r 
February 24, igi6. 
LAND AND WATER 
iiuitLc 0/ ttie Houth Heas.i 
[itlustiattU, bjj Jvoep/i aimpiiott, HM.A.. 
" Well, I have brought you a new man, a friend of mine, Captain Hull." 
who had finished his mending, and Tillman producing a rough 
chait of the East Australian seaboard began to lay down their 
course for the instruction of the others. 
Here we are," said he, " almost level with Broken Bay, 
twenty-eight hundred miles or more from Cape York and 
Torres Straits. We keep our present course till we strike 
Longitude 30° — that's just level with the Sohtary Islands. 
Then we strike more north, so, 'till we're level with Great 
Sandy Island ; keep on so till we hit Latitude 20°, avoiding 
the tail of the Great Barrier Reef and then strike bold nor'- 
nor'-west through the Coral Sea, and then nor'-west for the 
Straits. We are going outside the Barrier Reef, you see ; 
all the steamer lines and most of the trading ships go inside 
the reef, but we're going outside. I've talked it out with 
Screed. He wanted me to go inside and hug the coast, but I 
decided not ; we're in no hurry, and 1 11 take plenty of sea 
room. Level with Cape Grafton it's pretty difficult water. 
There's the Madelaine Cays, there's Holmes Reef — ^we have to 
strike between those two." 
" How long will it take us to hit the Straits ? " asked 
Houghton. 
" All thirty days if we have good weather," replied Till- 
man. " Maybe, two months if we haven't — you see, we've 
got the current against us." 
" Well, I'm not the man to complain if it took us a twelve- 
month," said Hull. " Good grub and plain-sailin' is all I 
asks, s'long as I'm not divided from my friend, here, Mac. 
Mac and me is Si'mese pals — ain't we, Mac ? " 
Macquart grunted ; lie had taken a pipe and some tobacco 
from his pocket and was bu.y cutting up twist. Tillman 
listened and wondered. He knew from Screed that Hull 
had a " clown " on Macquart, that Macquart had played HuD 
21 
