wasps were flying about; but at
dark, when they were all safely inside their hole, Scott burnt tobacco
to stupefy them, and then took the nest. He said two of the young
ladies had suddenly tumbled down the bank while he was at work, and
startled him terribly."

"So he and Mrs. Wilson weren't burying the treasure after all? They
didn't even try to steal it?"

"No, indeed! I feel sorry to think they should have been suspected for a
moment of such bad intentions. Mrs. Wilson may be rather gruff and blunt
in her manners, but she is a faithful old soul, and devoted to Mother
and me. I believe she would have starved rather than touch a penny that
belonged to us. And Scott too is absolutely honest. I assure you he
keeps nothing stowed away inside the cucumber frames! Naturally Mrs.
Wilson had often looked for the hiding-place, but it was all on my
behalf, and nobody rejoiced more heartily than she did when it was
found."

"We were on a completely wrong track," said Lindsay. "The only right
clue was the enigma. I'm glad we puzzled that out, though we didn't win
any prizes in the competition."

"And yet the enigma was no real use," put in Cicely. "We shouldn't have
gone through the bottom of the settle if we hadn't been playing
hide-and-seek. Isn't it queer that when we tried so hard to find the
secret room we couldn't, and then that we should come across it just by
accident?"

To Monica the affair seemed no accident, but, as the Rector had said, a
merciful arrangement of Providence. It enabled her to send for Sir
William Garrett, and the great specialist arrived in the course of the
next few days. After examining Mrs. Courtenay, he gave a more favourable
report on her case than her own physician had dared to hope.

"You have consulted me in the nick of time," was his verdict. "I trust
to be able to effect a complete cure. A winter in the south would work
wonders, and, if my treatment is thoroughly carried out, she should
return to Haversleigh in the spring with restored health."

It was an intense relief to be thus reassured. Monica felt as if a heavy
weight had been lifted from her mind. When the doctors had finally taken
their departure, she ran to share her good news with her friends at the
Manor.

"Of course," she explained, "Mother will require the greatest care, but
we can give her anything now that she needs. Sir William Garrett has
promised to send a nurse from London who understands his special
treatment, a