Page 18 - An Australian Lassie

All the other windows were darkened; only this one room in all the great house seemed to be awake.

Then, in the silence which lay everywhere, a blood-curdling thing happened. Betty's "clanking chain" came in
contact with something of iron reared up near the window and gave forth a fearsome sound. Cold chills played
about Cyril's back, a distant dog barked--and Baby awoke.

Betty at once perceived this to be the one moment. Many people can recognize their moment when it has
gone. Betty's talent lay in seeing it just as it arrived.

Tf truth must be confessed, fear had once or twice during this campaign tugged at her heart; when Cyril had
urged home, her greatest desire had been to flee. But Betty never quite knew herself--was never in any crisis
of her life absolutely certain what this second terribly insistent self would do.

Tnstead of scampering away with Cyril through the night, her feet had taken her to the windows, and the
proportions of her plan had grown gloriously, albeit her heart-beats could be heard aloud.

Now, when her chain clanked, it seemed to her the war drum had been sounded. She darted from the verandah
across the path and snatched the baby from her brother's arms; then, running back to the verandah, her chain
clanked again and again, and she rent the air with a dismal wail--

"Father! Father!"

From the depths of an easy chair whose back was to her there rose the tall bent figure of an old man.

Betty had arranged to "rend the air with wail upon wail"--to "press her pinched white face, and her little one's,
time after time upon the window pane," but opportunity interfered, the window flew up, and Betty crouched
on the floor in terror.

Tn the banana grove Cyril fled from tree to tree, crying dismally. The darkness, the screams, the chain, the
opening of the window, had each and all terrified him almost past endurance. Now he felt convinced his
grandfather was chasing him with the emus.

Meanwhile Betty on the verandah was also quaking. A stern voice from the open window demanded "Who is
there?" but her fortitude was not equal to a wail.

"T heard some one say 'Father, Father,' T'll swear," said a somewhat familiar boyish voice.

"T saw a face," said the old man.

And then Baby began to whimper piteously, and Betty's heart sank into her shabby small shoes.

Footsteps were coming her way; the inevitable was at hand and she recognized it, and with an effort stood
upright cuddling the baby close.

The old man put his hand on her shoulder, and with a "T'll just trouble you--this way please," and not so much
as a quaver in his voice, led her into the brightly-lighted study.

And there followed him "big John Brown," of mathematical and pugilistic renown.

He stared at Betty very hard, and Betty stared at him--only for a moment, though, for Baby began to cry and
had to be hushed--and the chain clanked and frightened her while it produced no visible effect upon her
grandfather.