Bring Gossamer, If You Like, Clark, But, Take My Word For
It, You'll Never See Her Again."
This unexpected contingency; the prophesied fate of Gossamer, which was as
the apple of Jack's eye; and the point-blank and sensible refusal of
Dunmore to hazard the Government horses, completely turned the tables.
After a little inward grumbling, Jack consoled himself, saying -
"Well, at all events, I can 'think' of riding!"
And thus it came to pass that we landed on Hinchinbrook, with no means of
locomotion beyond those with which nature had endowed us.
And now, headed by Lizzie, and walking in single file and in silence, we
struck out for the interior of the island. The path - if path it could be
called, for it consisted only of a dim track beaten by the naked feet of
the blacks - wound in and out among the long grass, which, as we
approached the foot of the mountain range, became exchanged for boulders
and loose shale, which rendered walking most tedious, and played the very
mischief with our boots. Here even this track seemed, to our eyes, to die
out; but Lizzie led the way confidently, and evidently with a thorough
knowledge of what she was about. We had now been walking for more than
three hours, and had apparently only got half way up a kind of gorge in the
mountains, which seemed to become gradually narrower and narrower, and from
all appearances afforded every prospect of terminating in a 'cul-de-sac'.
A watercourse must at some period have run down this ravine, for the
boulders were rounded; but it was now quite dry.
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