he wonder grew, and families were called up
at an unusually early hour, and sage opinions were thrown from side
windows and handed over garden gates. An invasion of goats had happened
at Waddy, a downpour of goats, an eruption of goats: goats were all over
the place, and nobody knew whence they came or when they arrived. Waddy's
own goats were many and various, but the invasion had quadrupled them,
and goats were everywhere--bold, hungry, predatory goats--browsing,
sleeping, battling, thieving, and filling the air with incessant
pleadings. They invaded gardens and broke their way into kitchens and
larders; they assaulted children and in some cases offered fight to the
mothers who went to eject them; and here and there the billies of Waddy
fought with the bearded usurpers long unsatisfactory contests, rearing
and butting for hours, and doing each other no morsel of injury that
anybody could discover. A few of the women were out with buckets, making
the most of the opportunity, milking all the nannies who would submit;
and Devoy, with characteristic impetuosity, was already on the warpath,
seeking vengeance on the person or persons whose act had led to the
pillage of his vegetable beds.

During all this the innocence of the boys of Waddy, particularly those
boys who had composed Moonlighter's gang, was quite convincing. They had
kept their secret well, and for some time no act of vandalism was
suspected. In school during the morning they were most attentive, and
particularly assiduous in the pursuit of knowledge; and when the echoes
of a disturbance in the township penetrated the school walls, Richard
Haddon and his friends may have exchanged significant winks, but nothing
in their general demeanour would have betrayed them to the ordinary
intelligence. However, Joel Ham's intelligence was not of the ordinary
kind, and after looking up two or three times and catching the master's
little leaden eye fixed upon him with a glance of amused speculation,
Dick began to feel decidedly uncomfortable.

The first hint of the truth was brought to Waddy by an infuriated female
from Cow Flat. She drove up in an old-fashioned waggon drawn by a lively
and energetic but very ancient and haggard bay horse, with flattened
hoofs and a mere stump of a tail. She was tall and stout, with great
muscular arms bare to the shoulder, and her face was pink with righteous
indignation. This woman drove slowly up the one road of Waddy, and
standing ere