This was the watchword the Governor gave me. I had forgotten it. It seemed years since I heard it.
"Who speaks, and what is your news?" I said, feeling sure a friend was near.
"I am the Lieutenant-Governor. I came to tell you that 'Thunder-and-Lightning' has been warned, and that his movements are known. He is in Melbourne, but will shun the house as if it had the plague. The woman you saw just now is at the bottom of it all. I am afraid she has found out something."
I was never so much astonished in all my life. You might have knocked me down with a humming-bird's feather; but I quickly recovered possession of myself, and struck a match, which I held up in the face of the speaker. I did not know it. The match went out.
"Hold this dark-lantern for a moment, and look at me," said the man. "Now flash it on me."
He was the quintessence of conscientiousness. He had got some information, through an underground channel, and he had come in search of me. He had seen me when I ran after the woman, and had followed me cautiously. It was done in a masterly way, for I did not see a soul in the road. He was a born detective, which is the highest praise I could give. The Queen never had a better representative. Perhaps he tried to do too much. He wanted to bat, bowl, field, and keep wickets in every game. If he had been captain of a ship, he would have tried to do duty also as first, second, and third mate, steward, cook, carpenter, and able-bodied seaman.
When I had looked at him steadily for a minute, I dropped the lantern, and said, "I'm blowed!" The wind was taken out of my sails and no mistake! When I recovered myself a bit, I waited for His Excellency to speak, but he did not say a word. Feeling the silence awkward I spoke again.
"Has your Excellency anything further to say?"