a turn round his wrist; before anyone could see him in time to suppress him,
he lifted the bucket, swung it to and fro, and dropped it cleverly
into the water.

This delayed us for nearly an hour. A couple of men
jumped into the row boat immediately and cast her adrift.
They picked up the jackeroo about a mile down the river, clinging to a snag,
and when we hauled him aboard he looked like something the cat had dragged in,
only bigger. We revived him with rum and got him on his feet;
and then, when the captain and crew had done cursing him, he rubbed his head,
went forward, and had a look at the paddle; then he rubbed his head again,
thought, and remarked to his mates:

"Wasn't it lucky I didn't dip that bucket FOR'ARD the wheel?"

This remark struck us forcibly. We agreed that it was lucky -- for him;
but the captain remarked that it was damned unlucky for the world,
which, he explained, was over-populated with fools already.

Getting on towards afternoon we found a barge loaded with wool and tied up
to a tree in the wilderness. There was no sign of a man to be seen,
nor any sign, except the barge, that a human being had ever been there.
The captain took the craft in tow, towed it about ten miles up the stream,
and left it in a less likely place than where it was before.

Floating bottles began to be more frequent, and we knew by that same token
that we were nearing "Here's Luck!" -- Bourke, we mean. And this reminds us.

When the Brewarrina people observe a more than ordinary number of bottles
floating down the river, they guess that Walgett is on the spree;