104 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CRUISER 
us, but Bert had to spend most of the day as well 
fighting the intruders. He became thin and worn 
looking. The strain made him nervous. 
Finally he lost patience. He procured a demi- 
john of whiskey from O’Brien and, announcing that 
he had ‘‘quit,”? started to drink it up and forget 
his troubles. He unquestionably succeeded in the 
former endeavour and probably in the latter as well, 
for when we came in at night he was dead to the 
world. We put him to bed and Brown cooked sup- 
per. 
We were somewhat worried over Bert’s reported 
declaration of desertion but Frazer did not seem 
agitated. 
‘‘He’s just tired out,’’ the chief said, ‘‘and felt 
like giving his nerves a good time. He’ll be all right 
in the morning. Just let him alone to-night.’’ 
We were perfectly willing to accede to this re- 
quest, but the stars in their courses determined 
events otherwise. That night there was a bright 
moon that lighted objects for some little distance. 
It brought out the forms of our enemies, the hogs, 
so clearly that we were able to bombard them ef- 
fectively enough to keep them out of camp most of 
the time. In this way we managed to get consid- 
erable sleep. 
We were brought out of one of the longest of 
our slumber spells by an unearthly scream from the 
cook tent. 
“Take ’em away! Take ’em away for God’s 
