Father said he should stay in the Hollow till Starlight got round a bit.

He told us not to tell mother or Ailie a word about where we'd been.

Of course they couldn't be off knowin' that we'd been with him; but we were to stall them off by saying we'd been helping him with a bit of bush-work or anything we could think off.

'It'll do no good, and your mother's quite miserable enough as it is, boys,' he said.

'She'll know time enough, and maybe break her heart over it, too.