He left the three behind him, bewildered and frightened.

Had lightning split a thick tree beside them, or an unexpected landslide thundered past and swept the ground away at their feet, they could have been hardly more disturbed.
"Who'd of thought he could act like that!" remarked Joe.

"My gosh, Jessie!" They went and looked at the hole where the stump had stood.

At the bottom was the white remnant of the taproot where it had burst under the strain.
"It wasn't so much how he pulled up the stump," said the girl faintly.
"But--but did you see his face, boys, after he heaved the stump up?
I--just pick that stump up, will you ?" They went to the misshapen, ragged monster and lifted it, puffing under the weight.
"All right." They dropped it obediently.
"And he--he just swung it around his head like it was nothing!" declared the girl.

"Look how it smashed into the gravel where he threw it down! Why--why--I didn't know men was made like that.