d Jean. 'If we're not quick, we shall be late for tea.
Besides, we must get back to see Finny, and explain to her what we've
done. She might be cross if she found it out for herself.'

'Are you sure she won't be cross anyhow?' asked Barbara, as she staggered
along in her wake, carrying the dish that contained the plum-pudding and
the jam tart.

'Not if we explain exactly why we did it,' said Angela, gasping for
breath just behind her companions. She found the apple dumplings decidedly
weighty.

'Nobody,' said Jean, emphatically, 'could mind anything we chose to do
in a cause like this. Besides, there wasn't time to ask leave first, was
there? When people haven't had anything to eat for weeks, you can't keep
them waiting for food while you ask _leave_, can you?'

The shortest cut to the nine-acre field was across the lawn at the side of
the house, and then through the little gate in the shrubbery. It was much
less secluded than the longer way by which they had come, but detection
had to be risked, now that the time was so short. And even if they were
caught, as Jean pointed out in a whisper, it would be worth while to
suffer in such a noble cause; and as for the Hearnes, Finny would be
sure to send them on the things as soon as she heard how many weeks they
had been without food.

'But how can we suffer, if Finny isn't going to be cross about it?'
argued Barbara, becoming heated in the effort to keep the plum-pudding
from rolling into the jam tart and sticking to it. 'You said----'

Her sentence was never finished, for just as they left the shadow of the
house and were going to strike across the lawn, they heard the click
of the little gate opposite, and two figures emerged suddenly from the
shrubbery. There was still light enough to disclose that they were the
Canon and Barbara's disenchanted beast, the Doctor.

Even then, the triumvirate might have escaped detection by slipping round
to the back of the house again before they were seen; and Jean had the
presence of mind to sound a retreat in an agonised whisper, and turned
sharply round herself. But Barbara's effort to follow her example was too
much for the uncertain balance of the plum-pudding. It chose that very
moment to tumble into the jam tart, and the two slid together from the
dish and rolled to the feet of the astonished Canon.

'Upon my word,' exclaimed the old gentleman, starting violently,
'Elizabeth's establishment is full of surprises!'

The tri