Tiger Bill Down Under

By Gerald Barlow

In 1938 Bill Smith, America's youngest millionaire travels to Northern Australia to check out production problems at a Bauxite mine that he has an investment in. Along with three of his friends, Jimmy, Dr. Simon Park and Sky O'Hanlon, Bill finds high adventure waiting for him. The air isn't safe and the jungle and the sea aren't either, each hold different risks for him to get past. What mysterious death claimed the owner of the mine? Why are the boys shot at as they fly in? What is with the giant fish? All this and more as Tiger Bill works his way through the mysteries of the mining operation. On the way they just have to stop an invading army.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Barlow
• Release date: Apr 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458180353

Gerald Barlow

Originally a SoCal boy, I met a NorCal girl and we headed north way back in 1964. After two kids and Lord knows how many cats and three occupations,(teaching, pottery, graphic design & Signs) here I am. I began writing for my children for Christmas and then an adventure tale or two on their lunch bags. I think there enough manuscripts stacking up for now, so here goes...

Book preview

TIGER BILL DOWN UNDER

A Novel By

Gerald Barlow

Smashwords Edition Copyright 2011 Gerald Barlow

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One – The backward N

Chapter Two – A kite over the GDR

Chapter Three – Grandpa’s Lion

Chapter Four – as you command

Chapter Five – The telltale shadow

Chapter Six – two twangs make a …

Chapter Seven – The wages of Sin

Chapter Eight – Mother Chaw

Chapter Nine – The Great Fish Story

Chapter Ten – Caught up in Mining

Chapter Eleven – Un-Folding Money

Chapter Twelve – Gone Fishing

Chapter Thirteen – The Big One gets away

Chapter Fourteen – Saved by the Bill

Chapter Fifteen – Tea for Four

Chapter Sixteen – Another World

Chapter Seventeen – Looking like Fishing

Chapter Eighteen – Bill on the Blower

Chapter Nineteen – Immortal Strangers

Chapter Twenty – The One that got away

Chapter Twenty-One - A near miss

Chapter Twenty Two – Party Crashers

Chapter Twenty Three – Fair Dink’um

Chapter Twenty Four – A rolling stone gathers more troopers

Chapter Twenty Five – A clash of uniforms

Chapter One – The backward N

The drone of the four Lycoming engines created a hypnotic drone in the background for the card players. The four young men bent over the packing crate table in the central hold of the transport, were lost in thoughts of outwitting the others. They had been in the air for so many hours that they didn’t even notice the engines' noise anymore. They didn’t even realize they were shouting at each other over the noise.

I’ll take that… Jimmy cried with glee as he picked up the Queen of Hearts just discarded by Bill. Jimmy was always overjoyed when he could best his friend, Bill. In reality it happened very seldom. Jimmy had been elated over the chance to go on the trip. Last year's chase in the airship had been the last time out from his busy academic schedule. Australia was a mysterious place only existing in books and he anxiously awaited his first view of the ancient Ayer’s Rock and the cool blues of the waters surrounding the Great Barrier Reef. There were so many unexplored domains in that country. It was the last frontier of natural discovery. Things could be found there that surprised even the most up to date in the scientific fields.

Four 10’s and four 3’s, said Iguana. He laid the cards fanned out on his side of the box top. You gentlemen might notice I have only three cards left…and here go two more, placing a king and a queen on those in front of Jimmy. He smiled slightly, not quite ready to claim triumph yet. Bill looked longingly at the card Simeon had discarded. It was his if he wanted it. A 4 of clubs…..

While trips abroad were frequently planned as a vacation, this one would not be all fun. Bill knew the problems at the Weipa Bauxite mines had to be solved by this trip. He saw no slowing of the need for the ore, since the growing uses of aluminum in the States demanded more and more of the raw mineral. If the theorized war came to be reality, the need could grow much larger. Even though his company only held 1/3 interest in the mines at Weipa, he was eager to be the one involved to explore their problems. His desk in Cincinnati had become a jail cell of late. His many holdings and investments called for his attention at all hours of his day (and night) and he was tired of the strain. The trip to the northern territories was an offer he had jumped at.

The plane tilted steeply as it banked and the cards slipped off the table in a scattered mess, sliding under the mountings of the jump seats and down the aisle. Each of the guys grabbed for something bolted down and hung on. What’s going on? Jimmy yelled from the floor.

I haven’t a clue, was Bill’s clipped answer as he made his way forward.

Sky yelled back from the open pilot’s compartment, Sorry guys. Some fella hasn’t learned air courtesy yet. Bill looked out a small side window at the small red pontoon-ed biplane that zipped past. (Pontoons are streamlined floats, used instead of wheels so that the plane can land on water.) Bill heard the whine of the smaller engine as the plane circled them but by the time he could get to an opposite window, the plane had slipped away into the clouds.

What in the world was that? Jimmy asked, trying to peer out the window next to Bill.

Obviously someone is trying to be neighborly. Bill answered. They probably went back to get the welcoming committee ready.