n time to see her charge rolling helplessly down the slope to what
appeared to be certain death.

There was but a short slope between the bush and the cliff. Rotund
little Charlie "fetched way" as he advanced, despite one or two feeble
clutches at the rocks.

If Sally had been a few years older she would have bounded after him
like a goat, but she had only reached that period of life which rendered
petrifaction possible. She stood ridged for a few moments with heart,
head, and eyes apparently about to burst. At last her voice found vent
in a shriek so awful that it made the heart of Young, high on the cliffs
above, stand still. It had quite the contrary effect on the legs of
Brown. That cautious man chanced to be climbing the cliff slowly with a
fresh basketful of eggs. Hearing the shriek, and knowing full well that
it meant imminent danger, he leaped up the last few steps of the
precipice with a degree of heedless agility that equalled that of Nehow
himself. He was just in time to see Charlie coming straight at him like
a cannon shot. It was really an awful situation. To have received the
shock while his footing was still precarious would have insured his own
destruction as well as that of the child. Feeling this, he made a
kangaroo-like bound over the edge of the cliff, and succeeded in
planting both feet and knees firmly on a grassy foundation, just in
time. Letting go his burden, he spread out both arms. Charlie came
into his bosom with extreme violence, but he remained firm, while the
basket of eggs went wildly downward to destruction.

Meanwhile, Sally stood there with clasped hands and glazed eyes, sending
up shriek after shriek, which sent successive stabs to the heart of
Edward Young, as he scurried and tumbled, rather than ran, down from the
upper cliffs towards her.

In a few minutes he came in pale and panting. A minute later and Nehow
ran round a neighbouring point like a greyhound.

"All right?" gasped Young.

"All right," replied Brown.

"Wheeaow-ho!" exclaimed Nehow, expanding his cavernous mouth with a grin
of satisfaction.

It is worthy of record that little Sally did not revisit these
particular cliffs for several years after that exciting and eventful
day, and that she returned to the settlement with a beating and grateful
heart.

It must not be supposed that Charlie Christian remained for any great
length of time "the babby" of that infant colony. By no means. In a
short t