e
what funds could be mustered for the purpose. These did not amount to
very much. Lindsay and Rhoda were penniless, Monica also had left her
purse at the Vicarage. Irene and Meta mustered a shilling between them.
Ralph had a sixpence, while the contents of Leonard's pockets proved to
be exactly those of the traditional schoolboy's, twopence-halfpenny and
an old knife.

"I'm afraid it won't go very far," said Ralph. "We shall have to ask
them to give us tick. Come along! We'll try the inn, and see what they
will do for us."

"We must tell them who we are," added Meta, "and say Father will pay
afterwards."

The sight of seven such _bona fide_ travellers appeared to occasion much
surprise, to both the good woman at the bar and the few villagers who,
with pipes and glasses, were sitting discussing local politics and the
chances of the harvest. Tea at the unwonted hour of eight seemed an
unprecedented request, and the landlady was not content until she had
satisfied her curiosity as to who her guests were, where they came from,
and what they wanted at Whitcombe at that time in the evening.

"What we want is some tea," said Ralph, after a brief explanation of
their adventure, "and anything in the shape of a conveyance that can
take us back to Linforth to-night. We've only one and
eightpence-halfpenny amongst us, but my father will pay the rest when we
get home. If you like, I'll leave you my watch and chain."

"You've no need to do that!" laughed the landlady. "I'm sure I can trust
you. Come into the little parlour, and have your teas there. The young
ladies look ready to drop, and this is no fit place for them to sit down
in. Those mists be nasty things up Pendle Tor. It's a mercy as you've
got down at all. There was a gentleman from London caught there last
autumn, and he wandered round and round in a circle for two days before
it cleared and they found him. He was nigh dead, too, with the cold and
the damp. My son Albert shall put the horse in the trap and drive you
home. I dare say you'll manage to cram in somehow."

No tea was ever so acceptable as the large, steaming cups which they
drank in the stuffy little parlour, and no carriage and pair could have
been more welcome than the old market cart that came round to the door
afterwards. It was rather a problem how to pack themselves and the
driver into it, but Lindsay sat on Meta's knee, and Rhoda squeezed
herself between her two brothers on the front seat. The ho