ike a figure of eight, and then the view was
closed by the scrub on Sunday Island. There was a boat at anchor in
the channel about a mile distant, in which two men were fishing for
their breakfast, for there was famine in the settlement, and the few
pioneers left in it were kept alive on a diet of roast flathead. On
the beach three boats were drawn up out of reach of the tide, and
looking behind him Jack counted twelve huts and one store of
wattle-and-dab. The store had been built to hold the goods of the
Port Albert Company. It was in charge of John Campbell, and
contained a quantity of axes, tomahawks, saddles and bridles, a
grindstone, some shot and powder, two double-barrelled guns, nails
and hammers, and a few other articles, but there was nothing eatable
to be seen in it. If there was any flour, tea, or sugar left, it was
carefully concealed from any of the famishing settlers who might by
chance peep in at the door. Outside the hut was a nine-pounder gun
on wheels, which had been landed by the company for use in time of
war; but until this day there had been no hostilities between the
natives and the settlers. From time to time numbers of black faces
had been seen among the scrub, but so far no spear had been thrown
nor hostile gun fired. The members of the company were Turnbull,
McLeod, Rankin, Brodribb, Hornden, and Orr. Soon after they landed
they cleared a semi-circular piece of ground behind their tents, to
prevent the blacks from sneaking up to them unseen. Near the beach
stood two she-oak trees, marked, one with the letters M. M., 1 Feb.,
1841, the other 2 Mar., 1841, and the initials of the members of the
Port Albert Company. Behind the huts three hobbled horses were
feeding, two of which had been brought by Jack Shay. A gaunt
deerhound, with a shaggy coat, lame and lean, was lying in the sun.
There was also an old cart in front of one of the huts, out of which
two boys came and began to gather wood and to kindle a fire. They
were ragged and hungry, and looked shyly at Jack Shay. One was Bill
Clancy, and the other had been printer's devil to Hardy, of the
'Gazette', and was therefore known as Dick the Devil. They had been
picked up in Melbourne by Captain Davy, who had brought them to Port
Albert in his whaleboat. Their ambition had been for "a life on the
ocean wave, and a home on the rolling deep," as heroic young
pirates; but at present they lived on shore, and their home was
George Scu