you go with a
crash. Somebody runs to your assistance, and the additional strain put
upon the floor causes the break to increase, and, together with the
person who has come to your aid, you go down in a heap through a yawning
chasm in the floor, no matter whether your room is carpeted or not. If
it is the former, the ravages of the worm have been quite concealed by
the carpet; while in the latter case the surface of the wood presents
the same appearance, while the whole interior of the plank or board has
been turned to dust. This sort of thing has happened in many an
Australian house, and will doubtless continue to happen."

Harry asked if there was any way of preventing the ravages of this
destroyer.

His informant replied that there were two or three kinds of wood which
these insects would not touch. Unfortunately, however, they were higher
priced than ordinary wood, and consequently the temptation was to use
the cheaper article. Houses could also be built of cement, brick, or
other substances which defied the wood worm, but these, again, were
expensive and could not be afforded by newly arrived emigrants, whose
capital was generally very limited.

"Returning to the subject of the telegraph," the gentleman continued,
"we found a great deal of trouble with the insects destructive to wood,
and then, too, we had considerable difficulty with the blacks, though
less than we had anticipated. We managed to inspire them with a very
wholesome fear of the mysterious fluid that passed through the wires,
and though they have burned stations, and killed or wounded quite a
number of our people, they have never meddled with the wires."

"How did you manage to inspire them with such fear?" queried Harry.

"We did it in this way," was the reply. "Whenever a native visited us,
we managed to give him a shock of electricity, and if we could shock an
entire group at once it was so much the better. On several occasions we
got two or more of their chiefs at stations hundreds of miles apart, and
then let them talk with each other over the wires. Where they were well
acquainted, they were able to carry on conversations which none but
themselves could understand. Then we would have them meet half way
between the stations and compare notes, and the result was something
that greatly astonished them. Savage people generally attribute to the
devil anything they cannot understand, and they very quickly concluded
that 'His Satanic Majesty' was