[Frontispiece: "Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer. ]

THE TERRIBLE TWINS

By

EDGAR JEPSON

Author of

The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

HANSON BOOTH

INDIANAPOLIS

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT 1913

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

[Updater's note: In the originally posted version of this book (August14, 2006), four pages (3, 4, 53, 54) were missing. In early February2008, the missing pages were found, scanned and submitted by a readerof the original etext and incorporated into this updated version. ]

CONTENTS

Chapter

 I AND CAPTAIN BASTER II GUARDIAN ANGELS III AND THE CATS' HOME IV AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION V AND THE SACRED BIRD VI AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR VII AND PRINGLE'S POND VIII AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES IX AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM X AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY XI AND THE UNREST CURE XII AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING XIII AND AN APOLOGY XIV AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer. . . . . . _Frontispiece_

"This is different, " she said. 

We are avenged. 

She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll. 

The Archduke bellowed, "Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!"

Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes ofa very pretty woman. 

THE TERRIBLE TWINS

CHAPTER I

AND CAPTAIN BASTER

For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were reallydiscussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with thegreatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit. It was indeeda nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throwstones quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size andweight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at thebull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated, quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand hispresence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him. VioletAnastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of herexperience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; HyacinthWolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed thesame number; and both of them were defending their claims with loudvehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed. 

Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he saidfirmly, "I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number oftimes. "

So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty, which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins. 

"Perhaps we did, " said Anastasia amiably. They went swiftly down theroad, munching in a peaceful silence. 

It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike. No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed, dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful andpiquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, ofHyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed, on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting aserenity. But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir MauriceFalconer, that had robbed them of their pretty names. He had namedViolet "Erebus" because, he said, She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry spheres:

and he had forthwith named Hyacinth the "Terror" because, he said, theill-fated Sir John Franklin had made the Terror the eternal companionof Erebus. 

Erebus and the Terror they became. Even their mother never called themby their proper pretty names save in moments of the severestdispleasure. 

"They're good apples, " said the Terror presently, as he threw away thecore of his third and took two more from the bag. 

"They are, " said Erebus in a grateful tone--"worth all the trouble wehad with that dog. "

"We'd have cleared him out of the orchard in half the time, if we'd hadour catapults and bullets. It was hard luck being made to promisenever to use catapults again, " said the Terror sadly. 

"All that fuss about a little lead from the silly old belfry gutter!"said Erebus bitterly. 

"As if belfries wanted lead gutters. They could easily have put slatesin the place of the sheet of lead we took, " said the Terror with equalbitterness. 

"Why can't they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not tohave catapults, " said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the richautumn scene through which they moved. 

The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss oftheir catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons toenrich the simple diet which was all their mother's slender meansallowed them; on fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of thegame laws. Keepers and farmers had made no secret of their suspicionsthat this was the case: but the careful Twins never afforded them thepleasure of adducing evidence in support of those suspicions. Then aheavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had removed a sheet oflead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry gutter, tocast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the publicopinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived ofthem; and their mother, yielding to the demand, had forbidden them touse them any longer. 

The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly theaction of Little Deeping. It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, sincetheir exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversationthey loved. In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselvesto become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; andsince they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keennessof eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition. Theremay, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow theTerror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter orharder than Erebus. 

They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaultedit gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed overit (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gatethan to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrowpath through the gorse and bracken. They had gone some fifty yards, when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: "Bang-g-g!Bang-g-g!"

The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of thegorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph onhis richly freckled face. He stood over the fallen Twins; and hissmile of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity. 

"Ha! Ha! Shot through the heads!" he cried. "Their bones will bleachin the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of RedBear the terror of the Cherokees!"

Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife. Then hetook from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, aninconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberantimagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone oflively satisfaction: "You're only one game ahead. "

"I thought we were three, " said Erebus, rising. 

"They're down in the book, " said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blueeyes were very stern. 

"Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead ofyou again, " said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls. 

Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins. He ambushed and scalpedthem; they ambushed and scalped him. Seeing that they had alreadypassed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on theirpart to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it. But Wiggins was afavored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds. 

The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftlyon across the common. Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth. Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenlyspring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds. 

Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The gameisn't really fair; you're two to one. "

"You keep very level, " said the Terror politely. 

"Yes; it's my superior astuteness, " said Wiggins sedately. 

"Goodness! What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone. 

"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a Europeanreputation, " Wiggins explained. 

"Yes, everybody says that. But what is a European reputation?" saidErebus in a captious tone. 

"Everybody in Europe knows him, " said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth. 

They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert. It seemed to thema name both affected and ostentatious. Besides, crop it as you might, his hair _would_ assume the appearance of a mop. 

They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track tosee two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away. 

"It's Mum, " said Erebus. 

Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag ofbooty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush. 

"And--and--it's the Cruncher with her!" cried Erebus in a tone in whichdisgust outrang surprise. 

"Of all the sickening things! The Cruncher!" cried the Terror, echoingher disgust. "What's he come down again for?"

They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet theapproaching pair. 

The gentleman whom they called the "Cruncher, " and who from their tonesof disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was CaptainBaster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncheron account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominentteeth. 

They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone ofsuperiority: "_I_ know why he's come down. "

"Why?" said the Terror quickly. 

"He's come down to marry your mother, " said Wiggins. 

"What?" cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blankconsternation; and they stopped short. 

"How dare you say a silly thing like that?" cried Erebus fiercely. 

"_I_ didn't say it, " protested Wiggins. "Mrs. Blenkinsop said it. "

"That silly old gossip!" cried Erebus. 

"And Mrs. Morton said it, too, " said Wiggins. "They came to teayesterday and talked about it. I was there: there was a plum cake--oneof those rich ones from Springer's at Rowington. And they said itwould be such a good thing for both of you because he's so awfullyrich: the Terror would go to Eton; and you'd go to a good school andget a proper bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all--"

"I wouldn't go! I should hate it!" cried Erebus. 

"Yes; they said you wouldn't like wholesome discipline, " said thefaithful reporter. "And they didn't seem to think your mother wouldlike it either--marrying the Cruncher. "

"Like it? She wouldn't dream of it--a bounder like that!" said theTerror. 

"I don't know--I don't know--if she thought it would be good forus--she'd do anything for us--you know she would!" cried Erebus, wringing her hands in anxious fear. 

The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck outin dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face wasflushed. 

"This must be stopped, " he said through his set teeth. 

"But how?" said Erebus. 

"We'll find a way. It's war!" said the Terror darkly. 

Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: "I'm on your side, " he said. "I'ma trusty ally. He called me Freckles. "

"Come on, " said the Terror. "We'd better face him. "

They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy. As they drew near, theTerror's face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowlingstill. 

From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich heartyvoice: "How's Terebus and the Error; and how's Freckles?" he cried, andlaughed heartily at his own delightful humor. 

The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wigginsshook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out CaptainBaster. 

"I'm always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins, " said Mrs. Dangerfield with her delightful smile. "I know you keep them out ofmischief. "

"It's generally all over before I come, " said Wiggins somewhat glumly;and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth. 

"I've not had that kiss yet, Terebus. I'm going to have it this timeI'm here, " said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich laugh. 

"Are you?" said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at himwith the eyes of hate. 

They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, "You'll come to tea with us, Wiggins?"

"Thank you very much, " said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth. As healighted on it once more, he added. "Tea at other people's houses isso much nicer than at home. Don't you think so, Terror?"

"I always eat more--somehow, " said the Terror with a grave smile. 

They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either sideof Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein, enlivened the walk with his delightful humor. The gallant officer wasthe very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed, glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose, neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny. The son of thefamous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which greatwealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in acrack regiment. The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative, was not enjoying it. To his brother officers he was known asPallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, "I'ma very pally man. " It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for anyone whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship, for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, heenjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs. 

All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow ofpersonal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffusedthe face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed hisfreckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield's white brow in a distressfulfrown. The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which hehad been so suddenly confronted. More than once Erebus countered awitticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce therhinocerine hide of the gallant officer. Once this unbidden buthumorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied hereven this relief. She could only treat him with a steely civility. The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit. 

He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; hewas too new for it. The old, worn, faded, carefully polishedfurniture, for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenthcentury, seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness. It seemedto demand the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels. Mrs. Dangerfield liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere. Whenher eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feelingthat only by some marvelous intervention of providence had he escapedcalling in a bright plaid satin tie. 

The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was notunconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster. Indeed, he tooksome credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabbyfurniture. In a high good humor he went on shining and shining allthrough tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a whiledimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the innand there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shiningagain. Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into thegarden. 

They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething. 

"He's a pig--and a beast! We can't let Mum marry him! We _must_ stopit!" cried Erebus. 

"It's all very well to say 'must. ' But you know what Mum is: if shethinks a thing is for our good, do it she will, " said the Terrorgloomily. 

"And she never consults us--never!" cried Erebus. 

"Only when she's a bit doubtful, " said the Terror. 

"Then she's not doubtful now. She hasn't said a word to us about it, "said Erebus. 

"That's what looks so bad. It looks as if she'd made up her mindalready; and if she has, it's no use talking to her, " said the Terroryet more gloomily. 

They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantlybackward and forward from one to the other. He preserved a decoroussympathetic silence. 

"No, it's no good talking to Mum, " said Erebus presently in adespairing tone. 

"Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncherourselves, " said the Terror. 

"But you can't squash the Cruncher!" cried Erebus. 

"Why not? We've squashed other people, haven't we?" said the Terrorsharply. 

"Never any one so thick-skinned as him, " said Erebus. 

The Terror frowned deeply again: "We can always try, " he said coldly. "And look here: I've been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don'tlike stepfathers, there's no reason why stepfathers should likestepchildren. "

"The Cruncher likes us, though it's no fault of ours, " said Erebus. 

"That's just it; he doesn't really know us. If he saw the kind ofstepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off, " said the Terror. 

"But he can't even see we hate him, " objected Erebus. 

"No, and if he did, he wouldn't mind, he'd think it a joke. My ideaisn't to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if wegive our minds to it, " said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone. 

Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning. Then a dazzling smileillumined her charming face; and she cried: "Oh, yes! Let's give himsocks! Let's begin at once!"

"Yes: I'll help! I'm a trusty ally!" cried Wiggins; and he spurned theearth joyfully at the thought. 

They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling theirbrains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities. 

Presently Wiggins said: "You might make him an apple-pie bed. They'revery annoying when you're sleepy. "

He spoke with an air of experience. 

"What's an apple-pie bed?" said Erebus scornfully. 

Wiggins hung his head, abashed. 

"It's a beginning, anyhow, " said the Terror in an approving tone; andhe added with the air of a philosopher: "Little things, and big things, they all count. "

"I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can't, " said Erebusbitterly. 

"By Jove! That cigarette-case! Come on!" cried the Terror; and he ledthe way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping. 

"Where are we going?" said Erebus. 

"We're going to make him that apple-pie bed. There's nothing likemaking a beginning. We shall think of heaps of other things. If wedon't worry about them, they'll occur to us. They always do, " said theTerror, at once practical and philosophical. 

They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping, where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through thefront door which stood open. At the sound of their footsteps in herhall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the barto learn what they wanted. 

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway, " said the Terror politely. "We've comefor Captain Baster's cigarette-case. He's left it somewhere in hisroom. "

At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittawayrubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which hereyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to afrown; and she said: "Bother the thing! It's sure to be stucksomewhere out of sight. And the bar full, too. "

"Don't you trouble; I'll get it. I know the bedroom, " said the Terrorwith ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs. 

"Oh, thank you, sir, " said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar. 

Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror. Inless than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with thebed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the haplessunprotected bedroom. Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on themantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress. The Terror lockedCaptain Baster's portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside theshaving-brush, he said coldly:

"That'll teach him not to be so careless. "

Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of CaptainBaster's inviting dress-boots with water. Wiggins rocked with laughter. 

"Don't stand giggling there! Why don't you do something?" said Erebussharply. 

Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: "A clothes-brush in bed isvery annoying when you stick your foot against it. "

He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him. He took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, againstthe bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or theother of Captain Baster's feet was sure to find it. The Terror did notcare which foot was successful. 

Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case fromthe dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of theinn. 

As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhatvengeful triumph: "There! you see things _do_ occur to us. " Then withhis usual scrupulous fairness he added: "But it was Wiggins who set usgoing. "

"I'm an ally; and he called me Freckles, " said Wiggins vengefully; andonce more he spurned the earth. 

On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched mostthickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was toosheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before. 

"Mind the mud, Wiggins, " said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness inthe matter. 

Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: "It wouldn't bea nice place to fall down in, would it?"

The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinisterlittle laugh, and said: "Wiggins, you're a treasure!"

"What is it? What is it now?" said Erebus quickly. 

"A little job of my own. It wouldn't do for you and Wiggins to have ahand in it, he'll swear so, " said the Terror. 

"Who'll swear?" said Erebus. 

"The Cruncher. And you're a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear suchlanguage, " said the Terror. 

"Rubbish!" said Erebus sharply. "Tell us what it is. "

The Terror shook his head. 

"It's a beastly shame! I ought to help--I always do, " cried Erebus ina bitterly aggrieved tone. 

The Terror shook his head. 

"All right, " said Erebus. "Who wants to help in a stupid thing likethat? But all the same you'll go and make a silly mull of it withoutme--you always do. "

"You jolly well wait and see, " said the Terror with calm confidence. 

Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reachedthe house. 

They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Basterstill talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long storyillustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guineaand one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies. He laid great stress onthe prices he had paid for them. 

When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case. 

Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of heroffspring with an air of doubtful surprise. 

Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:"Thank you, Error--thank you. But why didn't you bring it to me, Terebus? Then you'd have earned that kiss I'm going to give you. "

Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:"Oh, I helped to get it. "

CHAPTER II

GUARDIAN ANGELS

At seven o'clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn. Ofhis own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp. He leftthe house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shiningbefore Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance. 

He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though shewas four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than twoyears younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts. But hechiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to whichhis ardent soul aspired to climb. She had but to return to the politeworld from which the loss of her husband and her straightenedcircumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with ahost of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn. Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing amercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he feltrather than knew that with women he was irresistible. 

It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield's brow in atroubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her toselect to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, agown with which she had never been truly pleased. The troubled air didnot leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins, for they, too, were gloomy. They were pleased, indeed, with thebeginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in theend. Where their interests were concerned their mother was of afirmness indeed hard to move. 

Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion thatdisturbed them, especially at the Terror. Erebus in a pretty lightfrock of her mother's days of prosperity, which had been cut down andfitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one's eyes; but the sleevesof the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings, bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye. 

The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by hisfailure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would beunable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by hisdistinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an Englishgentleman. After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which theharried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he mustappear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he waswearing. It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could notreally feel a conquering hero after eight o'clock at night. 

Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water. It was agood water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the waterits lining had not soaked up. The gallant officer said a good dealabout its retentive properties to the mute boot. 

At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror hadhimself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom. A flash ofintuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he beggedher, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one--any one!!--enterhis bedroom. Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied, or beds made without human intervention. He begged her, not perhapsunreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none thebetter for his directness. 

Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits. As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching treeswhich made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing aclothes-line tight. It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedgeon the other side of the lane. There it was fastened to a stout stake;and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails. At itstightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of themud-patch. It was at its tightest. 

Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, CaptainBaster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace. As he moved throughthe bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night--thatvery night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield's devotion with his avowalof an answering passion. He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror;and like a conqueror he whistled. Then he found the clothes-line, suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick, but sprawling. He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and thewelkin shuddered as it rang. 

The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind. 

Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfieldwaited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in atroubled frown. Her woman's instinct assured her that Captain Basterwould propose that night; and she dreaded it. Two or three times sherose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark, troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they didnot please her as they usually did. Those eyes were one of the sourcesfrom which had sprung Captain Baster's attraction to her. 

But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needfulthings for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doingthem. She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather andhusband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart andsterling qualities. She assured herself that she had the power to drawthem out; once he was her husband, she would change him. But still shewas ill at ease. Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful ofher power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide. 

When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he wasunfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come nextmorning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant arelief that it frightened her. She sat down and wrote out a telegramto her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, andbade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed atone minute to nine, to send it off in the morning. She did not wish totake the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible. She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewdman of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regardfor her interests. She tried not to hope that he would find marriagewith Captain Baster incompatible with them. 

Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness. He thoughtfor a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability. Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet. In the middle of it hemissed his shaving-brush. He hunted for it furiously; he could havesworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau. He did swear, butnot to any definite fact. There was nothing for it: he must expose histender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber. 

Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had notvanished from it. In one short night it had lost its pristinefreshness. This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfastgloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air ofone who has abandoned hope. Later he came out of it with his rovingblack eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin wassmarting cruelly and unattractive in patches--red patches. At the doorthe breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted himwith the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brushunder the mattress of his bed. He looked round the village of LittleDeeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place. 

None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put tothe expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a newlock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftinessof his soul. Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchangedchin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness ofhis future stepson. As he drew near it he saw that that stepson wasawaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he wasawaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity. 

The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smileasked him if he had slept well. 

The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he saidsomewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of yourtricks! You play another on me, and I'll give you the soundestlicking you ever had in your life!"

The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of thedeepest pain: "Whatever's the matter?" he said in a tone of amazement. "I thought you loved a joke. You said you did--yesterday--at tea. "

"You try it on again!" said Captain Baster. 

"Now, whatever has put your back up?" said the Terror in a tone of evengreater amazement. "Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or thewater in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?"

It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness:Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth. 

The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to thebedroom of Erebus. 

"Waxy?" he cried joyously. "He's black in the face! I told him hesaid he loved a joke. "

Erebus only growled deep down in her throat. She was bitterlyaggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall thenight before. The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of hisglorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin. 

He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: "Now, youquite understand. You'll stick to them like a leech. You won't givehim any chance of talking to Mum alone. It's most important. "

"I understand. But what's that? Anybody could do it, " she said in atone of extreme bitterness. "It's you that's getting all the real fun. "

"But you'll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you'recareful, " said the Terror. 

"Of course, I shall. But what's that? I tell you what it is: I'mgoing to have my proper share of the real fun. The first chance I get, I'm going to stone him--so there!" said Erebus fiercely. 

"All right. But it doesn't seem quite the thing for a girl to do, "said the Terror in a judicial tone. 

"Rats!" said Erebus. 

It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gavethe purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhatpainfully, time to fade. When she did come to him, he was furtherannoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent airannounced her intention of accompanying them. Mrs. Dangerfield wassurprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation. Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to proposebefore she had taken counsel with her brother. 

Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try tohide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of hercharm: she was the mother of the Terror. He found, too, that hisinstinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded. Shewas a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed tofascinate her. Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew oncemore humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was nogetting rid of her. She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhatpertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries. How could a manbe his humorous self in these circumstances? He felt that his humorwas growing strained, losing its delightful lightness. 

Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus' own fault (he could swearit) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernalbrambles. Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt herankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear. The moment heoffered, furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of alimp. 

Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought upone's children like that--well. Certainly she was losing her charm;she was the mother of Erebus also. 

His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind ofwife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew nearColet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance anddistinction came through the garden gate to meet them. 

With a cry of "Uncle Maurice!" the crippled Erebus dashed to meet himwith the light bounds of an antelope. Captain Baster could hardlybelieve his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and byrepute. It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast hisfriend. With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks. 

When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had neverdreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune. But why had he notlearned this splendid fact before? Why had he been kept in the dark?He did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy makingconfidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her thathe had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anythingabout herself. 

But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making upfor lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstratedhis right to the name of Pallybaster. His friendliness wasoverwhelming. Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice todine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, toshoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimentalsteeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean. 

All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew. He could notbear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice. The Twinswere intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on theiruncle's attention. They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became theirstepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned arespectful silence in the presence of their elders. 

He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to makeit. Captain Baster's love was of his life a thing apart, but hissocial aspirations were the chief fact of his existence. Besides, there was no haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting hisavowal with a passionate eagerness; any time would do for that. But hemust seize the fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by thebond of the warmest friendship. 

Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention tothe interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world, humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to. He tried to make opportunitiesfor him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; hedid not seem to see them. In truth Captain Baster was a littledisappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:polite--yes; indeed, politeness could go no further. But he lackedwarmth. After all he had not pinned him down to the definiteacceptance of a single invitation. 

When, at seven o'clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurancethat he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made abosom friend. He felt that the friendship might need clenching. 

As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with theair of one who has paused from exhausting toil: "I feelsticky--positively sticky, " he said. "Oh, Erebus, you do have gummyfriends! I thought we should never get rid of him. I thought he'dstuck himself to us for the rest of our natural lives. "

Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:"That's what he's up to. "

"He's not a friend of mine!" cried Erebus hotly. 

"We call him the Cruncher--because of his teeth, " said the Terror. 

"Then beware, Erebus--beware! You are young and possibly savory, " saidSir Maurice. 

"You children had better go and get ready for dinner, " said Mrs. Dangerfield. 

The Twins went to the door. On the threshold Erebus turned and said:"It's Mum he wants to crunch up--not me. "

The bolt shot, she fled through the door. 

Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:

"Oho! I see--heroism. That was what you wanted to consult me about. "Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: "Itwon't do, Anne--it won't do at all. I am convinced of it. "

"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in whichdisappointment and relief were very nicely blended. 

"Think? I'm sure of it, " said Sir Maurice in a tone of completeconviction. 

"But the children; he could do so much for the children, " pleaded Mrs. Dangerfield. 

"He could, but he wouldn't. That kind of bounder never does any oneany good but himself. No, no; the children are right in calling himthe Cruncher. He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand timesbetter for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money thatever came out of pickles. "

"Well, you know best. You do understand these things, " said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she sighed. 

"I do understand Basters, " said Sir Maurice in a confident tone. 

Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; aweight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit. 

Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a gravethoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus. Once Sir Maurice askedher the cause of it. She only shook her head. 

Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that hehad made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it. Buton his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling beforehim with his stick for clotheslines. He came out of the dark lane intothe broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with astrong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self. 

There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which hewalked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough formore serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh withconsiderable force. He had barely finished the jump of pained surprisewith which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past hishead; then a third struck him on the shoulder. 

With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashedin the direction whence, he judged, the stones came. He was just intime to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow. Then hefound a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemedunwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly, embrace. As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone. 

He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feetand realized that there was only one thing to do. He tore along theturf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt. A stone struck thegarden gate as he opened it. He did not pause to ring; he opened thefront door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room. TheTerror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughtswith his Uncle Maurice. 

Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: "I--Imade sure it was that young whelp!"

This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced anatural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprangto their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him. 

Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up fromit with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush'sclinging affection. 

"I've been stoned--stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!" hecried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble brow. 

Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice wascool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionateindignation of a bosom friend. 

"How many of them were there?" said the Terror. 

"From the number of stones they threw I should think there were adozen, " said Captain Baster; and he panted still. 

The Terror looked puzzled. 

"I know--I know what it is!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield with anilluminating flash of womanly intuition. "You've been humorous withsome of the villagers!"

"No, no! I haven't joked with a single one of them!" cried CaptainBaster. "But I'll teach the scoundrels a lesson! I'll put the policeon them tomorrow morning. I'll send for a detective from London. I'llprosecute them. "

Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: "I couldn't find yourhandkerchief anywhere, Mum. It took me ever such a time, " she said, giving it to her. 

The puzzled air faded from the Terror's face; and he said in a tone ofdeep meaning: "Have you been running to find it? You're quite out ofbreath. "

For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain Baster. . . . But no: it was impossible--a child in whose veins flowed some of thebluest blood in England. Besides, her slender arms could never havethrown the stones as straight and hard as that. 

On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superbself-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouthslightly open. He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief, and stumbled out of the room. They heard a door bang up-stairs; then, through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound. It occurredto the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor. 

Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull thegorse prickles out of Captain Baster's clothes. She had nearlyfinished when Sir Maurice returned. He carried a handkerchief in hishand, and he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemedsomewhat exhausted. 

Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance hewould wreak on the scoundrelly villagers. But after a while he forgothis pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and heplied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening. 

The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o'clock since their UncleMaurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full ofadmiration and approval of Erebus' strenuous endeavor to instil intoCaptain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushedout her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed whenshe was in high favor with him. As he did it she related gleefully thestoning of their enemy. 

When she had done, he said warmly: "It was ripping. But the nuisanceis: he doesn't know it was you who did it, and so it's rather wasted. "

"Don't you worry: I'll let him know sometime to-morrow, " said Erebusfirmly. 

"Yes; but he's awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?" said theTerror doubtfully. 

Erebus considered the point; then she said: "I don't think he'd dothat; he'd look so silly being stoned by a girl. Anyhow, I'll chanceit. "

"All right, " said the Terror. "It's worth chancing it to put him offmarrying mother. And of course Uncle Maurice is here. He'll seenothing serious happens. "

"Of course he will, " said Erebus. 

It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Basterhad weighed on their uncle's mind, for Erebus, coming softly on himfrom behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heardhim singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song. 

It went:

 "_Where did his colonel dig him up, So young, so fair, so sweet, With his shining nose, and his square, square toes? Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"

He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself, softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the movingbut silent lips of Erebus repeated it. 

He was silent; and she said: "Oh, uncle! It's splendid!"

Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: "You tell any one, littlepitcher, and I'll pull your long ears, " he said amiably. 

Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, shesaid: "Here he comes. "

Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds, paused and cried: "I'm going back to bed! Tell him I'm in bed!"

He vanished, slamming the door behind him. 

Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell whenErebus told him that he had gone back to bed. Mrs. Dangerfield, informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his newfriend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus. He showedan inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise. 

Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs. Dangerfield was firm. She did not bring him back till half pasttwelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters inhis bedroom. Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (hehinted as much) but he was disappointed. In the end he returned to ThePlough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren. 

He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had startedon a walk with the Terror. Captain Baster said cheerily that he wouldovertake them, and set out briskly to do so. He walked hard enough tocompass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a muchbetter chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereasSir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward. 

Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heartswelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited somefriends to meet him and her brother. Here was his chance to shine, toshow Sir Maurice his social mettle. 

He could have wished that the party had been larger. They were only adozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicarand his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most ofthe afternoon with Erebus. Captain Baster would have preferred thirtyor forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will. 

Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon tohave tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand. He was soonthe life and soul of the gathering. He was humorous with the vicarabout the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of thecountry on the intelligence. He tried to be humorous with Mr. Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired fromsome profession or business. This was so signal a failure that hedropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in townand his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; hetold them about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, atpolo and at golf. 

He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one exceptSir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfectequality, as "Maurice, old boy, " or "Maurice, old chap, " or plain"Maurice. " He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warmperspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him. 

The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they wereaware that their mother's tea-party was a failure. As a rule herlittle parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness;and her guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another. The Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and afaint persistent frown troubled his serenity. Erebus was more dimlyaware that her enemy was spoiling the party. Only Sir Maurice and Mr. Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice's enjoyment wasmingled with vexation. 

Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to CaptainBaster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the endof his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and rememberedhis grievance. Forthwith he related at length the affair of the nightbefore: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on thecommon. When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy. 

His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of themexcept the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughingviolently. 

The vicar broke the silence; he said: "Er--er--yes; most extraordinary. But I don't think it could have been the villagers. They're--er--verypeaceful people. "

"It must have been some rowdies from Rowington, " said the squire in theloud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed whathe said. 

Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in anincredulous unwinking stare. 

She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with somecare. The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the rightgable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail bya couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spunround as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only. 

"That's where I meant to hit it the first time, " said Erebus with alittle explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat. 

The silence that fell was oppressive. Captain Baster gazed earnestlyat Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinkingstare. 

"That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions, " said thehigher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice. "I made sure it wasthe Terror. "

"So did I, " said the vicar. 

"I'd have bet on it, " said the squire. 

The silence fell again. Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the bluebump on his marble brow. 

Erebus broke the silence; she said: "Has any one heard Wiggins' newsong?"

The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: "No! Let's hear it!"

"Come on, Wiggins!" cried the vicar heartily. 

They felt that the situation was saved. 

Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knewit in the depths of his horror-stricken heart. He ground his teethsoftly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if hecould have borne the earth's suddenly opening and swallowing her up. 

The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot withhis right. Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus hadchanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dearshrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:

 "_Where did his colonel dig him up, So young, so fair, so sweet, With his shining nose, and his square, square toes? Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"

As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finishedeverybody was looking at Captain Baster's boots; his feet required themsquare-toed. 

Captain Baster's face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozencircle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces meltinto irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the man he hadmade his bosom friend, for an indignant outburst; Sir Maurice wassmiling, too. 

Captain Baster snorted fiercely; then he swelled with splendid dignity, and said loudly, but thickly, "I refuse! Yes, I refuse to mix in asociety where children are brought up as hooligans yes: as hooligans!"

He turned on his heel, strode to the gate, and turned and bellowed, "Hooligans!"

He flung himself through the gate and strode violently across thecommon. 

"Oh, Wiggins! How could you?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone ofhorror. 

"It wasn't Wiggins! It was me! I taught him. He didn't understand, "said Erebus loyally. 

"I did understand--quite. But why did he call me Freckles?" saidWiggins in a vengeful tone. "Nobody can help having freckles. "

CHAPTER III

AND THE CATS' HOME

They watched the retreating figure of Captain Baster till it was lostto sight among the gorse, in silence. They were glad at his going, butsorry at the manner of it, since Mrs. Dangerfield looked distressed andvexed. 

Then the vicar said: "There is a good deal to be said for the point ofview of Wiggins, Mrs. Dangerfield. After all, Captain Baster was theoriginal aggressor. "

"Nevertheless I must apologize for my son's exploding such anuncommonly violent bomb at a quiet garden party, " said the highermathematician. "I suspect he underrated its effect. "

His tone was apologetic, but there was no excess of contrition in it. 

"What I think is that Captain Baster's notion of humor is catching; andthat it affected Erebus and Wiggins, " said Sir Maurice amiably. "Andif we start apologizing, there will be no end to it. I should have tocome in myself as the maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lyingabout. "

"It was certainly a happy effort, " said the vicar, smiling. Then hechanged the subject firmly, saying: "We're going to London next week;perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice. "

A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle andpresently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster hadlifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party. Theywere talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Mauricewere seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, were getting their little chances of shining. The Twins and Wigginsslipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for theirgoing. In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had sonearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in astate of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and oneanother. 

After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed theexploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at thetwo onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest. The Terror wasalso doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he preventedErebus, eager to enjoy her uncle's society, from returning to the housetill it was time to dress for dinner. He wished to give his mothertime to get over the worst of her annoyance. 

Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violentdaughter with any great severity. But even so, Erebus did not receivethese milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit. Unlike the philosophicTerror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, aftera doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must alwaysmake out a case for herself; and she did so now. 

Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster wasnot really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making adescent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come withinthe sphere of the laws of hospitality. 

"Besides he never behaved like a guest, " she went on in a bitterlyaggrieved tone. "He was always making himself objectionable to everyone--especially to me. And if he was always trying to score off me, I'd a perfect right to score off him. And anyhow, I wasn't going tolet him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it. He'd bea perfectly beastly stepfather--you know he would. "

This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire todiscuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing thediscussion by telling Erebus not to do it again. She knew that howeverbitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take itsufficiently to heart. She was sure that she would not stone anotherguest. 

With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; andSir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay. The Twins, thoughthey were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they alwaysfell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, werevery pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours ofLittle Deeping were grateful after the London whirl. Also he had manytalks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a courseof action she frequently urged on him. 

When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness. It was not acuteboredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror wentevery morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learnedEnglish and French with her mother. Their afternoon leisure, therefore, rarely palled on them. 

One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebussuggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins. They went, therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile awayon the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of thecommon. They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patienceby staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour. 

Then he came briskly up the road to the common. Their eyes began toshine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yardsfrom the common's edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted forcovert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left. They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted, to cut him off. They were successful. They caught him crossing anopen space, yelled "Bang!" together; and in accordance with the rulesof the game Wiggins fell to the ground. 

They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that theimmemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselveshastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns. 

Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket histattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomilysaid: "That makes you two games ahead. " Then he spurned the earth andadded: "I'm going to have a bicycle. "

The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faintfrown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror's face. 

"There'll be no living with Wiggins now, he'll be so cocky, " saidErebus bitterly. 

"Oh, no; he won't, " said the Terror. "But we ought to have bicycles, too. We want them badly. We never get really far from the village. We always get stopped on the way--rats, or something. " And hisguileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a lookof yearning. 

"There are orchards over there where they don't know us, " said Erebuswistfully. 

"We _must_ have bicycles. I've been thinking so for a long time, " saidthe Terror. 

"We must have the moon!" said Erebus with cold scorn. 

"Bicycles aren't so far away, " said the Terror sagely. 

They moved swiftly across the common. Erebus poured forth a longmonotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, madethis Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat. With ears impervious to hissister's vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful, pondering this pressing problem. Now and again, for obscure butprofound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps andbounds. 

Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused theTerror to say: "I've got a penny. We'll go and get some bull's-eyes. "

At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased. 

They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearingthe village, when they met three small boys. One of them carried akitten. 

Erebus stopped short. "What are you going to do with that kitten, Billy Beck?" she said. 

"We be goin' to drown 'im in the pond, " said Billy Beck in theimportant tones of an executioner. 

Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands. "You're not going todo anything of the sort, you little beast!" she said. 

The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage anddisappointment, and he howled:

"Gimme my kitty! Mother says she won't 'ave 'im about the 'ouse, an' Icould drown 'im. "

"You won't have him, " said Erebus. 

Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burstinto blubbering roar of "It's ourn! It ain't yourn! It's ourn!"

"It isn't! A kitten isn't any one's to drown!" cried Erebus. 

The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the coldpersonification of human justice. Erebus edged away from him ready tofly, should human justice intervene actively. The Terror put his handin his pocket and fumbled. He drew out a penny, and looked at itearnestly. He was weighing the respective merits of justice andbull's-eyes. 

"Here's a penny for your kitten. You can buy bull's-eyes with it, " hesaid with a sigh, and held out the coin. 

A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck's tearful eyes. "'E's worthmore'n a penny--a kitty like 'im!" he blubbered. 

"Not to drown. It's all you'll get, " said the Terror curtly. Hetossed the penny to Billy's feet, turned on his heel and went backacross the common away from the village. Some of the brightness fadedout of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins. 

"I wouldn't have given him a penny. He was only going to drown thekitten, " said Erebus in a grudging tone. 

"It was his kitten. We couldn't take it without paying for it, " saidthe Terror coldly. 

Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went. 

Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, "There ought to be a homefor kittens nobody wants--and puppies. "

The Terror stopped short, and said: "By Jove! There's Aunt Amelia!"

Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia, who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, andyet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, butspent it all on horrid cats' homes. 

"That's just it, " said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation. "Come along; I want you to write a letter. "

"I'm not going to write any disgusting letter!" cried Erebus hotly. 

"Then you're not going to get any bicycle. Come on. I'll look out thewords in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so muchof his father, he's got into the way of using grammar. It'll beuseful. Come on!"

They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance ofbeing a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year, and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head, Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified. Practise had made the Terror's ears impervious at will to his sister'squestions, which were frequent and innumerable. Without a word ofexplanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at thedining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himselfon the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by hisside. 

Then he said coldly: "Now don't make any blots, or you'll have to do itall over again. "

"I never make blots! It's you that makes blots!" cried Erebus, ruffled. "Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do. Ever so much better. "

"That's why you're writing the letter and not me, " said the Terrorcoldly. "Fire away: 'My dear Aunt Amelia'--I say, Wiggins, what's theproper words for 'awfully keen'?"

"'Keen' is 'interested'--I don't know how many 'r's' there are in'interested'--and 'awfully' is an awfully difficult word, " saidWiggins, pondering. 

The Terror looked up "interested" in the dictionary with a laboriouspainfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single "r"in it; then he said, "What's the right word for 'awfully, ' Wiggins?Buck up!"

"'Tremendously, '" said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus. 

"That's it, " said the Terror. "'My dear Aunt Amelia: I have oftenheard that you are tremendously interested in cats' homes'"--

"I should think you had!" said Erebus. 

"Now don't jabber, please; just stick to the writing, " said the Terror. "I've got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if youjabber?"

Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task. 

"'Little Deeping wants a cats' home awfully'--no: 'tremendously. ' Ilike that word 'tremendously'; it means something, " said the Terror. 

"You're jabbering yourself now, " said Erebus unpleasantly. 

Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terrorcontinued: "'The quantity of kittens that are drowned ishorrible'--that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer thancats--'and I have been thinking'--Oughtn't you to put in some stops?"

"I'm putting in stops--lots, " said Erebus contemptuously. 

"'I have been thinking--that if you wanted to have a cats' homehere'--What's the right word for 'running a thing, ' Wiggins?"

Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into oneanother. 

"There is a word 'overseer'--slaves have them, " he said cautiously. 

The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled itout, and continued: "'I could overseer it for you. I have got my eyeon a building which would suit us tremendously well. But these thingscost money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirtypounds'--

"Thirty pounds! My goodness!" cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide. 

"We may as well go the whole hog, " said the Terror philosophically. "Go on: 'Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was areal home--' What's the word for 'bust up, ' Wiggins?"

"Burst up, " said Wiggins without hesitation. 

"No, no; not the grammar--the right word! Oh, I know; 'gobankrupt'--'it might go bankrupt. So it you would like to have a cats'home here and send me some money, I will start it at once. Youraffectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield. ' There!" said theTerror with a sigh of relief. 

"But you've left me out altogether, " said Erebus in a suddenlyaggrieved tone. 

"I should jolly well think I had! You know that ever since you stayedwith Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say 'Dam, ' she won't haveanything to do with you, " said the Terror firmly. 

"There's no pleasing some people, " said Erebus mournfully. "When Iwent there the silly old parrot couldn't say a thing; and when I cameaway, he could say 'Dam! Dam! Dam!' from morning till night withoutmaking a mistake. "

"It's a word people don't like, " said the Terror. 

"Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river. I told Aunt Ameliaso, " said Erebus firmly. 

"She might not believe you; she doesn't know how truthfully we've beenbrought up, " said the Terror. "Go on; sign my name to the letter. "

"That's forgery. You ought to sign your name yourself, " said Erebus. 

"No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with therest of the letter. Sign away, " said the Terror firmly. 

Erebus signed away, and then she said: "But what good's the money goingto be to us, if we've got to spend it on a silly old cats' home? Itonly means a lot of trouble. "

The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror's face. "Well, you see, there aren't many cats in Little Deeping--not enough to fill acats' home decently, " he said slowly. "We should have to have bicyclesto collect them--from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and fartheroff. "

Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charmingface, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:"Well, you do think of things!"

"I have to, " said the Terror. "If I didn't we should never have asingle thing. "

The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield. He did not tell herof the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he hadthought he would write to Aunt Amelia. Mrs. Dangerfield was pleasedwith him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with hisgreat-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own. She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her, though she suspected that it contained some artless request. Shethought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt tomake requests rather than not write at all. 

The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of theirlives. Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in theirlives those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the verymiddle of some important enterprise to discuss the rides they wouldtake on them, the orchards that those machines would bring within theirreach. But the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mindforbade him to discuss his chickens before they were hatched. 

Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is notremarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chiefcharacteristic of Lady Ryehampton. As the purport of hergreat-nephew's letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beamingsmile of gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and asshe handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried inunctuous tones: "The dear boy! So young, but already enthusiasticabout great things!"

Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that shewas going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once morevictimized. She had come to suspect anything that stirred LadyRyehampton to a noble phrase. Her eyes brightened with humorousappreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to theend of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was oneof the last places in England to need a cats' home. Then she bethoughtherself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, andher face went blank. 

Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled andsaid warmly: "It's really wonderful. You must have inspired him withthat enthusiasm yourself. "

"I suppose I must, " said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction. "And I must be careful not to discourage him. "

Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror's face, his charming sympatheticmanners, and his darned knickerbockers. It was only right that some ofLady Ryehampton's money should go to him; indeed that money ought to beeducating him at a good school. It was monstrous that the great bulkof it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beingscame first. And the Terror was such an attractive human being. 

"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm, " she saidgravely. 

Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats' homecould be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had notbetter send fifty. Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quitecomfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty wasenough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton couldgive it later. Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion. 

Having set her employer's hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to itthat she did not draw it back. Lady Ryehampton would spend money oncats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it. But MissHendersyde kept referring to the Terror's enterprise all that day andthe next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon LadyRyehampton signed the check for thirty pounds. At Miss Hendersyde'ssuggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned itinto postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping. 

On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House. Theexcited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it fromhim, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with theprecious packet to the Terror in the orchard. 

The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly. 

But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: "Thirty pounds--well!"

Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on thespur of that marvelous moment. 

"It's splendid--splendid!" she cried. "It's the best thing you everthought of!"

The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put theenvelope into the breast pocket of his coat. A frown of the mostthoughtful consideration furrowed his brow. Then he said firmly: "Thefirst thing, to do is to get the bicycles. If once we've got them, noone will take them away from us. "

"Of course they won't, " said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea. 

The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurningthe earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins. 

In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with acasual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: "May we havethe cow-house for our very own, Mum?"

"Oh, Terror! Surely you don't want to keep ferrets!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror's developing thatinevitable boyish taste. 

"Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I thinkwe could make a little pocket-money out of it. "

"I am afraid you're growing terribly mercenary, " said his mother; thenshe added with a sigh: "But I don't wonder at it, seeing how hard upyou always are. You can have the cow-house. It's right at the end ofthe paddock--well away from the house--so that I don't see that you cando any harm with it whatever you do. But how are you going to makepocket-money out of it?"

"Oh, I haven't got it all worked out yet, " said the Terror quickly. "But we'll tell you all about it when we have. Thanks ever so much forthe cow-house. "

For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus. 

The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in aboy of his years. He changed but one of the six postal orders atLittle Deeping--that would make talk enough--and then, having begged aholiday from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their markettown, ten miles away, taking Erebus with him. There he changed threemore postal orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycleshop, with hearts that beat high. 

The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely waywhich, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebusto the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned shehad long ago learned the futility of exasperation. He began by anexhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and hemade it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, oneof those smart young men who pamper a chin's passion for receding byletting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all onedge. Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of hispocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mindwhether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless youngman perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage ofbuying two. He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded todevelop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in priceto the buyer of two bicycles. Then he made his offer: he would givefourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles. His serenity wasquite unruffled by the seller's furious protests. Then the realstruggle began. The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, twolamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the sellercame out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeledtheir machines out of the shop. 

The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street. Then he said: "We've saved the cats' home quite two pounds. "

"Yes, " said Erebus. 

"And it's made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it, " said the Terror. 

"It must have--arguing like that, " said Erebus quickly; and her eyesbrightened as she caught his drift. 

"Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment. It's a long ridehome, " said the Terror. 

"Of course it ought, " said Erebus with decision. 

Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to aconfectioner's shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, andentered the shop with an important moneyed air. 

At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: "Of course overseershave a salary. "

"Of course they do, " said Erebus. 

"That settles the matter of pocket-money, " said the Terror. "We'llhave sixpence a week each. "

"Only sixpence?" said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise. 

"Well, you see, there are the bicycles. I don't think we can make itmore than sixpence. And I tell you what: we shall have to keepaccounts. I'll buy an account-book. You're very good atarithmetic--you'll like keeping accounts, " said the Terror suavely. 

Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel thatit would be delicate at that moment to protest. Therefore on leavingthe shop the Terror bought an account-book. His distrust of literatureprevented him from paying more than a penny for it. From thestationer's he went to an ironmonger's and bought a saw, a brace, agimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws--his tool-box had longneeded refilling. Then they mounted their machines proudly (they hadlearned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home. Aftertheir visit to the confectioner's they rode rather sluggishly. 

They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home theTerror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at aquiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket onErebus' bicycle with excellent apples. The tools had been packed intothe Terror's basket. They did not disturb the farmer's wife at thebusy dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge toErebus. 

As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: "I shouldn't wonder ifthese bicycles didn't pay for themselves in time. "

"I said there were orchards out here where they didn't know us, " saidErebus, biting into a Ribston pippin. 

They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles inthe cow-house. At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of themorning. 

After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements. It hadlong been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning. It was quitesuitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of asize to hold two cows. The measurements made, they went, with animportant moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timbermerchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him. There wassome discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that ofthe Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, withsome ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quickreturns. Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, heforthwith put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to ColetHouse. The Twins, eager to be at work, helped him. 

For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputableconstructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches. That eveningErebus wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton. 

The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebusproposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sallyforth on a splendid foray. The Terror would not hear of it. 

"No, " he said firmly. "We're going to get the cats' home finishedbefore we use those bicycles at all. Then nobody can complain. "

He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time togo down to the vicarage for his morning's lessons with the vicar. Heset to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too. 

In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came. He had spent a fruitlesshour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they salliedforth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept themwithin their borders. He was deeply impressed by the sight of thebicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers ofhis friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise himgreatly. But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtainedtheir bicycles before he had obtained his. None the less he helpedthem construct the cats' home with enthusiasm. 

For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort. Somuch sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieceswere chipped out of them. But their spirits never flagged; and bysunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirtycats. It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all ofthe same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness:and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them. 

At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round thetransformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus saidfirmly: "What we want now is cats. "

CHAPTER IV

AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION

Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round thecountryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they werewilling to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as theirowners no longer needed. They had, indeed, one offer of a catsuffering from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly toits owner that theirs was a home, not a hospital. 

The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: shepointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning. 

Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished suchstrenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: "Lookhere: I'm going to begin with kittens. "

"How will you get kittens, if you can't get cats? Everybody likeskittens. It's only when they grow up and stop playing that they don'twant them, " said Erebus with her coldest scorn. 

"I'm going to buy them, " said the Terror firmly. "I'm going to givethreepence each for kittens that can just lap. We don't want kittensthat can't lap. They'd be too much trouble. "

"That's a good idea, " said Erebus, brightening. 

"It'll stop them drowning kittens all right. The only thing I'm notsure about is the accounts. "

"You're always bothering about those silly old accounts!" said Erebussharply. 

She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items oftheir expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye. 

"Well, I don't think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts. Aunt Amelia is so used to cats' homes that are given their cats. She'stold me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to betaken in. "

"_I_ don't want them to go down. It makes all the less accounts tokeep, " said Erebus readily. 

"Well, that's settled, " said the Terror cheerfully. 

Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad thetidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens whocould just lap. 

But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of theimpatient Erebus grew louder and louder. There was no doubt that sheloved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of thatgrievance to those about her. Since she could only discuss thisgrievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it. Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patientbrother's resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to acouncil. 

He opened the discussion by saying: "We've got to have kittens, orcats. We can't have any pocket-money for 'overseering' till there'ssomething to overseer. "

"And that splendid cats' home we've made stopping empty all the time, "said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone. 

"I don't mind that. I'm sick of hearing about it, " said the Terrorcoldly. "But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia willsoon be wanting to know what's happening to the home; and she'll make afuss if there aren't any cats in it. So we must have cats. "

"Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats. There are cats allover the country; and when we're out bicycling, a good way from home, we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back withus. We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and ineight days the home would be full and two over. "

"And we should be prosecuted for stealing them, " said the Terror coldly. 

"But they'd be ever so much better off in the home, properly lookedafter and fed, " protested Erebus. 

"That wouldn't make any difference. No; it's no good trying to getthem that way, " said the Terror in a tone of finality. 

"Well, they won't come of themselves, " said Erebus. 

"They would with valerian, " said Wiggins. 

"Who's Valerian?" said Erebus. 

"It isn't a who. It's a drug at the chemist's, " said Wiggins. "I'vebeen talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says ifyou put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats willfollow it for miles. "

"Your father seems to know everything--such a lot of useful things aswell as higher mathematics, " said the Terror. 

"That's why he has a European reputation, " said Wiggins; and he spurnedthe earth. 

That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle ofthe enchanting drug. Just before they reached the village, on theirway home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it, poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through thevillage to his garden gate. 

The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of thefather of Wiggins. All that evening and far into the night twelve catsfought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields. 

The next day the Terror turned the cats' home into a cat-trap. He cuta hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fittedit with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from theoutside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside. He waslate finishing it, and went from it to his dinner. 

They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ringat the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril hadcome from the village with some kittens. The Twins excused themselvespolitely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Pollyhad brought no less than five small kittens in a basket. 

Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lappingtest. Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but theylapped. The fifth would not lap. It only mewed. Therefore the Terrortook only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them. Thefifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap. 

They took the four kittens down to the cats' home; and since they wereso small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milkto satisfy their hunger during the night. 

"Now we've got these kittens, we needn't bother about getting cats, "said the Terror as they returned to the house. "And I'm glad it iskittens and not cats. Kittens eat less. "

"Then you've had all the trouble of making that little door fornothing, " said Erebus. 

"It's an emergency exit--like the theaters have--only it's anentrance, " said the Terror. "But thank goodness, we've begun at last;now we can have salaries for 'overseering'. "

During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittensto their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform LadyRyehampton that the home was already constructed and in process ofoccupation. Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid ofenthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, "savedfrom the awful death of drowning. " Lady Ryehampton replied promptly ina spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it. 

But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently foundthemselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and theaccount-book. 

The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations. Till they weresix years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, inMonmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar. Then their fatherhad fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, hadalong with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leavingMrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed. All the while sincehis death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and theTwins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires oftheir hearts. 

But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money asthe bulk of the children of the well-to-do. But it did not come in theway of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliestinterest in financial matters. He was resolved that the cats' home andthe wages of "overseering" should last as long as possible. 

But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny aquart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home. 

He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed withhim that milk spelled ruin. But they could see no way of reducing theprice of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food forgrowing kittens. 

Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and aheavy silence had fallen on them. Then of a sudden the face of theTerror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:"I've got it; we'll feed them on skim-milk. "

"They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens, " said Erebus scornfully. 

That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping. Butter-making was itschief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs. 

"If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens, " said the Terror firmly. 

"But how can we get it? They don't sell it about here, " said Erebus. "And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn't sell skim-milk, nobody's going to sell skim-milk to-day. "

"Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it, " said the Terror confidently. 

"Old Stubbs! But he hates us worse than any one!" cried Erebus. 

"Oh, yes; he doesn't like us. But he's awfully keen on money; everyone says so. And he won't care whose money he gets so long as he getsit. Come on; we'll go and talk to him about it, " said the Terror. 

The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbsand knocked resolutely. The maid, who was well aware that her masterand the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with somehesitation. The Twins had never entered the farmer's house before, though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightlyuncomfortable. They found the parlor into which they were shownuncommonly musty. 

Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgatefringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicionin his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes. Even when he learned that theyhad come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terrorincidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cashpayments. Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, thathe might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to thediscussion of prices. Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts;the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point ofview nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice. But theTerror's suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they strucka bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required atthreepence halfpenny the pailful. 

In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittensto the home; and the Terror had yet another idea. Milk alone seemed aninsufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on thematter of stale bread. There were more negotiations; and in the endthe Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearlyhis own price. Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throveon it; and it went further than plain milk. 

The Twins enjoyed but little leisure. They had been busy fillingcertain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, withthe best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of thecountryside afforded. But what spare time he had the Terror devoted toa great feat of painting. He painted in white letters on a blackboard:--

LADY RYEHAMPTON'S CATS' HOME

The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything thatcould be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wigginsagreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever theiraunt saw it she would be deeply gratified. 

With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to befixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their motherformally into their confidence. She had learned of the formation ofthe cats' home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talkedto her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give themdetails about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited theinterest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussionfor fully a week. She had explained to them that she never interferedwith the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, andthat she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employmentthat filled as much of their time as did the cats' home. Moreover, theTerror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it hadbeen brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order. Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of itsconstruction. Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackleaffair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops. 

Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, forthey were judicious in their use. They were careful to sally forthwhen she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the commonand came back across the common and their neighbors saw them ridingvery little. 

When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, sheaccepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspectionof the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise. Sheexpressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and theextensive scale on which it was being run. She agreed with the Terrorthat to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning wasa great work. But she asked no questions, not even how it was that thecats' home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples. She knew thatan explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to begiven her. 

Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: "Thebicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course. "

"What? Are those your bicycles?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield. "Butwherever did you get the money from to buy them?"

"Aunt Amelia found the money, " said the Terror. "You know she's verykeen--tremendously interested in cats' homes. She thinks we are doinga great work, as well as you. "

Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she saidrather breathlessly: "You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats'home in Little Deeping?"

"Oh, yes, " said the Terror carelessly. 

Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she_must_ not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins. She bit hertongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears. It waspainful; but it enabled her to complete her inspection with therequired gravity. 

The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awokea fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise. Several ofthem, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection toit; and Wiggins brought his father. All of them expressed anadmiration of the institution and of the methods on which it wasconducted. To one another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of theintelligence of Lady Ryehampton. 

The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear consciencethe Twins drew their salary for "overseering. " It provided them withmany of the less expensive desires of their hearts. Now and againErebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than tenpounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raisedto a shilling a week. But the Terror would not consent: he said theirsalaries for "overseeing" would naturally be much higher, and that theywould have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it hadnot been for the bicycles. As it was, they were bound to work off theprice of the bicycles. Besides, he added with a philosophical air, six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week forsix months. 

Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now containedtwenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping wereinformed that for the time being the home was full. Erebus clamored tohave its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terrormaintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quiteenough. Everything was working smoothly. Then one evening just beforedinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell. 

It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashedfor the door; and Erebus opened it. On the steps stood their UncleMaurice; and he wore a harried air. 

"Why, it's Uncle Maurice!" cried Erebus springing upon him andembracing him warmly. 

"It's Uncle Maurice, mother!" cried the Terror. 

"It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he's by no means sureof it himself! Is it my head or my heels I'm standing on?" said SirMaurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow. 

On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deepingstation, laden with wicker baskets. From the baskets came the sound ofmewing. 

"Whatever is it?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother. 

"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer. 

He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in aneat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, andshut the door after him with an air of exhaustion. He leaned backagainst it and said:

"I had a sudden message--Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visitto this inf--this cats' home these little friends are pretending to runfor her. I saw that there was no time to lose--there must be a cats'home with cats in it--or she'd cut them both out of her will. I boughtcats--all over London--they've been with me ever since--yowling--theyyowled in the taxi--all over London--they traveled down as far asRowington with me and an old gentleman--a high-spirited oldgentleman--yowling--not only the cats but the old gentleman, too---andthey traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maidenladies--timid maiden ladies!--yowling! But come on: we've got to makea cats' home at once!" And he picked up one of the plaintive basketswith the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant orperish. 

"But we've got a cats' home--only it's full of kittens, " said Erebusgently. 

"Good heavens! Do you mean to say I've gone through this nightmare fornothing?" cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket. 

"Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!" said the Terror with swiftpoliteness. "The cats will come in awfully useful. "

"They'll make the home look so much more natural. All kittens isn'tnatural, " said Erebus. 

"And they'll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia. She was onlyexpecting kittens, " said the Terror. 

"What?" howled Sir Maurice. "Do you mean to say I've parleyed forhours with a high-spirited gentleman and two--two--timid maiden ladies, just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?"

He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly. "I ought tohave had more confidence in you, " he said faintly. "I ought to knowyour powers by now. And I did. I know well that any people who havedealings with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your AuntAmelia was going to get it; and I've got it myself. "

"But you didn't think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?" said theTerror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air. 

"Gracious, no!" cried Sir Maurice. "I only thought that you mightpossibly induce her to humbug herself. "

The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in hiswords than met the ear. 

"You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully, " said Mrs. Dangerfield. "And I'm afraid there's very little for you. But I'll make you anomelette. "

"I can not dine amid this yowling, " said Sir Maurice firmly, waving hishand over the vocal baskets. "These animals must be placed out ofhearing, or I shan't be able to eat a morsel. "

"We'll put them in the cats' home, " said the Terror quickly. "I'lljust put on a pair of thick gloves. Wiggins' father--he's a highermathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing--saysthat hydrophobia is very rare among cats. But it's just as well to becareful with these London ones. "

"Oh, lord, I never thought of that, " said Sir Maurice with a shudder. "I've been risking my life as well!"

The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern. He and Erebushelped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches. Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home. 

The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wontedself-possession--a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of theTerror, but not so durable. At dinner he reduced his appreciativekinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of hisparleying with his excited fellow travelers. He could now view it withan impartial mind. After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats'home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps. The rest of theevening passed peacefully and pleasantly. 

If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughnesssometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bedthat the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus. 

She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:"We ought to have more cats. "

The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:"By Jove, yes. This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge. And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for thegood of the home. The more we can say that we've used them for it, theless any one can grumble about them. "

"Most cats are shut up now, " said Erebus. 

"Yes; we must catch the morning cats. They get out quite early--whenpeople start out to work, " said the Terror. 

Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with analarm. The Terror set it for half past five. At that hour it awokehim with extreme difficulty. He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty. Five minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchento stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning;then they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle ofvalerian. 

They bicycled to Muttle Deeping. There the Terror poured valerian onone of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus. Forthwith shestarted to trail it to the cats' home. He rode on to Great Deeping andtrailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats' home. When he reached it he found Erebus' bicycle in its corner; and when, after strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with arag freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he foundthat she was already in bed again. He made haste back to bed himself. 

It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast andput the cats they had attracted to it into hutches. But they slept ontill breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and baconlured them straight into the dining-room. After all, as Erebus toldthe hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the newcats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleveno'clock. They could not escape from the home. The Twins thereforedevoted their most careful attention to their breakfast with theirminds quite at ease. 

Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were atease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor. Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said "Please, ma'am, it'sLady Ryehampton"; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round andformidable, on the threshold. Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde lookingvery anxious. 

There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton's stern face; and when theyrose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness. ToErebus, the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger. 

Then in deep portentous tones she said: "I came down to pay a surprisevisit to your cats' home. I always do. It's the only way I can makesure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment. " Thefrown on her face grew rhadamanthine. "And last night I saw your UncleMaurice at the station--he did not see me--with cats, London cats, inbaskets. On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names ofwell-known London cat-dealers. I do not support a cats' home at LittleDeeping for London cats bought at London dealers. Why have they beenbrought here?"

Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:

"It was Uncle Maurice's idea, " he said. "He didn't think that thereought only to be kittens in a cats' home. We didn't mind ourselves;and of course, if he puts cats in it, he'll have to subscribe to thehome. What we have started it for was kittens--to save them from theawful death of drowning. We wrote and told you. And we've saved quitea lot. "

His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor. 

Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed. 

"Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of catsto bring them all the way from London to a cats' home at Deeping? Hehates cats, and always has!" she said fiercely. 

"Of course, I hate cats, " said Sir Maurice with cold severity. "But Ihate children's being brought up to be careless a great deal more. Acats' home is not a cats' home unless it has cats in it; and you'vebeen encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling akittens' home a cats' home. If you will interfere in theirup-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them intocareless ways. "

Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive LadyRyehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: "That's all very well, "she said in a less severe tone. "But is there a kittens' home atall--a kittens' home with kittens in it? That's what I want to know. "

"But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats' home. You don't think we'd deceive you, Aunt Amelia?" said the Terror in adeeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air. 

"There! I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there wouldbe, " said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief. 

"Of course there's a cats' home with kittens in it!" said Mrs. Dangerfield with some heat. "The Terror wouldn't lie to you!"

"Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!" cried Sir Maurice splendidly. 

The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a verygood best. 

In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: "Well, ofc-c-c-course, if there's a c-c-cats' home--but Sir Maurice's senselessinterference--"

"Senseless interference! Do you call saving children from carelesshabits senseless interference?" cried Sir Maurice indignantly. 

"You had no business to interfere without consulting me, " said LadyRyehampton. Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: "But I want tosee this cats' home--now!"

"I'll take you at once, " said the Terror quickly, and politely heopened the door. 

They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Mauricehis hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it. Whenthey came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distanthigh-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and morehorrible grew the din. 

Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression ofsuspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were wideopen in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in adefiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs. Dangerfield. Only the Terror was serene. 

"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages, " saidSir Maurice. 

"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats, " said the Terror calmly. 

"Visiting cats?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together. 

"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that ifever they are left homeless they will know where to come, " said theTerror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells ofguilelessness. 

"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed. "I must tell themanagers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it, too. But what are these cats doing?"

"It sounds as if they were quarreling, " said the Terror calmly. 

It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home thedin was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish. It was as if the voicesof all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song. 

The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open thedoor--wide. Cats did not come out. . . . A large ball of cats cameout, gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur. Ten yards from the doorit dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore, yelling, to the four quarters of the heavens. 

After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence. 

The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: "Isometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens. "

Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion. Hewalked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from humanken. There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leanedagainst the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsivebricks feebly. 

But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home withan air of modest pride. A little dazed, she entered upon a scene ofperfect, if highly-scented, peace. Twenty-three kittens and eight catssat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a deadstillness. Their eyes were very bright. By a kindly provision ofnature they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes ofthat vociferous fray. 

In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song. Shewas charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness andhealthiness of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness. She gushed enthusiastic approbation. "To think, " she cried, "that youhave done this yourself! A boy of thirteen!"

"Erebus did quite as much as I did, " said the Terror quickly. 

"And Wiggins helped a lot. He's a friend of ours, " said Erebus no lessquickly. 

Lady Ryehampton's face softened to Erebus--to Erebus, the instructor ofparrots. 

Sir Maurice joined them. His eyes were red and moist, as if they hadbut now been full of tears. 

"It's a very creditable piece of work, " he said in a tone of warmapproval. 

Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell. She said uneasily: "But you must be heavily in debt. "

"In debt?" said the Terror. "Oh, no; we couldn't be. Mother wouldhate us to be in debt. "

"I thought--a cats' home--oh, but I _am_ glad I brought my check-bookwith me!" cried Lady Ryehampton. 

She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl. She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebuskicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneouslyrealized that the future of the home, the wages of "overseering, " weresecure. 

CHAPTER V

AND THE SACRED BIRD

Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and theTerror did all he could to foster her interest in it. The crowningeffect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very prettysight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without manypauses to gambol and play. The only thing about the home which was notquite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door. She liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did notlike its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all ofthem of the same size. At the same time she did not like to hurt thefeelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork. 

Then she had a happy thought, and said: "By the way, I think that theboard over the door ought to be uniform--the same as the boards overthe entrances of my other cats' homes. The lettering of them is alwaysin gold. "

"All right. I'll get some gold paint, and paint them over, " said theTerror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser ofsalaries. 

"No, no, I can't give you the trouble of doing it all over again, " saidLady Ryehampton quickly. "I'll have a board made, and painted inLondon--exactly like the board of my cats' home at Tysleworth--and sentdown to you to fix up. "

"Thanks very much, " said the Terror. "It will save me a great deal oftrouble. Painting isn't nearly so easy as it looks. "

Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction. She invited them allto lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs. Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simpleestablishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver. As she told herneighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in thehouse. The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebuswas very quiet for two hours after it. 

Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloatingvisit to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to theTerror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train toLondon. 

Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire totravel with Lady Ryehampton. Besides, the question what was to be donewith the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled. He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep, since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats' home. At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them anymore. 

They discussed the matter. Erebus was inclined to keep the cats, declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens. TheTerror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view, wished to be relieved of them. In the end it was decided that SirMaurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he hadbought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer. 

The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with thisunexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home. Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings aweek. The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each. Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he putfifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank. He thought it a wisething to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum onsome sudden overwhelming impulse. 

Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove. The cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted boardcame from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror'shandiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, alongwith Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons. 

Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider theimportant matter of their mother's Christmas present. 

One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens theirbreakfasts and discussing it gravely. The kittens were indulging inengaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion whichalways followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmilingeyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds. They could seetheir way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; andso large a sum must be expended with judgment. It must procuresomething not only useful but also attractive. 

They had discussed at some length the respective advantages andattractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in thehair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: "I know what she reallywants though. "

"What's that?" said the Terror sharply. 

"It's one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker's at Rowington, "said Erebus. "I heard her sigh when she looked at it. She used tohave beautiful furs once--when father was alive. But she sold them--toget things for us, I suppose. Uncle Maurice told me so--at least I gotit out of him. "

The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone ofdecision: "How much is that stole?"

"Oh, it's no good thinking about it--it's three guineas, " said Erebusquickly. 

"That's a mort o' money, as old Stubbs says, " said the Terror; and thefrown deepened on his brow. 

"I wonder if we could get it?" said Erebus, and a faint hopefulnessdawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face. "I should liketo. It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things--much harder thanfor us, because we've never had them--at least, we had them when wewere small, but we never got used to them. So we've forgotten. "

"No, we're all right as long as we have useful things, " said theTerror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown. "But you're right aboutMum--she must be different. I've got to think this out. "

"Three guineas is such a lot to think out, " said Erebus despondently. 

"I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago, " said the Terrorfirmly. "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really moreimportant than bicycles and a cats' home, though not so useful. "

"But it's different--we _had_ to have bicycles--you said so, " saidErebus eagerly. 

"Well, we've got to have this stole, " said the Terror in a tone offinality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wontedserenity. 

"But how?" said Erebus eagerly. 

"Things will occur to us. They always do, " said the Terror with acareless confidence. 

They began to put the kittens into their hutches. Half-way through theoperation the Terror paused:

"I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens? Does any one ever buykittens?"

"We did; we gave threepence each for these, " said Erebus. 

"Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home. Weshould never have bought a kitten but for that. We shouldn't havedreamt of doing such a thing. "

"I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn't got any, " said Erebusin a tone of decision. 

"You would, would you? That's just what I wanted to know: girls willbuy kittens, " said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction. "Well, we'llsell these. "

"But we can't empty the home, " said Erebus. 

"We wouldn't. We'd buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepenceeach, and sell these at a shilling. We might make nearly a sovereignthat way. "

"So we should--a whole sovereign!" cried Erebus; then she added in asomewhat envious tone: "You do think of things. "

"I have to. Where should we be, if I didn't?" said the Terror. 

"But who are we going to sell them to? Everybody round here has cats. "

"Yes, they have, " said the Terror, frowning again. "Well, we shallhave to sell them somewhere else. "

They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back tothe house, pondering. The Terror collected the books for his morning'swork slowly, still thoughtful. 

As he was leaving the house he said: "Look here; the place for us tosell them is Rowington. The people round here sell most of theirthings at Rowington--butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits. "

"And Ellen would sell them for us--in the market, " said Erebus quickly. 

"Of course she would! You see, you think of things, too!" cried theTerror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air. 

After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matterof selling their kittens. She had been their nurse for the first fouryears of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry asmall farmer. She had an affection for them, especially for theTerror; and she had not lost touch with them. She welcomed themwarmly, ushered them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter ofelderberry wine and a cake. When she had helped them to cake andpoured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had broughtthem to her house. 

Ellen's mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggsand poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in herpony-cart. She laughed consumedly at the Terror's belief that any onewould want to buy kittens. But unmoved by her open incredulity, he wasvery patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to selltheir kittens at her stall in Rowington market. Ellen consented tomake the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist theTerror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to obligehim; but she held out no hopes of success. 

The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did notshare her despondency. Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen'spessimism, rode in a gloomy depression. 

Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:"I tell you what: even if we don't sell those kittens, we can alwaysbuy the stole. There's all that cats' home money in the bank. We cantake as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees. "

"No, we can't, " said the Terror firmly. "We're not going to use thatmoney for anything but the cats' home. I promised Mum I wouldn't. Besides, she'd like the stole ever so much better if we'd really earnedit ourselves. "

"But we shan't, " said Erebus gloomily. "If we sold all the kittens, itwill only make twenty-three shillings. "

"Then we must find something else to sell, " said the Terror withdecision. 

His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from LittleDeeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a fieldof mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability. 

Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were verygood friends. Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done anhonest day's work in his life. Yet he was the smartest man in thevillage, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket. 

It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from hisconstitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which havebeen passed for the protection of the English pheasants from alldangers save the small shot of those who have them fed. Tom Cobb wagedwar, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird. Sometimes fora whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war withnever a check to his ardor. In another season some prying gamekeeperwould surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and aninfuriated bench of magistrates would fine him. The fine was alwayspaid. Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money againsta rainy day. 

He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greetedone another with smiles of mutual respect. They rode on a few yards;and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped, slipped off his bicycle, and wheeled it back to the gate. Erebus followed him more slowly. 

"I've been wondering if you'd do me a favor, Tom, " said the Terror. "I've always wanted to know how to make a snare. I'll give youhalf-a-crown if you'll teach me. "

Tom Cobb's clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, buthe hesitated. He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a littleknowledge was a dangerous thing--for others. He foresaw trouble forthe sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, thegamekeepers. He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them. And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown. 

He grinned and said slowly, "Yes, Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy toteach you 'ow to make a snare. "

"Thank you. I'll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two, " said theTerror gratefully. 

"It _will_ be nice to know how to make snares!" cried Erebus happily asthey rode on. "I wonder we never thought of it before. "

"We didn't want a fur stole before, " said the Terror. 

The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him toTom Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares. But the Terror would not. Often he was indulgent; often he was firm. To-day he was firm. 

He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rathersadly: "I've still a lot to learn. But come on: I've got to buysomething in Rowington. "

They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, andthey had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell. At Rowington theTerror bought copper wire at an ironmonger's; and he was very carefulto buy it of a certain thickness. 

They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for theexperiment. Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, theywashed them thoroughly in the kitchen. They dried them, and decided tokeep them in its warmth till the next morning. 

After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the makingof snares. Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snaresat once. The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long whilebefore he got one at all to his liking. 

Remembering Tom Cobb's instructions, he washed it, and then put ongloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which therabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat thecabbages. He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare, and thrilled with joy. The fur stole had come within the range ofpossibility. 

Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens, brushing them with the Terror's hair-brush till their fur was of asleekness it had never known before. Then Erebus adorned the neck ofeach with a bow of blue ribbon. Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewedon the bows, and sewed them on firmly. It could not be doubted thatthey looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens. Directly afterbreakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of theirbicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen. 

They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them butthey had to return to their lessons. After lunch they made three moresnares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, ifanything, more deft at snare-making than his own. 

It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; andwhen they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their joy that thebasket which had held the six kittens was empty. 

Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, andsaid: "Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong. I've soldthem kitties--every one--and I've had two more ordered. It was whenthe ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went. "

She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to theTerror. 

"Five, " said the Terror. "I must pay you a shilling for selling them. It's what they call commission. "

"No, sir; I don't want any commission, " said Ellen firmly. "As long asthose kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls thanany one else in the market. I haven't had such a good day not everbefore. And I'll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me. "

The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm. The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings. 

That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the gardenabout the common. He caught three rabbits. 

The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feedthe kittens and change the bay in the hutches. 

At last he said rather sadly: "It's sometimes rather awkward being aDangerfield. "

"Why?" said Erebus surprised. 

"Those rabbits, " said the Terror. "I want to sell them. But it's nogood going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer. Evenif he wanted rabbits--which he mightn't--he'd only give me sixpenceeach for them. But if I were to sell them myself _here_, I could geteightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them. But, you see, aDangerfield can't go about selling things. Uncle Maurice said I hadthe makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn't go intobusiness. It's the family tradition not to. That's what he said. "

"Perhaps he was only rotting, " said Erebus hopefully. 

"No, he wasn't. I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition, too. I expect that's why we're all so hard up. "

"But the squire sells things, " said Erebus quickly. "And you can't sayhe isn't a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren't so old as theDangerfields. "

"Of course, he does. He sells some of his game, " said the Terror, in atone of great relief. "Game must be all right, and we can easily countrabbits as game. "

Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four theyhad caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour ofthe neighborhood. The Terror went to the back doors of theirwell-to-do neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with thegratifying result that in less than an hour he had sold all four ofthem at eightpence each. 

They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them. Theyhad already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-threeshillings. 

It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knewwhen to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they wenton. It was the fault of the rabbit market. At the fifteenth rabbit, when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole, the bottom fell out of it. For the time the desire of Little Deepingto eat rabbits was sated. 

It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who, after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was tobring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very differentthing, Master Dangerfield. "

The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: "And how muchwould you pay for pheasants?"

The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmeticshe had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit ofthreepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: "Two andthreepence each, sir. "

The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer. Hesaw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All right, I'll bring you two or three a week. But you'll have to pay cash. "

"Oh, yes, sir. Of course, sir, " said the cook. 

"Do you know any one else who'd buy pheasants?" he said. 

"Well, there's Mr. Carrington's cook, " said the cook slowly. "She hasthe management of the housekeeping money like I do. I think she mightbuy pheasants from you. Mr. Carrington's very partial to game. "

"Right, " said the Terror. "And thank you for telling me. "

He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached thematter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits. He made adirect offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each. After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted it. 

He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caughtrabbits would catch pheasants. At first he was for catching thosepheasants by himself. Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl's work. Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebusand must tell her. 

When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: "Butwhere are you going to get pheasants from?"

"Woods, " said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture. 

Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkledfiercely. 

"The only thing is, we don't know nearly enough about snaringpheasants. And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;and that wouldn't do at all, " said the Terror. 

"But there's nobody else to ask. "

"I don't know about that. There's Wiggins' father. He knows a lot ofuseful things besides higher mathematics. The only thing is, we mustdo it in such a way that he doesn't see we're trying to get anythingout of him. "

"Well, I should think we could do that. He's really quite simple, "said Erebus. 

"As long as _you_ understand what I'm driving at, " said the Terror. 

That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowingtonmarket, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast nextmorning. Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rivalpoultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell. The Twins atonce went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurancethat those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling. Theywere right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; andthe joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole. 

On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention ofcoming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till thethird afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly, about three miles from Little Deeping. 

The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington. They had agreat respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor. In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in hispresence. She did not know what he might say about her next. He was, therefore, somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles andjoined him. He wondered what they wanted. 

Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for thesociety of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talkwas running on pheasants. Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants, except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on thedevastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might liveundisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woodsto itself. 

It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he wasnot aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and hebewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion tothe type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained thevillages of all the intelligent. The skilful poacher who harried thesacred bird was fast becoming extinct. 

Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of thepoacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words. He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacherwith intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise todisplay in the presence of the young. The Terror came from that talkwith a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins. 

The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound ofraisins at the leading grocer's. They might well have bought them atLittle Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thoughtRowington safer. They always took every possible precaution at thebeginning of an enterprise. They did not ride straight home. Threemiles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill. At thefoot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deepingwood, acre upon acre. It had lately passed, along with the rest of theGreat Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, apudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain. He was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of lessmodern stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of havingthe finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it, he did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them. His friends camewholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies. 

It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins' came to the clump onthe hill. The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set thembehind the hedge. He removed the pound of raisins from his bicyclebasket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole downthe hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walkedthrough it. One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to thewood below. The occurrence pleased him. He crawled out of the clumpon the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down theditch of the hedge to the wood. He did not lay it right down to thewood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it. Then he returnedwith fine, red Indian caution to Erebus. They rode home well content. 

Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again. Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the woodto the clump. But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of theclump. Just above the end of the ditch. Later he took from that snarea plump but sacred bird. Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop for two and threepence. 

CHAPTER VI

AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR

On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepenceto Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himselfserenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat. 

"That's all right, " said Erebus cheerfully. "That makes--that makestwenty-eight and eleven-pence. We _are_ getting on. "

"Yes; it's twenty-eight and eleven-pence now, " said the Terror quickly. "But you don't seem to see that when we've got the stole for Mum thesepheasants will still be going on. "

"Of course they will!" cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightlyindeed at the joyful thought. 

The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah afterbreakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to theclump above Great Deeping wood. He reached it at the hour whengamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thoroughexamination of it. He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose thetwo likeliest places for his snares. He did not set them then andthere; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them. He came againin the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then. Later he sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to thecook of Mr. Carrington. 

During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight morekittens. They found themselves in the happy position of needing onlysix shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole. 

But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with theclump of trees above Great Deeping wood. They had laid a trail ofraisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of iton the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts. 

On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; andsince the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way overGreat Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley. The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear andbright. But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided thatinstead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as wellexamine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey. It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads, alas! do not grow on young shoulders. 

He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two ofhis purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed ofhis friends' latest exploits) and made his dispositions. When theycame to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep alookout ahead. The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins. Wiggins held the two bicycles. The Terror listened. The wood was verystill in its winter silence. He slipped through the hedge into it, andpresently came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasantindeed. He put it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted. 

They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirtyyards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very dauntingfashion as he came. There was neither time nor room to turn. Theyrode on; and the keeper made for the Terror. The Terror swerved; andthe keeper swerved. Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came tothe ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as hecould. 

He caught up Erebus, and his cry of "Keeper!" set her racing besidehim; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently, when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped anddismounted. 

"The keeper's got him. This is a mess!" said the Terror, who waspanting a little from their spurt. 

"If only it had been one of us!" cried Erebus. "Whatever are we to do?"

"If that beastly keeper hadn't seen me with the pheasant, I'd getWiggins away, somehow, " said the Terror. "But, as it is, it's me theyreally want; and I'd get fined to a dead certainty. Come on, let's goback and see what's happened to him. You scout on ahead. Nobody knowsyou're in it. "

"All right, " said Erebus; and she mounted briskly. 

She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for asign of an ambush. The Terror followed her at a distance of sixtyyards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give thealarm. They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond theend of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way upthe drive, they saw the keeper and his prey. The keeper held Wigginswith his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right. The Twins dismounted. Even at that distance they could see the deepdejection of their friend. 

"There's not really any reason for him to be frightened. He was neverin the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant, " said the Terror. 

"What does that matter? He _will_ be frightened out of his life; he'sso young, " cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after theirreceding friend with very anxious eyes. "He's not like us; he won'tcheek the keeper all the way like we should. "

"Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck, " said the Terror in a reassuring tone. 

"But he won't understand he's all right. He's only ten. And there'sno saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bullyhim, " cried Erebus with unabated anxiety. 

This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton. 

"Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he'll be out ofit, " said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle. 

"No, no! That won't do at all!" cried Erebus fiercely. "We've got torescue him now--at once. We got him into the mess; and we've got toget him out of it. You've got to find a way. "

"It's all very well, " said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took offhis cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem. 

Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply. 

Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss. 

Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: "I can't see what we cando. "

"Oh, I'm going to get him out of it somehow!" cried Erebus in a furiousdesperation. 

With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive. 

The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fiftyyards. It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacherof the three, the only one in real danger. As he leaned on hismachine, watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth. For allhis natural serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant tohim. 

Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins andthe keeper. She was about to ride on round the house, thinking thatthe keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door, when she saw Wiggins' bicycle standing against one of the pillars ofthe great porch. In a natural elation at having captured a poacher, and eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gonestraight into the great hall. 

Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; thenshe moved Wiggins' bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he cameout, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out ofsight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammeredthe knocker firmly, and rang the bell. The moment the door opened shestepped quickly past the footman into the hall. The keeper sat on achair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking whiteand woebegone. 

Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:"What are you doing with my little brother?"

She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen herposition. 

The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone, but he said triumphantly:

"I caught 'im poachin'--"

"Stand up! What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?" criedErebus in her most imperative tone. 

The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:"'E was poachin', " he said sulkily. 

"He was not! A little boy like that!" cried Erebus scornfully. 

"Anyways, 'e was aidin' an' abettin', an' I've brought 'im to Mr. D'Arcy Rosynimer an' it's for 'im to say, " said the keeper stubbornly. 

There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentleclick by which the Twins called each other to attention. At the soundWiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself. Erebusmeasured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there cameinto the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-facedyoung Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer. 

"Where's the boacher?" he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting inhis emotion to the ancestral "b. "

As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide. 

"Bolt, Wiggins!" she cried. 

Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; thefootman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus. She slammed thedoor behind the vanished Wiggins. 

Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl. Erebus set her back against the door. He caught her by the left arm tosling her out of the way. It was a silly arm to choose, for she caughthim a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swingof her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack ofa whip-lash. Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender. He howledagain, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists. She caught thefirst blow on an uncommonly acute elbow. The second never fell, forthe footman caught him by the collar and swung him round. 

"It's not for the likes of you to 'it Henglish young ladies!" he criedwith patriotic indignation. 

Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously, "Ged out of my house! Now--at once--ged out!"

"And pleased I shall be to go--when I've bin paid my wages. It's amonth to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow. I've had enough offurriners, " said the footman with cold exultation. 

"Go--go--ged oud!" roared Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer. 

"When I've bin paid my wages, " said the footman coldly. 

Erebus waited to hear no more. She turned the latch, slipped throughthe door, and slammed it behind her. To her dismay she saw a bigmotorcar coming round the corner of the house. She mounted quickly andraced down the drive. Wiggins was already out of sight. 

Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her. 

"I've sent Wiggins on!" he shouted as she passed. 

"Come on! Come on!" she shrieked back. "The beastly foreigner's got amotor-car!"

He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the carhad been ready to start. They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half downthe road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew. Theywere fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles totheir one on that good road. The Twins alone would have made a longerrace of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins. They had gonelittle more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as itcame rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them. 

"Go on, Terror!" cried Erebus. "You're the one that matters! You didthe poaching! I'll look after Wiggins! He'll be all right with me. "

For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of theadvice sank in, and he shot ahead. Erebus kept behind Wiggins; andthey rode on. The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidlyas it would have done had not Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked thecourage of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it. He was howlingat his straining chauffeur to go slower. 

Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less thanfifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swingingbriskly along. 

"It's your father!" gasped Erebus. 

It was, indeed, the higher mathematician. 

As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; andErebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all! It was the Terror!"

"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly. 

On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it. 

"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quiteincorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind hisfather. 

"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington. 

The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at asingle glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence. Mr. Carringtonseemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his leftarm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in thetechnical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut onthe point which put him to sleep. " He fell as falls a sack ofpotatoes, and lay like a log. 

The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward. 

"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his mostagreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low. 

The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he madeno effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which laybetween them. 

"I can't say as I do, sir, " he said civilly; and he backed away. 

"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulkingyoung blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, takingconstitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion, " said thehigher mathematician in the same agreeable tone. 

"Assaults?--'Im assault?--Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, ofGreat Deeping Court, sir, " said the keeper respectfully. 

"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits helooks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this eveningbe summoned for assault. Good afternoon, " said Mr. Carrington, and heturned on his heel. 

The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their youngemployer. Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head. He put hiswalking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left handwith rueful tenderness. None the less he looked pleased; it wasgratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked downsuch a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness. Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with aproud air. They felt that they shone with his reflected glory. It wasa delightful sensation. 

They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yetgratified tone: "Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?"

"No, my child. I am not a pork-butcher, " said Mr. Carrington amiably. 

"He _looked_ as if he was dead, " said Erebus; and there was a faintring of disappointment in her tone. 

"In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hopethat it will be a better and wiser self, " said Mr. Carrington. "Butwhat was it all about? What did that truculent young ruffian want withRupert?"

Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: "Itwas a pheasant in Great Deeping wood, " she said. "The Terror found it, I suppose. I had gone on, and I didn't see that part. But it wasWiggins the keeper caught. Of course--"

"I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer, "broke in Mr. Carrington. "Had you ridden on too, Rupert? Or did yousee what happened?"

"Oh, yes; I was there, " said Wiggins readily. "And the Terror foundthe pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket. And we hadjust got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and Iran into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court. I wasn'treally frightened--at least, not much. "

"The keeper had no right to touch him, " Erebus broke in glibly. "Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn't even go into the wood;and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him andthe keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and thenthat horrid Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught holdof me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once. Ishould think that the mark is still there "--her speed of speechslackened to a slower vengeful gratification and then quickenedagain--"and he began to thump me and the footman interfered, and I cameaway, and they came after us in the car, and you saw what happened--atleast you did it. "

She stopped somewhat breathless. 

"Lucidity itself, " said Mr. Carrington. "But let us have the matter ofthe pheasant clear. Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance offinding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would bethere ready to be brought home?"

Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly, and said, "Well, there was a snare, you know. "

Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: "I thought so. I thought we shouldcome to that snare in time. Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?"

"Oh, no, he didn't know anything about it!" Erebus broke in quickly. "We should never have thought of letting him into anything sodangerous! He's so young!"

"I shall be eleven in a fortnight!" said Wiggins with some heat. 

"You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker's in Rowington for aChristmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we couldthink of getting it, " said Erebus in a confidential tone. 

"Light! Light at last!" cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently. "Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitelyPomeranian! But it's just as well that they have, or that ingeniousbrother of yours would be in a fine mess. As it is, I think we can goon teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited. " Hechuckled again. 

He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew fromErebus the full story of their poaching. When they reached the villagehe did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr. Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and hadretired to Little Deeping. At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus goodafternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on thenotice of any of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer's keepers who might be sent outto hunt for the real culprit. He would better keep quiet. 

Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home. She found the Terrorin the cats' home, awaiting her impatiently. 

"Well, did Wiggins get away all right?" he cried. "I passed Mr. Carrington; and I thought he'd see that they didn't carry him offagain. "

Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr. Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe. 

"By Jove! That was ripping! I do wish I'd been there!" said theTerror. "He only hit him once, you say?"

"Only once. And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr. Rosenheimer's keepers are out hunting for you, " said Erebus. 

"I am lying low, " said the Terror. "And I've got rid of that pheasant. I sold it to Mr. Carrington's cook as I came through the village. Ithought it was better out of the way. "

"Then that's all right. We only want about another half-crown, " saidErebus. 

Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone toa better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, hestill retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendlyinterest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield. 

He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poachingnot only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also becauseshe could so ill afford the expense of the case. He readily fell inwith the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take theoffensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer hadgiven them the weapons. 

The result of their council was that not later than seven o'clock thatevening Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of LittleDeeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R. S. ; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was servedwith a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington. 

Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour theneighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was ina chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been "put tosleep by an uppercut on the point. " He made haste to despatch a carinto Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business. 

The lawyer knew his client's unpopularity in the county, and advisedhim earnestly to try to hush these matters up. He declared thathowever Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no benchof English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by abig young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of Europeanreputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen, gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician's little boy from wrongfularrest and detention. 

Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protestedthat they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested hisdevotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy. But heperceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him toofar, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shootthe particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not bedeeply touched by it. Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use everyeffort to settle the matter out of court. 

The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven overto Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington's house. He found Mr. Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best toplacate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitudewhich had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford tobe generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with anuppercut on the point. 

Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind themore prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with averitable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms. The summonsesshould be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about thatpoached pheasant and that Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fiftyguineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital. The lawyeraccepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection tocomplying with them. 

The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carringtonsent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about thispoaching. He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt atlength on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caughtand prosecuted. In the end he gave him the choice of giving his wordto snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that hewas poaching. The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants themore readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching, she would forbid him to set another snare for anything. Besides, hehad been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before. Only hepointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring apheasant, for pheasants went everywhere. Mr. Carrington admitted thisfact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting hissnares on ground sacred to the sacred bird. If pheasants wandered intothem on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault. Thanks thereforeto the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of theTerror's narrow escape. 

The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds, since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete. Theyturned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in thehedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs. Mrs. Blenkinsop's cookpaid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete. 

Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no timemaking the purchase. As he told Erebus, they would get the choice ofmore stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush. Accordinglyon the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington tobuy it. 

It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowinghard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker's shop, Erebusgazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer, the confectioner, and said sadly:

"It's a pity it isn't Saturday and we had our 'overseering' salary. Wemight have gone to Springer's and had a jolly good blow-out for once. "

The Terror gazed at Springer's window thoughtfully, and said: "Yes, itis a pity. We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paidourselves in advance. "

He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemedsomewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles. She wasvery thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she hadchosen the very best of them. The girl who was serving them made outthe bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the threeguineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purseof a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, andcounted them slowly. 

He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stolewhen a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: "Ishall want five per cent. Discount for cash. "

"Oh, we don't do that sort of thing here, " said the girl quickly. "This is such an old-established establishment. "

"I can't help that. I must have discount for cash, " said the Terroryet more firmly. 

The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his ownshop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity. Mr. Barkercame and she put the matter to him. 

"Oh, no, sir; I'm afraid we couldn't think of it. Barker's is too oldestablished a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doingbusiness, " said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air. 

The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: "All right, " hesaid. "You can put the stole down to me--Master Hyacinth Dangerfield, Colet House, Little Deeping. "

He began to shovel the money back into the bag. 

An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker asthe coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: "I'm afraid we can'tdo that, sir. Our terms are cash--strictly cash. "

"Oh, no, they're not. My mother has had an account here for the lastsix years, " said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went intothe bag. 

Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone ofwarm geniality he cried: "Oh, that alters the case altogether! In thecase of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we'redelighted to deduct five per cent. Discount for cash--delighted. Makeout the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins. "

Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore awaythe stole tenderly. 

As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the bravethree shillings discount in his pocket and said: "Now for Springer's!"

CHAPTER VII

AND PRINGLE'S POND

Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had analmost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had hadany. She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money ithad cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats' home fund, since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should bediverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to themfor the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it. Onthe whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had beenraised. 

The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas. Itwas the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietudeand gently rollicked. There was a dearth of children, young men andmaidens among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wigginswere in request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings. Thanks to the Terror, the three of them took this brightening functionwith considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorouspiece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performedtwo charades in a very painstaking fashion. They had but littledramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from thedischarge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were alwayswell received. 

It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas. The weather broke aboutthe middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavysnow-storm. The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the commonin front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellenttoboggan on which they rushed down the hill into the village street. These were but light pleasures. They watched the ponds with the mostcareful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour'sskating. Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr. Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at thevicarage, drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent sontake any risk whatever. 

The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear. They atetheir breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gatheredtogether his books for his morning's work they made their plans. 

He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the twopairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: "Thenthat's settled. I'll meet you at Pringle's pond as soon after halfpast twelve as I can get there; but you'd better not go on it before Icome. "

"Oh, it'll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday, " said Erebusimpatiently. 

"Well, Wiggins isn't to go on it before I come. You'll do as you likeof course--as usual--and if you fall in, it'll be your own lookout. But he's to wait till I come. If the ice does bear, it won't bear anytoo well; and I'm responsible for Wiggins. I promised Mr. Carringtonto look after him, " said the Terror in tones of stern gravity. 

Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: "As if Icouldn't take care of him just as well as you. I'm as old as you. "

"Perhaps, " said the Terror doubtfully. "But you are a girl; there's nogetting over it; and it does make a difference. "

Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and shescowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmlybehind him. She hated to be reminded that she was a girl. Thereminder rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs. Dangerfield asked her what was distressing her that she scowled sofiercely. 

At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes shewas ready to go skating. She set out briskly across the common, andfound Wiggins waiting for her at his father's garden-gate. He joinedher in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of itsbearing with the most hopeful confidence. She displayed an equalconfidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows. More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps andbounds. His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold wintersunlight. 

In ten minutes they came to Pringle's pond. The wind had swept the icefairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting. Also itlooked quite thick and strong. Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, foundthat it bore her, and tested it with some care. She even jumped up anddown on it. It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herselfthat ice always cracks, more or less. She set about putting on herskates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed, followed her example. 

When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, shelooked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently. No; shewould not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skatetill he came. . . . She could look after him quite as well as theTerror. . . . She had tested the ice thoroughly. . . . It wasperfectly safe. 

Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him. Theice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals itcracked again. Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond tellingWiggins not to go far from the edge. She skated round and across thepond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight, resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came. Wiggins skated about the pond. 

She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure ofeight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash anda shrill cry from Wiggins. She turned sharply to see the water wellingup out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where arow of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness ofthe wind. 

Wiggins was in that hole under the water. 

She screamed and dashed toward it. She had nearly reached it when hishead came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice. Two moresteps and a loud crack gave her pause. It flashed on her that if shewent near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in thewater herself. 

"Hold on! Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringingthrough the still winter air. 

She screamed again and yet again. Wiggins' face rose above the edge ofthe ice; and he gasped and spluttered. Then she sank down gently, atfull length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread outso as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible, toward the hole. Half a minute's cautious squirming brought her handsto the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists. The ice bent under her weight, but it did not break. The icy water, welling out over it, began to drench her arms and chest. 

Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she couldnot. She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from. 

Wiggins' little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and histeeth chattered. 

She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes. Shecould not. 

"C-c-can't you p-p-pull m-m-me out?" chattered Wiggins. 

"No, not yet, " she said hoarsely. "But it's all right. The Terrorwill be here in a minute. "

She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again. 

She listened with all her ears for an answer. A bird squeaked shrillyon the other side of the field; there was no other sound. Wiggins'white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full offear. Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain. 

"It's d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold, " said Wiggins in a very faint voice; hebegan to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers. 

She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest weredreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders. 

"Try to stick it out! Don't give in! It's only a minute or twolonger! The Terror _must_ come!" she cried fiercely. 

His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feelingashamed of it. Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look ofhopeless bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled intheir sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal. 

They terrified Erebus beyond words. She screamed, and then shescreamed and screamed. Wiggins' face was a mere white blur through herblinding tears of terror. 

She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terrorcried loudly: "Stop that row!"

She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stirher and Wiggins. He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes. 

Then he cried: "Squirm round to the left. I'll help you. "

He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; andshe squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bendingice. 

In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of awillow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pullbegan to draw them toward the bank. The ice creaked as Wiggins' chestcame over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body onceflat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily. He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most ofher weight off the ice. Then he stepped down on to it and picked upWiggins. Erebus' stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they didnot open easily to let them go. 

The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; thenhe pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, openedthe blade with his teeth for quickness' sake, tossed it to Erebus andcried: "Cut off his skates! Pull off his boots and stockings!"

Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins' coat, jersey andwaistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and beganto rub his chest violently. In the spring the Twins had attended acourse of the St. John's Ambulance Society lectures, and among otherthings had learned how to treat those dying from exposure. The Terrorwas the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been thesubject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid. 

He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back intoit. Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent withcold and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of hisboots, pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly athis legs. The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violentlytill the blood reddened that. Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt. 

Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them onWiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins' knickerbockers and rubbed histhighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulledthem on Wiggins' legs. The stockings came well up his thighs; and theTerror's coat and jersey came well down them. Wiggins was completelycovered. But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for herstockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took herjacket and tied it round Wiggins' waist by the sleeves. 

Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was nolonger a dead waxen color. He opened his eyes twice and shut themfeebly. 

The Terror shook him, and shouted: "Come on, old chap! Make an effort!We want to get you home!"

With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well overWiggins' cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder, bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they setoff toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along. Theywent slowly for Wiggins' feet dragged feebly and almost helplesslyalong. Their arms round him helped warm him. It would have taken thema long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soonafter they came out of Pringle's meadows on to the road, Jakes, theGreat Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and MuttleDeeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart. Wiggins wasquickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington'sin about four minutes. 

As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said toErebus: "You bolt home as hard as you can go. You must be awfully wetand cold; and if you don't want to be laid up, the sooner you take somequinine and get to bed the better. "

As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ranhome as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her. 

The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wigginsas a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington's house in an uproar. TheTerror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook andhousemaid and Mr. Carrington himself. Wiggins was carried into the hotkitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet. The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expertTerror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must berestored slowly. As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and waterwith a teaspoon. In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able totalk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation. 

The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bedand warm the blankets. In another five minute's Mr. Carrington carriedWiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine. Presentlyhe fell asleep. 

The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still withoutstockings and a jersey. He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr. Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over, he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the waterand Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking. Hewas careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wigginsgo on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for savinghim, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus. 

Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, andthen further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine. Onhis way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle's pond and pickedup the skates and garments that had been left there. When he reachedhome he found that Erebus was in bed. She seemed little the worse forlying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wigginsafloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worseand was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite. 

The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from herdisregard for his instructions; he only said: "I just told Mr. Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to thepond. "

"That was awfully decent of you, " said Erebus after a pause in whichshe had gathered the full bearing of his reticence. 

CHAPTER VIII

AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES

The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over thespirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected. She was asquick as any one to realize that all's well that ends well; and Wigginsescaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed. The adventure, however, induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescendingwith him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquiredsomething of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonlysolicitous for his welfare. To such a point did this solicitude gothat more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing abouthim. 

During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, theirlives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played theirgames; then tended the inmates of the cats' home, selling them as theygrew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able tolap. 

In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the littletrout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of MuttleDeeping Grange. The free water runs for rather more than half a mileon the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished itwith an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling thatthey left no fish for any one else. Also the Twins tried to get leaveto fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream. ButMr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal togive them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since SirJames was absent, shooting big game in Africa. They resented therefusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream. Itwas some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one earlymorning on the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of MuttleDeeping Grange. 

About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to theirAunt Amelia. Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it thatit was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehamptonhad arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much. On his return hewas able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt's parrot stillsaid "dam" with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration. 

Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morganhad let Muttle Deeping Grange. In the life of the Deeping villages themere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but theinhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption ofMiddle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths oftheir being when the news came that it had been let to a Germanprincess. The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with theliveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from theirfine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, ofCassel-Nassau, was only twelve years and seven months old. 

The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors. Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a_German_ princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in thematter, and refused to be interested or impressed. Erebus was moreresentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the highpatriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owingto the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea, gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents, uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, withmeaning, "And what a model she will be to the little girls of theneighborhood!"

Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty passwhen it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that sheshould model herself on a German. 

"I don't suppose it would really make any difference who you modeledyourself on, " said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank thangrammatical. 

When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity ofher neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her. She didnot, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for shehad brought with her her own Lutheran pastor. They only saw her on herafternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against thesun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come toEngland. 

They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping forher health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest sheshould develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in theexcellent Deeping air would strengthen her. The news abated a littlethe cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attentionto their young neighbor. 

Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, andher appetite was poor. Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; andin particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit. It was not thebest season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries werecoming to an end. Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas. TheTwins were annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carryout the doctor's orders; but there seemed no help for it. 

It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor'svisit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheelingtheir bicycles out of the cats' home, a sudden gleam came into the eyesof the Terror; and he said:

"I've got an idea!"

An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she criedjoyfully; "Thank goodness! I was beginning to get afraid that nothingwas ever going to occur to us again. I thought it was the hot weather. What is it?"

"Those Germans, " said the Terror darkly. "Now that they've got theGrange, why shouldn't we make a raid on the peach-garden. They say theGrange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told methey ripen uncommon early. They're probably ripe now. "

"That's a splendid idea! It will just teach those Germans!" criedErebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of thepatriot. Then after a pause she added reluctantly: "But if theprincess is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peachesherself. "

"She couldn't want all of them. Why we couldn't. There are hundreds, "said the Terror quickly. "And they're the very thing for Mum. Bananasare all very well in their way; but they're not like real fruit. "

"Of course; Mum _must_ have them, " said Erebus with decision. "But howare we going to get into the peach-garden? The door in the wall onlyopens on the inside. "

"We're not. I've worked it out. Now you just hurry up and get somebig leaves to put the peaches in. Mum will like them ever so muchbetter with the bloom on, though it doesn't really make any differenceto the taste. "

Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves ofdifferent kinds. When she came back she found the Terror tying thelanding-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing, to the backbone of his bicycle. She put the leaves into her bicyclebasket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping. 

The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well sincethey had spent several days in careful scouting before they had madetheir raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds. A screen oftrees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; andthe Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood, came down the wall behind that screen of trees. 

About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a lowbough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyedthe garden. It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring soundthat disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig. 

He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyedthe golden burden of the tree beneath him. The ready Erebus handed thelanding-net up to him. He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over thewall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in aleaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket. The Terror nettedanother and another and another. 

The garden was not as empty as he believed. On a garden chair in thelittle lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden fromhim by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat, or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica VonAschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructionsthat her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but wasdoing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her aslittle good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spoton the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her owncomfortable sleeping. 

The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden. Hereyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfullycrimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came thesound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig. 

The princess was warmly--very warmly--dressed for the swelteringafternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in herlap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look ofintolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face. 

Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond theend-of the wall of pear tree--a moving object against the garden wall. She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that apeach rose and vanished over the top of the wall. She stared at thepart of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds anotherpeach seemed to rise and disappear. 

This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that, in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of thewall of pear-tree. As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over thewall, a fair-haired boy. Even as she saw him something rose andvanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was alanding-net. 

Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably, raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: "How do you do?"

He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going tomake admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provokepursuit and risk his peaches. 

"How do you do?" said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating. "What are you doing up there?"

"I'm looking at the garden, " said the Terror truthfully, but not quiteaccurately; for he was looking much more at the princess. 

She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown. Shethought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; andhis serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion thelie. She thought that he looked a nice boy. 

He gazed at her with growing interest and approval--as much approval asone could give to a girl. The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful grayeyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the linefrom the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that itmade her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face. She lookedfragile; and he felt sorry for her. 

"This garden's very hot, " he said. "It's like holding one's face overan oven. "

"Oh, it is, " said the princess, with impatient weariness. 

"Yet there's quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of thewalls, " said the Terror. 

The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curiousexamining eyes. Certainly he looked a nice boy. 

"I tell you what: come out into the wood. I know an awfully coolplace. You'd find it very refreshing, " said the Terror in the tone ofone who has of a sudden been happily inspired. 

The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely atthe sleeping baroness. The sight of that richly crimson face made thegarden feel hotter than ever. 

"Do come. My sister's here, and it will be very jolly in the wood--thethree of us, " said the Terror in his most persuasive tone. 

The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping butunbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:

"Are you well-born?"

The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:"Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons inthe Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns. And they did very wellat Crécy and Agincourt, too, " he added pensively. 

The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated. 

"Suppose the baroness were to wake?" she said. 

A light of understanding brightened the Terror's face: "Oh, is that thebaroness snoring? I thought it was a pig, " he said frankly. "Shewon't wake for another hour. Nobody snoring like that could. "

The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess. Shecast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: "Very goot; Iwill coom. "

She walked to the door lower down the garden wall. When she camethrough it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it. TheTerror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as VioletAnastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield. Hegave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in thecase of a princess, etiquette demanded it. Then they moved along thescreen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood. 

The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess, which was uncommonly slow. She kept looking from one to the other withcurious, rather timid, pleased eyes. She saw the landing-net thatErebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror's bicycle; but shesaw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches. 

They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into thehome wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles throughwithout difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths ofthe wood, and moved down it in single file. 

"I expect you never found this path, " said the Terror to the princesswho was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle. 

"No, I haf not found it. I haf never been in this wood till now, " saidthe princess. 

"You haven't been in this wood! But it's the home wood--the jolliestpart of the estate, " cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise. "Andthere are two paths straight into it from the gardens. "

"But I stay always in the gardens, " said the princess sedately. "TheBaroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that Igo out of sight of her. "

"But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time, "said Erebus. 

"Slack? What is slack?" said the princess. 

"She means feeble, " said the Terror. "But all the same those gardensare big enough; there's plenty of room to run about in them. "

"But I do not run. It is not dignified. The Baroness Von Ascherslebenwould be shocked, " said the princess with a somewhat prim air. 

"No wonder you're delicate, " said Erebus, politely trying to keep atouch of contempt out of her tone, and failing. 

"One can not help being delicate, " said the princess. 

"I don't know, " said the Terror doubtfully. "If you're in the open aira lot and do run about, you don't _keep_ delicate. Wiggins used to bedelicate, but he isn't now. "

"Who is Wiggins?" said the princess. 

"He's a friend of ours--not so old as we are--quite a little boy, " saidErebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, wouldhave resented with extreme bitterness. "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot toldMrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing withchildren of your own age, you'd soon get strong. "

"That's what I've come to England for, " said the princess. 

"I don't think there's much chance of your getting strong in thatpeach-garden. It didn't feel to me like the open air at all, " said theTerror firmly. 

"But it is the open air, " said the princess. 

They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broaderone, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steepand pathless bank. The Twins started up it as if it were neither herenor there to them; as, indeed, it was not. 

But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:

"Am I to climb this?"

The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycleagainst the trunk of a tree, and said:

"I'll help you up. "

With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm roundthe slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top ofthe bank. He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it;but none the less she reached the top panting a little. 

"You certainly aren't in very good training, " he said rather sadly. 

"Training? What is training?" said the princess. 

"It's being fit, " said Erebus in a faintly superior tone. 

"And what is being fit?" said the princess. 

"It's being strong--and well--and able to run miles and miles, " saidErebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer. 

"You needn't shout at her, " said the Terror. 

"I'm trying to make her understand, " said Erebus firmly. 

"But I do understand--when it is not the slang you are using. I knowEnglish quite well, " said the princess. 

"You certainly speak it awfully well, " said the Terror politely. 

He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle. They went a littledeeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool. 

They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, inthe cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes. 

"This _is_ different, " she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure. 

[Illustration: "This is different, " she said. ]

"Yes; this is the real open air, " said the Terror. 

"But I do get lots of open air, " protested the princess. "Why, I sleepwith my window open--at least that much. " She held out her twoforefingers some six inches apart. "The baroness did not like it. Shesaid it was very dangerous and would give me the chills. But DoctorArbuthnot said that it must be open. I think I sleep better. "

"We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they'll go; and thenthey're not wide enough in this hot weather, " said Erebus in the toneof superiority that was beginning to sound galling. 

"I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you'd be cooler still, "said the Terror rather quickly. 

The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hatand jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure. She had quitelost her air of discomfort and boredom. Her eyes were shiningbrightly; and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitementof her situation. 

It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-upchildren, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royalpersonages unless they first speak to you. If they were, they did notlet that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of theirhealthy curiosity. It may be they felt that in the free green wood theetiquette of courts was out of place. At any rate they did not let ittrammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliestkind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive, interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court. 

They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, thelessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the gamesshe played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea, her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner, the hour she went to bed. 

There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; itwas only natural that every detail of the life of a person of herimportance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunatemortals. She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquettein not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question. Indeedshe enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom thatany one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom, indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of herfellow creatures. She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she hadnever had any really sympathetic playmates. The children ofCassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their mindswere harassed by the fear lest they should be guilty of some appallingbreach of etiquette. The manner of the Twins, therefore, was apleasant change for her. They were polite, but quite unconstrained;and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded hadnever displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness, they were safely asleep in her presence. 

But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her newfriends she looked for. As she exposed more and more of the trammelingnet of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she wasenmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have foundso natural on them; they grew gloomy. 

At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and saidwith heart-felt conviction:

"Well, thank goodness, I'm not a princess! It must be perfectly awful!"

"It must be nearly as bad to be a prince, " said the Terror in thegloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion. 

The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins withparted lips and amazed incredulous eyes. Their words had given her theshock of her short lifetime. As far as memory carried her back, shehad been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, aGerman princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious anddelightful lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little lessglorious and delightful than the lot of a German prince. 

"B-b-but it's sp-p-plendid to be a princess! Everybody says so!" shestammered. 

"They were humbugging you. You've just made it quite clear that it'shorrid in every kind of way. Why, you can't do any single thing youwant to. There's always somebody messing about you to see that youdon't, " said Erebus with cold decision. 

"B-b-but one is a _p-p-princess_, " stammered the princess, withsomething of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth hassuddenly given way. 

The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it. 

"You're forgetting the food, " he said quickly to Erebus. "I don'tsuppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have allthe sweets and ices she wants. "

"Of course, " said the princess; and then she went on quickly: "B-b-butit isn't what you have to eat that makes it so--so--so important beinga princess. It's--"

"But it's awfully important what you have to eat!" cried the Terror. 

"I should jolly well think so!" cried Erebus. 

The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of herexalted station; but the Twins would not have it. They kept her firmlyto the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets. Theprincess, used to having information poured into her by many elderlybut bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying hernew part of dispenser of information. Her cheeks were faintly flushed;and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face. 

In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped awayunheeded by the interested trio. The crimson baroness had awakened, missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search ofher. A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that shewas not in them. As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into apanic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth insearch of her. 

The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear tothe Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of Germantartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality ofCassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of adistant voice calling out. 

He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen! There's some onecalling. I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be gettingback. "

The princess rose reluctantly. Then her face clouded; and she said ina tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear! How annoyed the baroness will be!"

"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness, " said Erebus. 

"But I have to; she's my--my _gouvernante_, " said the princess. 

"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just whatbaronesses tell you all the time, " said Erebus coldly. 

The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought ofrebelling. 

"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us. Shemightn't think we were good for you. Some people round here don't seemto understand us, " said the Terror suavely. 

The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckeredbrow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are youcoming to-morrow?"

The Twins looked at each other doubtfully. They had no plans for themorrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some moreexciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants. 

At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal init touched the Terror's heart. 

"We should like to come very much, " he said. 

The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him. 

"I don't think I shall be able to come, " said Erebus with the importantair of one burdened with many affairs. 

The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: "But if yourbrother comes?"

"Oh, I'll come, anyhow, " said the Terror. 

The voice called again from the wood below, louder. 

"Oh, it isn't the baroness. It's Miss Lambart, " said the princess in atone of relief. 

"You take too much notice of that baroness, " said Erebus again firmly. "Who is Miss Lambart?"

"She's my English lady-in-waiting. I always have one when I'm inEngland, of course. I like her. She tries to amuse me. But thebaroness doesn't like her, " said the princess, and she sighed. 

"Come along, I'll help you down the bank and take you pretty close toMiss Lambart. It wouldn't do for her to know of this place. It's oursecret lair, " said the Terror. 

"I see, " said the princess. 

They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carriedher down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive fromwhich Miss Lambart had called. As they went he adjured her to confineherself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walkingin the wood. His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of thedrive, were:

"Don't you stand so much nonsense from that baroness. "

Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive andfound her thirty yards away. The Terror slipped noiselessly awaythrough the undergrowth. 

Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess' footsteps, and said:"Oh, here you are, Highness. We've all been hunting for you. Thebaroness thought you were lost. "

"I thought I would walk in the wood, " said the princess demurely. 

"It certainly seems to have done you good. You're looking brighter andfresher than you've looked since you've been down here. "

"The wood is real open air, " said the princess. 

CHAPTER IX

AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM

The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease, eating a peach. 

"I should have liked one a good deal sooner, " he said, as he took onefrom the basket. "But I didn't like to say anything about them. Shemightn't have understood. "

"It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't, " said Erebus somewhattruculently. 

She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance hadso plainly preferred the Terror to her. 

"She's not a bad kid, " said the Terror thoughtfully. 

"She's awfully feeble. Why, you had to carry her up this bit of abank. She's not any use to us, " said Erebus in a tone of contempt. "In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we shouldfind her a perfect nuisance. "

"Perhaps. Still we may as well amuse her a bit. She seems to behaving a rotten time with that old red baroness and all thatetiquette, " said the Terror in a kindly tone. 

"She needn't stand it, if she doesn't like it. I shouldn't, " saidErebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: "I tell youwhat though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that oldred baroness. "

"Yes, " said the Terror doubtfully. "But I expect she'd take a lot ofteaching. I don't think she's the kind of kid to do much jumping onpeople. "

"Oh, you never know. We can always try, " said Erebus cheerfully. 

"Yes, " said the Terror. 

Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood. Itwas not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumberedby bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preservedas the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid butlittle attention to it. The Twins moved out of it safely and returnedhome with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they hadbeen treating a princess with singular firmness. Nor were they at alltroubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mentalkink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuumapplied to fruit. 

Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea thatafternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington andbought them for her there. When two more were forthcoming for herdessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so muchof their salary for "overseering" on her. The Twins said nothing. Itwas only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that shebegan to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not oftrade. Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little lateto inquire and protest. Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twinshad admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit ofit. Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing. 

On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deepinghome wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit whomet them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes. This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain tothem of this unheard-of breach of etiquette. She was doubtful how thecomplaint would be received at any rate by Erebus. 

They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and sincethe sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found itrather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror. There wassomething very satisfactory in his strength. Again they settledthemselves comfortably on the bank of the pool. 

They were in the strongest contrast to one another. Beside the cleargolden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus thepale face of the princess looked waxen. The blue linen blouse, shortserge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt, serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them anair not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb. Inher woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings andheavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddledsweltering doll melting in the heat. 

She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleasedby the Terror's observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at allwhen one had such thick hair as she. But she was some time acting onErebus' suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and bemore comfortable still. 

At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began totell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about herhaving gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the homewood. 

"I tell you what: you've spoilt that baroness, " said the Terror whenshe came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction. 

"But she's my _gouvernante_. I have to do as she bids, " protested theprincess. 

"That's all rubbish. You're the princess; and other people ought to dowhat you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any sillything you don't want to. She wouldn't me, " said Erebus with evengreater conviction than the Terror had shown. 

"I don't think she would, " said the princess with a faint sigh; and shelooked at Erebus with envious eyes. "But when she starts making a fussand gets so red and excited, she--she--rather frightens me. "

"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me, " said Erebus with avery cold ferocity. 

"I rather like people like that. I think they look so funny whenthey're really red and excited, " said the Terror gently. "But whatyou've got to do is to stand up to her. "

"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom. 

"Tell her that you don't care what she says, " said the Terror. 

"Cheek her, " said Erebus. 

"I couldn't. It would be too difficult, " said the princess, shakingher head. 

"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find howsoon you'll get used to shutting her up, " said the Terror. "But Idon't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy. I believe inbeing quite polite but not giving way. "

"She is very noisy, " said the princess. 

"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her. It's the only way. But mindyou only have rows when you're in the right about something, " said theTerror. "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone. It's no goodhaving a row when you're in the wrong. "

"I think it's best always to have a row, " said Erebus with an air ofwide experience. 

"Well, it isn't--at least it wouldn't be for the princess--she's notlike you, " said the Terror quickly. 

"Oh, no: not always--only when one is in the right. I see that, " saidthe princess. "But what should I have a row about?"

The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for apretext for an honest row. 

Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have someone to play with? It's silly being as dull as you are. What's thegood of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"

"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyessparkled. "It would be nice! You and Erebus could come to tea with meand sooper and loonch often and again!"

The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay. Itwas not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should goto the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy andgirl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness. 

"That wouldn't do at all, " said the Terror quickly. "You had betternot tell them anything at all about us. They wouldn't let us come tothe Grange; and they'd stop you coming here. It's ever so much nicermeeting secretly like this. "

"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here, " saidthe princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of thisgood thing. 

"It couldn't be done. They wouldn't have us at the Grange, " saidErebus, supporting the Terror. 

"But why not?" said the princess in surprise. 

"The people about here don't understand us, " said the Terror somewhatsadly. "They'd think we should be bad for you. "

"But it is not so! You are ever so good to me!" cried the princesshotly. 

"It's no good. You couldn't make grown-ups see that--you know whatthey are. No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meetus here, " said the Terror. 

The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then shesighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say. You know more aboutit. "

"That's all right, " said the Terror, greatly relieved. 

There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what:it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you. Suppose we taught you some exercises. You could practise them at home;and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us. "

"What things?" said the princess. 

"Oh, you'd be able to run--and jump. Why we might even be able toteach you to climb, " said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in histone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his innervision. 

"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess. Forthwith the Twins setabout teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making ofmuscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil. In spite of theseeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get backto the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any ratebefore she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in thehouse or about the gardens. The Terror therefore conducted her downthe screen of trees to the door in the wall. She had left itunlatched; and he pushed it open gently. There was no sound ofsnoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden. 

"I expect she is still looking for me in the house, " said the princesscalmly. "They'd be shouting if she weren't. "

"Yes. I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?" said the Terror, looking round the loaded walls. 

"Me? No. I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch. But Idon't care for peaches much. It's the way the baroness eats them, Ithink--the juice roonning down, you know. And she eats six or sevenalways. "

"That woman's a pig. I thought she looked like one, " said the Terrorwith conviction. "But if you don't want them all, may I have some formy mother? The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond ofpeaches. "

"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus. Take themall, " said the princess with quick generosity. 

"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps, " said the Terror. 

The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a largecabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate. 

The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil. But when shewas provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs. Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she askedthe Twins how they came by them. They assured her that they had beengiven to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain asecret. She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking itlikely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whomtook an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact thateither of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went oneating the peaches with a clear conscience. 

The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening theprincess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves tostrengthening her body. They adjured her again and again to thrust offthe yoke of the baroness. The last pregnant words of Erebus to herwere: "You just call her an old red pig, and see. "

Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than thatvery evening. The princess was dining with the Baroness VonAschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedinglyjealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talkwith the princess; and she had done it rudely. The princess, whowanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed. They had reacheddessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement inher appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said thatit must be the air of Muttle Deeping. The baroness uttered a loud andcontemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches. The princesslooked at her with an expression of great dislike. The baronessgobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a humanbeing, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when theprincess spoke. 

"I want some children to play with, " she said. 

Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulpeddown the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are nochildren in zis country, your Royal Highness. "

It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English inEngland. 

"But I see plenty of children when I drive, " said the princess. 

"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born, " said thebaroness in rasping tones. 

"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to playwith, " said the princess. 

"Moost? Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice. "Bud eed ees whadI know ees goot for you. "

"They're good for me, " said the princess firmly. "And you must findthem. "

The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected displayof firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richercrimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: "Bud eed eeseembossible whad your royal highness ask! Zere are no 'igh an'well-born children 'ere. Zey are een Loondon. "

"Well, you must send for some, " said the princess, who, having takenthe first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm. 

"Moost? Moost? I do nod know whad ees 'appen to you, your RoyalHighness. I say eed ees eembossible!" shouted the baroness; and shebanged on the table with her fist. 

"But surely her highness' request is a very natural one, Baroness; andthere must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to lookfor them. Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to havechildren of her own age to play with, " said Miss Lambart who had beenpitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helpingher to the companionship she needed. 

"Do nod indervere, Englanderin!" bellowed the baroness; and her crimsonwas enriched with streaks of purple. "I am in ze charge of 'er royalhighness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay. "

The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow. She was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of heryoung mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus. 

She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the ragingbaroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:

"Old--red--peeg. "

Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gaspinggrunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears. 

"But whad--but whad--" she said faintly. 

"Old--red--peeg, " said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effectof the words, and desirous of deepening it. 

"Bud whad ees eed zat 'appen?" muttered the bewildered baroness. 

"If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my fatherthat you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to doeverything what the English doctor bids, " said the princess in asinister tone. "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and theBaroness Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_. "

The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easilyhappen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke ofCassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortablewell-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it. 

"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness, " shesaid in a far gentler, apologetic voice. 

The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them. Isit not, Mees Lambart?"

"I shall be charmed to try, Highness, " said Miss Lambart readily. 

"Do nod indervere! I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped thebaroness. 

The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, butglowing with the joy of victory. At the door she paused to say:

"And I want them soon--at once. "

Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt thenight air, she went firmly out into the garden. The next morning atbreakfast she again demanded children to play with. 

Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, thebaroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invitedto come to play with the princess. She only stipulated that theyshould be high and well-born. 

"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be theTwins--Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl. They're high and well-bornenough. But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a littlegirl. They're independent young people. Besides, I'm not at all surethat they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess. It wouldhardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess tosuch--er--er ardent spirits. You might have her developing a spirit offreedom; and you wouldn't like that. "

"_Mein Gott_, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction. 

"Then there's Wiggins--Rupert Carrington. He's younger and quieter butactive enough. He'd soon teach her to run about. "

"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness. 

"Well-born? He's a _Carrington_, " said Doctor Arbuthnot with animpressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestryof the higher mathematician. 

The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily. When the princess, who hadhoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted himwith resignation. Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter. 

The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election ofWiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on thequalifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:

"Of course, he'll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; healways does. But you mustn't mind that. "

The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any ratebe a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness. 

The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer theirfair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend. Not only was hisreluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English younggentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit assincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a littlegirl far more insulting than they would have done. They did their bestto soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing outto him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, andimpressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noblecharitable action. 

"Yes; that's all very well, " said Wiggins gloomily. "But I've beenseeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now Ishall see less than ever. "

Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but thestiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and hescalped her with gratifying frequency. In this way it came about that, in the matter of play, the princess led a double life. She spent theearly part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from teatill the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society ofWiggins. She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wigginswas surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he couldtell. Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness andmuscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate thatsatisfied the exigent Terror. 

CHAPTER X

AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY

The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air. They took that change at but a short distance from their home, sincethe cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford. They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, inthe dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle ofLittle Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther. 

Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey fromthe knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds ofphilanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as theycould. She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer goingto enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had beenmade well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she waspresently weeping. She was ashamed; but she could not help it. Thecompassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would tryto come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content. 

None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterlythe fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror wasmagnificently inspired. 

"Look here: why shouldn't you come with us into camp?" he said eagerly. "A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange. Youreally do get open air camping out at the knoll. "

The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendidthought. Then it fell; and she said: "They'd never let me--never. "

"But you'd never ask them, " said the Terror. "You'd just slip away andcome with us. We've kept our knowing you so dark that they'd neverdream you were with us in the knoll caves. "

The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect. Shehad come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was theafternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with themwould be beyond the delight of dreams. But to her unadventured soulthe difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting. The Twins, however, were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they begansurmounting these. 

"The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there, "said the Terror thoughtfully. "You see, I've got to go down every dayfor milk and things, and they're sure to ask me if I've seen anythingof you. Of course, I can't lie about it; and then they'll not onlytake you away, but they'll probably turn us out of the caves. "

"That's the drawback, " said Erebus. 

The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment. A deep frownfurrowed the Terror's brow; and he said: "If only you weren't aprincess they wouldn't make half such a fuss hunting for you, and Imight never be asked anything about you. "

"I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course, " said theprincess. 

The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into aglorious smile, and he cried:

"By Jove! Of course you would! I never thought of that! Why, you'dbe some one else and not the princess at all! We shouldn't know wherethe princess was if we were asked. "

"Of course we shouldn't!" said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of thisignorance. 

"I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel, " said theprincess. 

The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: "Isuppose you have to have a title. But I think an English one would bebest here: Lady Rowington now. No one would ever ask us where LadyRowington is, because there isn't any Lady Rowington. "

"Oh, yes: Lady Rowington--I would wish an English title, " said theprincess readily. 

"If we could only think of some way of making them think that she'dbeen stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still, " said Erebus. 

"Gipsies don't steal children nowadays, " said the Terror; and he pausedconsidering. Then he added, "I tell you what though: Nihilistswould--at least they'd steal a princess. Are there any Nihilists inCassel-Nassau?"

"I never heard of any, " said the princess. "There are thousands ofSocialists. "

"Socialists will do, " said the Terror cheerfully. 

They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them tillthe second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to haveeverything in order. Then they discussed her needs. She could notbring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had notbeen stolen. She must share the wardrobe of Erebus. 

"But, no. I have money, " said the princess, thrusting her hand intoher pocket. "Will you not buy me clothes?"

She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, andhanded it to the Terror. He and Erebus examined it with warmadmiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse. 

"We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow. There's a pooljust under the knoll, " said the Terror. "How much shall we want, Erebus?"

"You'd better have two pounds and be on the safe side, " said Erebus. 

The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess tohis own. Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door ofthe peach-garden at nine o'clock, or thereabouts at night. He wouldwait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arousethe suspicion that she had gone of her own free will. He made severalsuggestions about the manner of her escape. 

When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set aboutpurchasing her outfit. They bought a short serge skirt, two linenshirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals, stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress. They carried the parcelshome on their bicycles. When she saw them on their arrival Mrs. Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment. 

That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device forthrowing the searchers off the scent. It was:

[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned "We are avenged. ADesparate Socialist"]

He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork. 

They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to DeepingKnoll. The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow sothat they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in TomCobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs. 

In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother hadencamped with them. This year she had not cared for the effort; andshe had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuousatmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful andpleasant. She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted toencamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll. Not only were they of approvedreadiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they wereas safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Seaisle. She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take asmany blankets as she suggested. In other years he had been disposed togrumble at the number she thought necessary. 

The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and theylunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite. Then they beganto arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as theybrought them up, in their proper caves. With a break of an hour for abath this occupied them till tea-time. After tea they bathed again andthen set about collecting fuel from the wood. They were too tired tospend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled intheir blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs. Theywere up betimes, bathing. 

This day was far less strenuous than the day before. They spent mostof it in the pool or on its bank. In the afternoon Wiggins came anddid not leave them till seven. Soon after eight o'clock the Terror setout to keep his tryst with the princess. He took with him theSocialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate openingfrom the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange toDeeping Knoll. Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden walltwo or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine. 

He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princesson the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it. He shookhands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she toldhim how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, goneto her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen, down the stairs and out of the house. He praised her skill; and shefound his praise very grateful. 

The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and theprincess found them daunting. They were full of strange noises, manyof them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapesseemed to move. The Terror was not long discovering her fear, andforthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever thepath was broad enough to allow it. When she quivered to some woodlandsound, he told her what it was and eased her mind. 

She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the activegames with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that roughground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat downand rested. The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilledto the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror. When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her intothe dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forestsof Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her. She wasalmost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and sawits top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright. 

[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came at last to the footof the knoll. ]

Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journeythe princess found it grateful indeed. They sat for a while in a rowbefore the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which theprincess had visited. But soon the yawns which she could not repressshowed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that sheshould go to bed. 

With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave toherself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in italone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into thecave of Erebus. After the journey and the excitement she was not longfalling into a dreamless sleep. 

When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk. Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath. Theprincess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) butunder the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went. Shecame out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and shecame to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in herlife enjoyed. 

The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; thecaves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of gamesof adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called toan active life. It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both ofwhich meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll ashard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as youcould yell. After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disportedthemselves in the pool till it was time to set about the seriousbusiness of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o'clock. 

The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helpingher, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the requiredspeed. Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a fullhalf-hour before he and Erebus left it. After dinner the princess wasso sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terrorinsisted that she should lie down for an hour. She protested that shedid not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of thisglorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep. 

They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon. But he could be admittedsafely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess hadbecome Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness toprofess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts. Also he would be veryuseful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them. 

At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of theexcitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess. So farits simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess werecontent with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and threecounties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles forsome one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists anda princess. It was the general belief that she had been chloroformedand abducted through her bedroom window. 

With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins theprobabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, theroutes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and thetowns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be. At theend of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes, very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight. 

Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully. 

Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:"You might have told me that she was coming here. "

"You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing, " saidErebus sternly. 

"So I should, if I'd known you knew her at all, " said Wiggins. 

"That's what nobody knows, " said Erebus triumphantly. 

"And look here: she's here incognita, " said the Terror. "She's takenthe traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she's not the princess atall. So if you're asked if the princess is here, you can truthfullysay she isn't. "

"Of course--I see. This is a go!" said Wiggins cheerfully; and hespurned the earth. 

"The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up whenwe're not expecting them and see her, " said the Terror. "So I'm goingto block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it willshout to us. But there's no need to do that yet; nobody will thinkabout us for a day or two. "

"No; of course they won't. I didn't, " said Wiggins. 

The active life persisted throughout that day and the days thatfollowed. It kept the princess always beside the Terror. Always hewas using his greater strength to help her lead it at the requiredspeed. Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princessbeen so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over roughground. On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardlymove; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercingyell that would have done credit to Erebus herself. 

All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother haddied when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in hispleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been trulyfond of no one. It is hardly too much to say that she was coming toadore the Terror. Even at their most violent and thrilling moments hiscare for her never relaxed. He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; heplastered her scratches. He saw to it that she came out of the poolthe moment that she looked chill. He picked out for her the tidbits attheir meals. He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden masswas quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmlyrefused to play the lady's-maid. Since the Terror was one of those whoenjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presentlyforgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure inhandling the silken strands. 

It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out herhair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severeshock. Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;indeed, she had never had the chance. But he had just finished histask and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of asudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck andkissed him. 

"Oh, you _are_ nice!" she said. 

The Terror's ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds. He flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if anyone should have seen it!

The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: "Don'tyou like for me to kiss you?"

The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said, faintly but gallantly: "Yes--oh, rather. "

"Then kiss me, " said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him. 

The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed hergingerly. 

"I _am_ fond of you, you know, " said the princess in a franklyproprietary tone. 

The Terror's scattered wits at last worked. He rose to his feet, andsaid quickly:

"Yes; let's be getting to the others. "

The princess rose obediently. 

But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if notfrequent, were, at any rate, not rare. The Terror at first enduredthem; then he came rather to like them. But he strictly enjoineddiscretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that shekissed him. The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one elsefor that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have nonatural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became awareof the practise. 

He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat outof a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:

"I suppose the Terror's in love with the princess, kissing her likethat. I think it's awfully silly. " And he spurned the earth. 

Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: "He never does!"

Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;and her eyes were flashing. He had seen her angry often enough, butnever so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed agrievous indiscretion. 

"Perhaps she kissed him, " he said quickly. 

"He'd never let her!" cried Erebus fiercely. 

"Perhaps they didn't, " said Wiggins readily. 

"You know they did!" cried Erebus yet more fiercely. 

"I may have made a mistake. It's quite easy to make a mistake aboutthat kind of thing, " said Wiggins. 

Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal fromhis reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl. He had seen theprincess with an arm round the Terror's neck, and they had kissed. 

With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of theleast resistance, sought the princess. She found her lying backdrowsily against a sunny bank. 

Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: "Princessor no princess, you shan't kiss the Terror!"

The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up. Her gray eyes darkenedand sparkled. She had never made a face in her life; it is notimprobable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she wasignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideousface at Erebus, and said:

"I shall!"

"If you do, I'll smack you!" cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth. 

For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but bya gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight inthe matter of a male. She met Erebus' blazing eyes squarely and saidconfidently:

"He won't let you. And if you do he'll smack you--much harder!"

Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her thenand there. But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rulesonly permit you to strike any one standing up. Erebus forgot them, stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with areally pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror. 

She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; andshe cried:

"I know all about your kissing the princess! I never heard of suchsilly babyishness!"

It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible tothe emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly ashe said:

"Well, what harm is there in it?"

"It's babyish! It's what mollycoddles do! It's girlish! It's--"

The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:

"You mind your own business! It isn't babyish at all! She's asked meto marry her; and when we're grown up I'm going to--so there!"

CHAPTER XI

AND THE UNREST CURE

Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted bywhat she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admissionhad raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she utteredno protest. She knew that protest would be vain, that against hisobstinacy she was helpless. She wrung her hands and turned aside intothe wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiestideals. 

Then followed a period of strain. She assumed an attitude of veryhaughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins, and let them coldly alone. From this attitude Wiggins was the chiefsufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed thestrenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily. Asoften as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined theerrant pair. It is to be feared that the princess found the kissessweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them. 

No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was onDeeping Knoll. There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that theTwins had had a hand in her disappearance. But no one had any reasonto suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted. DoctorArbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but theywere mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always verycareful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was atthe knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficienttruthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was. Thebursts of suspicion therefore were brief. 

But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down. Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir MauriceFalconer in the matter. When he first read in his _Morning Post_ ofthe disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau fromMuttle Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: "The Twinsagain!" and to that conviction his mind clung. 

It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of theSocialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpennypaper. He told himself that Socialists are an educated, evenover-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skulland cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rateaccurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialistwould spell desperate with two "a's" in an important document withoutbeing corrected by a confederate. On the other hand the drawing of theskull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which theimmature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while hecould readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two "a's" inany document. 

But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures ofhis relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not beenfor the international situation produced by the disappearance of theprincess. As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings, dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled topostpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organand organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudlydisavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England andGermany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at oneanother, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiringfrequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent someplausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets. Even thenSir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, wouldnot have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinetminister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twentythousand pounds' worth of consols. He disliked the lady so stronglythat after telling her how she could best compass her design, he feltthat the time had come to ease the international situation. 

With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping. His convictionthat the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princessbecame certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they wereencamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before thatdisappearance. But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was hishabit to do things in the pleasantest way possible. 

He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home woodand park to Muttle Deeping Grange. He gave his card to the butler andtold him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on termsof friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than threeminutes she came to him in the drawing-room. 

She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:"Is this business worrying you?"

"It is rather. You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was incharge of the princess, I am partly responsible. Besides, since I'mEnglish, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are beingtaken explained; and they want the same explanation over and overagain. Since the archduke came it has been very trying. I think thathe is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met. "

"I'm sorry to hear that they've been worrying you like this. If I'dknown, I'd have come down and stopped it earlier, " said Sir Maurice ina tone of lively self-reproach. 

"Stop it? Why, what can you do?" cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyeswide in her surprise. 

"Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missingprincess. But it's only a belief, mind. So don't be too hopeful. "

Miss Lambart's pretty face flushed with sudden hope:

"Oh, if you could!" she cried. 

"Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be roughgoing part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can, for the easier part; and we'll put my belief to the test, " said SirMaurice briskly. 

Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: "I shan't be able toget a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss. They're very unpleasantpeople, you know. Could we take the baroness with us? She'll _have_to be carried in something. "

"Is she very fat?"

"Very. "

"Then she'd never get to the place I have in mind, " said Sir Maurice. 

"Is it very far? Couldn't we walk to it?"

"It's about three miles, " said Sir Maurice. 

"Oh, that's nothing--at least not for me. But you?" said Miss Lambart, who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of aweakling. 

"I can manage it. Your companionship will stimulate my flagginglimbs, " said Sir Maurice. "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm andpleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years. "

Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across thepark toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above thesurface of the distant wood. Sir Maurice had once walked to it withthe Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a fewinquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straightcourse. It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such acharming companion through such a charming country. 

As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:"Where are we going to? Where do you think the princess is?"

"You've been here a month. Haven't you heard of the Dangerfieldtwins?" said Sir Maurice. 

"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them. But he said that they were notthe kind of children for her, though they were the only high andwell-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood. Heseemed to think that they would make her rebellious. "

"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly. 

"No. "

"I wonder, " said Sir Maurice skeptically. 

"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her--avery nice little boy, " said Miss Lambart. 

"Wiggins! The Twins' greatest friend! Well, I'll be shot!" cried SirMaurice; and he laughed. 

"But do you mean to say that you think that these children havesomething to do with the princess' disappearance? How old are they?"said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in hermind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by theSocialists and foreigners. 

"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen. But I do knowthat nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without theirhaving a hand in it. I have the honor to be their uncle, " said SirMaurice. 

"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them. She'sa timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life tillshe is delicate to fragility, " Miss Lambart protested. 

"If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade thehind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse, " said Sir Mauricein a tone of deep conviction. "But it would not necessarily be amatter of persuasion. "

"But what else could it be--children of thirteen or fourteen!" criedMiss Lambart. 

"I assure you that it might quite easily have been force, " said SirMaurice seriously. "My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll. It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most partcommunicating with one another. I can conceive of nothing more likelythan that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom. Theymight lure her to some distance from the Grange before they hadrecourse to force. "

"It sounds incredible--children, " said Miss Lambart. 

"Well, we shall see, " said Sir Maurice cheerfully. Then he added in amore doubtful tone; "If only we can take them by surprise, which won'tbe so easy as it sounds. "

Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase. But it was avery pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walkingwith him through this pleasant sunny land. When presently he turnedthe talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still. He was very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance athaving had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome _corvée_ ofacting as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to thedomineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome _corvée_indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been. Hesympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented bythat jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess. 

He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of thebaroness and the archduke during the last few days. The baroness hadtried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; andthe archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated athaving been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash toEngland, had been very rude indeed. She was much pleased by the warmthof Sir Maurice's indignation; but she protested against his making anyattempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, withoutharming himself. But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke, nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands. 

Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were inthe broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked pathled to the knoll. Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not takeit. He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have itguarded, if the princess were indeed with them. He led the way intothe wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for hercarefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her frockget torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of theknoll. 

They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, SirMaurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peeringearnestly ahead through the branches. Now and again a loud yell camefrom the knoll; and once a chorus of yells. Finding that her coldness(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on herinsensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;and the strenuous life was once more in full swing. 

Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said inan astonished whisper:

"That was awfully like the princess' voice. "

"I thought you said she was delicate, " said Sir Maurice. 

"So she was, " said Miss Lambart firmly. 

Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseenand unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of theknoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in itsface. They waited, watching it. 

It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginningto wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyedkin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hangingdown her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slippedinto a clump of bushes to the right of it. 

"The princess!" said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward, but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her. 

Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealingin a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave. 

"That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington, " said Sir Maurice. 

Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with anear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her armsround his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and cameto the ground. 

"Delicate to fragility, " muttered Sir Maurice. 

"Whatever has she been doing to herself?" said Miss Lambart faintly, gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes. 

"You don't know the Twins, " said Sir Maurice. 

On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at abreakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon thebattling pair. As far as the spectators could judge she and theprincess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelledtheir shrillest. Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from thecave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the achingwelkin rang. 

Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus andWiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled. The princessand the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled. The princesswriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an armround his neck. 

"It was splendid!" she cried, and kissed him. 

Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a verygood grace. 

"Well, I never!" said Miss Lambart. 

"These delicate children, " said Sir Maurice. "But it's certainly adelightful place for lovers. I'm so glad we've found it. "

He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she wasflushing. 

"Come along!" she said quickly. 

They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry. 

The quick-eyed Terror saw them first. He did not stir; but a curious, short, sharp cry came from his throat. It seemed to loose a spring inthe princess. She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly, frowning. The Terror rose more slowly. 

"Good afternoon, Highness. I've come to take you back to the Grange, "said Miss Lambart. 

"I'm not going, " said the princess firmly. 

"I'm afraid you must. Your father is there; and he wants you, " saidMiss Lambart. 

"No, " said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewisetoward the mouth of the cave. 

The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in hispockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator. 

"But if you don't come of yourself, we shall have to carry you, " saidMiss Lambart sternly. 

The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: "I don't seehow you can. You can't touch a princess you know. It would be_lèse-majesté_. She's told me all about it. "

The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of SirMaurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively. But he said: "Oh, come;this won't do, Terror, don't you know! Her highness will _have_ tocome. "

"I don't see how you're going to get her. The only person who coulduse force is the prince himself, and I don't think he could be got upto the knoll. He's too heavy. I've seen him. And if you did get himup, I don't really think he'd ever find her in these caves, " said theTerror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirelyimpersonal matter. 

"Anyhow, I'm not going, " said the princess with even greater firmness. 

Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity. 

"You see, there isn't any real reason why she shouldn't stay here, "said the Terror. "She came to England to improve her health; and she'simproving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange. Youcan _see_ how improved it is. She eats nearly as much as Erebus. "

"She has certainly changed, " said Miss Lambart in a tart tone whichshowed exactly how little she found it a change for the better. 

"The Twins have a transforming effect on the young, " said Sir Mauricein a tone of resignation. 

"I am much better, " said the princess. "I'm getting quite strong, andI can run ever so fast. "

She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air ofsatisfaction. 

"But it's nonsense!" said Miss Lambart. 

"But what can you _do_?" said the Terror gently. 

"I'll chance the _lèse-majesté_!" cried Miss Lambart; and she sprangswiftly forward. 

The princess bolted into the cave and up it. Miss Lambart followedswiftly. The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passageforked into three dimmer passages. Miss Lambart stopped short andtried to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of theretiring princess. It came from none of the three; the floor of theeaves was covered with sound-deadening sand. Miss Lambart walked backto the entrance of the cave. 

"She has escaped, " she said in a tone of resignation. 

"Well, I really don't see any reason for you to put yourself about forthe sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange. You have done morethan you were called on to do in finding her. You can leave thecatching of her to them. There's nothing to worry about: it's quiteclear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good, " said SirMaurice in a comforting tone. 

"Yes; there is that, " said Miss Lambart. 

"Let me introduce my nephew. Hyacinth Dangerfield--better, muchbetter, known as the Terror--to you, " Said Sir Maurice. 

The Terror shook hands with her, and said: "How do you do? I've beenwanting to know you: the princess--I mean Lady Rowington--likes youever so much. "

Miss Lambart was appeased. 

"Perhaps you could give us some tea? We want it badly, " said SirMaurice. 

"Yes, I can. We only drink milk and cocoa, of course. But we havesome tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday, " said theTerror. 

"I take it that she saw nothing of the princess, " said Sir Maurice. 

"Oh, no; she didn't see Lady Rowington. You must remember that she'sLady Rowington here, and not the princess at all, " said the Terror. 

"Oh? I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knewnothing about the princess, " said Sir Maurice quickly. 

"Yes; that was how, " said the Terror blandly. 

They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had theirkettle on the fire for some time. Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyedthe picnic greatly. On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed. Miss Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess;and she came out of hiding and took her tea with them. 

Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physicalchange in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she wasa browner, brighter, stronger child. Plainly, too, she was a moredetermined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved ofthat change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved bythe princess' kinsfolk and train. But she was somewhat distressed thatthe legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deepscratches. She had none of the experienced Twins' quickness to see anddodge thorns. She took Miss Lambart's sympathy lightly enough; indeedshe seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorablewarfare. 

Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no littledifficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she wasassured that this green wood life was the very thing the princessneeded, she was resolved to give him no help herself. She was pleasedto learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess'acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance andcultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in thepeach-garden. 

At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave oftheir entertainers and set out through the wood. They had not gone ahundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that thestrenuous life had again begun. 

Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to MuttleDeeping Grange with the news of their great discovery. But she foundthat Sir Maurice had formed other plans. They were both agreed that noconsideration was owing to the billowy archduke. His manners deprivedhim of any right to it. Accordingly, he took her to Little Deepingpost-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and helpwrote two long telegrams. The first was to the editor of the MorningPost, the second was to the prime minister. In both he set forth hisdiscovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in awood, and her reasons for running away to them. The postmistressdespatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and easethe international situation at once. Since both the editor and theprime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there wasno fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect. 

Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance ofMrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plungedEurope into Armageddon. Mrs. Dangerfield received the news withunruffled calm. She showed no surprise at all; she only said that shehad found it very strange that a princess should vanish at MuttleDeeping and the Twins have no hand in it. She perceived at once thatthe princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name ofLady Rowington. 

Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in nohaste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasantatmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange. It was past seven therefore whenthe Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archdukewith her news. 

She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which healways fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her withsufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of hernews. He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it. Itannoyed him greatly. He was taking considerable pleasure in standingon a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollernsire. His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laughconsumedly when it learned the truth of the matter. His second feelingwas that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirringthings about the Terror's manifesto and the stolen princess, would befuriously angry with him. 

He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which MissLambart was ignorant. Then when he grew cooler and paler hisoft-repeated phrase was: "Eet must be 'ushed!"

Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every carethat the affair should not be hushed up. She did not wish every blowto strike him at once. Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy hastehe rolled off to the dining-room. 

Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when thearchduke's equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running upthe stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner atonce, as she was. She took no heed of the command, dressed at herease, and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after hisstruggle with the hors-d'oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon hisfirst entrée. 

He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her aboutthe place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she wasencamped with. Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position asclearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible. Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercisedher authority and brought the princess back with her. 

Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and thatif she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, andthat it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern throughmiles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns weresacrosanct. 

The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself andsummon home his truant child. Miss Lambart objected that it would meanhewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit hispassage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allowit. Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go. Miss Lambart withinfinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must behewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there wasnot the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves. 

The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity. Then hestruck the table and cried:

"Count Zerbst shall do eet! To-morrow morning! You shall 'eem lead toze wood. 'E shall breeng 'er. "

Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with aGerman count would hardly be proper. 

"Brobare? What ees 'brobare'?" said the archduke. 

"_Convenable_, " said Miss Lambart. 

The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed tomilitate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at theearliest possible moment. Miss Lambart said that they must. In theend it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowingtonand that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to theentrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to theprincess her father's command to return to the Grange, and if sheshould refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car. 

Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he wouldnever set eyes, much less hands, on the princess. Count Zerbst'ssmooth pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce littlemustache, which in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashionaccentuated the extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his smalleyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely something about "sdradegy. " Helooked at Miss Lambart very unamiably. He felt that she was notimpressed by him as were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resentedit. He resolved to capture the princess at any cost. 

The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the _MorningPost_ the true story of his daughter's disappearance; and he was fumingstill when the car came from Rowington. It was a powerful car and aweight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had beencareful to demand a weight-carrier. With immense fuss the archdukedisposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled withbillowy curves. The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang tothe seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she mightthe more easily direct his course. 

They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised noobjection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ranthe path to the knoll. At the entrance of it the count stepped out ofthe car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the airof a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but hewas to bring her at once. 

In a last generous outburst he cried: "Pooll 'er by the ear! Budbreeng 'er. "

The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute andmartial air. Miss Lambart was not impressed by it. She thought thatin his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparentlytighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of placeunder the green wood trees. She remembered how lightly the Twins andthe princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his gettingnear any of them. Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods shehad been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether aweight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in whichto approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent. Its powerful, loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent withall the competence of a trumpet. 

Her doubt was well-grounded. The quick ears of Erebus were the firstto catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundredyards from the entrance of the path to the knoll. Ever since thedeparture of Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been makingready against invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings tothe secret caves. 

The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins tothe knoll. They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and welllighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge. But theentrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cavein the heart of the knoll. On this shaft the Twins had spent theirbest pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they hadreduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches highand eighteen inches broad. The opening into this passage could, naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it washard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave. It had been asomewhat difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through sonarrow a passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast. 

They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quitesure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a carwas coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmedtheir way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behindthem, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between thelarger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of thewall of the cave. Then she betook herself to a point of vantage amongthe bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch theentrance of the path and the coming of the invaders. 

The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking anexcellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen trainfrom Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais. MissLambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on theefforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll. She stepped out of the car andstrolled up and down on the pleasant turf. Presently she saw a figurecoming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when itcame nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice. 

When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as thediscoverer of his daughter's hiding-place. The archduke, mindful ofthe fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearanceto the world, received him ungraciously. Miss Lambart at once told SirMaurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectationthat anything would come of it. Sir Maurice agreed with her; and thefuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promisingsoldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau. Then Sir Maurice suggested thatthey should go to the knoll and help the count. Miss Lambart assentedreadily; and they set out at once. They skirted the barriers of thornsin the path and came to the knoll. It was quiet and seemed utterlydeserted. 

They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer. Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that theyshould find him and help him search them; they plunged into the cavesand began to hunt for him. They did not find the count; neither didthey find the princess nor the Twins. They shouted to him many timesas they traversed the caves; but they had no answer. 

This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before theyreached it. He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to theprincess. He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly tothe princess. No answer had come to his calling. He had kept comingout of the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll. At one of theseexits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl, dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told theprincess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of theknoll. With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plungedafter her into the wood. Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead amongthe bushes, and by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it insight. Once, indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good andall, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take upthe chase again. But he did not catch her. Indeed he did not lessenthe distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye. For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed andendurance. Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of thegoing, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance. It wastrue that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff, tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck. But he was not nearenough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintlyflushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all. All the while hewas buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course ofthe next hundred yards. 

Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and randown a field path toward the village of Little Deeping. By the timethe count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards. Tohis joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lostground quickly. When they reached the common, he was a bare fortyyards behind her. He was not surprised when in despair she left thepath and bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it. 

Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victoriousair, and knocked firmly on the door. Sarah opened it; and he demandedthe instant surrender of the princess. Sarah heard him with anexasperating air of blank bewilderment. He repeated his demand morefirmly and loudly. 

Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: "Please, mum: 'ere's a furringentleman asking for a princess. I expect as it's that there missingone. "

"Do nod mock! She 'ees 'ere!" cried the count fiercely. 

Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had beenarranging flowers, and came to the door. 

"The princess is not here, " she said gently. 

"But I haf zeen 'er! She haf now ad once coom! She 'ides!" cried thecount. 

At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnetby its strings. The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth. 

"I expect he means me. At least he's run after me all the way from theknoll here, " said Erebus in a clear quiet voice. 

The count's eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a suddenoutburst of fluent German. He did not think that any of his hearerscould understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; hehoped they could not; he could not help it if they did. 

Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully. She did notsuppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused thecount to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day. She wassorry for him. He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fallfoul of the Twins. 

Erebus caught her mother's thoughtful eye. At once she criedresentfully: "How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which madehim think I was the princess? He never asked me who I was. He justshouted once and ran after me. I was hurrying home to get some saladoil and get back to the knoll by lunch. "

"Yes, you would run all the way, " said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently. 

"Well, you'd have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!Just look at that mustache! It would frighten anybody!" cried Erebusin the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions. 

"Yes, I see, " said her mother with undiminished patience. 

She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayedhis fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda. Heexplained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistakeErebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not toappear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman. Erebus left themtogether; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to theknoll. They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been anafter-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it. Thatwould be the safe course. 

In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car, looking frequently at his watch. He had expected the count to returnwith the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour. Then hehad expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count andthe princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour. None of themreturned. The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highestof the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of thisenforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair. The count satdrinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he hadnot really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleasedthat he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure ofher acquaintance. Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank andtalked seriously about everything and certain other things, but chieflyabout themselves and each other. 

So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which laybetween him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughterremained uncaught. He chafed and fumed. His vexation grew even morekeen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that thethoughtless count had borne away the case. He appealed to thechauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington andignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none. 

At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car, bellowed: "Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!" and sank down again panting withthe effort. 

[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: "Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!"]

The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes. The archduke'sbellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry. Noanswer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll. 

"P'raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace, " said the chauffeur, somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way toaddress an archduke. 

"Yes, shout!" said the archduke quickly. 

The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: "Zerbst!Zerbst! Zerbst!"

No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll. 

In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury. 

Then with an air of inspiration he cried: "I shout--you shout--all advonce!"

"Every little 'elps, " said the chauffeur politely. 

With that they both rose to their full height in the car and togetherbellowed: "Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!"

No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll. 

On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:"He seems to be growing impatient. "

"He isn't calling us. And it's no use our going back without eitherthe princess or the count, " said Miss Lambart quickly. 

"Not the slightest, " said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if thatwere possible, to him and kissed her. 

To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess andtheir discussion of everything and certain other things ripened theirearlier friendship. They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even beendiscussing the matter of being married at an early date. 

"I don't think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all. Theydon't treat you decently, you know--not even for royalties, " he went on. 

"Oh, it wouldn't do not to go back--at any rate for to-night--though, of course, there's no point in my staying longer, since the princessisn't there, " said Miss Lambart. 

"You don't know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is haulingher to her circular sire, " said Sir Maurice. "The Twins can not besuccessful all the time. "

"We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly, " said Miss Lambart. 

"That wouldn't be the slightest use, " said Sir Maurice in a tone ofcomplete certainty. "If the princess is in the caves, she is not in anaccessible one. But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, oreven likelier, to be at the Grange. The Twins are quite intelligentenough to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to lookfor them. It's no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we'revery comfortable here. Why not stay just as we are?"

They stayed there. 

But the archduke's impatience was slowly rising to a fury as theminutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away. At tenminutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchersshould be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at oncehe despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay. 

The chauffeur made no haste about it. He had heard of the caves onDeeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them. Besides, hemade it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe inhis mouth since eleven o'clock; and he felt now off duty. He exploredhalf a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and SirMaurice and gave them the archduke's message. They joined him in hissearch for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to himloudly. 

The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near. The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be latefor it. There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far fromhis solar plexus. 

Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car andbellowed: "Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!"

Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to theknoll. 

Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont tosink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before agloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and thechauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to theknoll. 

They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of theprincess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst. The archduke cursed his equerrywheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into thecar and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him. 

Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and thecar went bumping down the turfed aisle. Once in the road thechauffeur, anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducalhospitality, let her rip. But half a mile down the road, they cameupon a slow-going, limping wayfarer. It was Count Zerbst. After along discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebushad slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him tofind his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle DeepingGrange. In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back hispatent leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he wasindeed footsore. He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh ofrelief. 

A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alonewas cheerful. The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors anddisappointments of the morning. Count Zerbst had acquired a deeprespect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; andhe had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter withSir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princessgood, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimsonbaroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage hercharitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivialsocial reasons. The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure torecover her lost charge. 

They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and thebaroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily. He made no secret ofthe fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took tothe woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but itmight take a week or ten days. The archduke cried shame upon astrategist of his ability that he should be baffled by children for aweek or ten days. Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not thechildren who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they wereusing. At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to theiraid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worththe risk of the ridicule it might bring upon them. 

Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she hadsomething more pleasant to give her mind to. But at last she said withsome impatience: "Why can't the princess stay where she is? Thatopen-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good. She iseating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as evershe took in her life before. "

"Eembossible! Shall I live in a cave?" cried the baroness. 

"It doesn't matter at all where you live. It is the princess we areconsidering, " said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to theend of her patience with the baroness. 

"Drue!" said the archduke quickly. 

"Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?"cried the baroness. 

"She isn't, " said Miss Lambart shortly. "In fact she's leading a farbetter and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here. Thedoctor's orders were never properly carried out. "

"Ees zat zo?" said the archduke, frowning at the baroness. 

"Eengleesh doctors! What zey know? Modern!" cried the baronessscornfully. 

In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness, upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders. The baronessdefended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now bedying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water thedoctors had ordered her. But the archduke stormed on. At last he hadsome one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show ofreason; and he vented it. 

Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart's counsel in the matter, theyreturned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter ofthe princess remaining at the knoll. They found many objections to it, and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to beencamped by themselves in the heart of a wood. 

Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were moreefficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:

"Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay atthe knoll myself. Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mindat ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in betterhealth than if she had stayed on here. "

"Bud 'ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and--" criedthe baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority. 

"Goot!" cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed atthe thought of escaping forthwith to his home. "Eet shall be zo! Andze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady whodo as ze doctors zay. "

So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collectingprovisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to thepath to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewestpossible number of garments she would need during her stay. 

Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in theRowington car to the knoll. Not far from the park gates she met SirMaurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her. At theentrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisionsand Miss Lambart's trunk from the car, and dismissed it. Then theywent to the knoll. 

It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it. But after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came inpeace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the cavesabove them and heard the news. She made haste to bear it to the Terrorand the princess who received it with joy. They had already beencooped up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge oncemore into the strenuous life. They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; andthe princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and herposition at the knoll secure. 

They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a fullshare of the strenuous life. She played her part in it manfully. EvenErebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced toadmit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone. 

But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught herengaged in the strenuous life. Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of thespeed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life onthe lower place. Both of them found the knoll a delightful place forlovers. 

CHAPTER XII

AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING

Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to theprincess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in thebeginning arranged. Thrown into such intimate relations with MissLambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly withher. It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was notonly engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to himin the course of the next few weeks. She grumbled about it to theTerror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in thematter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these olderheads. Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with MissLambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriagewere very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuouslife. She failed. Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of thatplain fact, and failed again. He declared that it was his first duty, as an uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were notquick about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him. Erebuscarried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; andthere was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for severaldays. The princess on the other hand found the engagement the mostnatural and satisfactory thing in the world. Her only complaint wasthat she and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the sameday as Miss Lambart. 

Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knolleven more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highestfelicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them. Sir Mauricearrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, thansunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset. But thepleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, sincethe archduke's tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess mustreturn to Germany. She was bitterly grieved at parting with theTerror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England thenext summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again. It seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive associationwith the Twins she would have her way about it. Nevertheless, in spiteof her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firmideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the mostunaffected fashion. 

Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that SirJames Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had foryears been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, atany rate for a while. It had always been their keen desire to fish theGrange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished allthe years Sir James had been wandering about the world. But Mr. Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused theirrequest. He believed that their presence would be good neither for thestream, the fish, nor the estate. 

But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom theyfelt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought thatthey might be able to compass their desire. Also they felt that thesooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hearunfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freelywith his neighbors. Therefore, with the help of their literarymainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leaveto fish the Grange water. Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about theletter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loathindeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for somany years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, heleft their honeyed missive unanswered. 

The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days. Then it wasslowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer theirletter at all; and they grew very angry indeed. Their anger was inclose proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter. The nameof Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carriedin their retentive minds. 

It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing himfor the affront he had put on them. Scorching, in his feverish, Central African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerfulmotor-car, he looked well beyond their reach. But Fortune favors theindustrious who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus camebicycling swiftly up to the cats' home, and cried:

"As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching oldGlazebrook's water!"

The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in hishands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market. 

"Are you sure?" he said calmly. "It's a long way from the ridge to thestream. "

"Not for my eyes!" said Erebus with some measure of impatience in hertone. "I'm quite sure that it was Sir James; and I'm quite sure thatit was old Glazebrook's meadow. Lend me your handkerchief. "

The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of aless pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in aperfect content. She had ridden home as fast as she could ride withher interesting news. 

"I wish I'd seen him too, " said the Terror thoughtfully. 

"It's quite enough for me to have seen him!" said Erebus with some heat. 

"It would be better if we'd both seen him, " said the Terror firmly. 

"It's such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice ofour letter!" said Erebus indignantly. 

"Yes, it is, " said the Terror. 

She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighborat considerable length. The Terror said nothing; he did not look to belistening to her. In truth he was considering what advantage might bedrawn from Sir James' transgression. 

At last he said: "The first thing to do is for both of us to catch himpoaching. "

Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the resultthat two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream, stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge ofthe wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the streambelow. 

"He'll soon be at the boundary fence, " said the Terror in a hushedvoice of quiet satisfaction. 

"If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!" said Erebuswho kept wriggling in a nervous impatience. 

"It's on the other side of it they're rising, " said the Terror in acalmly hopeful tone. 

Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain castafter vain cast. He was a big game hunter; he had given but littletime and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at whichhis water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basketstill empty of trout. He looked longingly at his neighbor's water; asthe Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely. Then thewatchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back. 

"He's not going to poach, after all!" cried Erebus in a tone of acutedisappointment. 

"Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all?Long Ridge is a good way off, " said the Terror looking across to it. 

"I did. I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook's meadow, " saidErebus firmly. 

"It's very disappointing, " said the Terror, frowning at the disobligingfisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: "Well, it can't behelped; we've got to go on watching him every evening till he does. Ifhe's poached once, he'll poach again. "

"Look!" said Erebus, gripping his arm. 

Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundaryfence. He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanningthe little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter'seyes. It is to be feared that he had been too long used to thehigh-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where biggame dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor'sfish. Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of nettinghis water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant. Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to givethem the chance of making a sportsmanlike end. 

But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and sinceGlazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, theMorgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fiftyyears. Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caughthim poaching. 

Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of humanbeings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeperin the wood. Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point ofview, regard poaching with abhorrence. But he would perceive that hismaster was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving themthat chance of making a sportsman-like end. At any rate the keeperwould hold his tongue. 

Sir James climbed through the gap. 

The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in atone of triumph: "Well, he's gone and done it now. "

"Yes, we've got him all right, " said the Terror in a tone of calmthankfulness. 

Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes SirJames caught three good fish. 

He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied afigure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away. 

"Look! There's old Glazebrook! He'll catch him! Won't it be fun?"she cried, wriggling in her joy. 

The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:"Yes: it would be fun. There'd be no end of a row. But it wouldn't beany use to us. I'm going to warn him. "

With that he sent a clear cry of "Cave!" ringing down the stream. 

In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land. 

The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftlyand noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road. 

As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: "We'llteach him not to answer our letters. "

He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road, took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, andlifted them over the gate. They reached home in time for dinner. 

During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending thetime since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they hadbeen for a bicycle ride. She did not press him to be more particularin his account of their doings, though from Erebus' air of subduedexcitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprisewas in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror'suncommon power of polite evasion. 

She was not at all surprised when, at nine o'clock, she went out intothe garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that theywere not within hearing. She told herself that she would be lucky ifshe got them to bed by ten. But she would have been surprised, indeed, had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, ina condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best. 

They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats' home quietly, mounted, rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house, and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cooland tidy. They timed their arrival with such nicety that as theydismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in thecontent inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himselfcomfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room. 

They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were notonly assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that itwould prevail. A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and hisfish with the usual strictness, _can not_ allow himself to beprosecuted for poaching. 

The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised atthe coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself. 

"Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on importantbusiness, " said the Terror with a truly businesslike air. 

Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permittedSir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return toCassel-Nassau. He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during thelast days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and hadformed a high opinion of their ability and their manners. Moreover, ofa very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfieldwhom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church. 

None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachfultone: "It's very late, Master Terror. You can't expect Sir James tosee people at this hour. "

"I know it's late; but the business is important--very important, " saidthe Terror firmly. 

Mawley hesitated. His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirousof obliging her children. Then he said:

"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll tell Sir James that you're here. "

"Thank you, " said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the greathall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed roundthem at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes. 

Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Masterand Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business. 

"Oh? They're the two children who wrote and asked me for leave tofish. But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous littledevils in the county, so I took no notice of their letter, " said SirJames. 

"Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tellyou so. But it's my belief that, having the name for it, a lot ofmischief is put down to them which they never do. And after allthey're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behavelike ordinary children, " said Mawley in the tone and manner of apersuasive diplomat. 

"Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish, " said Sir James. "There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple ofnoisy children won't make those easier to catch. But I may as welltell them so myself; so you may bring them here. "

Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room. Theyentered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure ofthemselves, and greeted Sir James politely. 

He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for hissteward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick, red-faced and robustious. He felt that these pleasant-looking younggentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation. There must be a mistake somewhere. 

The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by himthan they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather largearched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by thesmall clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those ofthe Terror, pleased them. He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet. 

"Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?"he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use. 

"We saw you in Glazebrook's meadow this afternoon--poaching, " said theTerror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone. 

Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense ofdiscomfort. He had not connected this visit with his transgression. 

"And you caught three fish, " said Erebus in a sterner voice. 

"Oh? Then it was one of you who called 'Cave!' from the wood?" saidSir James. 

"Yes; we didn't want old Glazebrook to catch you, " said the Terror. 

"Oh--er--thanks, " said Sir James in a tone of discomfort. 

"That wouldn't have been any use to us, " said the Terror. 

"Of use to you?" said Sir James. 

"Yes; if he'd caught you, there wouldn't be any reason why we shouldfish your water, " said the Terror. 

Sir James looked puzzled:

"But is there any reason now?" he said. 

"Yes. You see, you were poaching, " said the Terror in a very gentleexplanatory voice. 

"And you caught three fish, " said Erebus in something of the manner ofa chorus in an Athenian tragedy. 

Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonishedenlightenment:

"Well, I'm--hanged if it isn't blackmail!" he cried. 

"Blackmail?" said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation. "Why, that's what the Scotch reavers used to do! I never knew exactly whatit was. "

"And we're doing it. That is nice, " said Erebus, almost preeningherself. 

"But this is disgraceful! If you'd been village children--butgentlefolk!" cried Sir James with considerable heat. 

"Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed, " said theTerror in a tone of sweet reason. 

"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a kind of stealing, " saidErebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother's fur stole. 

"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a felony, " said Sir Jamesloftily. 

The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:"Poaching's worse. "

Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other withvery angry eyes. The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air. Theirappearance no longer pleased him. 

"It's your own fault entirely, " said the Terror coldly. "If you'd beencivil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't havebothered about you. But you didn't take any notice of it--"

"And it was beastly cheek, " said Erebus. 

"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing. So we kept an eyeon you and caught you poaching, " said the Terror. 

"Without any excuse for it. You've plenty of fishing of your own, "said Erebus severely. 

"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneakto the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust. 

The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't goingto do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish yourwater at all. We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking tothe police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll getprosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook. That's what we came to say. "

"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time theywrite to you, " said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph. 

On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously tofind words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite goodnight, and left the room. 

Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet andexpressed his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. Itwas rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he hadbeen worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children, rankled. He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart ofAfrica, by much more ferocious creatures. But after sleeping on thematter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrasedit, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfieldchildren were allowed to fish his water. 

CHAPTER XIII

AND AN APOLOGY

The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undatedtriumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able tofish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother'sfaint appetite. 

She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed, definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman ofspirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptinessof her life in the country. It was sapping her strength and energy; init she would grow old long before her time. The Twins had been used tofind her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;and the change troubled them. Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic forher; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of thetrout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her. But shemade no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning thesprings of her being. 

Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and soundof the Twins on the bank of the stream. To his pleased surprise heneither saw nor heard them. For the most part they fished in the earlymorning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appetiteat breakfast. But if they did fish in the evening, one or the otheracted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of hissight. They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assuredthem that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James. As theTerror phrased it:

"He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point inrubbing it in. "

Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them. Erebus wasplaying a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spareSir James' feelings. Besides, if she had had such a thought, it wasimpracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them. 

He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then itsnapped the gut and was gone. 

"Evidently you're no so good at fishing as blackmailing, " said SirJames in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted himstill rankled in his heart. 

"I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!" said Erebus with some heat;and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder. 

Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himselflooking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman. 

[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deepbrown eyes of a very pretty woman. ]

He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the sceneof the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove hiseyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him. 

"This is Sir James Morgan, mother, " said the Terror quickly. 

Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:"It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish. "

"Oh--ah--yes--n-n-not at all, " stammered Sir James, blushing faintly. 

He was unused to women and found her presence confusing. 

"Oh, but it was, " said Mrs. Dangerfield. "And I'm seeing that theydon't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that, thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none toomany fish in the stream. "

"It's very good of you. B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch, "said Sir James. 

He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wishedto remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence. Yet he did notwish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes. 

Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: "You would, if I let themcatch as many as they'd like to. "

"Are they as good fishermen as that?" said Sir James. 

"Well, they've been fishing ever since they could handle a rod. Theyare supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village everyspring. So I limit them to three fish a day, " said Mrs. Dangerfield;and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him. 

"It's very good of you, " said Sir James. He hesitated, shuffled hisfeet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs. Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: "I should like tostay and see how they do it. I might pick up a wrinkle or two. "

"Of course. Why, it's your stream, " she said. 

He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than tothe fishing. Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her airof fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness. Hisfirst discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenestdesire to remain in her presence. He not only stayed with them tillthe Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to ColetHouse with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of thedeepest reluctance. It can hardly be doubted that he had been smittenby an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we moregently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight. 

As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had notreceived the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth. If, instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them, he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunatecondition of meeting her often. It did not for a moment enter his mindthat if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily havefailed to fall in love with her at all. He cudgeled his brains to findsome way of meeting her again and meeting her often. He was to meether quite soon without any effort on his part. 

It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James hadbeen smitten by that emotional _coup de foudre_, for she was walkingwith a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks. 

After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, shesaid in a really cheerful tone:

"I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after theexciting life he had in Africa. "

"Rather!", said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice. 

She had not missed Sir James' sentence about the superiority of Erebus'blackmailing to her fishing. But she knew the Twins far too well toask them for an explanation of it before him. None the less it clungto her mind. 

At supper therefore she said: "What did Sir James mean by calling you ablackmailer, Erebus?"

The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have theexplanation; and he said suavely:

"Oh, it was about the fishing. "

"How--about the fishing?" said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly. 

"Well, he didn't want to give us leave. In fact he never answered ourletter asking for it, " said the Terror. 

"And of course we couldn't stand that; and we had to make him, " saidErebus sternly. 

"Make him? How did you make him?" said Mrs. Dangerfield. 

The Terror told her. 

Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprisedand annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning thather offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger. She felt chieflyannoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen toblackmail should be Sir James. 

"Then you did blackmail him, " she said in a tone of dismay. 

"He seemed to think that we were--like the Douglases used to, " said theTerror in an amiable tone. 

"But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong--very wrong, indeed, " said Mrs. Dangerfield. 

"Well, he _did_ seem to think so, " said the Terror. "But we thought hewas prejudiced; and we didn't take much notice of him. "

"And we couldn't possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum--itwas such a polite letter--and not take it out of him, " said Erebus. 

"And it hasn't done any harm, you know. We wanted those trout ever somuch more than he did, " said the Terror. 

Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened asshe pondered how to deal with the affair. She was still chieflyannoyed that Sir James should have been the victim. The Twins gazed ather with a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they wereburdened by a sense of wrong-doing. They were merely sorry that shewas annoyed. 

"Well, there's nothing for it: you'll have to apologize to SirJames--both of you, " she said at last. 

"Apologize to him! But he never answered our letter!" cried Erebus. 

The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it, opened it again and said in a soothing tone: "All right, Mum; we'llapologize. "

"I'll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it, " said Mrs. Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twinswould surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compelSir James to invite them to continue to fish. 

There had been some such intention in the Terror's mind, for his facefell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a realapology. But he said amiably: "All right; just as you like, Mum. "

Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under herbreath. After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached theTerror bitterly for not refusing firmly. 

The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-pathacross the fields, to the Grange. Surprise and extreme pleasure weremingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into thedrawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming. 

Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he wouldfind Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watchingher children fish. His night's rest had trebled his interest in herand his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her. The appeal tohim of her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever. 

At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a carelessenough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had beendead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put toit to make both ends meet. His compassion had been deeply stirred; shewas so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life. Hewished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to thatsmoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as hepossibly could. 

When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he couldscarcely believe his joyful ears. He had to put a constraint onhimself to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley'seyes, and not dash to it at full speed. He entered the room with hiseyes shining very brightly. 

Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily. She waslooking grave and ill at ease. 

"I've come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James, " she said asthey shook hands. "I find that these children have been blackmailingyou; and I've brought them to apologize. I--I'm exceedingly distressedabout it. "

"Oh, there's no need to be--no need at all. It was rather a joke, " SirJames protested quickly. 

"But blackmailing isn't a joke--though of course they didn't realizewhat a serious thing it is--"

"It was the Douglases doing it, " broke in the Terror in an explanatorytone. 

"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James, " saidMrs. Dangerfield severely. 

"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you. They had me in a cleft stick, "protested Sir James. 

"Well then you ought to have come straight to me, " said Mrs. Dangerfield. 

"Oh, but really--a little fishing--what is a little fishing? Icouldn't come bothering you about a thing like that, " protested SirJames. 

"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that, " said Mrs. Dangerfield. "Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going toapologize. "

She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:

"I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James. "

The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came verystiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air. 

"Oh, not at all--not at all--don't mention it. Besides, I owe you anapology for not answering your letter, " said Sir James in all thediscomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due. Then heheaved a sigh of relief and added: "Well, that's all right. And now Ihope you'll do all the fishing you want to. "

"Certainly not; I can't allow them to fish your water any more, " saidMrs. Dangerfield sternly. 

"Oh, but really, " said Sir James with a harried air. 

"No, " said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand. 

"But you'll have some tea--after that hot walk!" cried Sir James. 

"No, thank you, I must be getting home, " said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly. 

Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up. 

He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out. As Erebuspassed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him. She wasdesirous that he should not overrate her apology. 

CHAPTER XIV

AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS

Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his capfrom the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it. He came downthe steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into thepark, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in thegardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shootingabout the world. 

Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood forcompanionship. But she could not drive him from her side on his ownland. They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead. When Sir James andMrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight. Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way withher. 

When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James, the Terror said:

"Well, he was quite decent about it. It made him much moreuncomfortable than we were. I suppose it was because we're more usedto Mum. "

"What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?" said theunappeased Erebus. 

"Oh, well; he didn't mean to. It was an accident, you know, " said theTerror. 

His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closerintimacy with Sir James. 

"Accident! People shouldn't have accidents like that!" said Erebus ina tone of bitter scorn. 

When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir Jamesdiplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty, their grace and their intelligence. The diplomacy was not natural (hewas no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject hecould at the moment think of. He could not have found a quicker way toMrs. Dangerfield's approval. She had been disposed to dislike him forhaving been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart. Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it wasonly natural that she should invite him to tea. He accepted withalacrity. At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her. 

He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly tosee more of her. With a natural simplicity he used his skill inwoodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covertafforded by the common to watch Colet House. Thanks to this simpledevice he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere inthe first half-mile of her afternoon walk. 

They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than hehad ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, inhis enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right. He hadbeen making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but heperceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty tosettle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his dutyby his estate and his neighbors. 

He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed hisinstinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, thatto bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into theland of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamedof. But he had a stout heart, the hunter's pertinacity, and a burningresolve to succeed. 

He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would beuseful friends in the matter. But did they chance on him walking withtheir mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomilyaloof. He must abate their hostility. 

He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they werestarting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully, stopped and said: "I'm awfully sorry I gave you away the other day. But I never saw your mother till I'd done it. "

"Don't mention it, " said the Terror with cold graciousness. 

"So you ought to be, " said Erebus. 

"It's a pity you should lose your fishing. If I'd known how good youboth were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter, "said Sir James hypocritically. "But I was misinformed about you. "

"It's worse that mother should lose the trout. She does hate butcher'smeat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly, " saidErebus in a somewhat mollified tone. 

"It's like that, is it?" said Sir James quickly; and an expression ofdeep concern filled his face. 

"Yes, and she did eat those trout, " said Erebus plaintively. 

Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watchedhim with little hope in their faces. Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;and he said:

"Look here: you mayn't fish my water; but there's no reason why youshouldn't fish Glazebrook's. _I_ think that a man who nets his waterloses all rights. "

"Yes, he does, " said the Terror firmly. 

"Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safeenough; and I'll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined. Iwant to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook--he's not a sportsman. "

The Terror's face had brightened; but he said: "But how should weaccount for the fish we took home?"

"You can reckon them presents from me. They would be--practically--ifI'm going to pay the fines, " said Sir James. 

The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealingtenderly with exactitude which appealed to them. The Terror himselfcould not have been more tender with it. 

"That's a ripping idea!" said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval. 

The peace was thus concluded. 

Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to wintheir good will. He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes ofchocolate. If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon hewould carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them withsumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained themwith stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield evenmore than they thrilled them. But he won their hearts most by hissympathy with them in the matter of their mother's appetite, and byjoining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her. 

Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity oftaking the short cut to her heart by praising them. He laid himselfout to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make forhimself as large as possible a place in her life. She was not longdiscovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as avery pleasant shock. None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster, who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, hadattracted her so strongly as did Sir James. Even as her delicacy madethe strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorousrobustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy. 

But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are thekeener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues. Whenno less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir Jamesand Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tonguesbegan to wag. 

Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman ofLondon, one morning met the Twins in the village. They greeted herpolitely and made to escape. But she was in the mood, her mostconstant mood, to babble. She stopped them, and with a knowing air, and even more offensive smile, said:

"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells verysoon in Little Deeping, are we?"

Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked aboutthem; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness, said:

"Are we?"

"I should have thought you would have known all about it, " she saidwith a cackling little giggle. "Mind you tell me as soon as you'retold: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother. "

"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare intoher own. 

"Oh, nothing--nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by hissternness. "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother--Butthere--there's probably nothing in it--the Morgans always wererovers--one foot at sea and one on shore--I dare say he'll be in themiddle of Africa before the week is out. Good morning--good morning. "

With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, intothe grocer's shop. 

The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning. Then Erebussaid: "Silly old idiot!"

The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning. At last he broke out:"This won't do! We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum. And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much morecheerful for her. "

"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said? Itwould be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in apanic. 

The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought. 

"_Do_ you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus. 

"I dare say there is. Sir James is always about with Mum; and he'salways very civil to us--people aren't generally, " said the Terror. 

"Oh, but we must stop it! We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus. 

"Why must we?"

"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" criedErebus fiercely. 

"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum, " said the Terror. "Shedoes have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never goinganywhere. And, after all, we shouldn't mind Sir James when we got usedto him. "

"But we should! And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"

"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher--at all, " said the Terror. 

"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus. 

"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it, " said theTerror firmly. "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made uptheir minds. But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant bysaying that the Morgans were rovers. "

Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the crypticutterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop. Then she said in a tone of considerablerelief:

"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marryingMum. "

"Yes, that's what she did mean, " growled the Terror. "And she'll goabout telling everybody that he's only fooling. "

"But I don't think he is. I don't think he would, " said Erebus quickly. 

"No more do I, " said the Terror. 

They walked nearly fifty yards in silence. Then the Terror's facecleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:

"I know the thing to do! I'll go and ask him his intentions. That'swhat people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut--you know:that fellow from Rowington--was fooling about with Miss Hawley. "

"All right, we'll go and ask him, " said Erebus with equal cheerfulness. 

"No, no, you can't go. I must go alone, " said the Terror quickly. "It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do--people said soabout Miss Hawley--and I'm the only man of the family about. If UncleMaurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to doit. "

Erebus burst into bitter complaint. She alleged that the restrictionswhich were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be appliedto her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated ineverything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much moresuccessful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in thosewhich he performed alone. 

"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do, " said theTerror with very cold severity. "You know what Mrs. Morton said aboutMiss Hawley and the Cut--that the men of the family did it. "

"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus. 

"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it. So it's nouse you're making a fuss, " said the Terror in a tone of finality. 

Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that SirJames would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone, early in the afternoon. 

He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took himstraight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar overhis after-lunch coffee. Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he wasbeginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in thecountry, and poured him out a cup of coffee. 

The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simplematter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of hisusual diplomacy, said with firm directness: "I've come to ask yourintentions, sir. "

"My intentions?" said Sir James, not taking him. 

"Yes. You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying thatyou're only fooling, " said the Terror. 

"The deuce they are!" cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angrycomprehension. 

"Yes. So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions, " saidthe Terror firmly. 

"Of course--of course, " said Sir James. 

He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled. Then he added gravely: "My intentions are not only extremely seriousbut they're extremely immediate. I'd marry your mother to-morrow ifshe'd let me. "

"That's all right, " said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief. "Ofcourse I knew you were all right. Only, it was the thing to do, withthese silly old idiots talking. "

"Quite so--quite so, " said Sir James. 

There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquillydrinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had beensuffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and theTerror's serenity was soothing. 

Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: "Doyou think your mother would marry me?"

"I haven't the slightest idea; women are so funny, " said the Terrorwith a sage air. 

Sir James pulled at his mustache. Then the compulsion to have someone's opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy's, cameon him strongly; and he said:

"I wish I knew what to do. As it is we're very good friends; and if Iasked her to marry me, I might spoil that. "

The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: "Idon't think you would. Mum's very sensible, though she is so pretty. "

Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: "I'llrisk it!"

He rang the bell and ordered his car. He talked to the Terror jerkilyand somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed hisperturbation with considerable interest. It seemed to him very curiousin a hard-bitten hunter of big game. They started and in the two levelmiles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car's speeds nine times. 

As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an airof detachment: "I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed. "

He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing forher. 

"If I only could!" said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt. 

Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when heentered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with athrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come. 

At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out ofhim; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:

"Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!"

"Oh!" said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly. 

"Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!"

Mrs. Dangerfield's face was one flush; and she cried: "B-b-but it's outof the question. I--I'm old enough to be your mother!"

"Now how?--I'm three years and seven months older than you, " said SirJames, taken aback. 

"I shall be an old woman while you're still quite young!" she protested. 

"You won't ever be old! You're not the kind!" cried Sir James withsome heat; and then with sudden understanding: "If that's your onlyreason, why, that settles it!"

With that he picked her up and kissed her four times. 

When he set her down and held her at arm's length, gazing at her withdevouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: "Oh, James, you are--everso much more--impetuous--than I thought. You gave me--no time. "

"Thank goodness, I took the Terror's tip!" said Sir James. 

THE END