north-westerly as soon as we rounded Cape York. But
what is wrong with your face, Mr Gerrard?" he added sympathetically;
"and you're lame too, I see. Niggers, I suppose?"

"No, we haven't even seen a nigger, Captain Lowry. But I'll tell you the
whole yarn by and by, after we get aboard. Got any arnica?"

"Plenty, and whips of plaster too. I'll soon fix you up, ship-shape and
Bristol fashion."

"Thank you, captain," said Gerrard, as he and Tommy began to unsaddle
the horses; "I'll be glad if you will. I don't want to get back to
the station until I look a little bit less patchy. And so if you are
agreeable, I'll be glad if we go on a bit of a cruise along the coast
for about ten days or so."

"I'm agreeable--more days, more dollars. But it will cost you another
fifty pounds or so above the charter money."

"Well, I shall spend it for the benefit of my complexion, Lowry. Now,
hurry up with our traps, Tommy, I'm going to eat a supper that will
astonish you, Lowry."

As soon as he reached the vessel he went below, and wrote letters to his
sister and Kate, enclosed them in an old piece of an oilskin coat given
him by Lowry, then called Tommy, and told him to go on shore again, and
secure it to Waterboy's mane. His object was to allay any fears about
him if the two station horses got to Ocho Rios before the lugger. The
yellow packet would be sure to be noticed, and opened. He had carefully
avoided any mention of his encounter with Aulain, and had also cautioned
Tommy on the subject: he did not want his sister and Kate to know
anything of the matter, from himself at least. He had decided upon a
pardonable fiction--he would tell them that he had been thrown from
his horse, and received a rather bad cut; of his bullet wound and the
tragedy at the Rocky Waterholes he made no allusion.

"It's no use worrying them over nothing," he said to Lowry, when he had
told the seaman the story of the attack by Forreste and his gang. "In a
week or so I'll be as fit as you are. But you'll have to back me up in
what I have written about you being afraid that we are in for a week
or two of calm; they won't forgive me in a hurry if they ascertain that
instead of being becalmed, the _Fanny Sabina_ was cruising merrily about
the Gulf of Carpentaria."

Lowry gave his promise, and then he and his passenger had supper on deck
under the awning which covered the smart little vessel's deck from bow
to stern.

At dawn next morning, Gerrard, af