to wait so long for your luggage -- unless you hump it with you.

We heard of a man who determined to stick to a Darling boat and travel
the whole length of the river. He was a newspaper man. He started
on his voyage of discovery one Easter in flood-time, and a month later
the captain got bushed between the Darling and South Australian border.
The waters went away before he could find the river again,
and left his boat in a scrub. They had a cargo of rations,
and the crew stuck to the craft while the tucker lasted;
when it gave out they rolled up their swags and went to look for a station,
but didn't find one. The captain would study his watch and the sun,
rig up dials and make out courses, and follow them without success.
They ran short of water, and didn't smell any for weeks;
they suffered terrible privations, and lost three of their number,
NOT including the newspaper liar. There are even dark hints
considering the drawing of lots in connection with something
too terrible to mention. They crossed a thirty-mile plain at last,
and sighted a black gin. She led them to a boundary rider's hut,
where they were taken in and provided with rations and rum.

Later on a syndicate was formed to explore the country and recover the boat;
but they found her thirty miles from the river and about eighteen
from the nearest waterhole deep enough to float her, so they left her there.
She's there still, or else the man that told us about it
is the greatest liar Out Back.

. . . . .

Imagine the hull of a North Shore ferry boat, blunted a little at the ends
and cut off about a foot below the water-line, and parallel to it,