y thought it was some kind of gun, and
a baby's woollen bootee, which the Piccaninnies found most useful as an
enormous bag to be filled with berries. But most mysterious, and
therefore most interesting, though a little frightening, was a large
heap of grey smoking ashes where the picnic fire had been.

The Piccaninnies circled round and round this queer grey pile wondering
what on earth it could be. One boy venturing a little nearer than the
others trod on a live cinder, for the fire was not as dead as it ought
to have been, and jumped back howling and hopping round and round on one
foot, holding the other.

When they crowded round him asking what had happened he cried in fear:

"The Red Enemy bit me. He lives under that grey mound, and I saw his red
eye flash as I went near. That is his breath you see rising up through
the trees."

The Piccaninnies looked frightened and backed away from the grey mound,
but all the rest of that evening they came again and again to stare upon
the Red Enemy, and each time they came his red eyes seemed to flash
brighter, his thick white breath to grow denser as it wound up through
the trees, and he seemed to be purring and growling to himself.

[Illustration: "All the rest of the evening they came again and again to
stare upon the Red Enemy."]

When the Piccaninnies went to bed that night they were very uneasy and
could not sleep well. The sound of the Red Enemy's breathing seemed to
fill the bush with a low roaring, and his breath stole in and out of the
trees like a reddish mist; the air was very hot and dry. One of the
Piccaninnies, a brave little fellow, said that he would go and see what
their strange new enemy was doing, and sliding down his sleeping-tree he
set off.

He had not gone far before the heat and the stifling air drove him hack,
and rushing back to his friends he cried:

"Run for your lives! Quick! Quick! The Great Red Enemy is coming. He is
roaring with anger and tearing the trees down as he comes. None of us
can hope to escape him, for he has a million bright red eyes which he
sends flying through the bush in all directions to find us, and his
breath is so thick that we will be lost in it if we don't run now. Run!
Run!"

The Piccaninnies did not wait to be told twice. Without waiting to pack
up they slid down the trees and started to run through the dark bush,
and soon there were hundreds of little bush creatures all joining in the
race for life.

On, on th