knobbed weapon. The creature was dazed, it stopped and staggered,
and in another instant Frank was across the bridge in safety. There
was a little hysterical sobbing, but it was soon over.

'Oh, Mr Palmer,' said Mrs Hopgood, 'what presence of mind and what
courage! We should have been killed without you.'

'The feat is not original, Mrs Hopgood. I saw it done by a tough
little farmer last summer on a bull that was really mad. There was
no ditch for him though, poor fellow, and he had to jump a hedge.'

'You did not find it difficult,' said Madge, 'to settle your problem
when it came to you in the shape of a wild ox.'

'Because there was nothing to settle,' said Frank, laughing; 'there
was only one thing to be done.'

'So you believed, or rather, so you saw,' said Clara. 'I should have
seen half-a-dozen things at once--that is to say, nothing.'

'And I,' said Madge, 'should have settled it the wrong way: I am
sure I should, even if I had been a man. I should have bolted.'

Frank stayed to tea, and the evening was musical. He left about ten,
but just as the door had shut he remembered he had forgotten his
stick. He gave a gentle rap and Madge appeared. She gave him his
stick.

'Good-bye again. Thanks for my life.'