r. I'm
sure she will be quite reasonable about it."

Eustace opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.

"Lie back quite comfortably, and don't worry," said Jane Hubbard. "I'm
going to my room to get a book to read you to sleep. I shan't be five
minutes. And forget about your mother. I'll look after her."

Eustace closed his eyes. After all, this girl had fought lions, tigers,
pumas, cannibals, and alligators in her time with a good deal of
success. There might be a sporting chance of victory for her when she
moved a step up in the animal kingdom and tackled his mother. He was not
unduly optimistic, for he thought she was going out of her class; but he
felt faintly hopeful. He allowed himself to drift into pleasant
meditation.

There was a scrambling sound outside the door. The handle turned.

"Hullo! Back already?" said Eustace, opening his eyes.

The next moment he opened them wider. His mouth gaped slowly like a hole
in a sliding cliff. Mrs. Horace Hignett was standing at his bedside.

Sec. 3

In the moment which elapsed before either of the two could calm their
agitated brains to speech, Eustace became aware, as never before, of the
truth of that well-known line--"Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones
far away." There was certainly little hope of peace with loved ones in
his bedroom. Dully, he realised that in a few minutes Jane Hubbard
would be returning with her book, but his imagination refused to
envisage the scene which would then occur.

"Eustace!"

Mrs. Hignett gasped, hand on heart.

"Eustace!" For the first time Mrs. Hignett seemed to become aware that
it was a changed face that confronted hers. "Good gracious! How stout
you've grown!"

"It's mumps."

"Mumps!"

"Yes, I've got mumps."

Mrs. Hignett's mind was too fully occupied with other matters to allow
her to dwell on this subject.

"Eustace, there are men in the house!"

This fact was just what Eustace had been wondering how to break to her.

"I know," he said uneasily.

"You know!" Mrs. Hignett stared. "Did you hear them?"

"Hear them?" said Eustace, puzzled.

"The drawing-room window was left open, and there are two burglars in
the hall!"

"Oh, I say, no! That's rather rotten!" said Eustace.

"I saw them and heard them! I--oh!" Mrs. Hignett's sentence trailed off
into a suppressed shriek, as the door opened and Jane Hubbard came in.

Jane Hubbard was a girl who by nature and training was well adapted to
bear sho