I have not joined them because
'belly belong me' has been kicking up, and I have just taken
15 drops of laudanum.
On Tuesday, the party set out - self in white cap, velvet
coat, cords and yellow half boots, Belle in a white kind of
suit and white cap to match mine, Lloyd in white clothes and
long yellow boots and a straw hat, Graham in khakis and
gaiters, Henry (my old overseer) in blue coat and black kilt,
and the great Lafaele with a big ship-bag on his saddle-bow.
We left the mail at the P. O., had lunch at the hotel, and
about 1.50 set out westward to the place of tryst. This was
by a little shrunken brook in a deep channel of mud on the
far side of which, in a thicket of low trees, all full of
moths of shadow and butterflies of sun, we lay down to await
her ladyship. Whiskey and water, then a sketch of the
encampment for which we all posed to Belle, passed off the
time until 3.30. Then I could hold on no longer. 30 minutes
late. Had the secret oozed out? Were they arrested? I got
my horse, crossed the brook again, and rode hard back to the
Vaea cross roads, whence I was aware of white clothes
glancing in the other long straight radius of the quadrant.
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