Well, when the thing that had crept through the window landed on the bed, Mike let out a yell that could have been heard in Dublin.

'Ow-w-w!' he whooped, scrambling to the floor.

He caught one sight of the visitor, and then made a dash for the window and slid clear to the ground, leaving pieces of shirt and his epidermis on every nail on the shed roof.

The noise he made roused the father and mother below, and the latter started for the stairs.

'That b'ye 'll be the death av me yet,' she complained.