e, too," added Cicely meditatively.

Several small incidents seemed to confirm their surmises.

"He was so cross last night when Marjorie Butler sent her ball over the
hedge into the kitchen-garden, and went to fetch it," said Lindsay.

"Yes, he said she might have broken the glass in one of the frames; but
I don't suppose that was the real reason. She may have gone near him
just when he was putting something back."

"I heard Miss Russell asking him when the cucumbers would be ready, and
he answered in a great hurry: 'Not for ever so long yet'. And then he
said it was 'best not to be lifting the frames, and disturbing them more
than needful'."

"He was evidently afraid she was going to ask to see them."

The idea that silver cups, jewels, or spade-guineas might be lying
hidden under the glossy leaves of the cucumber plants began to obtain
possession of the girls' minds.

"If we could only manage to look while he's out of the way," suggested
Cicely eagerly.

Scott's close attention to his duties was most annoying. There really
appeared to be something in Cicely's theory of criminals haunting a
particular spot. He seemed never absent from the kitchen-garden, at any
rate when they were in its vicinity. They could hear him mowing the lawn
during lesson hours, but when recreation arrived, and they ran out
hopefully to reconnoitre, he would be weeding the strawberries, or
gathering peas within a few feet of his cherished hotbeds.

"There's only one way for it," said Lindsay. "We shall have to make a
plot. You must hide near the kitchen-garden, and I'll do something to
take him off; then, while he's gone, you must rush to the frames and
open them."

"That would be grand! What will you do?

"I shall have to think it over. I know! We'll wait till this evening,
when he's watering the cucumbers. I'll stand on the pipe of the hose;
that will stop the water, and he'll go to see what's the matter."

"Capital!" agreed Cicely.

It took a little scheming to arrange their plan satisfactorily. They
were much afraid lest Scott should do his watering earlier than usual,
and greatly relieved when they ran out after preparation to find him
only just beginning to uncoil his hose. He used a small tank on wheels,
which he generally left on the gravel walk outside the kitchen-garden,
bringing the indiarubber tubing through the hedge.

To the girls' extreme annoyance, Marjorie Butler spied them, and, coming
up, insisted upon readi