t to walk.

My companion was armed with a Henry-Winchester carbine, and I with a
sixteen-bore breech-loading shotgun and a tomahawk. I had brought the
gun instead of a rifle, feeling sure that I could get some cockatoos or
pigeons on our way back, for we had heard and seen many flying about as
soon as we had anchored. At the last moment I put into my canvas game
bag four round bullet cartridges, as Poore said there were many wild
pigs on the island.

On rounding the eastern point of the bay we were delighted to come
across a beautiful beach of hard white sand, fringed with coco-nut
palms, and beyond was a considerable stretch of open park-like country.
Just as Poore and I were setting off inland to examine the base of a
spur about a mile distant, one of the men said he could see the mouth of
a river farther on along the beach.

This changed our plans, and sending the boat on ahead, we kept to the
beach, and soon reached the river--or rather creek. It was narrow but
deep, the boat entered it easily and went up it for a mile, we walking
along the bank, which was free of undergrowth, but covered with high,
coarse, reed-like grass. Then the boat's progress was barred by a huge
fallen tree, which spanned the stream. Here we spelled for half an hour,
and had something to eat, and then again Poore and I set out, following
the upward course of the creek. Finding it was leading us away from the
spur we wished to examine, we stopped to decide what to do, and then
heard the sound of two gun-shots in quick succession, coming from the
direction of the place in which the boat was lying. We were at once
filled with alarm, knowing that the men must be in danger of some sort,
and that neither of them could have fired at a wild pig, no matter how
tempting a shot it offered, for we had told them not to do so.

"Perhaps they have fallen foul of an alligator," said Poore, "all the
creeks on Rook Island are full of them. Come along, and let us see what
is wrong."

Running through the open, timber country, and then through the long
grass on the banks of the stream, we had reached about half-way to the
boat when we heard a savage yell--or rather yells--for it seemed to come
from a hundred throats, and in an instant we both felt sure that the
boat had been attacked.

Madly forcing our way through the infernal reed-like grass, which every
now and then caused us to trip and fall, we had just reached a bend of
the creek, which gave us a cle