And How My Brother Evaded It. 
223 
was of the utmost importance therefore that my brother should not stay 
a moment longer, especially as he could be of no further use to Maicer- 
wari by re-swearing to the affidavit, and besides, it was generally under- 
stood that the latter would be let off. Without taking a minute to decide 
he went to the house of a friend living on the water-front, which he 
intended leaving after nightfall for the western bank of the Demerara 
from where he would ride to the Essequibo and wait for us at Plantation 
Greenwich Park : we were to let him know by an arranged signal 
whether it was safe for him to board the steamer. 
690. Hardly had he got out of the house than a police officer with 
the mighty document in his hand came and asked for him, and when I 
told him that he had gone out, handed it over to me: T nevertheless took 
good care not to touch it, because no one can be forced to take a warrant 
for someone else, but everybody who does so engages himself to guarantee 
the appearance of the person summoned. After awaiting in vain my 
brother’s return for over an hour and making repeated ineffectual 
attempts to force the warrant upon one of us, the deluded servant of 
the law threw it on the ground and left the house. He returned soon 
after with a Police Inspector and a whole crowd of subservient spirits 
to search the residence from floor to garret, and then to surround it on 
all sides with spies so as to make sure of trapping their man on his 
return : in fact when at night we got near the Governor’s house we found 
it also surrounded by these gentry, they certainly seeming to have 
thought that my brother could not resist the attractions of such a ball. 
'And in fact the ball was brilliant, the most brilliant that I had as yet 
attended, and at which, after missing them a long time, the well-known 
melodies in the waltzes of Strauss and Lanner fell upon my ear. I was 
a passionate dancer though I felt, after waltzing with Miss Light a few 
times, that my strength had already become very much reduced by the 
climate, and could not blame my pretty yet young and vigorous partner 
for the statement that she found none but weak and bad waltzers here. 
I was much amused over the thousand and one questions about my 
brother: there was general surprise that he, the Governor’s adjutant, 
should be absent, because the expedition had to leave in the morning and 
for that same reason His Excellency had chosen this very day for the 
festivities. Of course T also did not know where he was, and could only 
reply in similarly surprised strains. 
