hinted the
police might be anxious to make an investigation at Cragsnook. Always
affable, especially to officials, the last answer given simply was:

"Very well, as early as you please."

That was but a few minutes ago, and now a car was rumbling up the drive.

"You girls may run off and show Mary the grounds," suggested the
hostess. "I have to attend to some business with these men."

Mary still wore the white dress, of some open wrought material, like
drawn work, and not usually made up into frocks. It was soft and
clinging, and her velvet ribbon wound around the waist fell in an
artistic sash clear to the end of her full skirt. Her braids were
unbound and finished in their own natural curls, this tendency to
really curl having been hailed by the girls as worthy of an entirely
different mode of hair dressing.

Ginghams for mornings, as customary, gave the other girls quite a
different appearance, and in a stolen moment, while dressing, Cleo
managed to show Mary a scout uniform. The simple khaki outfit seemed
to Mary the most remarkable "rig" she had ever seen, even books had not
given her such an idea of a practical girl's uniform.

The polite dismissal of Mrs. Dunbar's followed just as two very
business-like men stepped into the oaken hall.

"Do you remember about your basket?" Madaline asked. She was wildly
wondering if the live thing had crawled away.

"Oh, yes, indeed. I am going to it directly. Come on, girls, till I
show you my pet."

Everyone thought of snakes, varied with a pretty baby bunnie, or
perhaps a bird's nest of helpless fledglings, but Mary's pet was none
of these.

Out on the small window nook, just off the breakfast room, she found
the basket quite as she had left it. The girls watched her eagerly as
she first drew out a soft white covering. It was now becoming apparent
that this self-same Mary possessed an entirely undeveloped sense of
humor, for as she watched the eager faces crowding about her she was
surely, deliberately delaying the process of displaying her "pet."

"Guess!" she asked naively.

"A snake!" from Grace.

"A-a--new bird!" from Madaline

"A baby bunnie!" from Cleo.

"I thought you would all say a doll," she replied, "for I had one old
doll I never could quite give up. But I didn't bring her, and none of
you have guessed. I am afraid you are going to be dreadfully
disappointed."

Without further ado she drew from the basket nothing more than a small