Australian Heist

Chapter 1

The Plan

Sandy Creek, south of Forbes, New South Wales, 11 June 1862 Gardiner sat in the corner, feet up, holding a book. With a gas lantern by his side, unlit but ready and waiting, he repositioned the page to find the setting sun, the winter rays now limping through the frosted window above the wood stove. John McGuire walked through the open door and pulled out a chair beside the two men already seated at his kitchen table before turning towards Gardiner. ‘What time are the rest of them coming?’ he asked. Gardiner did not take his eyes away from the page, a study of concentration. ‘Soon,’ he said. McGuire stared at the book being read by the man who had sequestered his house for this ‘meeting’, squinting in the fading light until the title became clear: Dream Book and Fortune Teller. The book had an orange cover and looked old and tattered.

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