hing else, and when we
had done she said--

'I believe we might be detectives ourselves, but I should not like to
get anybody into trouble.'

'Not murderers or robbers?' Dicky asked.

'It wouldn't be murderers,' she said; 'but I _have_ noticed something
strange. Only I feel a little frightened. Let's ask Albert's uncle
first.'

Alice is a jolly sight too fond of asking grown-up people things. And we
all said it was tommyrot, and she was to tell us.

'Well, promise you won't do anything without me,' Alice said, and we
promised. Then she said--

'This is a dark secret, and any one who thinks it is better not to be
involved in a career of crime-discovery had better go away ere yet it be
too late.'

So Dora said she had had enough of tents, and she was going to look at
the shops. H. O. went with her because he had twopence to spend. They
thought it was only a game of Alice's but Oswald knew by the way she
spoke. He can nearly always tell. And when people are not telling the
truth Oswald generally knows by the way they look with their eyes.
Oswald is not proud of being able to do this. He knows it is through no
merit of his own that he is much cleverer than some people.

When they had gone, the rest of us got closer together and said--

'Now then.'

'Well,' Alice said, 'you know the house next door? The people have gone
to Scarborough. And the house is shut up. But last night _I saw a light
in the windows_.'

We asked her how and when, because her room is in the front, and she
couldn't possibly have seen. And then she said--

'I'll tell you if you boys will promise not ever to go fishing again
without me.'

So we had to promise.

Then she said--

'It was last night. I had forgotten to feed my rabbits and I woke up and
remembered it. And I was afraid I should find them dead in the morning,
like Oswald did.'

'It wasn't my fault,' Oswald said; 'there was something the matter with
the beasts. I fed them right enough.'

Alice said she didn't mean that, and she went on--

'I came down into the garden, and I saw a light in the house, and dark
figures moving about. I thought perhaps it was burglars, but Father
hadn't come home, and Eliza had gone to bed, so I couldn't do anything.
Only I thought perhaps I would tell the rest of you.'

'Why didn't you tell us this morning?' Noel asked. And Alice explained
that she did not want to get any one into trouble, even burglars. 'But
we might watch to-night,' she s