74 MYOLA CHAP. 
have been so had not the wind been suddenly met by 
a stronger one from the south, which forced the fire back- 
ward. It was a wonderful deliverance, and a wonderful 
sight when the flaring torches that lit the heavens turned 
and swept on for miles until spent on a distant lagoon. 
The atmosphere was choking with the dust of charred 
embers, our swollen eyes pricked and smarted, our 
skins were scorched and our clothes burnt into count- 
less holes, and when the morning light came what a 
scene of blackened desolation lay smoking and smoulder- 
ing before us I The ground was still too hot with burn- 
ing debris to start that day, and indeed we felt that our 
exhausted faculties and bruised anatomies needed the 
rest My brain felt all on fire and the night seemed 
three years long, with a hundred snatches of nightmare 
dreams. 
Once or twice my heart misgave me as I thought 
of the long journey before me, for the first time in my 
life with no friends at the end. I spent a day with my 
paints, then read a pastoral review two years old, and a 
treatise on lunatics, darned stockings, and gained much 
information from Jackey, which I did not at the time 
quite piece properly t(^ether. "Old woman big one 
go too much along a public house an baal him alonga 
Georgetown, mine think it too much drinkum grog, 
mine bin fetchum twice, me tellum Missus." It wasn't 
quite as lucid as it might have been, but sufficient for 
a warning. 
Next morning we made another start, this time 
successfully, with the " Speaker " as a leader. I notice 
that a good many of the coach-horses bear the names 
of Members of Parliament, and you hear the coachman 
call out the familiar name of '* Lumley H." in a way 
that isn't flattering to man or beast I laughingly told 
Mr. H. of his namesake on my return. He didn't seem 
Digitized by LnOOQ IC 
