e. But with that arrangement she will be able to make notes
all day."

Hugh hastened to display a miniature note-book, also made to hang
suspended from the waist.

"She will be armed at all points, you see," he said, "and the minute she
sees men like columns walking, as some one says, she can jot them
down."

"But what are all the other things?" asked Kate, pointing to several
still unaccounted-for parcels and hampers standing about the verandah
just where the driver had set them down.

"Oh, by George, yes," said Hugh. "You must look after those things, K,
or they won't keep. It's to-morrow's dinner."

"To-morrow's fiddlestick!" said Kate unbelievingly.

"'Tis, I assure you," said Hugh; "I'm giving a grand picnic to-morrow at
the Falls to celebrate my safe return. Thought of it in bed last night,
telephoned the X.Y.Z. Company to pack a bit of lunch that would keep a
day and to meet the train with it, and there you are," he waved his hand
at the hampers.

"A bit of lunch!" said Kate sarcastically. "Are you sure there is enough
there to take the edge off our appetites?"

"Don't get anxious," said Hugh, "there's a little more to follow in the
morning--little things that don't keep well, you know. We can easily
pick them up at the station as we pass."

"Little things like----?" said Kate.

"Oh, mustard," said Hugh--"I remembered how you dislike stale mustard.
And butter--you can't leave butter shut up, you know--and other little
things."

"Half a dozen of everything, I suppose," Kate said, attacking the
hampers. "H'm, champagne."

"Well, you've got to drink the health of those shares."

"Poultry."

"It will keep, won't it? They assured me it was only cooked at 2 o'clock
to-day."

"Oh, it will _keep_."

"Peaches--pineapples--French confectionery."

"Well, my dear girl, you will all want a square feed when you get to the
bottom of those Falls."

"And who are we all, pray?" inquired Kate.

"Well," said Hugh, "there are the ducky little girls, that's two. I sent
them a wire each this morning and had their acceptances before the
X.Y.Z. got to work."

"That was smart," said Kate.

"Yes, I rather pride myself on my executive abilities when I've once got
going," said Hugh. "Next I wired Edith and told her to stay away and
Gowan, too. Told her you'd chaperone. I don't want the gloomy brewer's
soul going by me like a stork at my own picnic. Told her to send along
the kids though--all five of them."

"T