"If you'll go back to the house you'll find some cigars that might please you in the bureau.

Sorry I can't come with you, but I'm busy.

Are you ready, Tom ?" He turned, and swung up the axe while the big bushman swept his blade aloft, and Deringham watched them curiously.

Alton swayed with a steely suppleness from the waist, and the broad wedge of steel flashed about his head before it came down ringing.

The man had a few inches of springy wood which bent and heaved beneath him to stand upon, but the great blade descended exactly where the last chip had lain, and when it hissed aloft again that of the silent axeman dropped into the notch it made.