"I say," he said with some difficulty, "it's beastly about father going, isn't it?"
"Rather," said Bob carelessly. "Mrs. Orban will feel awfully dull."
"That isn't the worst of it," said the lad mysteriously.
"Really?" questioned Bob indifferently, as he packed his pipe with great apparent interest.
"You know it isn't, Bob," Eustace broke out desperately.
"Do I?" questioned Bob lazily, but with a shrewd glance at the thin, pale face before him. "Why, what's the trouble?"
"It's the black-fellows," Eustace said in a half whisper.
Bob raised his eyebrows a little, and was again attentive to his pipe.
"Indeed?" he said; "what about them?"
"They are all round us in the scrub; you never know where they are," Eustace said with a gulp.