WANDERLUST’S CALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1921, Page 12

WANDERLUST’S CALL.

15,000 MILES IN A YAWL. “Why did you make the trip?” Lieutenant George 11. P. Muhlhauser. R.N.R.. skipper-owner of the tiny yawl Amaryllis, frowned. The question had been put to him in Sydney by a crowd of pressmen who boarded his craft as soon as she arrived in Ruehcutters Bay. The lieutenant, a sun-tanned man of 51, slim and jovial, had come 15(000 miles from Plymouth to Sydney in. a 28-ton boat, and the natural question to ask was why he did it. “Well,” he answered. The pencils were ready. . “Well —” he said again. He looked across the cabin, obviously perplexed. Probably the thing had never occurred to him so bluntly. Perhaps it was just that sort of wanderlust that creeps into a man’s mind before he know’s it, and can’t find any real logical reason for it. But he had another attempt at it. “Well,” he said, “I simply came. . The war was over, and—well, things were dead. So I came.” This conversation, though, didn’t take place till fully half an hour after the pressmen boarded the boat. When they first clambered on to the deck there was nothing to be seen except Sam. the Pan- ' amk Indian, hastily adjusting fenders, land Stephane, the French lad, leaning ’ against the boom of the mainsail. | There was a wait of about five minutes. Then a couple of customs men | emerged from below and left on their launch? Another couple of minutes and a sun-browned head, with not too many grey hairs on it, shot up from the narrow companionway. ' ‘'Hello,” said Lieutenant Muhlhauser. ‘•'What’s all this about?” He was assured that the crowd were only pressmen. “bh,” he yelled —and be was gone. A second later his voice could be heard from below. "What do you want?” he called out. “We want to see you,” he was told. “Well, what do you want to know?” he asked when everyone was in the comfortable little cabin below. “Something about your trip,” he was told. “Oli, yes,” he replied. “I left England on September 6 last year, and I’m here now. I spent the interval getting heTe. Will that do?” It wouldn’t do, but after a good deal of argument he was enticed to talk, and l.e told the story—though it was under protest. “When I left England I had as companions three other former officers who served in the war. Two of them were unable to get work, and were hopeful of getting something to do in other parts of the world. We crossed the Atlantic in good weather and cruised about the West Indies. The two men looking for work got jobs at Barbadoes, and left me It was there that I took on the French lad, Stephane. “Then the third companion left the boat also. At least he was forced to leave. He was recaptured by his wife. Soon after we left England she became alarmSd for his safety, and pushed off on a steamer for Jamaica. So as soon as we poked our nose into Kingston, there she was waiting for us. And he was off the boat before you could say