sked him if he had seen her, and then the man said
that about eight o'clock a young lady had fallen over the cliffs, just
beyond the lighthouse, and had been picked up in a dying condition on the
rocks below. They had taken her along the beach until they got to the end
of the sea-wall, and then they had telephoned for an ambulance, and she
was taken to the hospital, for, of course, they didn't know her name or
where she lived then."

At that moment the three boys stumbled wearily into the hall rubbing
their eyes. "I say, we're off to bed," said Noel. "Martin says that Miss
Anstruther hasn't come back yet, but we can't do anything more, he
thinks, so as we can scarcely keep our eyes open, we are going to turn
in. Go and have some grub, Maud, and do likewise." And yawning their
heads off as they went, the three boys trailed up to bed, far too
sleepy to notice Maud's silence and horror-struck face.

"And Mr. Geoffrey has gone down to the hospital with Mr. Anstruther,"
continued Martin, as soon as the boys were out of earshot. "They were
obliged to walk, for there wasn't a cab about when Mr. Geoffrey came
back, for it was then close on eleven, and they wouldn't wait until I
went to get one from the livery stables up the road. And now, Miss Maud,
you must come and have something to eat. You had no dinner."

But Maud turned away with a little shake of the head. The mere idea of
food was distasteful to her. She asked where her mother was. Martin was
about to answer that his mistress was upstairs with Miss Joan and Miss
Nancy, when the sound of footsteps coming at racing speed up the drive
was heard, and the next moment Geoffrey dashed breathless and hatless
into the house. "I say," he panted out as soon as he could speak, "it's
all right. It wasn't Miss Anstruther who fell over the cliffs. It was
somebody else altogether. A visitor at one of the hotels, they say. Poor
thing, she has been terribly injured, and won't live till the morning, I
believe. But the point is that it wasn't Miss Anstruther. Where are
Hilary and poor Miss Carson? I must tell them at once."

He broke away from Maud, who would have detained him with a dozen eager
questions, and burst into the drawing-room, shouting out his good news as
he went.

Hilary, who was still crying--she had cried steadily for over two
hours--received his news with a scream of joy, but though Eleanor heard
it much more quietly, no one looking at her could fail to see how deeply