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.
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