ou do?' said a voice, and Tricksy looked
up to see the Sheriff, who was smiling at her with outstretched hand.

Tricksy looked solemnly up in his face.

'Well, aren't you going to shake hands, Tricksy?' said the Sheriff.

'No,' said Tricksy deliberately.

The Sheriff's expression altered.

'And why not, Miss Tricksy, if I might inquire?' he said.

Tricksy met his grim smile with a solemn stare of disapproval.

'Because you let a great friend of ours be put in prison when he didn't
deserve it,' she replied. 'That was why I sent back the big box of
chocolates that you sent me by post. Mother did not know that it had
come. We can't be friends until you've owned yourself in the wrong.
We've all joined a Compact to get our friend back again and to show
that it wasn't he who did it. I've got it with me,' and Tricksy began
to fumble in her pocket.

The smile was beginning to twitch at the corners of the Sheriff's lips
again when he was addressed by one of the officers. The little scene
had passed unobserved by all save Marjorie, as the captain suggested
that, the weather being fine and time at their disposal, the _Heroic_
should take their visitors on a tour round Inchkerra.

'Certainly, certainly,' said the Sheriff at haphazard, and Tricksy
slipped away.

'In the meanwhile I think lunch is ready,' said Captain Redwood, and
each of the officers took a lady downstairs, Tricksy falling to the
share of the youngest.

'Dear me, this isn't half so exciting as I expected,' said Marjorie to
herself. 'What stupid grown-up things they are talking about; I am
sure they wouldn't be interested if I were to tell them about the
things we do, riding bare-backed ponies, and about the Craft and the
Den, and finding the smugglers; and I have nothing else to talk to them
about. They haven't taken much notice of Tricksy and me after all;
they weren't a bit surprised when they saw us; we're pretty, but not
any prettier than lots of other girls, and it isn't enough to make a
fuss about.'

She wondered what Tricksy was finding to say to Lieutenant Jones, the
young officer by whose side she was sitting, and who appeared to be
greatly entertained by the little girl.

After lunch they returned on deck to see a boat bring the boys on
board; then the screw was set in motion and the water began to churn
itself into foam round the vessel's sides.

'It isn't bad,' said Marjorie to herself as the _Heroic_ ploughed her
way past the we