All Difficulties Being Thus Disposed Of, We Were Left At
Liberty To Make Our Own Private Arrangements, Until One O'clock, By Which
Time The 'Daylight' Would Have Laid In Her Water, Etc., And Be Ready To
Start.
But I must now say something of the party itself, which we were compelled
to limit to ten men, inclusive of the native police.
These consisted of
the pilot and his crew of two men, Mr. Dunmore, the officer in command of
the police, with the two troopers, Ferdinand and Cato, three volunteers,
and myself. Where all were anxious and willing to aid in the good task, it
would have been invidious to select, and the volunteers drew lots from a
bag in which all were blanks but three, the gainers of these lucky numbers
becoming members of the party.
One other addition we had, and right yeoman's service she did, for it was a
'she', reader as the sequel will prove. About eighteen months before, the
troopers had visited Hinchinbrook Island, to recover stolen property, and
in one of the native camps had found an exceedingly pretty gin of some
fourteen summers. The personal charms of this coy nymph of the forest had
proved too much for the susceptible heart of Ferdinand, who, regarding her
as his lawful prize, had borne her, irate and struggling, to the boat, from
whence she was in due course transported to the police camp (mounted on the
pommel of the saddle in front of the adventurous swain), where, in a very
short time she became perfectly at home, and under the name of Lizzie, made
Ferdinand a remarkably pleasant wife.
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