an expeditious method of courting the sleepy god, but it certainly is not
the best for shaking off fatigue. Bound up in the garments you have
carried all day, the muscles are unable to relax to their full, the
circulation of the blood is impeded, and your slumber, though deep, is not
refreshing; more particularly when -- as had happened to us on this last
trip -- our boots were so soaked that we were afraid to take them off, lest
we should find it impossible to struggle into them in the morning.
Dunmore's camp was also some distance from the township, and he had to
visit it to find out how matters had gone on in his absence, to get another
trooper in the place of poor Cato, and to replenish his exhausted wardrobe
and ammunition.

But I will not occupy the reader with all these minor details, nor with the
numberless little trifles that it devolves upon the leader of such an
expedition to remember, suffice it to say that by noon on the following
day, all our preparations were completed, and we shoved off from the beach
in high spirits, the party consisting this time of nine, viz., Dunmore, the
pilot, two boatmen, Lizzie, three troopers, and myself, about as many as
the boat could carry comfortably. A rendezvous had been arranged on a
known portion of the river; the other expedition was to start in seven
days; and, according to our programme, if all went well, we should meet on
the tenth, or on the eleventh day at furthest.

The sea-breeze was blowing steadily, cresting the tiny waves which sparkled
in the hot sun as they broke into foam, and under its grateful coolness we
glided comfortably along, with a flowing sheet. The bar at the mouth of
the Macalister was eighteen miles distant, and we hoped to cross it about
sunset, when the breeze would have dropped, and the passage through the
surf would be readily distinguishable; but our plans were completely upset
by one of the troopers espying smoke issuing from the scrub on a small