Missing Friends Part 6

I was again quite crestfallen as I said, "I do not think I can do _any_thing." "Well, then, I cannot find you anything to do." With that he went his way, and I came back to where the Frenchman sat, and I had to tell him once more of my hard fate. At this he began to swear in French like one demented, and asked me had I never told the planter I was a carpenter. "No." "Mon Dieu! oh, Mon Dieu, was any one like this infant!" Then he ran after the planter and spoke to him, and soon they both came back. The planter then said he had been told I was a carpenter, and that he was prepared to find work for me at that trade, but that he would prefer me to go into the boat to the next plantation, as he knew his neighbour was much in want of me. If I did not get on there he would employ me as I came back. What a relief I felt, especially as I understood they did not expect me to build houses out of growing trees! The next evening we pa.s.sed the place where I was told I could get work, but it was on the other side of the river. A man stood down by the water's edge hailing the boat. He sang out to us if we thought it possible he might get a carpenter in Cardwell. It was music in my ears. The Frenchman cried back: "We have one on the boat." The man on sh.o.r.e replied he wanted one to make boxes, tables, and the like. I was ready to jump out of the boat with anxiety, but I had to content myself, as my s.h.i.+pmates would not let me off before the return journey, and so I had to ply the oar until, far out into the night, we arrived at the furthest point of our journey, viz., the Native Police camp.

I may say a few words about this establishment. Round about in Queensland, on the furthest outskirts of settlements, some official will be stationed in charge of half a dozen aboriginals, trained in the use of the rifle and amenable to discipline. It is the duty of this official, with the a.s.sistance of his troopers, to fill the aborigines with terror, and to use such means to that end as his own judgment may dictate. White men to hunt the blacks with would be useless, as they could never track them through the jungle, and would no doubt also be too squeamish to fight the natives with their own weapons. But the blacks themselves delight in being cruel to their own kind. Often while I was on the Herbert, would I see them coming past, like regular bloodhounds, quite naked, with their rifle in their hand and a belt around their waist containing ammunition and the large scrub knife.

Their bodies would be smeared over with grease, so as to be slippery to the touch. They would then be out on an expedition. It no doubt requires all the authority their officer can command at such times to temper the wind to the shorn lamb. As the district becomes settled the aboriginals grow quiet, and the native police camp will then be s.h.i.+fted further on.

While I was on the Herbert I never saw any other blacks besides the police, although the blacks were about then in great numbers. We often saw their tracks, but they never showed themselves unless when they could not help it.

We arrived at the police camp about two or three o'clock in the morning, and were received at the landing-place by two of the troopers, who stood there without saying a word, as if they were watching for us. They were black as the night itself, and as I never saw them until I was out of the boat, I fairly ran against them. One of them had a pipe in his mouth, and the only thing that indicated his presence was a glowing bit of coal he had stuck into it. The other one, as I already stated, I ran against, and I was quite startled as I looked into his gleaming eyes and as I stretched out my hands felt his greasy cold fles.h.!.+ So I sang out, "Hi! vot name? Where you sit down?" that being the usual greeting to a blackfellow, but although none of them spoke a sentence, I was rea.s.sured in the next moment, as I saw a gentlemanly young man, dressed in a pyjamas, coming down to greet us. This was their officer, and as he led us towards the house I thought that it must be a cruel life for any white man to lead alone in such a place with n.o.body but a lot of howling savages to exchange a thought with. I do not think the whole clearing was more than half an acre in extent. In the middle of it stood a house built on posts eight feet high. It contained two rooms. This was where the officer lived. In the yard, or whatever you liked to call the clearing, was a fire, and around it sat or lay all these black troopers.

Australian blacks will not sleep in a house if they can possibly avoid it, so this was their regular camping-place. A more wild and desolate spot than this looked to me, with all these naked savages lying in the yard, and with weapons piled about both outside and inside the house, cannot be conceived.

The next day, on our return journey, I parted company with my two fellow-travellers, and went ash.o.r.e at ---- plantation, where I got a job as carpenter for two pounds ten s.h.i.+llings per week and my board.

This was a place which scarcely could be called a plantation yet, as it was only just formed. The owner and his family lived there in a large slab-house, erected on wooden piles ten or twelve feet out of the ground. There were also a few outbuildings, but any real work was not going on, only one man, a bullock driver, being engaged on the premises.

My "boss" told me, though, that he expected a hundred Kanakas shortly from the South Sea Islands, and that he wanted me to fit up bunks for them, put together tables, troughs for making bread in, furniture for his own house, and such like. I perceived a few thousand feet of sawn cedar lying about, and there and then I started work to astonish the natives. I never worked with greater perseverance than then. The tools were in a fearful condition, but I soon got them into some shape. Then I rigged up a bench and made a sunshade out in the yard, where the young lady could see me working, and then it began to rain tables, sofas, chairs, and bunks, so much that I am not afraid to say that I quickly became a favourite. I found out here that I was more capable than I myself thought, because I even made a first-rate boat, in which I had the pleasure of rowing about the river with Mr. ----'s daughter, and in which she and her father afterwards travelled to Cardwell. Miss ---- had been with her parents on the Herbert for a year, and shortly after I arrived on the scene she went to a boarding-school in Sydney. On his return journey from Cardwell Mr. ---- brought home a servant girl, who proved to be the German girl I already have mentioned as having seen in Cardwell. I relate this matter not because I took any particular interest in this girl, but because I have by and by to write about what happened to all of us.

My "boss" was in my eyes a regular hero, or Nimrod, if you like. I went out shooting with him both morning and evening, and all Sunday as well, and became after a while quite a good shot. But one thing troubled Mr.

----; it was this: that although alligators were a daily terror, he had never yet been able to shoot one. When we went out shooting he had always a rifle with him, loaded with ball, and we would crawl about some fearful places and follow the tracks of alligators, but still we had no luck. As for me, I professed to be very sorry too, that we did not run right up against one. I had great faith in Mr. ----, and I do not think he had any suspicion that I was really afraid; still I always drew a sigh of relief when we came home from one of our expeditions. There is so much boasting going on in Queensland about alligators, that it is next to a proverb here when one is telling an untrue tale to say that it is "an alligator yarn," and I am, therefore, almost ashamed to write about it. Still alligators are a reality, and up there we knew it. On the river-bank, in front of the house was a spring, from which we got the water supply for the house but so nervous were we that no one dared to go to it without the utmost precaution. Every morning Mr. ---- would come and ask the bullock driver and me if we were prepared to fetch water. Then he would get his rifle and take up a position on the river-bank from which he could overlook the surroundings, while we went down to carry up a supply of water.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ALLIGATOR POOL.]

And now I will relate an alligator story, although I have been much tempted to pa.s.s it over for the reason already stated. One day after dinner Mr. ---- came to me much excited, and told me that an alligator had taken one of the working bullocks which had been lying down a few hundred yards from the house, in broad daylight too. We then went down to see about it, and there were the tracks of the bullock and the alligator. It showed plainly that the alligator must have taken the bullock in the hind-quarters and have dragged it along, because the earth was regularly ploughed up where the bullock had been holding back with its head and forelegs; it had been dragged right down to the river's edge and then killed and partly eaten. As we ran the tracks down, we saw the alligator by the bullock, but it dropped like a stone into the water on our approach. Mr. ---- turned to me with sparkling eyes. "Now is our chance," cried he; "to-night and to-morrow night it will come again and eat of the bullock. Then we can shoot it." Was it not fun? Anyhow I said I would make one of the shooting party, and then he began to unfold our plan of campaign. To begin with he thought it best to delay till the next evening as the alligator would then be sure to be more quiet. We were to take up a concealed position to windward of the bullock's carca.s.s, and await the arrival of the monster. And so the next evening came, and after tea, while it was yet light, Mr. ---- came and asked me if I was ready. "Yes," cried I. I was ready, and in a very ferocious spirit besides! Well, then, we would get the weapons. The two rifles were loaded, and each of us had a six-chambered revolver as well.

As for me, I stuck a butcher's knife in my belt also, as a last resource, but Mr. ---- laughed at me for doing it and a.s.sured me that before I could find use for that I should be in the alligator's stomach.

Then we went, Mr. ---- first and I close behind. The river-bank nearest the water was very steep for about thirty yards, then there was a gentle slope for another twenty yards or so, and on that slope the carca.s.s of the bullock was now lying. We were very careful to have the wind against us, as the alligator is very shy as a rule, and Mr. ---- said it would be sure to clear off if it could smell us. Then we lay down behind some bushes in a most overpowering smell from the bullock; but what will one not do for glory? It was agreed between us that we should both fire at the same moment, and that Mr. ---- should give the signal. We were lying flat on the ground, and one of Mr. ----'s legs was touching me, and it was further agreed that I was not on any account to fire before he with his leg pressed mine in a certain way. Then I was to fire into the mouth of the alligator, while he at the same moment would try to send a ball through its eye. We were lying in this position nearly up to midnight, when we heard some heavy body come creeping up the hill, but still out of sight. Now and then the noise would cease for a minute or two, then it would come on again, until at last we saw the dark ma.s.s of the alligator come crawling up to the bullock and begin to tear at it. I was not a bit nervous, because I could see it quite distinctly, but I was very impatient for the signal to fire which did not come, and I dared not move round sufficiently to look at Mr. ---- either. The alligator was turning this way and that way. Now, I thought, is the time. Still no signal. Then it turned right round, and at one time I thought its tail was going to sweep us away. Just when our chance was best we heard another alligator coming crawling up the bank. It was at that moment quite impossible to fire according to the position in which the first alligator was lying, but as it was moving about rapidly I thought it best in any case to ignore as well as I could the presence of the second alligator, which we could not yet see. At last the first one began to snap its jaws in that peculiar way which only one who has seen a live alligator knows. Then came the signal. Bang! went the rifles. The beast never moved a muscle. It was quite dead, and we could hear the other alligator tearing and rolling down into the water again. Mr. ---- got up and wiped his face. "I was afraid of you getting excited," said he. I admitted I was thankful the sport was over, and without giving ourselves time to measure the reptile we decamped out of the smell as fast as we could. It was fairly overpowering, and it took the best part of a bottle of Scotch whiskey, which the "boss" introduced, to make me believe that it was possible to go through such adventure and still live.

It had for a long time been the wish of Mrs. ---- and the children to visit their nearest neighbour, who, however, lived some fourteen miles away. One evening preparations were made for the whole family to start at daybreak next morning on the bullock dray. It was quite a perilous journey for a lady and children to undertake, as the track was through the dense jungle most of the way, and through gra.s.s eight feet high at other places, and swamps, creeks, and gullies had to be crossed. Mr.

---- told me that he could not possibly be back before the next night, and that he entrusted everything at home to my care while he was away, the girl included, and that I might take a holiday until they came back, so that I on no account left the premises. He also advised me that as it was possible I might have a surprise from the blacks I had better sleep for the night up in the house, which, as I have already stated, stood on high piles, and was only accessible by means of a narrow staircase. The next morning, then, they all went away, the bullock driver and all the dogs included. Twelve bullocks pulled the dray, into which a lot of bed-clothes were piled. There sat the lady and the children. Mr. ---- was on horseback, armed with his rifle and revolvers. The driver cracked his long whip and all the dogs barked and jumped about. I stood by seeing them off and feeling quite important too, as I was the garrison left to defend the home until the travellers should return. About dinner-time that same day two travellers came in a boat from one of the plantations and asked to speak to Mr. ----. This was rather remarkable, as we scarcely ever saw any other people than the boatmen when they brought the mail, and occasionally the black trackers from the police camp, but I told them that Mr. ---- and the whole family had left that morning in the bullock dray. They seemed surprised.

"All of them, did you say?"

"Yes," replied I.

"It means good-bye," said they both. "You will never see any of them again; they have cleared off."

I was surprised and incredulous. My friends seemed quite sure.

"And what did he say to you when they left?" inquired one.

"He told me I need not work until he came back, but that I must not leave the premises. He also said that he entrusted everything to my care."

"My word," said they, "it is a nasty trust. Why, the blacks will be sure to rush the place one of these days, perhaps to-night, for they are certain to have seen the others going away."

Then they began to commiserate with me on what was to become of myself and the girl, as we were sure to fall into the hands of the blacks, and they offered to take us both away in the boat with them. But I could not see it in that way. I knew that in all probability we should have no visitors for ten or eleven days until the mailman came. But where was I to go? I had now a good deal of money coming to me. Who was to pay me?

Besides, it might only be all nonsense. Still the responsibility seemed great. I took the girl aside and asked her if she liked to go in the boat and leave me. She began to cry, and said she would rather stay, and did not like the fellows. If there is anything that could ever make me desperate it is to see a woman cry. So I began to give the two strangers the cold shoulder, and to show them that I had a rifle, six fowling-pieces, a revolver, and any amount of ammunition, and that I would, if it was necessary, defend the place against all the blacks in the district, but neither the girl nor I would budge out of the place before we were paid, and that, moreover, we did not believe that the "boss" had cleared off, but that he would be back the next evening.

After these fellows were gone I held a council of war with the girl. We turned and twisted probabilities for or against, were they coming back or were they not? Evening came and we sat up in the blockhouse and dared not go to bed. Wherever I moved there the girl was after me. I had all the guns standing loaded alongside me, but we dared not light a lamp for fear of attracting the blacks. We sat whispering and listening. Every time the wind would rustle the leaves in the garden the girl made a grab at me and cried, "There they are! There they are!"

At last I induced her to go to her room, and then I dozed off myself, and did not wake up before it was broad daylight. The first thing we did that morning on coming downstairs was to look for tracks from the blacks, to see if they had been about. I was not a very good tracker then, but we found what proved to our entire satisfaction that the aboriginals had been about in great numbers. This terrified the girl completely, and she upbraided me for having slept during the night, and implored me not to do so again; also she wished she had gone with the strangers the day before; and then she began praying in great excitement that it might not be her fate to fall into the hands of savages. Of course all this had its influence on me, and as the day went on we completely discarded the possibility of our employers returning, and only thought of how best to protect ourselves from the blacks. I made up my mind, therefore, that the time had now arrived for me to show myself great and brave, and at all events to sell my life dearly. Good generals.h.i.+p, however, was likely, thought I, to do more for me than bravery una.s.sisted by judgment, and for that reason I began to think how to act so as to be prepared for the worst. I knew this much, that the greatest danger from a surprise would be about sunrise. But as I was alone I could see that it would be impossible for me to defend the whole property. I must therefore retire to the main house, which, standing isolated and on high piles, would offer a good fortification. But if I had to abandon the outhouses, they would then fall into the hands of the enemy and he would be enriched by all there was to be found in them. I must, therefore, while I had time, carry everything I could up to the house, and, perhaps, it would be better to burn the outhouses down afterwards, so that they might not serve as a hiding-place for the blacks. I would see about that, but my first duty was to carry everything upstairs, and at all events commenced. No sooner said than done. The girl and I carried everything we could lay our hands on, upstairs. I also carried up water enough to last us for a fortnight or more, three large tubsful. All the firewood that was lying handy I also humped up, although there was no fireplace upstairs; but I wanted to do all I could, and in my energy I could not be still.

In this way the day pa.s.sed and evening came again. As no one had returned what hope we might have had was now dead, and as for me I felt like a glorious Spartan, quite certain that the blacks would come and that I should let daylight through every one of them. All my guns, of course, were loaded, and I was showing them off to the girl, explaining to her that it was my intention, after having defended the door as long as I could, to retire from room to room and keep up the war all the time. But she was nevertheless timid, and I feared much that she should, by taking hold of me, which indeed she did all the time, prevent me from firing, and I asked her, therefore, again to retire to her room. She implored me to let her stay with me, and said she did not mind so that we might die together. Then she began to hug me. What new and unexpected horror was this? Was this a man-trap, or what? Was there not trouble enough already? Surely, thought I, if ever a man needed a stimulant to keep up his pluck, I am that man. Happy thought! I knew where the "boss"

kept his whiskey. I went to the cupboard and took a long, deep pull at the bottle. "Dearest Amelia," cried I, "remember that in the time of our glorious forefathers it was the duty of the Danish maidens to hand the cup to the warriors, both before they went to battle and when they came home. Do now! Let me. Oblige me to drink of this bottle. It is only schnapps. Do! That is right. Here is luck! And death and destruction to our enemies! And now retire to your room. Good-night. Nothing shall harm you. Barricade the door from the inside. Let me lock it from the outside. And now," cried I, "I make it impossible for anyone to get near you. Here goes the key."

With that, having turned the key twice in the lock after her, I threw it out of the window as far as I could! I felt then as bloodthirsty as any savage. Why did these blacks not come? The only thing that puzzled me, as I traversed the house from one shutter to another, was what I should do if they came underneath the house. They might then fire the building.

No, they should not. I would have them yet. I would take the two-inch augur and bore holes all over the floor, so that I might shoot through.

I was soon boring away making holes for a long time right and left, when the girl whispered, "What are you doing?"

"I am boring holes," cried I, "in the floor to shoot through. Shall I bore a hole in your door? Then you could kill half a dozen with a revolver. If you have a mind, I will."

"Oh, there they are!" cried the girl.

"Ha, where? Come on!"

"Stop, you fool, it is the master and the missis. Don't you hear the whip? Let me out."

"Master and missis? I cannot let you out. I have thrown the key away."

Then it dawned on me what a fearful a.s.s I must presently appear. It is impossible for me to keep on with the particulars. I could not find the key again and let the girl out. The floor was spoiled, the house upside down. I should have been game to have fought his Satanic Majesty himself, but to face the contempt of the "boss" and good, kind Mrs. ---- was terrible. So I talked through the door at the girl and told her to say, if any one made inquiries for me, that I was not at home. With that I decamped, and did not present myself before the next midday. After a while the matter was only referred to as a joke.

I should have liked very much to have been able to write a detailed account of the whole twelve months I spent at this place. I am quite sure that if truly written, much of it would prove interesting to people who never were so far north, but I must of necessity pa.s.s quickly over many things of which I should have liked to write more fully, or else I shall never come to the end of my travels. Suffice it, therefore, to say that the Kanakas arrived in great numbers; that the "boss" and I went to Cardwell on horseback to fetch them; that a lot of white men were also brought together on the plantation; that I was overseer, or "n.i.g.g.e.r driver," over part of the Kanakas for some time; that I, during the twelve months, gained a good deal of colonial experience: learned to ride, drive bullocks, split fencing stuff, &c., also how to build slab-houses, as they are called--that is, to go into the bush, and with the help of a few tools, single-handed, to make a good house out of the growing trees. All this I learned, more or less, and then when I had been there about twelve months I caught the fever. This fever is, I believe, peculiar to certain parts of North Queensland; it is not deadly, but very common, indeed my impression is that there was not a man on the Herbert River who had not got it more or less. It comes with s.h.i.+vering of cold, followed by thirst and utter exhaustion, once a day or once every second day. Most people are able to work all the time they have it until they feel the "shakes" coming over them. Then perforce they must lie down, but they generally get up to their work again after the prostration which follows is over. With me it was different. A couple of weeks of it made me so weak that when I felt myself strongest I could only stagger about with the help of a big stick. I had built a carpenter's shop, and my room was off that. Then I would lie down of an evening on the bed, with bed-clothes piled on me enough to smother one, and still the gasping and the "shakes" would gradually commence. The very marrow in one's bones seemed frozen, while the teeth would rattle in the head, and the breath would come and go with fearful quickness.

After a couple of hours of this, heat and prostration would follow, coupled with terrible thirst. Of course there was no hospital, and there was no one to hand one a drink. When I properly understood the matter, I would always place my wash-basin in the bed, filled with water, so that when the time came I could lean over and drink, because I was too weak to lift a billy can or a pint pot off the floor. But when I upset this basin, which happened once, my sufferings were intense. I remember on two or three occasions when I had no water how I tried to get out of bed, how I fell and lay on the floor for hours, then crept on my hands and knees out around the shed to where a bench stood with a tub of water on. There I would sit or lie over the water for hours and drink. Such a matter as this excites no sympathy in a place like that. There were now a lot of other men, and most of them had a touch of the fever as well.

If I had slept among other men I have no doubt some one would have given me a drink, but to ask any one to sit up with me, or disturb their night's rest on that account, would have been asking too much, I fear.

Then when I had been alone before the new hands arrived, I had shared pot-luck with my employer and his family, but now it seemed as if one was only lost in a crowd. I had nothing to eat but half-putrid corned beef and bread, served on a dirty tin plate, tea of the cheapest sort, boiled in a bucket, and sweetened with dirty black sugar, was my fare too. How could any sick person eat or drink such stuff? As I write now it seems to me it is enough to cause a strong man to die of slow starvation, and yet it is the ordinary average diet put before working men all over the Queensland bush twenty-one times a week. One day Mrs.

---- came down and asked me very sympathetically how I was getting on.

So I showed her my plate with my dinner on, covered with flies as it was, and very unappetizing indeed, and upbraided her and her husband for serving such rations. "Dear me, how shocking! None of the other men complained. Was the meat bad?" Then she a.s.sured me I should have anything I wished for, and for the last few days I was there I was constantly invited to their own table, although I scarcely could eat anything even there. But I thought I had been there long enough, and when the mailman came in his boat I took a friendly leave of my employer and his family, and was a.s.sisted down into the boat. I had with me then my cheque for a hundred pounds sterling, and another for seven or eight pounds.

CHAPTER VII.

LEAVING THE HERBERT--RAVENSWOOD.

I had again no particular idea as to where I would go, further than that I wanted to regain my health. But oh, for the sweetness of liberty and money! I needed not to say anything about money to my old travelling companions in the boat; they knew I must have a good cheque, and their attentions were in proportion! Perhaps I wrong them. Perhaps they would have been just as careful to my wants if they had known me to be penniless. At any rate, a sort of bed was made for me in the stern of the boat, and offers to procure for me anything I wanted from the stores on the plantations were profuse. But I wanted for nothing more than to lie as easily as I might, because I really was very sick. There had been a public-house built somewhere a mile from the river-bank since I had pa.s.sed that way before, and when we came to the place where a track led from the water up to it, my two oarsmen proposed to go up to have some refreshment, and promised to be back directly. Of course I could not go with them. When they were gone some time a little pig which they had in a bag in the boat began to find its way out. I thought it a pity to allow it to escape, and yet I had not strength to get up, but without calculating the consequences I rolled myself over until I lay on the top of it. Never shall I forget the howling of that pig in my ears, for I believe over an hour, until the men came back. The bag had somehow got mixed in my clothing, and I could not either free myself or the pig, else I would gladly have let it go. At last the men came back and got us separated.

When I came to Cardwell I thoroughly enjoyed, although I was sick, the luxury of lying in a clean bed with white sheets, and mosquito curtains all around me, and to have one of the servants at the hotel coming to my door all day long asking if she could do anything for me. There was neither doctor nor chemist in the place, but one of the storekeepers came and looked at me, and sold me some medicine which in a short time drove the fearful "shakings" I had away. Meanwhile, as there was no other communication with the outer world than "the schooner," which ran between Cardwell and Townsville, I had inquired when the schooner would be in as I had decided to go to Townsville again. On the same day that the ague had for the first time left me, I was told that the schooner would be ready to run out at eleven o'clock at night. I was then so careless of myself, or so foolish, that I, at that hour of the night, for the first time in a fortnight, got out of my bed and went on board the craft. It was only a sort of fis.h.i.+ng smack, rowed by two men, who had a small enclosure somewhere on board where they could be dry. For pa.s.sengers there was no accommodation whatever. In the hold, which was open, was nothing but some old sails, rusty chains, empty boxes, and the like. Two or three more pa.s.sengers came on board, who at once secured the best places in the hold, while I, who for the first time for many weeks felt remarkably well, sat up on the deck enjoying the strong breeze, and even tried to smoke a pipe. But any North Queenslander will tell you that when one has had fever he has to be extra careful of not catching cold. I did not know that just then, but in a very short time I did. I got a fearful toothache. My enervated system did not feel able to hold up against this new affliction, and so I threw myself down among the ropes and boxes in the hold. There I lay, while the pain gradually increased. The wind was against us, and it took eight or nine days before we reached Townsville. During that time my agony grew more acute every day. I had neither strength nor energy enough to stand on my feet.

My head swelled up to a fearful extent. My mouth was in such a state that I could not swallow, and I gradually lost power to open my mouth or to speak. When we had been two days out I raised myself on my elbow to try to drink some tea and eat some mashed bananas, which some one gave me in a pint pot. I could not swallow, so I laid myself down again and did not after that touch food. I heard them speak about me on deck, and say that they ought to have found out my name, because I should scarcely last out unless the wind changed. I heard this distinctly, and laughed to myself, because I knew I was not going to die just yet. Still to all their inquiries I could not reply. One day I heard a Dane speaking in my ear; where he came from, or where he went to, I do not know, but he asked me, "Are you a Dane?" I grunted. Then he said, "What is your name?" I tried to stutter it out from between my teeth time after time, but he could not understand, and kept on, "Say it again." At last he gave it up. Then he asked me if there was anything he could do for me?

what s.h.i.+p I had come out in, and so on. But I was so disgusted with my own inability to use my tongue, that otherwise so ready a friend of mine, that I made no further attempt to speak, and my countryman disappeared again. There was now only one thought that possessed my mind, viz., to get to Townsville, and when there to have all my teeth pulled out. Of course it was more a relapse from the fever that was wrong with me than toothache, but I did not know it. I lay in a daze day after day, every time the boat gave a lurch my head would strike against something, and the agony I suffered cannot be described. At last the skipper took hold of me and cried, "Well, stranger, here we are in Townsville; where shall we take you to?"

It came on me so unexpectedly that it seemed again to send the life-blood through me. I stared around me and saw that we were lying close to the wharf.

Up I jumped, to the great surprise of the skipper, and leaving my swag behind me, and holding on with both hands to my head, I staggered ash.o.r.e. It was about eight o'clock in the morning when I landed. I knew it because I heard all the breakfast bells ringing from the hotels, and although I did not feel hungry, yet it reminded me that I had eaten nothing for two weeks. On I staggered like a drunken man. People seemed to look surprised at me, and to go out of their way for me. I came to a chemist's shop. He also looked at me in a disgusted sort of way. I took up a pen and wrote to him that I wanted all my teeth pulled out. He felt my pulse. "My friend," said he, "I think you had better go to a doctor."

I gave him to understand that I was tired, and did not know where the doctor lived.

"Wait," cried he, "I will get a man to go with you."

Then he went out of the shop. As I turned round I saw a very large mirror, in which I beheld my own image from head to foot. At first I did not realize it was myself as I stared at it. Would my own mother have known the picture? I hope not. Unkempt, unwashed for nearly a fortnight, my hair hung in matted knots about my face. My whole head was swollen to such an extent that to describe it as I saw it would seem exaggeration. Add to this a graveyard complexion in the face, and an emaciated form, dressed in an old crimean s.h.i.+rt, dirty moleskin trousers and blucher boots, and you have the picture I beheld of myself as I stood looking. I felt my knees giving way under me, made a grab at the counter and fell. The next thing I remember was that I was lying on a nice bed, in a room which proved to be in the adjoining hotel, and that a doctor was there. With consciousness my agony returned, and I again preferred my request in writing that he should pull all my teeth out.

"Yes, that is all very well," said he, "but we must first try to break your mouth open. You must go to the hospital. I will give you a ticket.

What is your name? Have you no money?"

I took out all I had got, my one hundred pounds' cheque and some change, and laid it on the table. At the same time I wrote to him on a paper and asked him to take charge of it and give me the balance when I asked for it. I also asked him to order anything I wanted and to spare no expense.