e vessels--the
Australian fleet. Mac had not previously known that they were to fall
in with them here. For four days they lay at anchor swinging to the
tide, in the entrance, lonely and unvisited, while the eager,
bare-footed, bare-legged and bare-chested men gazed longingly at the
distant port and tried to persuade themselves that the vessel must go
up there for coal and water. Several times the life-boat crews lowered
the boats and raced clumsily with each other; and once the troops
polished and cleaned all the morning for an inspection by the G.O.C.
which never came off. Otherwise they drilled at odd times, groomed,
fed and exercised the horses and basked in the sun. Rumours were
unusually active, and the question of destination was fiercely
argued--South-West Africa, India for garrison duty, or France by the
Cape or Suez. The course the fleet set after leaving the Sound would
partly decide the question.

The first daylight of Sunday, November 1st--a dawn of rare perfection,
with the spacious Sound unruffled by any stray breeze, the wide blue
heaven unbroken by any cloud--saw that purposeful activity among the
ships which immediately precedes putting to sea. Smoke drifted upwards
from many funnels, some ships were busy clearing their anchors, while
others manoeuvred out of tight corners. First came the men-o'-war,
sweeping majestically past the _Tahiti_ and out to sea. Then, in
single-line-ahead, followed the transports in grand procession past the
_Tahiti's_ bows, whose troops stood on the topmost perches to miss
nothing of the glorious review. Everywhere to the upperworks of each
passing vessel clung the Australians. As each vessel came abreast,
wild, enraptured cheering broke out, and, with all the power of healthy
lungs, with enthusiasm unreserved, with cooees and hakas and scrappy
messages semaphored by the arms, the Australians and New Zealanders met
in a deep friendship which was to last through years of campaigning and
privation.

CHAPTER IV

LAZY SHIPBOARD LIFE

The _Tahiti_ fell in astern of the long line whose foremost ships were
almost hull down, and left the Sound empty and deserted. When all were
at sea, they took station, the thirty Australian ships in three lines
ahead, with the ten New Zealand transports in two lines astern, their
leading ships stationed between the three rearmost vessels of the
Australian line. The men-o'-war took up positions far ahead on the
horizon and o