, and all the time with guns on
our shoulders. Look!"

"Father's waving to us to separate. I daresay they'll send us something
to eat."

The boys separated and went off to their posts, while smoke began to
rise in the little camp, the tin kettle was filled and suspended over
the wood fire, and Aunt Georgie brought out of their baggage the
canister of tea and bag of sugar set apart for the journey.

Bread they had brought with them, and a fair amount of butter, but a
cask of flour was so packed that it could be got at when wanted for
forming into damper, in the making of which the girls had taken lessons
of a settler's wife at the port.

In making his preparations Captain Bedford had, as hinted, been governed
a good deal by old campaigning experience, and this he brought to bear
on the journey.

"Many things may seem absurd," he said, "and out of place to you women,
such for instance as my planting sentries."

"Well, yes," said Aunt Georgie, "it's like playing at soldiers. Let the
boys come and have some lunch."

"No," said the captain; "it is not playing: we are invaders of a hostile
country, and must be on our guard."

"Good gracious!" cried Aunt Georgic, looking nervously round; "you don't
mean that we shall meet with enemies?"

"I hope not," said the captain; "but we must be prepared in case we do."

"Yes; nothing like being prepared," said Uncle Munday. "Here, give me
something to eat, and I'll go on minding my beasts."

"They will not stray," said the captain, "so you may rest in peace."

It was, all declared, a delightful _alfresco_ meal under the shade of
the great tree they had selected, and ten times preferable to one on
board the ship, whose cabin had of late been unbearably hot and pervaded
by an unpleasant odour of molten pitch.

To the girls it was like the beginning of a delightful picnic, for they
had ridden so far on a couple of well-broken horses, their path had been
soft grass, and on every side nature looked beautiful in the extreme.

Their faces shone with the pleasure they felt so far, but Mrs Bedford's
countenance looked sad, for she fully grasped now the step that had been
taken in cutting themselves adrift from the settlers at the port. She
had heard the bantering words of the man when they started, and they
sent a chill through her as she pictured endless dangers, though at the
same time she mentally agreed with her husband that solitude would be
far preferable to living am