Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/251

Rh men devoted to him now as then, and ready and eager to follow him now whenever he calls upon them. No weeping mothers, wives, or sweethearts here—only joyful women blessing his name—no great disasters, but a splendid and genuine success due to the leader's great qualities, which almost ensured success ere he left on his quest. Such energy, spirit, imagination, foresight, and practical organisation were bound to take a man far. He was the man, and it was the expedition!

As I write these lines I remember how last night I sat in the drawing-room of his London house—whilst all Britain, nay, all the world, is acknowledging in him the man and the conqueror—and looked at him whilst he stood on the hearth, and, turning over the pages of the soiled little notebook he carried with him on his famous Southern march, read to his family and guests, here and there, a page of notes as he had written them daily under those terrible difficulties—those short, bald statements of those terrible days and hours when the end seemed very near, and famine, sickness, and fatigue held sway—bringing so vividly before us that awful time—I looked at him and round the pleasant, flower-decked, firelit room—yes, he was the man, and it was the expedition.

Brave men make brave women. Her ladyship might be sitting there proud, happy, and at ease now; but I had seen and known what a woman's brave and cheerful spirit can mean in days of deep anxiety and waiting—that waiting—and had known how splendidly some of those women had played their part, which is no light one. If we had little to say when that reading was done, it was not that we were stupid, for thought and memory were busy—indeed, that success had been well won—indeed, it had all been well done!