Cumshaw laughed softly, but Moira bit her lip, though she made no reply to what I had said.
"Now, while we're talking about it," I ran on, "I just want to impress on you the fact that we aren't going off into the bush—not the kind of bush that you read about in books, where it's all scrub and myall blacks and things like that. Most of the time we'll be within coo-ee of civilisation. Most of Western Victoria's pretty well settled, and it's just the luck of the game and the formation of the country that this valley's remained so long hidden away. We'll be near enough to people all the time to be noticeable if we do anything remarkable. We've got to go to work so that we'll attract as little attention as possible. We'll want food, enough for several weeks, I suppose, and we've got to get it and take it with us, and do it all in such a way that nobody's going to wonder what we're after. Another thing that that reminds me of. Miss Drummond here had better keep out of sight as long as she can. We two can manage to escape observation, but people always want to know what a woman's doing in it when there's anything suspicious happening."
"If you mean by that that you think I can be turned back at the last moment, you're making a mistake," Moira informed me.
"I don't mean that," I said calmly, "but I want to take every precaution that I can. I'm in charge of this expedition, elected by three votes to nothing, and I'm going to run things the way I think best. It mightn't be the best way in the end, but that's quite another matter. I haven't wandered across the world from Yokohama to the White Nile and from the Klondyke to the Solomons without knowing how to organise an expedition."
"You're right there," Cumshaw acknowledged. "You're the only one amongst us who's had practical experience. In future what you say goes."
"That's the spirit," I said briskly. "What have you to say, Moira?"
"You know best," she answered. "As long as you don't leave me out altogether I'll agree to anything, but I want to take my share of the risk too."
"Apparently," I remarked, "everyone's afraid that everybody else'll have the lion's share of the fighting. Well, if I can fix it, there'll not be any fighting at all."
"What do you mean?" Cumshaw asked interestedly.
"That's nothing to do with the situation at present," I informed him. "You'll all see when the time's ripe. Now what's next?"