entful day it was going
to prove. Meeting in the road outside the Pines on their return, they
passed together through the gate, and along the drive.

[Illustration]

"Hooray!" exclaimed Guy, swinging his bundle of books round and round at
the end of the strap. "No more work till Monday! I thought I should have
been kept in for Caesar to-day, but I just happened to get an easy bit
with words I knew."

"It's a wonder you ever know anything," remarked Ida, who was rather
fond of reproving other people. "You are always drawing, or cutting up
pen-holders with your knife, or doing something of that kind, when you
ought to be preparing your work. Elsie's getting just the same. She sat
staring at the wall all yesterday evening, and the consequence was that
this morning she got both lessons returned. She's getting such a little
funk, too, that she won't go up to bed alone, but waits on the stairs
till I come."

"Oh, what a cram!" exclaimed Elsie, rather feebly.

"It's not a cram," returned her sister. "You know it's perfectly true,
and you look under the bed too, expecting to find a hidden robber, I
suppose."

In a playful manner Brian caught hold of Elsie by the back of the neck,
much in the same way as he might have done a small boy at the Grammar
School, but with perhaps a lighter touch.

"Come, what's the matter with you?" he asked. "You never used to be
afraid of the dark; you were as bold as brass. What have you done?
Murdered somebody?"

"No," answered Elsie, laughing. "I'm only--only a bit silly."

She looked up with a smile as she spoke. No one ever doubted Brian's
pluck, and the fact that he did not think her a coward encouraged Elsie
to be brave. Brian knew that something really had frightened the child
on the previous Thursday evening, but he had not mentioned the matter to
any one except Mrs. Ormond, for which Elsie was in her heart devoutly
thankful to him, as she knew what a "roasting" she would receive from
Ida and Guy if once they got hold of the story.

But though Brian forbore to tell what he knew, or even to question her
further, yet the incident had been constantly in his mind. He wondered
greatly what could have been the cause of his cousin's alarm, and why
she should refuse to explain this when hitherto he had always been in
her confidence. On Friday, without saying anything to anybody, Brian
made a careful examination of the tool-house, hoping to find some clue
to the mystery; but his search