Back in the thicket he heard the prowling of some small animal.

There came the sleepy chirp of a bird and the rustling of tired wings settling for the night.

A strange stillness hovered about him, and with it there came over him a loneliness that was chilling, a loneliness that made him homesick.

It was a new and unpleasant sensation to Captain Plum.

He could not remember just when he had experienced it before; that is, if he dated the present from two weeks ago to-night.