Snugly ensconced in a dry ditch, well overhung with brambles, they soon regained wind after their exertions and excitement. But Haviland, lying on the ground, laughed till he cried. "If you could only have seen yourself, Corbould," he stuttered between each paroxysm, "rising like Phoenix from the ashes! And that infernal fowl waltzing round and round the barn squawking like mad, and the jolly owl flapping and hissing up top there! O Lord, you'd have died!" "We didn't get the eggs, though. Wouldn't have minded if we'd got the eggs." "Well, we won't get them now, for I don't suppose either of us'll be such asses as to go near the place again this season after the to-do there'll be when old Siggles discovers the smash up. It's a pity to have done all that damage though, gets us a rottener name than ever." "It couldn't. These beasts of farmers, it doesn't hurt them if we hunt for nests. Yet they're worse than the keepers. _They_ have some excuse, the brutes." "How on earth were you such an ass as to come that cropper, Corbould?" said the other, going off into a paroxysm again. "Oh, it's all jolly fine, but what'd you have done with that beastly owl flapping around your ears and trying to peck your eyes out? But I say. What are we going to do about this?" showing the horrible mess his clothes were in. Both looked blank for a few moments. Then Haviland brightened. "Eureka!" he cried. "We'll plaster you up with dry mud, and it you're asked, you can swear you had a fall on your back. You did too, so that'll be no lie." The idea was a good one. By dint of rubbing in handfuls of dry earth, every trace of the eggs, half-incubated as they were, was hidden. But as far as further disturbance at the hands of these two counted for anything the owl was allowed to hatch out its brood in peace. Not for any consideration would they have attempted further interference with it that season. CHAPTER FIVE. "HAVILAND'S CHUM." When Haviland expressed his belief, in conversation with Mr Sefton, that the Zulu boy would prove able to take care of himself, he uttered a prediction which events seemed likely to bear out.