ounced his intention of falling in with the enterprise;
but Patrick Kenna spoke very strongly against his doing so, and Ruth,
too, came to her father's aid. It was, they said, foolish of him to link
himself with these desperate men, every one of whom had a price upon his
head, whereas he, Walter, stood in good chance of receiving his pardon
at any moment. Why should he sacrifice himself and break Ruth's heart
for the sake of his friend?

So, finally, overcome by their arguments, he yielded, saying, however,
that he felt he was acting a coward's part, and begged of Kenna to
arrange a farewell meeting between Tom and himself. This, wisely enough,
Kenna refused to do, but said he would do anything else to make their
separation easier. So Trenfield wrote his old comrade a letter of
farewell, and, taking a canvas bag, he filled it with all sorts of
articles likely to be useful on a long boat voyage. Kenna took the bag,
together with material for a sail, away with him at night and placed it
in the spot agreed upon with May. He had already given Tom a tomahawk
and an adze with which to make some oars and a mast.

On the fourth night after his visit to Kenna's house, Tom May again came
through the bush, and went to Little Nobby's, for when Ruth's father
went to the hiding-place in the morning with a breaker of water and a
large bundle of dried fish, he found that the bag and the sail-cloth
were gone, and on a small piece of white driftwood which lay on the
ground these words were written in charcoal:--

'_Sunday, Midnight?_'

By this Kenna knew that the three men meant to come for the provisions
and water at the time mentioned. It was then Friday, and he had much
to do to get all in readiness; for Little Nobby's was quite six miles
distant from his house, and he could only make his journeys to and fro
with great secrecy, for the constables were still searching the coastal
region for May. But, aided by Billy, the aboriginal, he managed to have
everything in readiness early on Sunday night. He afterwards told my
mother that besides the two breakers of water, each holding ten gallons,
he had provided four gallons of rum, a hundredweight each of salted
meat and dried fish, tobacco and pipes, fishing tackle, two muskets, and
plenty of powder and bullets. The place selected for the landing of
the boat was an excellent one; for on one side of Little Nobby's was a
little, narrow bay running in between high clifis of black trap