He promised himself the satisfaction, however, of revisiting Tumut, and personally assuring the future of Mrs. Richard Lawless and her children, which, as he had always loved and admired the place and people, he regarded as a sacred duty, and a delightful holiday not to be neglected. Thus, filled with anticipations of home-returning joys, as he trod once more the deck of the P. & O. liner _Baghdad_, marked once more the Oriental garb, and heard the familiar-sounding voices of the Lascar crew, his heart swelled within him, as in ‘the dear, dead days beyond recall.’
The return voyage in the _Baghdad_ was pure unmixed delight. Very rarely is it otherwise in the ‘floating clubs’ of the P. & O. ‘The liner she’s a lady,’ in every sense of the word. In the eyes of the outward-bound passengers for England Arnold Banneret and Lord Newstead were heroes and ‘conquistadores,’ rivalling the comrades of Pizarro returning from Peru laden with the treasure of the Incas. Lord Newstead secured the larger share of admiration—young and handsome, heir to an historic name, wounded in the fight, what modern gallant could hope to rival him in the good graces of the lady passengers? His right arm still supported by a sling, and his disabled condition, called forth many proffers of active sympathy.
Mr. Banneret, on account of his age and patriarchal rank, was not so much an object of interest and admiration; nevertheless, the ‘scar on his brown cheek revealed’ if not ‘a token true of Bosworth Field,’ a genuine record of a ‘close call,’ as an American ‘shift boss,’ travelling east from ‘Great Holder,’ entitled the incident.
Their gold, now safe under hatches, was variously estimated at from fifty to a hundred thousand ounces, according to the experience or imagination of the narrator. The winds and waves were kind; the Great Bight was so smooth that ‘you’d hardly know it,’ as a fair voyager of experience in the South Pacific characterised it. And shortly after the dawnlight—clearer grown, and faintly roseate-hued—opened to view the sandstone portals of the harbour lake of the South, the _Baghdad’s_ passengers, in cabs, carriages, trams, and omnibuses, distributed themselves throughout the Sydney clubs and hotels, with an economy of time and trouble unattainable in any but the mother State.