



Produced by David Widger





FOSTER'S LETTER OF MARQUE

A TALE OF OLD SYDNEY

From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"

By Louis Becke

C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.

1901




I

One by one the riding-lights of the few store-ships and whalers lying
in Sydney Harbour on an evening in January, 1802, were lit, and as the
clear notes of a bugle from the barracks pealed over the bay, followed
by the hoarse calls and shrill whistles of the boatswains' mates on a
frigate that lay in Sydney Cove, the mate of the _Policy_ whaler jumped
up from the skylight where he had been lying smoking, and began to pace
the deck.

The _Policy_ was anchored between the Cove and Pinchgut, ready for sea.
The north-easter, which for three days had blown strongly, had now died
away, and the placid waters of the harbour shimmered under the starlight
of an almost cloudless sky. As the old mate tramped to and fro on the
deserted poop, his keen seaman's eye caught sight of some faint grey
clouds rising low down in