tance off and he ran towards her. She had lost her small
fur cap and her hair was loose, but to his relief she laughed.

"Oh," she said, "it really was ridiculous! But the plan will work. The
peat will run down!"

"That is so," Kit agreed, with a breathless chuckle. "I think it would
have run into the Hindbeck kitchen but for the wall."

"Then it was a wall that stopped us. It felt like a rock."

"Come and see," said Kit, holding out his hand to help her up.

"I think," she said, "I'd rather you looked for my hat."

He went off and it was two or three minutes before he found the hat among
the scattered peat. When he came back it was nearly dark, but Grace's
hair was no longer untidy, and the snow that had smeared her clothes had
gone. She walked with him to where the sledge rested on a pile of stones,
and looking through the gap, they saw a woman with a lantern cross a
narrow pasture between them and a house.

"What's t' matter?" the woman shouted and turned round. "Janet, gan on
and see what's brokken t' wa'."

Another figure came out of the gloom and Grace looked at Kit.

"I don't know who Janet is, but I do know Mrs. Creighton. She talks," she
said. "If you'll stop and explain matters, I'll go down the lonning. It
was a glorious adventure! Good-night!"

She stole away round the corner of the wall and Kit, who understood that
he was, so to speak, to cover her retreat, waited until the two women
came up. The one who carried the lantern was fat and homely; the other
was slender and looked like Janet Bell.

"It's Kit, an' stane-boat stucken in t' wa'!" said the first as she held
up the light "But where's team? An' hoo did you get here? There's nea
road this way."

Kit laughed. "It's lucky I left the horses at the top. This is a new plan
for bringing down the peat and it certainly works, although next time we
must try to stop a little sooner."

Mrs. Creighton asked him some questions before she understood what had
happened. He was in the light, because she had put the lantern on the
wall, and although he could not see her companion's face, he suspected
from Janet's quietness that she was studying him.

"Then you left the others on the moor," the girl remarked.

"I did," said Kit. "We sent the stone-boat off by itself, and it was
half-way down when I jumped on."

"Then none of the men came with you?"

"No," said Kit, who felt annoyed because he saw Janet suspected
something. "I went down to watch the sl