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Finally it was decided that he should cross just below the island, carrying his clothes in a bundle, wrapped in a waterproof coat and placed in a bucket, which he held as he swam. He would then walk to the inn, taking care to approach it from behind, so that the blacks there, who, warned by Harris, had left their fires and were squatted in the verandah, should not hear him. A hundred yards behind the inn was the hut where the punt-man lived. He was to be roused and sent to the house, to tell the innkeeper to quietly saddle his mare, which was kept stabled at night, and bring her to Stevenson, while the man engaged the blacks in talk in the front of the house.

We watched until he had safely swam across and ascended the bank on the other side, and then returned to the hut. As we passed by the kitchen we looked in. Laidlaw, the hut-keeper, was sitting by the fire, and, to do him justice, seemed heartily ashamed of himself, for he did not turn his head as we appeared. His wife had made up a sleeping-place for the poor child whose parents had been so suddenly cut off. The poor thing was overcome by drowsiness, and every now and then would sink into sleep, from which, however, it would almost instantly spring up, screaming out violently that the blacks were coming to kill it, and clinging in the utmost terror to the woman's gown. It had found its way to the bodies of its mother and father behind the hut, and in its endeavours to arouse and awaken them had got covered with blood, which the woman was washing off as we entered, her tears falling plentifully the while; for she was much attached to the two lubras—who helped her in such household work as peeling potatoes, washing dishes, and bringing water, and the like, while their husbands caught fish or (before I came) shot wildfowl with the superintendent's fowling-piece. She was therefore much shocked at what had occurred, and was, moreover, heartily ashamed of her husband's pusillanimity.