Moreton Bay by F.W. Mole — Read

The paramount desire of Nigel Lording, therefore, was to get as far away as possible from the convict settlement. The more remote their place of hiding the better. But the Turrubul tribe had their geographical limitations. They never wandered far from the Settlement, or from the shores of Moreton Bay. To remain with this tribe indefinitely, was to court recapture. This Nigel Lording made the blacks to understand, and he impressed upon them that they must leave them. There was great objection on the part of the tribe to let them go, but in the end he had his way. This meant that he and Mary Worthington would have to seek the protection of other tribes and in passing from one tribe to another, or through the country of another tribe, a rigid etiquette was observed. The Turrubuls sent a messenger in advance, dressed elaborately in cockatoo feathers or other recognised ornaments. As his credential the messenger carried a message-stick, somewhat larger than a finger or a "pass it on" cubical stone, about three quarters of an inch in size. These message sticks or stones bore markings which could be read by other tribes in the same way as a written message. The stick, in any case, acted as a guarantee of good faith to show there was "no gammon," that it was a good passport and acted as a safeguard, to, or through, other tribes. In this way, Nigel Lording and his fugitive partner who had now developed into a beautiful savage, entered the territory of the Goenpul tribe much further to the South and in whose territory lay the great mountain range of Namboreen overlooking the sea to the east and south, and the territory of Tamrookum and Mundoolum to the south west. With this tribe, and in the fastness of their ranges, they found sanctuary.

When the Commandant, Pearce Lannigan raised his bruised and outraged majesty from the ground where he had been so ruthlessly flung, and recovered somewhat his dazed senses, he found the convict whom he had believed to be so absolutely at his mercy, gone and with him the beautiful "Fallen Angel." In his rage and bewilderment he could not bring himself to believe that such an incredible thing had happened.