A " SCRAP " FOR A RIFLE 



couple of recruits alongside when we row off. The 

 chief won't let 'em go, but they are doing a guy out of 

 camp, and we are going to pick them up." 

 '' He is not coming too ? " I asked. 

 " No, I have promised him half-a-dozen sticks of 

 I tobacco for seeing that the others come." 

 j Well, later, the boat returned with the two recruits, 

 and the mate had the Winchester repeater ; I puzzled 

 I for a long time how he got it. He told me that he had 

 I done a barter for it, and kept up the story. I noticed 

 1 for a few days, however, that he kept his hand slung 

 i in his coat ; he told me that he had a touch of 

 I rheumatism. One day when I saw him with his 

 t trousers rolled up, on the wet deck, I noticed a badly 

 I contused wound showing on his leg; his hand too 

 was bandaged. He said : " You may as well know. 

 I had a bit of an argument with that nigger about 

 I the gun. He would not see it the way I did." This, 

 paraphrased, meant that he had pinched the weapon 

 after a scrap. No wonder that punitive expeditions 

 are necessary when the nigger is occasionally wishful to 

 I get a little of his own back from the white man. How- 

 I ever, the recruits were very happy as a rule, and it 

 ' was a pity to see the sugar industry in Queensland 

 I languish through insufficient labour. New com- 

 munities have lacked prosperity by being too nice in 

 ' their moral code. 



I I want to tell you one more sea experience, about a 



i man who came up from the south to Queensland, did 



his business, collected nearly a thousand of his own 



money, and then did it in at the box. I was on a 



steamer, starting from Rockhampton, on a delightful 



I morning, the sun blazing aloft, all the brass-work so 



! hot that we could not put our hands on it, the awning 



, spread, and the passengers, about a dozen, were 



121 



