“Shall we call father and tell him first?”
“No; because we might be wrong. Let’s go and see first. A ’possum must have got on the horse’s back and be scaring him into this gallop. Look sharp.”
The boys soon had on their flannel shirts and trousers, generally their every-day costume, and after satisfying themselves that Tim was fast asleep, they squeezed themselves out of the window and dropped one after the other, and then hurried along in the thick darkness, across the garden, past the storehouse, and then along under the shelter of the fences till, perfectly satisfied now, they neared the corner of the paddock, just as a horse galloped by at full speed.
“No wonder he looks so bad of a morning,” whispered Norman. “Here, go on a little farther and then we can look through and see.”
They went down now on hands and knees, and crept along till they could look through into the great paddock, just as a flash of lightning revealed to them a group of horses in the centre of the field all pretty close together, and quietly cropping the grass.
“Strange, isn’t it?” whispered Norman. “Listen! here he comes round again.”
For the beat of hoofs approached from their left, and the next minute a horse thundered by at full speed.
“Why, it was!” whispered Rifle, “I saw one of those ’possums perched on its back.”
“No,” said Norman, excitedly. “I saw something distinctly; but it was too big to be a ’possum. I think it was one of those big things that Shanter killed. Father said it was the koala or native bear.”
“Let’s wait till it comes round again.”