“Better come down now, sir,” whispered Shaddy. “You see they’re a dull, stupid lot, who look up to white people as their natural masters; and, without being a brute to ’em, the more you stands off and treats ’em as if they were servants the more they look up to you. If you don’t, and they see you doing work that they’re paid to do, they’ll look down on you, think you’re afraid of ’em, and grow saucy.”

“Ah!” ejaculated Brazier, giving a start, and nearly losing his hold of the branch.

“What’s the matter, sir?”

For answer Brazier cut frantically with his axe at something invisible to those below, but evidently without avail, till he struck a small bough so violently that they saw the object dropping down, and Rob had only time to leap aside to avoid a small snake, of a vivid green . . . Read More