velling
allowance while on duty necessitating more than four hours' absence from
the barracks." Considering that the pay of a lieutenant of the Royal
Artillery was somewhere about six and fourpence a day and no emoluments,
the lot of a mounted policeman seemed a happy one. I straight away asked
Mr. Hamilton whether he would take me into the force. He seemed very
surprised, but I assured him I was quite in earnest. "Well," he said,
"there is a vacancy, but before I can promise you anything you must talk
the matter over with His Excellency the Governor, and take his advice."
His Excellency thought it was quite a good idea, and informed me that I
was to tell the Commissioner that he would be very pleased if I was taken
on. So it was arranged that I should join up on the seventh of the
month.

By this time I had been introduced to most of the members of the club and
some of their families. But it was quite evident that if I was to become
a policeman I couldn't remain at the club, nor could I be on visiting
terms with the elite of Adelaide. I therefore made up my mind to be a
policeman, a real policeman, and give up social festivities for the time
being. This decision met with the full approval of His Excellency and the
general, and, I need hardly say, of the Commissioner. The only exceptions
to this rule were that I would occasionally lunch at Government House and
at the General's home when convenient. I duly joined, and, remembering my
New Zealand experience, I swore to myself that I was not going to resign
until after being duly appointed to my next billet.

It is not to be wondered at that not only the corporal in charge of the
barracks, but the mounted troopers under his charge, were surprised to
see the Commissioner's young friend, who had been inspecting them a few
days before, joining their ranks. Only the mounted police were quartered
at the barracks, the foot police lived privately in their respective
districts and suburbs. I spent my first night in the barrack-room, and I
was glad to find that amongst the twenty-five or thereabouts of the
number of troopers, no less than six or seven were ex-officers or N.C.
officers of the army or navy, and the remainder were men who had been
selected from the pick of the many candidates who were continually
offering their services to the Commissioner.

A word about the corporal in charge--Corporal Campbell, an ex-salt, a
hard-headed, kind-hearted Scotsman. Corporal Campbell ha