ly dared breathe
in their anxiety to remain hidden, six eager eyes were strained towards
a certain point in the orchard.

A tall, thin man, with a gray beard, was standing not many yards from
Jack, carefully examining him through an eye-glass. How the man got
there nobody knew; possibly he rose up from the earth or fell down from
the sky; more probably he walked out of Mrs. Howard's garden gate while
the children were hunting for their rope-ladder. At any rate he seemed
immensely surprised at Jack's presence in the orchard.

[Illustration: A TALL, THIN MAN WAS CAREFULLY EXAMINING JACK]

The gray-bearded man stood irresolute for some time, as if unable to
make up his mind exactly how to treat the intruder. At last he walked
away towards the house, shouting to someone in the garden to come to
his assistance. Presently in answer to his call a boy ran across the
field. Even in the distance the children recognized that it was Lewis
Brand, and they became if possible more interested in the proceedings
than they were before.

With considerable difficulty the gray-bearded man and Lewis hunted Jack
into a corner of the field, but just as they were about to catch the
goat he invariably sprang past them and escaped. Madge could hardly
keep from laughing aloud, because it was all so exactly what had
happened to her when she tried to drive Jack and Jill out of the garden.

The Wests wondered a good deal if Lewis had any idea that the goat
belonged to them, and whether he noticed them crouching in the
beech-tree. For a long time he seemed absolutely unconscious of their
presence, but suddenly, when the gray-bearded man's back was turned,
Lewis looked towards the Eagle's Nest and unmistakably smiled. In a
moment Madge had replied by waving her pocket-handkerchief frantically
among the branches.

Instead of replying in a friendly spirit to this signal, Lewis made the
most horrible grimace, put his finger to his lip, and turned away
resolutely.

"We must keep very quiet. He is afraid of being seen," whispered
Madge, putting her handkerchief away. But she could not help feeling
rather mortified that Lewis had not trusted to her discretion only to
wave when his companion was looking the other way. She was not in the
habit of doing stupid things, and Lewis might have known it.

After a great deal of running up and down, the gray-bearded man seemed
to consider it a hopeless task ever to catch Jack, so he changed his
pla