ame upon me, for the second time that day, a
mounting hurry to be gone. There was nothing to account for it, but I
distinctly felt an inward "Hurry! Hurry!" So propelling was it that
only the knowledge that the "Tillicum" would not float until high tide
kept me from finding Desire and begging her to come away at once. I did
go so far as to wander restlessly down into the garden where she had
gone to feed the chickens. Perhaps I would have gone farther and
mentioned my misgivings but just then Sami came and I forgot all about
them. I don't believe I have ever seen any child so frightened as that
little Indian! He simply fell through the bushes behind the chicken
house and shot, like a small, brown catapult, into Desire's arms. His
round face was actually grey with fear. And he huddled in her big apron
shivering, for all the world like some terrified animal.

Naturally the first thing to do was to get the thing that had
frightened him. An axe seemed a likely weapon, so, picking it up, I
slid into the bushes at the point where Sami had come out of them.

Perfect serenity was there! The afternoon light lay golden on the moss
above the fallen trees. No hidden scurrying in the underbrush told of
wild, wood things hastening to safety from some half-sensed danger. No
broken branches or trampled earth told of any past or present struggle.
There was no trace of any fearsome creature having passed along that
peaceful trail.

I searched thoroughly and found nothing. On my way back to the clearing
I met Li Ho.

'"Find anything, Li Ho?" I asked eagerly.

The Celestial grinned.

"Find honorable self," said he. "Missy she send. Missy heap scared
along of you."

"Nonsense!" I said. "I can take care of myself. Even if it had been a
bear, I had an axe."

"Bear!" said Li Ho. And then he laughed. Did you ever hear a Chinaman
laugh? I never had. Not this Chinaman anyway. It was so startling that
I forgot what I was saying. Next moment I could have sworn that he had
not laughed at all.

We found Sami, much comforted, sitting upon Desire's lap, a thing he
could seldom be induced to do. At our entrance he began to shiver again
but soon quieted. Desire had tried questioning but it was of no use. He
either couldn't, or wouldn't, say anything about what had frightened
him. Desire was inclined to think that he did not know. But I was not
so sure. It's a fairly well established fact that children simply can't
speak of certain terrors. An