seeking devolved on
Elsie and Brian. Ida was soon found, Naylor was discovered up a tree
this time, but Guy seemed to have disappeared from off the face of the
earth.

"I wonder where the fellow has got to," said Brian.

"He may be somewhere in the yard," answered Elsie, "though he said that
it was out of bounds."

She ran off, followed by her cousin. There was no Guy behind the pump,
and she made straight for the tool-house. Lifting the latch, and
standing just inside the door, the light from her bull's-eye fell on the
old familiar objects. There was the grindstone, there the iron-bound
box, and there--

Suddenly the lamp dropped from Elsie's hand, and fell with a clatter on
the stones. With a shriek of terror she turned and rushed across the
yard.

"What's the matter, Elsie?" cried Brian, who had been exploring the
coal-hole, and now ran after his little cousin, catching her up as she
arrived at the glass door of the house.

"I saw it! I saw it!" panted the child, hardly knowing what she said.
"Let me go in!"

"Saw what?" asked the boy, endeavouring to soothe her. "What's the
matter? Are you frightened?"

"Yes," answered Elsie, catching hold of his arm, and looking over her
shoulder. "But--but don't tell any one, Bri. You won't, will you?"

"Well, tell me what you thought you saw. I won't make fun of you."

Elsie, however, would give no reply, but refused to play any more, and
went indoors. Brian went across to the tool-house, flashed his lamp up
and down, but could see nothing beyond what was to be found there any
time.

The half-hour being up, and Guy having disclosed his whereabouts, which
turned out to be a snug retreat between the back of a cucumber frame and
the wall, the party returned to the house, and spent the rest of the
evening till supper time playing indoor games.

"I don't think Elsie's quite well," said Mrs. Ormond later on, when
Master Naylor had departed, and the children had gone upstairs to bed.
Brian happened to be still in the room.

"I think she was frightened at something she imagined she saw in the
dark, when we were playing 'I spy,' aunt," he remarked.

"What a nervous child she's getting!" was the reply. "I can't understand
it. She used to be brave enough, and now she's as timid as a kitten."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IX.

A FRESH DISCOVERY.

Saturday had come round again, and as the children started for school
that morning not one of them guessed what an ev