Visitors

OUTBACK
He had seen the headlights while they were still miles away. The outback was pitch black at night, but headlights; you couldn't miss them. He didn't take much notice at first. It wasn't unusual to see a vehicle or two every so often, even way out here. The road, if you could call it that, a dirt track really, was the only one through this part of the country. He occasionally turned to look at the lights over the next hour as they drew closer. The road passed within a quarter mile of the base of the hill where he was camped. He would probably get a good look at the vehicle then.
The next time he looked they weren't there. The land was mostly flat for many miles around so there was nothing to block his view. Nothing to block theirs either, and they would have been close enough to see his fire. The vehicles lights had been switched off. That could mean trouble. He had to take it as that until he was proved wrong. It would take them 30 minutes to walk from the road up to the fire. What to do? If there was more than one of them and they were planning no good, one would make directly for the fire while the other circled around and came in from another direction.
He put on his oilskin. It would be cold away from the fire. Grabbing his rifle, hat and pack he walked away from the fire into the dark and the trees. He needed a tree that was beyond the flickering light of the fire but close enough to see the camp. He decided on a big gum tree. He had to get up high where it would be impossible to distinguish him from the tree in the dark. Ten minutes climbing got him high in the tree's canopy and seated across two branches close to the trunk. Now, not the slightest noise and no movement.
Ten minutes later he watched as a dark form appeared near the summit of the rise. The person was letting himself be seen and making plenty of noise. The right way to approach a camp at night out here. "Hullo at the camp". "Hullo at the camp". The visitor waited a minute or two for a response then continued warily up to the fire. Twenty feet from the base of his tree, there was the smallest of noises and some movement. He had been right. Somebody else coming in from the rear. They were trouble alright.
The man at the fire called, "come in Harry, nobody here." The two of them stood looking into the fire. "That wood hasn't been long on the fire. He's out there somewhere". "Yeah, and probably has us in his gun sight now." "We're sitting ducks". "We'd better get out of here". They moved off quickly into the darkness and he heard them making their way down the hill.
There was three ways it could go now. They could give up and drive away, or one of them would put the headlights on and make a show of driving off while the other watched for him to return to the fire, or the two of them would wait and watch for him to return to the fire. They would expect to wait some time before he did that. Which-ever was right, it still meant he was staying up the tree until first light.
Then he would circle around and get a view of the truck from the other side, if it was still there, and try and catch them off guard. Hopefully it would come out in his favour. At least daylight would even up the odds somewhat.