living Pirate treasure When I bent down to reach the object with my hand, my man said, “they were yellow.” nose came so close to the surface of the squelching bat Yellow coins? Could they have been gold coins? Royals? manure that I nearly passed out from the smell. As Doubloons? At this stage I was so excited that I I struggled to stay upright in the stench, I could not resist the temptation to look. could only use my toes to explore the “Can you take me to the cave?” object. It was round, a few inches I asked. “I can take you to the in diameter, and about one foot entrance, but I cannot go long. Could it have been a inside because that cave is bottle? The rum bottle the haunted,” he said. pirates had left behind? It took about half an hour Suddenly, from the real to scramble up the cliff world outside the cave, face to the cave. It was I heard successive blast just as Old Harry had from the trawler’s siren. described it 15 years “Your ship wants earlier. to leave,” the old man At the entrance, the called from outside the old man stopped and cave. I quickly left the would go no further. But cave, covered in bat manure he remained there while I and smelling like a sewer. went inside. The other members of the As I entered the cave, my shore party had returned on board foot slipped in bat manure and and the trawler’s dinghy and two crew immediately a million bats flew out, were waiting for me on the beach. But I stank squeaking and flying around in circles outside. so much I was too embarrassed to go with them, They re-entered the cave, then flew out again, so they rowed the dinghy back to the trawler and repeated this flight pattern all the time I was without me, while I swam beside them, Port there. The cave floor sloped downwards from Moresby letting the sea wash the bat manure from my the entrance, and was covered in bat manure, PNG skin and clothes. And it did, but the putrid but to what depth I did not know. I took off my smell remained on me for days afterwards, shoes and socks. Milne Bay and for the remainder of the patrol, the other “How long have the bats lived here?” officers complained about the stink, I asked. and kept asking me how I got to “We don’t know, we never come smell so bad. here,” he replied from outside. “I was exploring a bat cave,” I went further into the I told them truthfully. cave, the manure becoming 0 100 Km Like the pirates of Old deeper and the smell Harry’s story, I always overpowering. The bats intended to return to that were swarming around island, and like them, I me, but with their radar never had an opportunity working perfectly, not one to do so. I am too old to 0 Km 20 touched me. But when go back there now, but I was up to my waist in in memory of Old Harry, bat manure I could go no I have kept the faith of the further because the smell island people. I have never was so sickening. revealed the identity of their Then suddenly, in the cesspit treasure island, and I never will. beneath me, my foot touched Chips Mackellar was an Australian something solid and round. I tried to pick patrol officer (kiap) in PNG, serving for it up, but to do so I had to plunge my arm into 28 years between 1953 and 1981. the stinking slime.
94 Paradise – Air Niugini’s in-flight magazine
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