try and get a little sleep
before it was time to get up and dress, the full humiliation of it
overcame him. What would his father say? and Nesta? and, worse and
worse, Bob Cochrane? How he would be laughed at--teased! He would
never be allowed to forget the dingo he had mistaken for a
black-fellow; and he felt hot all over when he thought of that
foolish shot--the cause of all the commotion.

It was a very depressed Eustace who appeared at breakfast. He took
Robertson's unabated amusement so gravely that the engineer stopped
laughing at him, and wondered if the youngster were sulking.

Mrs. Orban felt a good deal distressed to see how pale the boy was,
and that he could hardly touch the food set before him. But every
one showed signs of exhaustion, as was natural after two nights of
such unusual strain. Mrs. Orban kept Eustace with her all day,
setting him small jobs to keep him occupied. They all went to bed
early that night, and the household slept without rocking.

Next day, in the cool of the morning, Bob Cochrane rode over to
inquire how the Orbans were getting on. Eustace heard him come--the
boy was on the lookout for this particular visit--and as Bob walked
round one side of the veranda, Eustace disappeared along the other,
left a message with Mary that he was going down to the mill, and
started away from the house at a run. The truth was, he felt he
simply could not be present while Bob listened to the story of his
absurd adventures; he wanted the narration to be over before he
faced the fusillade of chaff with which the young fellow might
pepper him. "He'll think me a silly little fool, I know he will,"
Eustace told himself again and again; "and he'll say, 'What did I
tell you about shooting recklessly?' I expect he'll think I'm a
baby, not fit to be trusted with firearms. It's disgusting, just
when I was hoping he might begin to think me worth taking out
shooting with him soon."

Thoroughly out of conceit with himself, Eustace wished he need not
go home at all until Bob was certain to be gone. But no sooner did
he reach the mill and begin wandering about the rooms full of
machinery than it struck him it had been rather cowardly even to
run away for a time. Bob would know he had not felt equal to facing
him, and perhaps he would despise that as much as he was bound to
be amused at the other. The lad had a sharp tussle with himself,
and at last started back up the hill with the feelings of a most
unwilling