On Our Selection Part 5

Joe went and brought Jack.

"Oh-h, my G.o.d!"--Mother moaned, as Jack stood at the door, staring strangely at her. "Kill it!--why don't he kill it?"

Jack did n't move, but talked to himself. Mother shuddered.

The reptile crawled to the bedroom door. Then for the first time the man's eyes rested upon it. It glided into the bedroom, and Mother and Sal ran off for Dad.

Jack fixed his eyes on the snake and continued muttering to himself.

Several times it made an attempt to mount the dressing-table. Finally it succeeded. Suddenly Jack's demeanour changed. He threw off his ragged hat and talked wildly. A fearful expression filled his ugly features. His voice altered.

"You're the Devil!" he said; "THE DEVIL! THE DEVIL! The missus brought you--ah-h-h!"

The snake's head pa.s.sed behind the looking-gla.s.s. Jack drew nearer, clenching his fists and gesticulating. As he did he came full before the looking-gla.s.s and saw, perhaps for the first time in his life, his own image. An unearthly howl came from him. "ME FATHER!" he shouted, and bolted from the house.

Dad came in with the long-handled shovel, swung it about the room, and smashed pieces off the cradle, and tore the bed-curtains down, and made a great noise altogether. Finally, he killed the snake and put it on the fire; and Joe and the cat watched it wriggle on the hot coals.

Meanwhile, Jack, bare-headed, rushed across the yard. He ran over little Bill, and tumbled through the wire-fence on to the broad of his back. He roared like a wild beast, clutched at s.p.a.ce, spat, and kicked his heels in the air.

"Let me up!---AH-H-H!--let go me throat!" he hissed.

The dog ran over and barked at him. He found his feet again, and, making off, ran through the wheat, glancing back over his shoulder as he tore along. He crossed into the gra.s.s paddock, and running to a big tree dodged round and round it. Then from tree to tree he went, and that evening at sundown, when Joe was bringing the cows home, Jack was still flying from "his father".

After supper.

"I wonder now what the old fool saw in that snake to send him off his head like that?" Dad said, gazing wonderingly into the fire. "He sees plenty of them, goodness knows."

"That was n't it. It was n't the snake at all," Mother said; "there was madness in the man's eyes all the while. I saw it the moment he came to the door." She appealed to Sal.

"Nonsense!" said Dad; "NONSENSE!" and he tried to laugh.

"Oh, of course it's NONSENSE," Mother went on; "everything I say is nonsense. It won't be nonsense when you come home some day and find us all on the floor with our throats cut."

"Pshaw!" Dad answered; "what's the use of talking like that?" Then to Dave: "Go out and see if he's in the barn!"

Dave fidgetted. He did n't like the idea. Joe giggled.

"Surely you're not FRIGHTENED?" Dad shouted.

Dave coloured up.

"No--don't think so," he said; and, after a pause, "YOU go and see."

It was Dad's turn to feel uneasy. He pretended to straighten the fire, and coughed several times. "Perhaps it's just as well," he said, "to let him be to-night."

Of course, Dad was n't afraid; he SAID he was n't, but he drove the pegs in the doors and windows before going to bed that night.

Next morning, Dad said to Dave and Joe, "Come 'long, and we'll see where he's got to."

In a gully at the back of the gra.s.s-paddock they found him. He was ploughing--sitting astride the highest limb of a fallen tree, and, in a hoa.r.s.e voice and strange, calling out--"Gee, Captain!--come here, Tidy!--WA-AY!"

"Blowed if I know," Dad muttered, coming to a standstill. "Wonder if he is clean mad?"

Dave was speechless, and Joe began to tremble.

They listened. And as the man's voice rang out in the quiet gully and the echoes rumbled round the ridge and the affrighted birds flew up, the place felt eerie somehow.

"It's no use bein' afraid of him," Dad went on. "We must go and bounce him, that's all." But there was a tremor in Dad's voice which Dave did n't like.

"See if he knows us, anyway."--and Dad shouted, "HEY-Y!"

Jack looked up and immediately scrambled from the limb. That was enough for Dave. He turned and made tracks. So did Dad and Joe. They ran. No one could have run harder. Terror overcame Joe. He squealed and grabbed hold of Dad's shirt, which was ballooning in the wind.

"Let go!" Dad gasped. "d.a.m.n Y', let me GO! "--trying to shake him off. But Joe had great faith in his parent, and clung to him closely.

When they had covered a hundred yards or so, Dave glanced back, and seeing that Jack was n't pursuing them, stopped and chuckled at the others.

"Eh?" Dad said, completely winded--"Eh?" Then to Dave, when he got some breath:

"Well, you ARE an a.s.s of a fellow. (PUFF!). What th' DEVIL did y' RUN f'?"

"Wot did I run f'? What did YOU run f'?"

"Bah!" and Dad boldly led the way back.

"Now look here (turning fiercely upon Joe), don't you come catching hold of me again, or if y' DO I'll knock y'r d--d head off!...Clear home altogether, and get under the bed if y're as frightened as THAT."

Joe slunk behind.

But when Dad DID approach Jack, which was n't until he had talked a great deal to him across a big log, the latter did n't show any desire to take life, but allowed himself to be escorted home and locked in the barn quietly enough.

Dad kept Jack confined in the barn several days, and if anyone approached the door or the cracks he would ask:

"Is me father there yet?"

"Your father's dead and buried long ago, man," Dad used to tell him.

"Yes," he would say, "but he's alive again. The missus keeps him in there"--indicating the house.

And sometimes when Dad was not about Joe would put his mouth to a crack and say:

"Here's y'r FATHER, Jack!" Then, like a caged beast, the man would howl and tramp up and down, his eyes starting out of his head, while Joe would bolt inside and tell Mother that "Jack's getting out,", and nearly send her to her grave.

But one day Jack DID get out, and, while Mother and Sal were ironing came to the door with the axe on his shoulder.

They dropped the irons and shrank into a corner and cowered piteously--too scared even to cry out.

He took no notice of them, but, moving stealthily on tip-toes, approached the bedroom door and peeped in. He paused just a moment to grip the axe with both hands. Then with a howl and a bound he entered the room and shattered the looking-gla.s.s into fragments.

He bent down and looked closely at the pieces.