend on the receiving end of their handie talkie calls. She had taken a nap in the afternoon before they left her, and got her first cup of strong tea when they said goodbye.

She was cosily seated in a sofa with lots of tea and Hershey's Mr. Goodbar, and a lot of knitting to do while waiting.

The receiver was an amateur radio station, not a handie talkie, and it was connected to an Ampex tape recorder (reel to reel, this was before cassette recorders!). In case she needed proof, she could just activate the recorder to the sound from the radio station.

From time to time, she interrupted her knitting when they called.

A little before midnight, she heard the call "three into house, over" from Julian.

A minute or two later, this came:

"Georgina calling Ann, do you hear me, over?"

"Ann calling Georgina, I hear you. Over."

"Put on the tape recorder, and hear when we get caught, when you have sufficient proof, call the police, over."

She put on the tape recorder. "Tape recorder running, over."

Sounds went somewhat amuck for a few seconds, Georgina later explained that she had scotched a pin over the push button that activated the handie talkie.

Then sounds changed, voices a bit far away became audible.

Then Georgina shouted "brutes!"

Voices of angry men came nearer (along with noises of steps) ... "what are you doing here?"

"Birdwatching."

"Likely story, your friend tried to get in using a rope on an arrow ..."

Scuffle went on, Georgina said "let me go!"

And a blasé voice answered "I don't think so, here we go!"

Noices of steps on the ground shifted to feet on gravel ...

"Let her go!" This time George White spoke up, people ran to him and caught him ...

"So, you kind of betrayed your friend?" ... (sound of a punch) "We don't like traitors ... we may use them, we don't like them."