upper.

"I wonder now what the old fool saw in that snake to send him off his
head like that?" Dad said, gazing wonderingly into the fire. "He sees
plenty of them, goodness knows."

"That was n't it. It was n't the snake at all," Mother said; "there
was madness in the man's eyes all the while. I saw it the moment he
came to the door." She appealed to Sal.

"Nonsense!" said Dad; "NONSENSE!" and he tried to laugh.

"Oh, of course it's NONSENSE," Mother went on; "everything I say is
nonsense. It won't be nonsense when you come home some day and find us
all on the floor with our throats cut."

"Pshaw!" Dad answered; "what's the use of talking like that?" Then to
Dave: "Go out and see if he's in the barn!"

Dave fidgetted. He did n't like the idea. Joe giggled.

"Surely you're not FRIGHTENED?" Dad shouted.

Dave coloured up.

"No--don't think so," he said; and, after a pause, "YOU go and see."

It was Dad's turn to feel uneasy. He pretended to straighten the fire,
and coughed several times. "Perhaps it's just as well," he said, "to
let him be to-night."

Of course, Dad was n't afraid; he SAID he was n't, but he drove the
pegs in the doors and windows before going to bed that night.

Next morning, Dad said to Dave and Joe, "Come 'long, and we'll see
where he's got to."

In a gully at the back of the grass-paddock they found him. He was
ploughing--sitting astride the highest limb of a fallen tree, and, in a
hoarse voice and strange, calling out--"Gee, Captain!--come here,
Tidy!--WA-AY!"

"Blowed if I know," Dad muttered, coming to a standstill. "Wonder if
he is clean mad?"

Dave was speechless, and Joe began to tremble.

They listened. And as the man's voice rang out in the quiet gully and
the echoes rumbled round the ridge and the affrighted birds flew up,
the place felt eerie somehow.

"It's no use bein' afraid of him," Dad went on. "We must go and bounce
him, that's all." But there was a tremor in Dad's voice which Dave did
n't like.

"See if he knows us, anyway."--and Dad shouted, "HEY-Y!"

Jack looked up and immediately scrambled from the limb. That was
enough for Dave. He turned and made tracks. So did Dad and Joe. They
ran. No one could have run harder. Terror overcame Joe. He squealed
and grabbed hold of Dad's shirt, which was ballooning in the wind.

"Let go!" Dad gasped. "DAMN Y', let me GO! "--trying to shake him
off. But Joe had great faith in his parent, and clung to