I suppose you
were asleep, eh? You ought to have up anchor and pulled away, and
then the devils could never got near you. Look here!" holding up a
piece of bark, "that's all they've got to paddle with in deep water,
and in the shallows they can only pole along with sticks."
Pately Jim had been a prize runner in Yorkshire, and trifles never
took away his breath. He replied calmly:
"Yo're o'reet, Davy. We wor a bit sleepy, but we're quite wakken
noo. Keep yor shirt on, and we'll do better next time."
When the canoes, which were built entirely with sheets of bark, were
drawn up on the beach, nothing was found in them but a few sticks,
bark paddles, and a gown--a lilac cotton gown.
"That goon," said Campbell, "has belonged to some white woman thae
deevils have murdered. There is no settler nearer than Jamieson, and
they maun ha brocht the goon a' the way frae the Bass."
But Campbell was mistaken. There had been another white woman in
Gippsland.
THE ISLE OF BLASTED HOPES.
There is a large island where the Ninety-Mile Beach ends in a
wilderness of roaring breakers. It is the Isle of Blasted Hopes.
Its enchanting landscape has allured many a landsman to his ruin, and
its beacon, seen through the haze of a south-east gale, has guided
many a watchful mariner to shipwreck and death.
After the discovery of Gippsland, Pearson and Black first occupied
the island under a grazing license, and they put eleven thousand
sheep on it, with some horses, bullocks, and pigs.
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