At 10 o'clock the same day I was sent into the office before Mr. R----, and "Tim" was there to see how things went. I was put under the stand to have my height tested, and my marks were taken, the result of the examination being that my freedom was proved. A paper to this effect was handed to me before leaving the office, and I shook it at "Tim" as I left. When I was put into the lock-up, I was possessed of three shirts, a razor, a new silk handkerchief, and a new pair of trousers. I asked the lock-up-keeper for them, but was only pushed out and told to go to ----. So I went back to Mr. R---- and complained, and he soon ordered my things to be handed over to me. I now started a second time to walk from Sydney to Port Macquarie--a distance of over 200 miles--with ninepence in my pocket with which to buy food on the journey. I got along all right until I reached the A. A. Company's land near Stroud, where I was almost starving. Coming through this land, however, I came by good fortune on a camp in which there was a piece of damper about a week old, which I gladly ate, and I would have eaten it had it been a year old, for it was a matter of eat what you could get. I could not swim then, nor have I learned since, consequently, when I came to a river, I either had to cross it at the head, or else lash some dead timber together, make a raft, and get across the rivers in that manner. Finally I arrived at the Manning river, and at this place had a peculiar experience with a woman named Miss ----. She stuck me up with a pistol, asked me my name and also where I had come from. I gave her these particulars satisfactorily, and she then asked me if I were free, and to show her my freedom. I told her that I had travelled all the way from Sydney, and she was the first woman policeman I had met. After this she wanted me to take a letter to Port Macquarie for her, but I declined, and notwithstanding that she assured me it was not heavy, I told her to take it herself, as it was only fifty miles. So I proceeded to Port Macquarie without the letter after her impudence to me, and arrived there two days later. It was not long after this before I got constant work. CHAPTER XVI. THE YACHT "WANDERER." "She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife." --BYRON.