in much the same
way as a detective might have done who had made a sudden successful
capture of youthful burglars red-handed in the act of committing a
felony.

"May I ask," he observed, with withering politeness, "by whose
invitation you have entered my grounds, and by whose permission you have
been destroying my trees and uprooting my ferns? I was under the
impression that this was my private property, but you evidently consider
you are entitled not only to annex my possessions, but to exercise a
cheap generosity by presenting them to others. I shall be obliged if you
will kindly offer me some explanation."

Cecil was so absolutely transfixed with amazement that for a moment he
remained with his mouth wide open, staring at the newcomer as though the
latter had dropped from the skies. The Rokebys were not well-trained
children; they did not possess either the moral courage or the good
manners which Charlie Chester, madcap though he might be, would
undoubtedly have displayed in the same situation, and instead of meeting
the matter bravely and making the best apology he could, Cecil flung
down the ferns, and without a word of excuse took to his heels and ran
back up the wood at the top of his speed, closely followed by Winnie,
Bertie, and Arnold.

Belle for an instant wavered, but recognizing the old gentleman as the
same whose acquaintance she had cultivated on the beach with such
unsatisfactory results, she decided that discretion was the better part
of valour, and turning away, vanished through the trees like a little
white shadow.

Isobel, the only one of the six who stood her ground, was left to bear
the whole brunt of the matter alone. She looked at the broken branches
of mountain ash and the damaged ferns which the Rokebys had dropped in
the panic of their flight, and which surrounded her like so much guilty
evidence of the deed, then screwing up her courage, she faced the
outraged owner in a kind of desperation.

"I'm _very_ sorry," she began, twisting and untwisting her thin little
hands, and colouring up to the roots of her hair with the effort she was
making. "We oughtn't to have come. But, indeed, we didn't know it was
your ground; we thought it was only just part of the Scar. And I don't
believe the others would have taken the ferns if they'd thought for a
moment, because they would have known maidenhair doesn't grow wild out
of doors like bracken or hart's-tongue."

"But it _was_ wild," said the col