Dead Man's Land

Mark jumped up. "You there, father I did not hear you come in." Doctor Robertson, tutor, half rose from his seat by the glowing library fire. "No, my boy, and I did not hear you come in." "Why, uncle, you have been sitting there listening " cried Dean. "To be sure I have. How could I help it, sir? I came in tired, and thought I would have a nap in my own chair till it was time to change for dinner, and you woke me up out of a pleasant dream which somehow shaped itself into climbing with an ice axe and nearly losing it. It was some time before I could make out whether I was really awake or dreaming still, and I lay listening and getting more and more interested in what the doctor described to you two stupid boys." "Oh, father, you shouldn't have listened " said Mark. "What, sir " cried Sir James Roche hotly. "And pray why shouldn't I have listened?" "Because-because-"