The Mango Tree Analysis

Only the mango tree that soared and sprawled over the native scrub incited discord in the otherwise painterly scene. An artist might title a daubed likeness The Romance of the Aussie Bush or The Old Prospector — a bush clearing, a makeshift tent, a fallen log for seating, a campfire and an aged prospector. In fact, an observer would soon sketch this locale, though not with artistic intent and the depiction consequently lost among the scrapped detritus of criminal investigation. Another would recount Peter's last night in verse, a maudlin lament which remarkably achieved publication.

Beneath the mango, the prospector's canvas shelter housed little more than a bed on the ground. Strewn about the place, a few cooking utensils and basic foodstuffs

Such was the conventional method by which belligerent gentlemen feuded in Cairns, via pseudonymous letters in local newspapers. Resolved to first alleviate the nuisance and afterwards contemplate the identity of his antagonist, he hurried to Sandy Gallop and uncovered the source of the emanation. Evidently, some scoundrel poisoned a goat and abandoned the carcase to rot, thereby causing alarm to the equine denizens of town and besmirching the inspector's character. He hauled the dead billy further into the swamp.

On Tuesday, 5th September, he returned, resolved to unearth clues to the goat exterminator's identity, but instead of a killer, he located another body. In this instance, not a body he could dispose of so casually. Noticing wounds on the head and neck, he marched off to summon help.

At the nearby Royal hotel, he recruited George Dunwoodie. "Put your hat on and come over. I think there's a man dead." Even before they turned off the road, George glimpsed the tent, a tent he suspected belonged to Peter Lumberg, and beyond the tent, a swarming cloud of flies. Although the body lay face down George recognised its dishevelled