Part 10 (1/2)

Mrs Orban sent Eustace down to the plantation as soon as she knew every one would be astir Mr Ashton, the field o to hiineer, returned with the boy to look into the ations were in vain; the man had left no tracks around the house, no footprints on the veranda

The servants were so terrified that they declared they would not stay another night in the house They wanted to be sent to Cooktown i burly Scots was iet away for another week, when the schoonerprovisions He lectured the to run away and leave their irls would not listen to reason; they said they would hire horses and ride all the way to the first civilized place they could find

Then Mrs Orban tried persuasion Had they not better wait at least to see whether anything could be heard of their lost possessions?

She would offer a reward to any one finding the thief or restoring the stolen goods to their owners--the offer should be estion carried the day, and the bargain was made Mrs

Orban felt that at all costs she must keep the maids until Mr

Orban's return, for the work and the solitude would have been too much for her to stand, brave as she had proved herself to be

The offering of a reas greatly against Robertson's advice He pointed out that it would only prove an incentive to further robbery The plantation hands were an unprincipled lot, and if they discovered that they could getthem back, as if they had discovered them in the possession of soible ht red-handed

But so anxious was Mrs Orban to keep the servants that she disregarded Robertson's opinion, and the reas duly offered

The engineer had one proposal to make, which was accepted With Mrs Orban's leave, he said, he, with his wife and two little children, would come up the hill and sleep in the house until Mr

Orban's return There would be safety in nuain, so at him

In spite of the fuller house, and the fact that Robertson's eight-year-old boy was sleeping in Peter's bed that night, Eustace did not feel particularly happy in the hours of darkness before hiht

The door between his mother's room and his oas left open, by way of companionshi+p for them both, but the boy was so overtired as to be restless and unable to go to sleep To his excited fancy there were unusual sounds about The creaking of unwarping boards, the soughing of the night breeze round the house, even Sandy Robertson turning round in his bed, with an impatient but sleepy flump at the heat, were noises that set his hair on end and ain Once or twice he stole from his bed to peer into his mother's room, but she always seemed asleep; or he would look stealthily out of the , as if he could possibly have seen anything in the dark

Robertson, with his wife and baby, was in Nesta's room at the other side of the house It occurred to Eustace that if anything did happen--anything needing ietatable The boy sat up in bed hugging his knees,the night visitor caain and he should see him

Unknown to his mother, Eustace had taken the revolver he had been entrusted with the night before to bed with him He ot up to htly in his hand ready for iht stole into the rooainst his will he lay back on his pillow and fell asleep He had deterreat heaviness overpowered hi

It seemed to him he had hardly closed his eyes--indeed, it cannot have been ht--when a resounding pistol report rang through the silent house Eustace aith an instant consciousness of having slept on his self-imposed sentry work He felt queer and oddly shaken as, with a cry of dis out of bed and rushed into his mother's roohtened out of her wits by the noise

She stared at Eustace, who stood, revolver in hand, gazing blankly round the rooan, stopped abruptly, and added in a choked voice, ”Oh, look! look!”

He was staring towards theOutside on the veranda, crouching on all fours in the dusk, was a dark figure With a strange, sudden movement it raised itself and stretched out an ar lank, tall, and horribly sinister

Without a moment's hesitation Eustace raised his hand and fired

There was a splintering of glass, a wild howl of pain, and the figure dropped like a stone

”Eustace,” cried Mrs Orban in a horrified voice, ”what have you done?”

”I had to fire first,” returned the boy in an odd, sullen tone

The figure outside an rapidly crawling along the veranda towards the stairs

At the bedroo the way, his usually ruddy face ghastly with astonish at Eustace and his ,” Eustace faltered ”It is going down the steps--”