I was so happy that I can hardly describe how I felt when I did get ashore. It was just getting dark, and the last of those packing-cases was being carried away by a crowd of men still chanting, ’_Viva los Inglesas! Viva La Buena Presidente!_’ and the little messenger who had brought Gerald’s letter to Princes’ Town was waiting for me, with a broad smile on his face. He was dressed very smartly as a groom, with a clean white shirt and clean white duck riding breeches. He had one of Gerald’s old polo helmets on his head and a brilliant red sash twisted round his waist, but his feet and legs below the breeches were bare. He looked very proud of his finery, and guided me quickly to the Club, along dark narrow streets, and across the square, where hundreds of natives were lighting camp fires. Gerald was there. ’Come along, the horses will be round in a minute. You will do all right,’ he said, glancing at my rig-out. He introduced me to several Englishmen; they all shook hands; we toasted _La Buena Presidente_ and Captain Pelayo, the _Hector_, ’Old Tin Eye,’ and the King. My head was in a whirl; horses came round; I sprang on one, half-a-dozen chaps were round me making my stirrup-leathers comfortable; Gerald was helped into his saddle (his right arm was still in a sling); some one sang out from the dark Club verandah, ’Three cheers for the two Wilsons,’ and off we cantered, the little groom, with his red sash, on ahead, and half-a-dozen natives clattering behind us on more horses. My horse was one of Gerald’s own—Jim—a grand little stallion with a mouth as soft as anything, and he arched his neck, snorted, and danced about like a kitten. ’I wish you’d given me an English saddle,’ I told Gerald presently, for this one was a huge native thing with a back to it and a big raised pommel in front. It was impossible to fall out of it, except sideways, and you could not do that very easily, because the stirrups were such a queer shape that your feet couldn’t slip out of them. But every other second either the back or the front part thumped against me. ’Lean well back, Billums, you’ll find it all right then—you’ll be glad of it soon—we’ve got a twenty-mile ride in front of us.’ I did get used to it in time.