CHAPTER III 



WE WALK ACROSS 



June 24/// {continued) — We left exactly at seven in 

 the evening ; and we left in a roar of laughter. I began 

 it, and Hyland took it up. 



You remember the White Knight in Alice in Wonder- 

 land} Well, that was Hyland to a T. 



Just try and picture, if you can, a man with a gun, 

 dressed like this, and on a desert island. Start at the 

 bottom and go up. India-rubber boots, cord breeches, 

 a kettle tied round his waist with a bit of string. Two 

 coats — a loner-tailed shooting-coat, and over this a 

 canvas Norfolk jacket covered with pockets of many 

 kinds all bulged out to the utmost limit. Various 

 things hung all about him, including a bundle of clothes, 

 a pair of shooting-boots, a couple of grey skin boots, 

 ornamented in red, with tassels ; the whole topped with 

 a flapped velvet stalking-cap. 



I don't know how it reads, but it looked very comical, 

 and my dress was much the same, without the skin boots. 



First of all we made our way to the ford by the 

 Russian cross — a distance of about two miles. But by 

 the time we reached it, we had both come to the con- 



yo 



