Chapter Seventeen.

A Strange Encounter.

“Don’t go too far, Nic,” said Dr Braydon, a few mornings after the boy’s arrival at the Bluff.

“Oh no, father; only I must see what the place is like all round.”

“Of course; I have no time to-day, or I’d take you for a ride round.”

“But ought he to go alone?” said Mrs Braydon.

“He must learn to run alone, my dear,” said the doctor. “We can’t chain him up like a dog.”

“No,” said Mrs Braydon, rather piteously; “but there are the precipices.”

“Nic has eyes in his head, and will not go and jump down there. He can’t very well fall by accident.”

“The snakes, my dear.”