As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile asked him if he had slept well.
The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he said somewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of your tricks! You play another on me, and I'll give you the soundest licking you ever had in your life!" The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of the deepest pain: "Whatever's the matter ?" he said in a tone of amazement.
"I thought you loved a joke.

You said you did--yesterday--at tea." "You try it on again!" said Captain Baster.
"Now, whatever has put your back up ?" said the Terror in a tone of even greater amazement.

"Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road ?" It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness: Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth.
The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the bedroom of Erebus.
"Waxy ?" he cried joyously.

"He's black in the face! I told him he said he loved a joke." Erebus only growled deep down in her throat.

She was bitterly aggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall the night before.