The Lieutenant: Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Rooke sits in the boat and watches Governor Gilbert sitting in the front. Silk and another lieutenant, Willstead, sit behind the governor. Willstead is obviously and obnoxiously ambitious, and the governor regularly addresses Silk instead of Willstead. The governor's lumbering, massive shooter, named Brugden, sits behind Rooke. The boat rounds a corner and the party spots a group of natives sitting around a fire. The governor commands Gardiner, who's steering, to turn in so they can speak to the natives, but the natives get up and disappear into the forest by the time the boat gets close enough.

Willstead offers to run after the natives, but Gilbert ignores him and commands Gardiner to continue onward. Finally, Gardiner steers the boat to shore in a river, and everyone disembarks. Gilbert tells Gardiner to have the boat ready to collect the party in three days, and shouts out the marching order. Gilbert tells the privates to march with "the gamekeeper" (referring to Brugden), and Rooke laughs before realizing that Gilbert was dead serious when he used the term. Rooke thinks that calling Brugden the gamekeeper recalls high English society, and that New South Wales is nothing like a gentleman's manicured estate. Furthermore, Brugden is nothing more than a prisoner with a gun.

Rooke brings up the rear of the party to record the steps and direction of the march. The terrain is difficult, and they have to change direction often to avoid mud or thickets. When Gilbert calls a halt for the night, Rooke watches as a sergeant reluctantly gives Brugden a gun to hunt for dinner. When Brugden asks for more powder and bullets the sergeant tries to refuse, but Gilbert snaps that Brugden should have what he needs. Brugden smiles and walks away. When Gilbert notices Rooke watching, he explains that Brugden was an exceptional gamekeeper in England. Willstead asks what will happen if Brugden wanders off, and Gilbert snappily asks where Brugden could possibly go.

Rooke returns to his records of the march and calculates that they marched four and five eighths miles. When he tells Silk, Silk is delighted. Silk tries to get Willstead to share in his delight, but Willstead is too engrossed in tending to his blisters. Rooke decides to walk along the stream, making a great show of using his compass. In reality, Rooke just wants to be able to look at the strange landscape. 

Brugden returns with parrots and an opossum. When Rooke rolls himself into his blanket after dinner, he thinks that there's no place he'd rather be. The next day, the party finds the river again, as well as a footpath. Gilbert is thrilled at the possibility of coming across natives. Rooke wonders how they might interact with the natives, and thinks that maybe more words and fewer trinkets would work better. He rehearses his dialogue in his head, but they don't find natives. They find an encampment, but it's empty. Gilbert irritably wonders where the natives are and why they hide.

A bit later, the party finds an open, grassy clearing. Gilbert digs up a handful of dirt and asks Rooke to note this spot, as he believes the soil will be good for agriculture. That evening, Brugden boasts that he'll bring back better game. Rooke and the others hear a shot a short time later, and not long after that, Brugden bursts into the clearing with a black eye. He yells that the natives stoned him. Gilbert snaps at Brugden to explain what happened, and Rooke thinks that Brugden looks shifty as he tells Gilbert that he'd been hunting and then the natives started throwing stones unprovoked.

Gilbert asks Brugden if he shot at the natives. Brugden again seems to be hiding the truth as he admits that he did shoot, but his life depended upon it and he doesn't know if he hit anyone. With quiet anger, Gilbert reminds Brugden that the wellbeing of the settlement depends on friendly relations with the natives. A sense of fear descends upon the party. A sergeant loads all the guns and lays them out, and a private stands guard. Rooke knows that something happened out there, and Brugden isn't telling. He also knows that if the natives attack, the muskets won't help at all.

The night proves to be uneventful, and in the morning the party makes its way back to Gardiner and the boat. Gilbert praises Rooke as a "first-rate navigator." Gilbert tells Silk that the area they found was exactly what he's looking for, and it will become "the breadbasket of the colony."