of that! He will be in the yard for the next hour,"
answered Madge. "Of course we don't mind passing him, because we are
allowed to play up here; only he doesn't like us making the hay as
untidy as it is now. But I'm sure you can't get down without being
seen."

"You won't all run away and leave me caught like a rat in a trap, will
you?" begged Lewis, almost whimpering with fright.

"Is it likely?" replied Madge in her finest tone of scorn. "Stay
quiet," she added with contemptuous kindness, "and we will get you out
of it somehow."

It is in moments of peril that a true leader shines most. While Lewis
lay cowering behind the straw, and the twins waited expectantly for
some suggestion, Madge calmly looked round the loft and originated a
plan. "I know how you can get away," she said, after some moments of
earnest thought. "There is that little door at the back of the loft,
it does not look out into the yard but out upon the hay-ricks, in fact
that is where they put the hay up into the loft. If you get down that
side Barton can't possibly see you while he is milking the cows in the
yard."

"Oh, that's a capital idea! I'll go at once!" cried Lewis. "Not that
I am really afraid of your old man or anybody," he added, with a return
of his customary boastful manner. "Only I don't want to get you all
into trouble."

"You have become very brave all of a sudden," said Madge, who by this
time heartily despised him for his mixture of bragging and cowardice.
"It's fortunate you are not afraid of anything," she added rather
maliciously, "because you see there is no ladder outside this door, so
you will have to drop down to the ground as best you can."

"It isn't very far, I suppose?" asked Lewis anxiously. But when the
loft door was at last opened--rather a difficult job to accomplish
quietly, as the hinges were rusty and would creak,--he declared that he
could not possibly get down without a ladder.

"But you must!" exclaimed Madge impatiently. "It's your only chance of
getting away without being seen."

"I shall be hurt! I know I shall!" moaned Lewis, as he drew back with
a shiver from the open door.

"It isn't so very far," said Betty encouragingly. "Not higher than a
room, I think."

Still Lewis hung back. "Oh, dear Madge," he whined, "couldn't you
manage to carry the ladder round from the yard to the door at the back?"

"Well, if you can't possibly get down without it I will try!" said
Madge desper