your hospitality where they were to sleep, and send them in large
supplies of mutton, flour, and tea.

On one occasion it chanced that F---, our stalwart cadet Mr. A---,
and the man who did odd jobs about the place, were all on the point
of setting out upon some expedition, when a party of four swaggers
made their appearance just at sundown. No true swagger ever appears
earlier, lest he might be politely requested to "move on" to the
next station; whereas if he times his arrival exactly when "the
shades of night are falling fast," no boss could be hard-hearted
enough to point to mist-covered hills and valleys, which are a
net-work of deep creeks and swamps, and desire the wayfarer to go on
further. Once, and only once, did I know of such a thing being done;
but I will not say more about that unfortunate at this moment, for I
want to claim the pity of all my lady readers for the very
unprotected position I am trying to depict. F--- could not
understand my nervousness, and did not reassure me by saying, as he
mounted his horse, "I've told them to sleep in the stable. I am
pretty sure they are run-away sailors, they seem so footsore.
Good-bye! don't expect me until you see me!"

Now I was a very new chum in those days, and had just heard of the
Maungatapu murders. These guests of mine looked most disreputable,
and were all powerful young men. I do not believe there was a
single lock or bolt or bar on any door in the whole of the little
wooden house: the large plate-chest stood outside in the verandah,
and my dressing-case could have been carried off through the
ever-open bedroom window by an enterprising thief of ten years old.
As for my two maids,--the only human beings within reach,--they were
as perfectly useless on any emergency as if they had been wax dolls.