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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Terrible Twins
+
+Author: Edgar Jepson
+
+Illustrator: Hanson Booth
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2006 [eBook #19043]
+[Most recently updated: May 26, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Al Haines
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+The Terrible Twins
+
+by Edgar Jepson
+
+Author of
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+HANSON BOOTH
+
+INDIANAPOLIS
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS
+
+COPYRIGHT 1913
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+
+Contents
+
+ CHAPTER I. AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+ CHAPTER II. GUARDIAN ANGELS
+ CHAPTER III. AND THE CATS' HOME
+ CHAPTER IV. AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+ CHAPTER V. AND THE SACRED BIRD
+ CHAPTER VI. AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+ CHAPTER VII. AND PRINGLE'S POND
+ CHAPTER VIII. AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+ CHAPTER IX. AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+ CHAPTER X. AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+ CHAPTER XI. AND THE UNREST CURE
+ CHAPTER XII. AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+ CHAPTER XIII. AND AN APOLOGY
+ CHAPTER XIV. AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+[Illustration: “Cats for the cats’ home!” said Sir Maurice Falconer.]
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+ “Cats for the cats’ home!” said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+ “This is different,” she said.
+ We are avenged.
+ She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.
+ The Archduke bellowed, “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!”
+ Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER I
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+
+
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really
+discussing the question who had hit Stubb’s bull-terrier with the
+greatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit. It was indeed a
+nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw stones
+quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size and weight
+for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the
+bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated,
+quadruped that his master’s interests did not really demand his
+presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him. Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth
+Wolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the
+same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud
+vehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said
+firmly, “I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of
+times.”
+
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty,
+which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+
+“Perhaps we did,” said Anastasia amiably. They went swiftly down the
+road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike.
+No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed,
+dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and
+piquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting a
+serenity. But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir Maurice
+Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty names. He had named
+Violet “Erebus” because, he said,
+
+She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry
+spheres:
+
+
+and he had forthwith named Hyacinth the “Terror” because, he said, the
+ill-fated Sir John Franklin had made the Terror the eternal companion
+of Erebus.
+
+Erebus and the Terror they became. Even their mother never called them
+by their proper pretty names save in moments of the severest
+displeasure.
+
+“They’re good apples,” said the Terror presently, as he threw away the
+core of his third and took two more from the bag.
+
+“They are,” said Erebus in a grateful tone—“worth all the trouble we
+had with that dog.”
+
+“We’d have cleared him out of the orchard in half the time, if we’d had
+our catapults and bullets. It was hard luck being made to promise never
+to use catapults again,” said the Terror sadly.
+
+“All that fuss about a little lead from the silly old belfry gutter!”
+said Erebus bitterly. could easily have put slates in the place of the
+sheet of lead we took,” said the Terror with equal bitterness.
+
+“Why can’t they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not to have
+catapults,” said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich autumn
+scene through which they moved.
+
+The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of
+their catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons to
+enrich the simple diet which was all their mother’s slender means
+allowed them; on fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the
+game laws. Keepers and farmers had made no secret of their suspicions
+that this was the case: but the careful Twins never afforded them the
+pleasure of adducing evidence in support of those suspicions. Then a
+heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had removed a sheet of
+lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry gutter, to
+cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public
+opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of
+them; and their mother, yielding to the
+
+“As if belfries wanted lead gutters. They could easily have put slates
+in the place of the sheet of lead we took,” said the Terror with equal
+bitterness.
+
+“Why can’t they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not to have
+catapults,” said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich autumn
+scene through which they moved.
+
+The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of
+their catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons to
+enrich the simple diet which was all their mother’s slender means
+allowed them; on fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the
+game laws. Keepers and farmers had made no secret of their suspicions
+that this was the case: but the careful Twins never afforded them the
+pleasure of adducing evidence in support of those suspicions. Then a
+heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had removed a sheet of
+lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry gutter, to
+cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public
+opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of
+them; and their mother, yielding to the demand, had forbidden them to
+use them any longer.
+
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the
+action of Little Deeping. It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since
+their exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation
+they loved. In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves
+to become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and
+since they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness
+of eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition. There
+may, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow the
+Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter or
+harder than Erebus.
+
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted
+it gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over
+it (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate
+than to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrow
+path through the gorse and bracken. They had gone some fifty yards,
+when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: “Bang-g-g!
+Bang-g-g!”
+
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the
+gorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on
+his richly freckled face. He stood over the fallen Twins; and his smile
+of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+
+“Ha! Ha! Shot through the heads!” he cried. “Their bones will bleach in
+the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red Bear
+the terror of the Cherokees!”
+
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife. Then he
+took from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an
+inconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant
+imagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone of
+lively satisfaction: “You’re only one game ahead.”
+
+“I thought we were three,” said Erebus, rising.
+
+“They’re down in the book,” said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blue
+eyes were very stern.
+
+“Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of
+you again,” said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins. He ambushed and scalped
+them; they ambushed and scalped him. Seeing that they had already
+passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their
+part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it. But Wiggins was a
+favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
+
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly
+on across the common. Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth. Now
+and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly spring
+into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
+
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, “The game
+isn’t really fair; you’re two to one.”
+
+“You keep very level,” said the Terror politely.
+
+“Yes; it’s my superior astuteness,” said Wiggins sedately.
+
+“Goodness! What words you use!” said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
+
+“It’s being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation,” Wiggins explained.
+
+“Yes, everybody says that. But what is a European reputation?” said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+
+“Everybody in Europe knows him,” said Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth.
+
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert. It seemed to them
+a name both affected and ostentatious. Besides, crop it as you might,
+his hair _would_ assume the appearance of a mop.
+
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to
+see two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+
+“It’s Mum,” said Erebus.
+
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of
+booty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+
+“And—and—it’s the Cruncher with her!” cried Erebus in a tone in which
+disgust outrang surprise.
+
+“Of all the sickening things! The Cruncher!” cried the Terror, echoing
+her disgust. “What’s he come down again for?”
+
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the
+approaching pair.
+
+The gentleman whom they called the “Cruncher,” and who from their tones
+of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher
+on account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent
+teeth.
+
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of
+superiority: “_I_ know why he’s come down.”
+
+“Why?” said the Terror quickly.
+
+“He’s come down to marry your mother,” said Wiggins.
+
+“What?” cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+
+“How dare you say a silly thing like that?” cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+“_I_ didn’t say it,” protested Wiggins. “Mrs. Blenkinsop said it.”
+
+“That silly old gossip!” cried Erebus.
+
+“And Mrs. Morton said it, too,” said Wiggins. “They came to tea
+yesterday and talked about it. I was there: there was a plum cake—one
+of those rich ones from Springer’s at Rowington. And they said it would
+be such a good thing for both of you because he’s so awfully rich: the
+Terror would go to Eton; and you’d go to a good school and get a proper
+bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all—”
+
+“I wouldn’t go! I should hate it!” cried Erebus.
+
+“Yes; they said you wouldn’t like wholesome discipline,” said the
+faithful reporter. “And they didn’t seem to think your mother would
+like it either—marrying the Cruncher.”
+
+“Like it? She wouldn’t dream of it—a bounder like that!” said the
+Terror.
+
+“I don’t know—I don’t know—if she thought it would be good for us—she’d
+do anything for us—you know she would!” cried Erebus, wringing her
+hands in anxious fear.
+
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out
+in dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was
+flushed.
+
+“This must be stopped,” he said through his set teeth.
+
+“But how?” said Erebus.
+
+“We’ll find a way. It’s war!” said the Terror darkly.
+
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: “I’m on your side,” he said. “I’m a
+trusty ally. He called me Freckles.”
+
+“Come on,” said the Terror. “We’d better face him.”
+
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy. As they drew near, the
+Terror’s face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty
+voice: “How’s Terebus and the Error; and how’s Freckles?” he cried, and
+laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins
+shook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain
+Baster.
+
+“I’m always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins,” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with her delightful smile. “I know you keep them out of
+mischief.”
+
+“It’s generally all over before I come,” said Wiggins somewhat glumly;
+and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+
+“I’ve not had that kiss yet, Terebus. I’m going to have it this time
+I’m here,” said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich
+laugh.
+
+“Are you?” said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at him
+with the eyes of hate.
+
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, “You’ll come to tea with us,
+Wiggins?”
+
+“Thank you very much,” said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth. As he
+alighted on it once more, he added. “Tea at other people’s houses is so
+much nicer than at home. Don’t you think so, Terror?”
+
+“I always eat more—somehow,” said the Terror with a grave smile.
+
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side
+of Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein,
+enlivened the walk with his delightful humor. The gallant officer was
+the very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed,
+glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose,
+neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny. The son of the
+famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which great
+wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in a
+crack regiment. The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative,
+was not enjoying it. To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, “I’m
+a very pally man.” It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for any
+one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship,
+for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, he
+enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of
+personal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused
+the face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed his
+freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield’s white brow in a distressful
+frown. The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;
+his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which he
+had been so suddenly confronted. More than once Erebus countered a
+witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce the
+rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer. Once this unbidden but
+humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied her
+even this relief. She could only treat him with a steely civility. The
+steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he
+was too new for it. The old, worn, faded, carefully polished furniture,
+for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century,
+seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness. It seemed to demand
+the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels. Mrs. Dangerfield
+liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere. When her eyes
+rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feeling that only by
+some marvelous intervention of providence had he escaped calling in a
+bright plaid satin tie.
+
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not
+unconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster. Indeed, he took some
+credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabby
+furniture. In a high good humor he went on shining and shining all
+through tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a while
+dimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the inn
+and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shining
+again. Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into the
+garden.
+
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+
+“He’s a pig—and a beast! We can’t let Mum marry him! We _must_ stop
+it!” cried Erebus.
+
+“It’s all very well to say ‘must.’ But you know what Mum is: if she
+thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will,” said the Terror
+gloomily.
+
+“And she never consults us—never!” cried Erebus.
+
+“Only when she’s a bit doubtful,” said the Terror.
+
+“Then she’s not doubtful now. She hasn’t said a word to us about it,”
+said Erebus.
+
+“That’s what looks so bad. It looks as if she’d made up her mind
+already; and if she has, it’s no use talking to her,” said the Terror
+yet more gloomily.
+
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly
+backward and forward from one to the other. He preserved a decorous
+sympathetic silence.
+
+“No, it’s no good talking to Mum,” said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+
+“Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves,” said the Terror.
+
+“But you can’t squash the Cruncher!” cried Erebus.
+
+“Why not? We’ve squashed other people, haven’t we?” said the Terror
+sharply.
+
+“Never any one so thick-skinned as him,” said Erebus.
+
+The Terror frowned deeply again: “We can always try,” he said coldly.
+“And look here: I’ve been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don’t
+like stepfathers, there’s no reason why stepfathers should like
+stepchildren.”
+
+“The Cruncher likes us, though it’s no fault of ours,” said Erebus.
+
+“That’s just it; he doesn’t really know us. If he saw the kind of
+stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off,” said the Terror.
+
+“But he can’t even see we hate him,” objected Erebus.
+
+“No, and if he did, he wouldn’t mind, he’d think it a joke. My idea
+isn’t to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if we
+give our minds to it,” said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning. Then a dazzling smile
+illumined her charming face; and she cried: “Oh, yes! Let’s give him
+socks! Let’s begin at once!”
+
+“Yes: I’ll help! I’m a trusty ally!” cried Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth joyfully at the thought.
+
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their
+brains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+
+Presently Wiggins said: “You might make him an apple-pie bed. They’re
+very annoying when you’re sleepy.”
+
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+
+“What’s an apple-pie bed?” said Erebus scornfully.
+
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+
+“It’s a beginning, anyhow,” said the Terror in an approving tone; and
+he added with the air of a philosopher: “Little things, and big things,
+they all count.”
+
+“I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can’t,” said Erebus
+bitterly.
+
+“By Jove! That cigarette-case! Come on!” cried the Terror; and he led
+the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+
+“Where are we going?” said Erebus.
+
+“We’re going to make him that apple-pie bed. There’s nothing like
+making a beginning. We shall think of heaps of other things. If we
+don’t worry about them, they’ll occur to us. They always do,” said the
+Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping,
+where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the
+front door which stood open. At the sound of their footsteps in her
+hall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar
+to learn what they wanted.
+
+“Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway,” said the Terror politely. “We’ve come
+for Captain Baster’s cigarette-case. He’s left it somewhere in his
+room.”
+
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway
+rubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her
+eyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a
+frown; and she said: “Bother the thing! It’s sure to be stuck somewhere
+out of sight. And the bar full, too.”
+
+“Don’t you trouble; I’ll get it. I know the bedroom,” said the Terror
+with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+
+“Oh, thank you, sir,” said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror. In
+less than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the
+bed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless
+unprotected bedroom. Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on the
+mantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress. The Terror locked Captain
+Baster’s portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside the
+shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+
+“That’ll teach him not to be so careless.”
+
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster’s inviting dress-boots with water. Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+
+“Don’t stand giggling there! Why don’t you do something?” said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: “A clothes-brush in bed is
+very annoying when you stick your foot against it.”
+
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him. He
+took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against the
+bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the other
+of Captain Baster’s feet was sure to find it. The Terror did not care
+which foot was successful.
+
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from
+the dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the
+inn.
+
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat
+vengeful triumph: “There! you see things _do_ occur to us.” Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: “But it was Wiggins who set us
+going.”
+
+“I’m an ally; and he called me Freckles,” said Wiggins vengefully; and
+once more he spurned the earth.
+
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most
+thickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too
+sheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+
+“Mind the mud, Wiggins,” said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness in
+the matter.
+
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: “It wouldn’t be
+a nice place to fall down in, would it?”
+
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister
+little laugh, and said: “Wiggins, you’re a treasure!”
+
+“What is it? What is it now?” said Erebus quickly.
+
+“A little job of my own. It wouldn’t do for you and Wiggins to have a
+hand in it, he’ll swear so,” said the Terror.
+
+“Who’ll swear?” said Erebus.
+
+“The Cruncher. And you’re a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear such
+language,” said the Terror.
+
+“Rubbish!” said Erebus sharply. “Tell us what it is.”
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+“It’s a beastly shame! I ought to help—I always do,” cried Erebus in a
+bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+“All right,” said Erebus. “Who wants to help in a stupid thing like
+that? But all the same you’ll go and make a silly mull of it without
+me—you always do.”
+
+“You jolly well wait and see,” said the Terror with calm confidence.
+
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached
+the house.
+
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster
+still talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story
+illustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea
+and one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies. He laid great stress on
+the prices he had paid for them.
+
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her
+offspring with an air of doubtful surprise.
+
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+“Thank you, Error—thank you. But why didn’t you bring it to me,
+Terebus? Then you’d have earned that kiss I’m going to give you.”
+
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+“Oh, I helped to get it.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER II
+GUARDIAN ANGELS
+
+
+At seven o’clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn. Of
+his own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp. He left
+the house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining
+before Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she
+was four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two
+years younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts. But he
+chiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to which
+his ardent soul aspired to climb. She had but to return to the polite
+world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened
+circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a
+host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.
+Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing a
+mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield’s brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to
+select to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a
+gown with which she had never been truly pleased. The troubled air did
+not leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins,
+for they, too, were gloomy. They were pleased, indeed, with the
+beginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in the
+end. Where their interests were concerned their mother was of a
+firmness indeed hard to move.
+
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that
+disturbed them, especially at the Terror. Erebus in a pretty light
+frock of her mother’s days of prosperity, which had been cut down and
+fitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one’s eyes; but the sleeves
+of the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings,
+bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother’s eye.
+
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his
+failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be
+unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield’s eye that evening by his
+distinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English
+gentleman. After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the harried
+staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must appear
+before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was wearing. It
+was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not really feel a
+conquering hero after eight o’clock at night.
+
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water. It was a
+good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water
+its lining had not soaked up. The gallant officer said a good deal
+about its retentive properties to the mute boot.
+
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had
+himself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom. A flash of
+intuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he begged
+her, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one—any one!!—enter his
+bedroom. Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied, or
+beds made without human intervention. He begged her, not perhaps
+unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the
+better for his directness.
+
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
+As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees
+which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a
+clothes-line tight. It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge
+on the other side of the lane. There it was fastened to a stout stake;
+and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails. At its
+tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the
+mud-patch. It was at its tightest.
+
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain
+Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace. As he moved through the
+bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night—that very
+night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield’s devotion with his avowal of an
+answering passion. He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror; and
+like a conqueror he whistled. Then he found the clothes-line, suddenly,
+pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick, but
+sprawling. He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the
+welkin shuddered as it rang.
+
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield
+waited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a
+troubled frown. Her woman’s instinct assured her that Captain Baster
+would propose that night; and she dreaded it. Two or three times she
+rose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark,
+troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they did
+not please her as they usually did. Those eyes were one of the sources
+from which had sprung Captain Baster’s attraction to her.
+
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful
+things for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing
+them. She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and
+husband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart and
+sterling qualities. She assured herself that she had the power to draw
+them out; once he was her husband, she would change him. But still she
+was ill at ease. Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful of
+her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide.
+
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was
+unfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come next
+morning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a
+relief that it frightened her. She sat down and wrote out a telegram to
+her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, and
+bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed at
+one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning. She did not wish to
+take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible.
+She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard
+for her interests. She tried not to hope that he would find marriage
+with Captain Baster incompatible with them.
+
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness. He thought
+for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability.
+Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet. In the middle of it he
+missed his shaving-brush. He hunted for it furiously; he could have
+sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau. He did swear, but
+not to any definite fact. There was nothing for it: he must expose his
+tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.
+
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not
+vanished from it. In one short night it had lost its pristine
+freshness. This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast
+gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber’s shop with the air of
+one who has abandoned hope. Later he came out of it with his roving
+black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was
+smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches—red patches. At the door
+the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted him
+with the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brush
+under the mattress of his bed. He looked round the village of Little
+Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to
+the expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new
+lock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness
+of his soul. Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged
+chin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of
+his future stepson. As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was
+awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was
+awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile
+asked him if he had slept well.
+
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain’s veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: “Look here, my lad, I don’t want any more of your
+tricks! You play another on me, and I’ll give you the soundest licking
+you ever had in your life!”
+
+The serenity on the Terror’s face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: “Whatever’s the matter?” he said in a tone of amazement.
+“I thought you loved a joke. You said you did—yesterday—at tea.”
+
+“You try it on again!” said Captain Baster.
+
+“Now, whatever has put your back up?” said the Terror in a tone of even
+greater amazement. “Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the
+water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?”
+
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat’s swiftness:
+Captain Baster’s boot missed him by a hair’s breadth.
+
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the
+bedroom of Erebus.
+
+“Waxy?” he cried joyously. “He’s black in the face! I told him he said
+he loved a joke.”
+
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat. She was bitterly aggrieved
+that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster’s downfall the night
+before. The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his
+glorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin.
+
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: “Now, you
+quite understand. You’ll stick to them like a leech. You won’t give him
+any chance of talking to Mum alone. It’s most important.”
+
+“I understand. But what’s that? Anybody could do it,” she said in a
+tone of extreme bitterness. “It’s you that’s getting all the real fun.”
+
+“But you’ll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you’re
+careful,” said the Terror.
+
+“Of course, I shall. But what’s that? I tell you what it is: I’m going
+to have my proper share of the real fun. The first chance I get, I’m
+going to stone him—so there!” said Erebus fiercely.
+
+“All right. But it doesn’t seem quite the thing for a girl to do,” said
+the Terror in a judicial tone.
+
+“Rats!” said Erebus.
+
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave
+the purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat
+painfully, time to fade. When she did come to him, he was further
+annoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent air
+announced her intention of accompanying them. Mrs. Dangerfield was
+surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation.
+Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to propose
+before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to
+hide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her
+charm: she was the mother of the Terror. He found, too, that his
+instinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded. She
+was a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed to
+fascinate her. Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew once
+more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was no
+getting rid of her. She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhat
+pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries. How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances? He felt that his humor was
+growing strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus’ own fault (he could swear
+it) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal
+brambles. Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her
+ankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear. The moment he offered,
+furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of a limp.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one’s children like that—well. Certainly she was losing her charm; she
+was the mother of Erebus also.
+
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of
+wife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near
+Colet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and
+distinction came through the garden gate to meet them.
+
+With a cry of “Uncle Maurice!” the crippled Erebus dashed to meet him
+with the light bounds of an antelope. Captain Baster could hardly
+believe his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by
+repute. It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his
+friend. With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks.
+
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never
+dreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune. But why had he not
+learned this splendid fact before? Why had he been kept in the dark? He
+did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy making
+confidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her that
+he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anything
+about herself.
+
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up
+for lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated
+his right to the name of Pallybaster. His friendliness was
+overwhelming. Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to
+dine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, to
+shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimental
+steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the
+Mediterranean.
+
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew. He could not
+bear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice. The Twins
+were intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their
+uncle’s attention. They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their
+stepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned a
+respectful silence in the presence of their elders.
+
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make
+it. Captain Baster’s love was of his life a thing apart, but his social
+aspirations were the chief fact of his existence. Besides, there was no
+haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his avowal with a
+passionate eagerness; any time would do for that. But he must seize the
+fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by the bond of the
+warmest friendship.
+
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to
+the interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world,
+humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to. He tried to make opportunities
+for him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he
+did not seem to see them. In truth Captain Baster was a little
+disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:
+polite—yes; indeed, politeness could go no further. But he lacked
+warmth. After all he had not pinned him down to the definite acceptance
+of a single invitation.
+
+When, at seven o’clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a
+bosom friend. He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the
+air of one who has paused from exhausting toil: “I feel
+sticky—positively sticky,” he said. “Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy
+friends! I thought we should never get rid of him. I thought he’d stuck
+himself to us for the rest of our natural lives.”
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+“That’s what he’s up to.”
+
+“He’s not a friend of mine!” cried Erebus hotly.
+
+“We call him the Cruncher—because of his teeth,” said the Terror.
+
+“Then beware, Erebus—beware! You are young and possibly savory,” said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+“You children had better go and get ready for dinner,” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+The Twins went to the door. On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+“It’s Mum he wants to crunch up—not me.”
+
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+
+“Oho! I see—heroism. That was what you wanted to consult me about.”
+Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: “It
+won’t do, Anne—it won’t do at all. I am convinced of it.”
+
+“Do you think so?” said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+
+“Think? I’m sure of it,” said Sir Maurice in a tone of complete
+conviction.
+
+“But the children; he could do so much for the children,” pleaded Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+“He could, but he wouldn’t. That kind of bounder never does any one any
+good but himself. No, no; the children are right in calling him the
+Cruncher. He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times
+better for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that
+ever came out of pickles.”
+
+“Well, you know best. You do understand these things,” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+
+“I do understand Basters,” said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a
+weight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus. Once Sir Maurice asked
+her the cause of it. She only shook her head.
+
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he
+had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it. But
+on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before
+him with his stick for clotheslines. He came out of the dark lane into
+the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a
+strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
+
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he
+walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for
+more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with
+considerable force. He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise
+with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his
+head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
+
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed
+in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came. He was just in
+time to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow. Then he
+found a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed
+unwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly,
+embrace. As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet
+and realized that there was only one thing to do. He tore along the
+turf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt. A stone struck the
+garden gate as he opened it. He did not pause to ring; he opened the
+front door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room. The
+Terror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughts
+with his Uncle Maurice.
+
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: “I—I
+made sure it was that young whelp!”
+
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a
+natural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang
+to their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from
+it with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush’s
+clinging affection.
+
+“I’ve been stoned—stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!” he
+cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble
+brow.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was
+cool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate
+indignation of a bosom friend.
+
+“How many of them were there?” said the Terror.
+
+“From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen,” said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+
+“I know—I know what it is!” cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an illuminating
+flash of womanly intuition. “You’ve been humorous with some of the
+villagers!”
+
+“No, no! I haven’t joked with a single one of them!” cried Captain
+Baster. “But I’ll teach the scoundrels a lesson! I’ll put the police on
+them tomorrow morning. I’ll send for a detective from London. I’ll
+prosecute them.”
+
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: “I couldn’t find your
+handkerchief anywhere, Mum. It took me ever such a time,” she said,
+giving it to her.
+
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror’s face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: “Have you been running to find it? You’re quite out of
+breath.”
+
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain Baster.… But
+no: it was impossible—a child in whose veins flowed some of the bluest
+blood in England. Besides, her slender arms could never have thrown the
+stones as straight and hard as that.
+
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth
+slightly open. He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief,
+and stumbled out of the room. They heard a door bang up-stairs; then,
+through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound. It occurred
+to the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the
+gorse prickles out of Captain Baster’s clothes. She had nearly finished
+when Sir Maurice returned. He carried a handkerchief in his hand, and
+he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed somewhat
+exhausted.
+
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;
+and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he
+would wreak on the scoundrelly villagers. But after a while he forgot
+his pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he
+plied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o’clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of
+admiration and approval of Erebus’ strenuous endeavor to instil into
+Captain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed
+out her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed when
+she was in high favor with him. As he did it she related gleefully the
+stoning of their enemy.
+
+When she had done, he said warmly: “It was ripping. But the nuisance
+is: he doesn’t know it was you who did it, and so it’s rather wasted.”
+
+“Don’t you worry: I’ll let him know sometime to-morrow,” said Erebus
+firmly.
+
+“Yes; but he’s awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?” said the
+Terror doubtfully.
+
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: “I don’t think he’d do
+that; he’d look so silly being stoned by a girl. Anyhow, I’ll chance
+it.”
+
+“All right,” said the Terror. “It’s worth chancing it to put him off
+marrying mother. And of course Uncle Maurice is here. He’ll see nothing
+serious happens.”
+
+“Of course he will,” said Erebus.
+
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster
+had weighed on their uncle’s mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him
+from behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard
+him singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+
+It went:
+
+“_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+        So young, so fair, so sweet,
+With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+        Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_”
+
+
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself,
+softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving
+but silent lips of Erebus repeated it.
+
+He was silent; and she said: “Oh, uncle! It’s splendid!”
+
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: “You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I’ll pull your long ears,” he said amiably.
+
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;
+then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she
+said: “Here he comes.”
+
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds,
+paused and cried: “I’m going back to bed! Tell him I’m in bed!”
+
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
+Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed. Mrs. Dangerfield,
+informed of her brother’s shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
+friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus. He showed an
+inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.
+
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
+Dangerfield was firm. She did not bring him back till half past twelve,
+only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in his
+bedroom. Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he hinted as
+much) but he was disappointed. In the end he returned to The Plough,
+chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.
+
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
+on a walk with the Terror. Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
+overtake them, and set out briskly to do so. He walked hard enough to
+compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
+better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
+Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
+swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
+friends to meet him and her brother. Here was his chance to shine, to
+show Sir Maurice his social mettle.
+
+He could have wished that the party had been larger. They were only a
+dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
+and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
+Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
+the afternoon with Erebus. Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
+or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
+have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand. He was soon the
+life and soul of the gathering. He was humorous with the vicar about
+the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the country
+on the intelligence. He tried to be humorous with Mr. Carrington, the
+higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from some profession
+or business. This was so signal a failure that he dropped humor and
+became important, telling them of his flat in town and his
+country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he told them
+about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at polo and
+at golf.
+
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except
+Sir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect
+equality, as “Maurice, old boy,” or “Maurice, old chap,” or plain
+“Maurice.” He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warm
+perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were
+aware that their mother’s tea-party was a failure. As a rule her little
+parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness; and her
+guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another. The
+Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and a faint
+persistent frown troubled his serenity. Erebus was more dimly aware
+that her enemy was spoiling the party. Only Sir Maurice and Mr.
+Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice’s enjoyment was
+mingled with vexation.
+
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain
+Baster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end
+of his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered
+his grievance. Forthwith he related at length the affair of the night
+before: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on the
+common. When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy.
+
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them
+except the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing
+violently.
+
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: “Er—er—yes; most extraordinary.
+But I don’t think it could have been the villagers. They’re—er—very
+peaceful people.”
+
+“It must have been some rowdies from Rowington,” said the squire in the
+loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what
+he said.
+
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an
+incredulous unwinking stare.
+
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some
+care. The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right
+gable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by
+a couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun
+round as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only.
+
+“That’s where I meant to hit it the first time,” said Erebus with a
+little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+
+The silence that fell was oppressive. Captain Baster gazed earnestly at
+Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking stare.
+
+“That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions,” said the
+higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice. “I made sure it was
+the Terror.”
+
+“So did I,” said the vicar.
+
+“I’d have bet on it,” said the squire.
+
+The silence fell again. Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue
+bump on his marble brow.
+
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: “Has any one heard Wiggins’ new
+song?”
+
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: “No! Let’s hear it!”
+
+“Come on, Wiggins!” cried the vicar heartily.
+
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew
+it in the depths of his horror-stricken heart. He ground his teeth
+softly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he
+could have borne the earth’s suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with
+his right. Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had
+chanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear
+shrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:
+
+“_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+        So young, so fair, so sweet,
+With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+        Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_”
+
+
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished
+everybody was looking at Captain Baster’s boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+
+Captain Baster’s face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt
+into irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the man he had
+made his bosom friend, for an indignant outburst; Sir Maurice was
+smiling, too.
+
+Captain Baster snorted fiercely; then he swelled with splendid dignity,
+and said loudly, but thickly, “I refuse! Yes, I refuse to mix in a
+society where children are brought up as hooligans yes: as hooligans!”
+
+He turned on his heel, strode to the gate, and turned and bellowed,
+“Hooligans!”
+
+He flung himself through the gate and strode violently across the
+common.
+
+“Oh, Wiggins! How could you?” cried Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone of
+horror.
+
+“It wasn’t Wiggins! It was me! I taught him. He didn’t understand,”
+said Erebus loyally.
+
+“I did understand—quite. But why did he call me Freckles?” said Wiggins
+in a vengeful tone. “Nobody can help having freckles.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER III
+AND THE CATS’ HOME
+
+
+They watched the retreating figure of Captain Baster till it was lost
+to sight among the gorse, in silence. They were glad at his going, but
+sorry at the manner of it, since Mrs. Dangerfield looked distressed and
+vexed.
+
+Then the vicar said: “There is a good deal to be said for the point of
+view of Wiggins, Mrs. Dangerfield. After all, Captain Baster was the
+original aggressor.”
+
+“Nevertheless I must apologize for my son’s exploding such an
+uncommonly violent bomb at a quiet garden party,” said the higher
+mathematician. “I suspect he underrated its effect.”
+
+His tone was apologetic, but there was no excess of contrition in it.
+
+“What I think is that Captain Baster’s notion of humor is catching; and
+that it affected Erebus and Wiggins,” said Sir Maurice amiably. “And if
+we start apologizing, there will be no end to it. I should have to come
+in myself as the maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying about.”
+
+“It was certainly a happy effort,” said the vicar, smiling. Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: “We’re going to London next week;
+perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice.”
+
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and
+presently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had
+lifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party. They
+were talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice
+were seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton,
+were getting their little chances of shining. The Twins and Wiggins
+slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for their
+going. In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had so
+nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a
+state of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one
+another.
+
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the
+exploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the
+two onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest. The Terror was
+also doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he prevented
+Erebus, eager to enjoy her uncle’s society, from returning to the house
+till it was time to dress for dinner. He wished to give his mother time
+to get over the worst of her annoyance.
+
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
+daughter with any great severity. But even so, Erebus did not receive
+these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit. Unlike the philosophic
+Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother’s just rebukes, after
+a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
+make out a case for herself; and she did so now.
+
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
+not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
+descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
+the sphere of the laws of hospitality.
+
+“Besides he never behaved like a guest,” she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone. “He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one—especially to me. And if he was always trying to score off me, I’d
+a perfect right to score off him. And anyhow, I wasn’t going to let him
+marry you without doing everything I could to stop it. He’d be a
+perfectly beastly stepfather—you know he would.”
+
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
+discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
+discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again. She knew that however
+bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
+sufficiently to heart. She was sure that she would not stone another
+guest.
+
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
+Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days’ stay. The Twins, though
+they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
+fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother’s notice, were
+very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
+Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl. Also he had many
+talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
+of action she frequently urged on him.
+
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness. It was not acute
+boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
+every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
+English and French with her mother. Their afternoon leisure, therefore,
+rarely palled on them.
+
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
+suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins. They went,
+therefore, toward Mr. Carrington’s house which stood nearly a mile away
+on the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the
+common. They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patience
+by staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour.
+
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common. Their eyes began to
+shine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards
+from the common’s edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for
+covert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left.
+They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted,
+to cut him off. They were successful. They caught him crossing an open
+space, yelled “Bang!” together; and in accordance with the rules of the
+game Wiggins fell to the ground.
+
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the
+immemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves
+hastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns.
+
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily
+said: “That makes you two games ahead.” Then he spurned the earth and
+added: “I’m going to have a bicycle.”
+
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint
+frown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror’s face.
+
+“There’ll be no living with Wiggins now, he’ll be so cocky,” said
+Erebus bitterly.
+
+“Oh, no; he won’t,” said the Terror. “But we ought to have bicycles,
+too. We want them badly. We never get really far from the village. We
+always get stopped on the way—rats, or something.” And his guileless,
+dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look of
+yearning.
+
+“There are orchards over there where they don’t know us,” said Erebus
+wistfully.
+
+“We _must_ have bicycles. I’ve been thinking so for a long time,” said
+the Terror.
+
+“We must have the moon!” said Erebus with cold scorn.
+
+“Bicycles aren’t so far away,” said the Terror sagely.
+
+They moved swiftly across the common. Erebus poured forth a long
+monotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made
+this Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat. With ears impervious to his
+sister’s vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful,
+pondering this pressing problem. Now and again, for obscure but
+profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps and
+bounds.
+
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the
+Terror to say: “I’ve got a penny. We’ll go and get some bull’s-eyes.”
+
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing
+the village, when they met three small boys. One of them carried a
+kitten.
+
+Erebus stopped short. “What are you going to do with that kitten, Billy
+Beck?” she said.
+
+“We be goin’ to drown ’im in the pond,” said Billy Beck in the
+important tones of an executioner.
+
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands. “You’re not going to do
+anything of the sort, you little beast!” she said.
+
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and
+disappointment, and he howled:
+
+“Gimme my kitty! Mother says she won’t ’ave ’im about the ’ouse, an’ I
+could drown ’im.”
+
+“You won’t have him,” said Erebus.
+
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst
+into blubbering roar of “It’s ourn! It ain’t yourn! It’s ourn!”
+
+“It isn’t! A kitten isn’t any one’s to drown!” cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice. Erebus edged away from him ready to
+fly, should human justice intervene actively. The Terror put his hand
+in his pocket and fumbled. He drew out a penny, and looked at it
+earnestly. He was weighing the respective merits of justice and
+bull’s-eyes.
+
+“Here’s a penny for your kitten. You can buy bull’s-eyes with it,” he
+said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck’s tearful eyes. “’E’s worth
+more’n a penny—a kitty like ’im!” he blubbered.
+
+“Not to drown. It’s all you’ll get,” said the Terror curtly. He tossed
+the penny to Billy’s feet, turned on his heel and went back across the
+common away from the village. Some of the brightness faded out of the
+faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+
+“I wouldn’t have given him a penny. He was only going to drown the
+kitten,” said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+
+“It was his kitten. We couldn’t take it without paying for it,” said
+the Terror coldly.
+
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, “There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants—and puppies.”
+
+The Terror stopped short, and said: “By Jove! There’s Aunt Amelia!”
+
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia,
+who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, and
+yet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but
+spent it all on horrid cats’ homes.
+
+“That’s just it,” said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation.
+“Come along; I want you to write a letter.”
+
+“I’m not going to write any disgusting letter!” cried Erebus hotly.
+
+“Then you’re not going to get any bicycle. Come on. I’ll look out the
+words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he’s got into the way of using grammar. It’ll be useful.
+Come on!”
+
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of
+being a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year,
+and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head,
+Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified.
+Practise had made the Terror’s ears impervious at will to his sister’s
+questions, which were frequent and innumerable. Without a word of
+explanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at the
+dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himself
+on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by his
+side.
+
+Then he said coldly: “Now don’t make any blots, or you’ll have to do it
+all over again.”
+
+“I never make blots! It’s you that makes blots!” cried Erebus, ruffled.
+“Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do. Ever so
+much better.”
+
+“That’s why you’re writing the letter and not me,” said the Terror
+coldly. “Fire away: ‘My dear Aunt Amelia’—I say, Wiggins, what’s the
+proper words for ‘awfully keen’?”
+
+“‘Keen’ is ‘interested’—I don’t know how many ‘r’s’ there are in
+‘interested’—and ‘awfully’ is an awfully difficult word,” said Wiggins,
+pondering.
+
+The Terror looked up “interested” in the dictionary with a laborious
+painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single “r”
+in it; then he said, “What’s the right word for ‘awfully,’ Wiggins?
+Buck up!”
+
+“‘Tremendously,’” said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus.
+
+“That’s it,” said the Terror. “‘My dear Aunt Amelia: I have often heard
+that you are tremendously interested in cats’ homes’”—
+
+“I should think you had!” said Erebus.
+
+“Now don’t jabber, please; just stick to the writing,” said the Terror.
+“I’ve got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if you
+jabber?”
+
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+
+“‘Little Deeping wants a cats’ home awfully’—no: ‘tremendously.’ I like
+that word ‘tremendously’; it means something,” said the Terror.
+
+“You’re jabbering yourself now,” said Erebus unpleasantly.
+
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror
+continued: “‘The quantity of kittens that are drowned is horrible’—that
+ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than cats—‘and I have
+been thinking’—Oughtn’t you to put in some stops?”
+
+“I’m putting in stops—lots,” said Erebus contemptuously.
+
+“‘I have been thinking—that if you wanted to have a cats’ home
+here’—What’s the right word for ‘running a thing,’ Wiggins?”
+
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+
+“There is a word ‘overseer’—slaves have them,” he said cautiously.
+
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it
+out, and continued: “‘I could overseer it for you. I have got my eye on
+a building which would suit us tremendously well. But these things cost
+money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty
+pounds’—
+
+“Thirty pounds! My goodness!” cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide.
+
+“We may as well go the whole hog,” said the Terror philosophically. “Go
+on: ‘Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a real
+home—’ What’s the word for ‘bust up,’ Wiggins?”
+
+“Burst up,” said Wiggins without hesitation.
+
+“No, no; not the grammar—the right word! Oh, I know; ‘go bankrupt’—‘it
+might go bankrupt. So it you would like to have a cats’ home here and
+send me some money, I will start it at once. Your affectionate nephew,
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.’ There!” said the Terror with a sigh of
+relief.
+
+“But you’ve left me out altogether,” said Erebus in a suddenly
+aggrieved tone.
+
+“I should jolly well think I had! You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say ‘Dam,’ she won’t have
+anything to do with you,” said the Terror firmly.
+
+“There’s no pleasing some people,” said Erebus mournfully. “When I went
+there the silly old parrot couldn’t say a thing; and when I came away,
+he could say ‘Dam! Dam! Dam!’ from morning till night without making a
+mistake.”
+
+“It’s a word people don’t like,” said the Terror.
+
+“Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river. I told Aunt Amelia so,”
+said Erebus firmly.
+
+“She might not believe you; she doesn’t know how truthfully we’ve been
+brought up,” said the Terror. “Go on; sign my name to the letter.”
+
+“That’s forgery. You ought to sign your name yourself,” said Erebus.
+
+“No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter. Sign away,” said the Terror firmly.
+
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: “But what good’s the money going
+to be to us, if we’ve got to spend it on a silly old cats’ home? It
+only means a lot of trouble.”
+
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror’s face. “Well,
+you see, there aren’t many cats in Little Deeping—not enough to fill a
+cats’ home decently,” he said slowly. “We should have to have bicycles
+to collect them—from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and farther
+off.”
+
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming
+face, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:
+“Well, you do think of things!”
+
+“I have to,” said the Terror. “If I didn’t we should never have a
+single thing.”
+
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield. He did not tell her
+of the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had
+thought he would write to Aunt Amelia. Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased
+with him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with his
+great-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own. She
+did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her, though
+she suspected that it contained some artless request. She thought it
+better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt to make requests
+rather than not write at all.
+
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their
+lives. Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their lives
+those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the very middle of
+some important enterprise to discuss the rides they would take on them,
+the orchards that those machines would bring within their reach. But
+the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mind forbade him
+to discuss his chickens before they were hatched.
+
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not
+remarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief
+characteristic of Lady Ryehampton. As the purport of her great-nephew’s
+letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beaming smile of
+gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and as she
+handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried in
+unctuous tones: “The dear boy! So young, but already enthusiastic about
+great things!”
+
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she
+was going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more
+victimized. She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady
+Ryehampton to a noble phrase. Her eyes brightened with humorous
+appreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to the
+end of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was one
+of the last places in England to need a cats’ home. Then she bethought
+herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, and
+her face went blank.
+
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and
+said warmly: “It’s really wonderful. You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself.”
+
+“I suppose I must,” said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction.
+“And I must be careful not to discourage him.”
+
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror’s face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers. It was only right that some of
+Lady Ryehampton’s money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school. It was monstrous that the great bulk of
+it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings
+came first. And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+
+“Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm,” she said
+gravely.
+
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats’ home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not
+better send fifty. Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite
+comfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty was
+enough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton could
+give it later. Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion.
+
+Having set her employer’s hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back. Lady Ryehampton would spend money on
+cats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it. But Miss
+Hendersyde kept referring to the Terror’s enterprise all that day and
+the next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon Lady
+Ryehampton signed the check for thirty pounds. At Miss Hendersyde’s
+suggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it
+into postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping.
+
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House. The
+excited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from
+him, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the
+precious packet to the Terror in the orchard.
+
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it
+slowly.
+
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;
+and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: “Thirty pounds—well!”
+
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the
+spur of that marvelous moment.
+
+“It’s splendid—splendid!” she cried. “It’s the best thing you ever
+thought of!”
+
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the
+envelope into the breast pocket of his coat. A frown of the most
+thoughtful consideration furrowed his brow. Then he said firmly: “The
+first thing, to do is to get the bicycles. If once we’ve got them, no
+one will take them away from us.”
+
+“Of course they won’t,” said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea.
+
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning
+the earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a
+casual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: “May we have
+the cow-house for our very own, Mum?”
+
+“Oh, Terror! Surely you don’t want to keep ferrets!” cried Mrs.
+Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror’s developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+
+“Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think
+we could make a little pocket-money out of it.”
+
+“I am afraid you’re growing terribly mercenary,” said his mother; then
+she added with a sigh: “But I don’t wonder at it, seeing how hard up
+you always are. You can have the cow-house. It’s right at the end of
+the paddock—well away from the house—so that I don’t see that you can
+do any harm with it whatever you do. But how are you going to make
+pocket-money out of it?”
+
+“Oh, I haven’t got it all worked out yet,” said the Terror quickly.
+“But we’ll tell you all about it when we have. Thanks ever so much for
+the cow-house.”
+
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a
+boy of his years. He changed but one of the six postal orders at Little
+Deeping—that would make talk enough—and then, having begged a holiday
+from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their market town, ten
+miles away, taking Erebus with him. There he changed three more postal
+orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycle shop, with
+hearts that beat high.
+
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way
+which, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus
+to the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she
+had long ago learned the futility of exasperation. He began by an
+exhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and he
+made it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, one
+of those smart young men who pamper a chin’s passion for receding by
+letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all on
+edge. Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of his
+pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young
+man perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of
+buying two. He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to
+develop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in price
+to the buyer of two bicycles. Then he made his offer: he would give
+fourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles. His serenity was
+quite unruffled by the seller’s furious protests. Then the real
+struggle began. The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, two lamps,
+two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the seller came out
+of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeled their
+machines out of the shop.
+
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street.
+Then he said: “We’ve saved the cats’ home quite two pounds.”
+
+“Yes,” said Erebus.
+
+“And it’s made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it,” said the
+Terror.
+
+“It must have—arguing like that,” said Erebus quickly; and her eyes
+brightened as she caught his drift.
+
+“Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment. It’s a long ride
+home,” said the Terror.
+
+“Of course it ought,” said Erebus with decision.
+
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner’s shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: “Of course overseers
+have a salary.”
+
+“Of course they do,” said Erebus.
+
+“That settles the matter of pocket-money,” said the Terror. “We’ll have
+sixpence a week each.”
+
+“Only sixpence?” said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+
+“Well, you see, there are the bicycles. I don’t think we can make it
+more than sixpence. And I tell you what: we shall have to keep
+accounts. I’ll buy an account-book. You’re very good at
+arithmetic—you’ll like keeping accounts,” said the Terror suavely.
+
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that
+it would be delicate at that moment to protest. Therefore on leaving
+the shop the Terror bought an account-book. His distrust of literature
+prevented him from paying more than a penny for it. From the
+stationer’s he went to an ironmonger’s and bought a saw, a brace, a
+gimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws—his tool-box had long
+needed refilling. Then they mounted their machines proudly (they had
+learned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home. After
+their visit to the confectioner’s they rode rather sluggishly.
+
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the
+Terror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a
+quiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on
+Erebus’ bicycle with excellent apples. The tools had been packed into
+the Terror’s basket. They did not disturb the farmer’s wife at the busy
+dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to
+Erebus.
+
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: “I shouldn’t wonder if
+these bicycles didn’t pay for themselves in time.”
+
+“I said there were orchards out here where they didn’t know us,” said
+Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in
+the cow-house. At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the
+morning.
+
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements. It had
+long been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning. It was quite
+suitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a
+size to hold two cows. The measurements made, they went, with an
+important moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timber
+merchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him. There was
+some discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that of
+the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, with
+some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns. Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he forthwith
+put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet House. The
+Twins, eager to be at work, helped him.
+
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable
+constructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches. That evening Erebus
+wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus
+proposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally
+forth on a splendid foray. The Terror would not hear of it.
+
+“No,” he said firmly. “We’re going to get the cats’ home finished
+before we use those bicycles at all. Then nobody can complain.”
+
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to
+go down to the vicarage for his morning’s lessons with the vicar. He
+set to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;
+and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too.
+
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came. He had spent a fruitless
+hour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied
+forth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept them
+within their borders. He was deeply impressed by the sight of the
+bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers of
+his friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise him
+greatly. But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtained
+their bicycles before he had obtained his. None the less he helped them
+construct the cats’ home with enthusiasm.
+
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort. So
+much sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces
+were chipped out of them. But their spirits never flagged; and by
+sunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirty
+cats. It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all of the
+same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness: and
+it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them.
+
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the
+transformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said
+firmly: “What we want now is cats.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+
+
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were
+willing to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their
+owners no longer needed. They had, indeed, one offer of a cat suffering
+from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly to its owner
+that theirs was a home, not a hospital.
+
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she
+pointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: “Look
+here: I’m going to begin with kittens.”
+
+“How will you get kittens, if you can’t get cats? Everybody likes
+kittens. It’s only when they grow up and stop playing that they don’t
+want them,” said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+
+“I’m going to buy them,” said the Terror firmly. “I’m going to give
+threepence each for kittens that can just lap. We don’t want kittens
+that can’t lap. They’d be too much trouble.”
+
+“That’s a good idea,” said Erebus, brightening.
+
+“It’ll stop them drowning kittens all right. The only thing I’m not
+sure about is the accounts.”
+
+“You’re always bothering about those silly old accounts!” said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of
+their expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+
+“Well, I don’t think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts. Aunt
+Amelia is so used to cats’ homes that are given their cats. She’s told
+me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be taken
+in.”
+
+“_I_ don’t want them to go down. It makes all the less accounts to
+keep,” said Erebus readily.
+
+“Well, that’s settled,” said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the
+tidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who
+could just lap.
+
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the
+impatient Erebus grew louder and louder. There was no doubt that she
+loved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of that
+grievance to those about her. Since she could only discuss this
+grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it.
+Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patient
+brother’s resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to a
+council.
+
+He opened the discussion by saying: “We’ve got to have kittens, or
+cats. We can’t have any pocket-money for ‘overseering’ till there’s
+something to overseer.”
+
+“And that splendid cats’ home we’ve made stopping empty all the time,”
+said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+“I don’t mind that. I’m sick of hearing about it,” said the Terror
+coldly. “But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia will soon
+be wanting to know what’s happening to the home; and she’ll make a fuss
+if there aren’t any cats in it. So we must have cats.”
+
+“Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats. There are cats all
+over the country; and when we’re out bicycling, a good way from home,
+we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with
+us. We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in
+eight days the home would be full and two over.”
+
+“And we should be prosecuted for stealing them,” said the Terror
+coldly.
+
+“But they’d be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed,” protested Erebus.
+
+“That wouldn’t make any difference. No; it’s no good trying to get them
+that way,” said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+“Well, they won’t come of themselves,” said Erebus.
+
+“They would with valerian,” said Wiggins.
+
+“Who’s Valerian?” said Erebus.
+
+“It isn’t a who. It’s a drug at the chemist’s,” said Wiggins. “I’ve
+been talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says if
+you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats will
+follow it for miles.”
+
+“Your father seems to know everything—such a lot of useful things as
+well as higher mathematics,” said the Terror.
+
+“That’s why he has a European reputation,” said Wiggins; and he spurned
+the earth.
+
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of
+the enchanting drug. Just before they reached the village, on their way
+home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it,
+poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the
+village to his garden gate.
+
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the
+father of Wiggins. All that evening and far into the night twelve cats
+fought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+
+The next day the Terror turned the cats’ home into a cat-trap. He cut a
+hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted
+it with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the
+outside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside. He was
+late finishing it, and went from it to his dinner.
+
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring
+at the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had
+come from the village with some kittens. The Twins excused themselves
+politely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly
+had brought no less than five small kittens in a basket.
+
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping
+test. Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they
+lapped. The fifth would not lap. It only mewed. Therefore the Terror
+took only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them. The
+fifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+
+They took the four kittens down to the cats’ home; and since they were
+so small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk
+to satisfy their hunger during the night.
+
+“Now we’ve got these kittens, we needn’t bother about getting cats,”
+said the Terror as they returned to the house. “And I’m glad it is
+kittens and not cats. Kittens eat less.”
+
+“Then you’ve had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing,” said Erebus.
+
+“It’s an emergency exit—like the theaters have—only it’s an entrance,”
+said the Terror. “But thank goodness, we’ve begun at last; now we can
+have salaries for ‘overseering’.”
+
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens
+to their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady
+Ryehampton that the home was already constructed and in process of
+occupation. Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid of
+enthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, “saved
+from the awful death of drowning.” Lady Ryehampton replied promptly in
+a spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it.
+
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found
+themselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and the
+account-book.
+
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations. Till they were
+six years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in
+Monmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar. Then their father
+had fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had
+along with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leaving
+Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed. All the while since
+his death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and the
+Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires of
+their hearts.
+
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;
+and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as
+the bulk of the children of the well-to-do. But it did not come in the
+way of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;
+and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliest
+interest in financial matters. He was resolved that the cats’ home and
+the wages of “overseering” should last as long as possible.
+
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a
+quart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with
+him that milk spelled ruin. But they could see no way of reducing the
+price of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food for
+growing kittens.
+
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a
+heavy silence had fallen on them. Then of a sudden the face of the
+Terror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:
+“I’ve got it; we’ll feed them on skim-milk.”
+
+“They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens,” said Erebus scornfully.
+
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping. Butter-making was its
+chief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+
+“If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens,” said the Terror firmly.
+
+“But how can we get it? They don’t sell it about here,” said Erebus.
+“And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn’t sell skim-milk,
+nobody’s going to sell skim-milk to-day.”
+
+“Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it,” said the Terror confidently.
+
+“Old Stubbs! But he hates us worse than any one!” cried Erebus.
+
+“Oh, yes; he doesn’t like us. But he’s awfully keen on money; every one
+says so. And he won’t care whose money he gets so long as he gets it.
+Come on; we’ll go and talk to him about it,” said the Terror.
+
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs
+and knocked resolutely. The maid, who was well aware that her master
+and the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some
+hesitation. The Twins had never entered the farmer’s house before,
+though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightly
+uncomfortable. They found the parlor into which they were shown
+uncommonly musty.
+
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate
+fringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion
+in his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes. Even when he learned that they
+had come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terror
+incidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cash
+payments. Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, that
+he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to the
+discussion of prices. Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts; the
+Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of view
+nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice. But the
+Terror’s suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck
+a bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at
+threepence halfpenny the pailful.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens
+to the home; and the Terror had yet another idea. Milk alone seemed an
+insufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the
+matter of stale bread. There were more negotiations; and in the end the
+Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearly his
+own price. Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throve on it;
+and it went further than plain milk.
+
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure. They had been busy filling
+certain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with
+the best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the
+countryside afforded. But what spare time he had the Terror devoted to
+a great feat of painting. He painted in white letters on a black
+board:—
+
+LADY RYEHAMPTON’S CATS’ HOME
+
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that
+could be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins
+agreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their
+aunt saw it she would be deeply gratified.
+
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be
+fixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their mother
+formally into their confidence. She had learned of the formation of the
+cats’ home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked to
+her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give them
+details about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited the
+interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussion
+for fully a week. She had explained to them that she never interfered
+with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, and
+that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats’ home. Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had
+been brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order.
+Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of its
+construction. Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackle
+affair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops.
+
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for
+they were judicious in their use. They were careful to sally forth when
+she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the common and
+came back across the common and their neighbors saw them riding very
+little.
+
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she
+accepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection
+of the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise. She
+expressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and the
+extensive scale on which it was being run. She agreed with the Terror
+that to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning was
+a great work. But she asked no questions, not even how it was that the
+cats’ home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples. She knew that
+an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to be
+given her.
+
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: “The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course.”
+
+“What? Are those your bicycles?” cried Mrs. Dangerfield. “But wherever
+did you get the money from to buy them?”
+
+“Aunt Amelia found the money,” said the Terror. “You know she’s very
+keen—tremendously interested in cats’ homes. She thinks we are doing a
+great work, as well as you.”
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield’s beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: “You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats’
+home in Little Deeping?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” said the Terror carelessly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she
+_must_ not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins. She bit her
+tongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears. It was painful;
+but it enabled her to complete her inspection with the required
+gravity.
+
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke
+a fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise. Several of
+them, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to
+it; and Wiggins brought his father. All of them expressed an admiration
+of the institution and of the methods on which it was conducted. To one
+another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of the intelligence of
+Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience
+the Twins drew their salary for “overseering.” It provided them with
+many of the less expensive desires of their hearts. Now and again
+Erebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than ten
+pounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raised
+to a shilling a week. But the Terror would not consent: he said their
+salaries for “overseeing” would naturally be much higher, and that they
+would have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it had
+not been for the bicycles. As it was, they were bound to work off the
+price of the bicycles. Besides, he added with a philosophical air,
+six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week for
+six months.
+
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained
+twenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle
+(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were
+informed that for the time being the home was full. Erebus clamored to
+have its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terror
+maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quite
+enough. Everything was working smoothly. Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed
+for the door; and Erebus opened it. On the steps stood their Uncle
+Maurice; and he wore a harried air.
+
+“Why, it’s Uncle Maurice!” cried Erebus springing upon him and
+embracing him warmly.
+
+“It’s Uncle Maurice, mother!” cried the Terror.
+
+“It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he’s by no means sure
+of it himself! Is it my head or my heels I’m standing on?” said Sir
+Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping
+station, laden with wicker baskets. From the baskets came the sound of
+mewing.
+
+“Whatever is it?” cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+
+“Cats for the cats’ home!” said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a
+neat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and
+shut the door after him with an air of exhaustion. He leaned back
+against it and said:
+
+“I had a sudden message—Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visit to
+this inf—this cats’ home these little friends are pretending to run for
+her. I saw that there was no time to lose—there must be a cats’ home
+with cats in it—or she’d cut them both out of her will. I bought
+cats—all over London—they’ve been with me ever since—yowling—they
+yowled in the taxi—all over London—they traveled down as far as
+Rowington with me and an old gentleman—a high-spirited old
+gentleman—yowling—not only the cats but the old gentleman, too—-and
+they traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maiden
+ladies—timid maiden ladies!—yowling! But come on: we’ve got to make a
+cats’ home at once!” And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets with
+the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant or perish.
+
+“But we’ve got a cats’ home—only it’s full of kittens,” said Erebus
+gently.
+
+“Good heavens! Do you mean to say I’ve gone through this nightmare for
+nothing?” cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+
+“Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!” said the Terror with swift
+politeness. “The cats will come in awfully useful.”
+
+“They’ll make the home look so much more natural. All kittens isn’t
+natural,” said Erebus.
+
+“And they’ll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia. She was only
+expecting kittens,” said the Terror.
+
+“What?” howled Sir Maurice. “Do you mean to say I’ve parleyed for hours
+with a high-spirited gentleman and two—two—timid maiden ladies, just to
+give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?”
+
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly. “I ought to have
+had more confidence in you,” he said faintly. “I ought to know your
+powers by now. And I did. I know well that any people who have dealings
+with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt Amelia
+was going to get it; and I’ve got it myself.”
+
+“But you didn’t think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?” said the
+Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+
+“Gracious, no!” cried Sir Maurice. “I only thought that you might
+possibly induce her to humbug herself.”
+
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his
+words than met the ear.
+
+“You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully,” said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+“And I’m afraid there’s very little for you. But I’ll make you an
+omelette.”
+
+“I can not dine amid this yowling,” said Sir Maurice firmly, waving his
+hand over the vocal baskets. “These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan’t be able to eat a morsel.”
+
+“We’ll put them in the cats’ home,” said the Terror quickly. “I’ll just
+put on a pair of thick gloves. Wiggins’ father—he’s a higher
+mathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing—says
+that hydrophobia is very rare among cats. But it’s just as well to be
+careful with these London ones.”
+
+“Oh, lord, I never thought of that,” said Sir Maurice with a shudder.
+“I’ve been risking my life as well!”
+
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern. He and Erebus
+helped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches.
+Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession—a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable. At dinner he reduced his appreciative
+kinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his
+parleying with his excited fellow travelers. He could now view it with
+an impartial mind. After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats’
+home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps. The rest of the
+evening passed peacefully and pleasantly.
+
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed
+that the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:
+“We ought to have more cats.”
+
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:
+“By Jove, yes. This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge.
+And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the
+good of the home. The more we can say that we’ve used them for it, the
+less any one can grumble about them.”
+
+“Most cats are shut up now,” said Erebus.
+
+“Yes; we must catch the morning cats. They get out quite early—when
+people start out to work,” said the Terror.
+
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an
+alarm. The Terror set it for half past five. At that hour it awoke him
+with extreme difficulty. He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty. Five
+minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchen to
+stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning; then
+they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle of
+valerian.
+
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping. There the Terror poured valerian on
+one of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus. Forthwith she
+started to trail it to the cats’ home. He rode on to Great Deeping and
+trailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats’ home. When
+he reached it he found Erebus’ bicycle in its corner; and when, after
+strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with a rag
+freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he found that
+she was already in bed again. He made haste back to bed himself.
+
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and
+put the cats they had attracted to it into hutches. But they slept on
+till breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon
+lured them straight into the dining-room. After all, as Erebus told the
+hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the new cats,
+for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleven o’clock.
+They could not escape from the home. The Twins therefore devoted their
+most careful attention to their breakfast with their minds quite at
+ease.
+
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at
+ease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor.
+Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said “Please, ma’am, it’s
+Lady Ryehampton”; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold. Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking
+very anxious.
+
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton’s stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness. To Erebus,
+the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: “I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats’ home. I always do. It’s the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment.” The
+frown on her face grew rhadamanthine. “And last night I saw your Uncle
+Maurice at the station—he did not see me—with cats, London cats, in
+baskets. On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of
+well-known London cat-dealers. I do not support a cats’ home at Little
+Deeping for London cats bought at London dealers. Why have they been
+brought here?”
+
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+
+“It was Uncle Maurice’s idea,” he said. “He didn’t think that there
+ought only to be kittens in a cats’ home. We didn’t mind ourselves; and
+of course, if he puts cats in it, he’ll have to subscribe to the home.
+What we have started it for was kittens—to save them from the awful
+death of drowning. We wrote and told you. And we’ve saved quite a lot.”
+
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+
+“Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats
+to bring them all the way from London to a cats’ home at Deeping? He
+hates cats, and always has!” she said fiercely.
+
+“Of course, I hate cats,” said Sir Maurice with cold severity. “But I
+hate children’s being brought up to be careless a great deal more. A
+cats’ home is not a cats’ home unless it has cats in it; and you’ve
+been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling a
+kittens’ home a cats’ home. If you will interfere in their up-bringing,
+you have no right to do your best to get them into careless ways.”
+
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady
+Ryehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: “That’s all very well,”
+she said in a less severe tone. “But is there a kittens’ home at all—a
+kittens’ home with kittens in it? That’s what I want to know.”
+
+“But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats’ home.
+You don’t think we’d deceive you, Aunt Amelia?” said the Terror in a
+deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+
+“There! I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be,” said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+
+“Of course there’s a cats’ home with kittens in it!” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with some heat. “The Terror wouldn’t lie to you!”
+
+“Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!” cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very
+good best.
+
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: “Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there’s a c-c-cats’ home—but Sir Maurice’s senseless
+interference—”
+
+“Senseless interference! Do you call saving children from careless
+habits senseless interference?” cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+
+“You had no business to interfere without consulting me,” said Lady
+Ryehampton. Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: “But I want to
+see this cats’ home—now!”
+
+“I’ll take you at once,” said the Terror quickly, and politely he
+opened the door.
+
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice
+his hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it. When
+they came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distant
+high-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and more
+horrible grew the din.
+
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of
+suspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield’s beautiful eyes were wide
+open in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a
+defiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs.
+Dangerfield. Only the Terror was serene.
+
+“Surely those brutes I brought haven’t got out of their cages,” said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+“Oh, no; those must be visiting cats,” said the Terror calmly.
+
+“Visiting cats?” said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+
+“Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come,” said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+
+“Now that’s a very clever idea!” she exclaimed. “I must tell the
+managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can’t do it,
+too. But what are these cats doing?”
+
+“It sounds as if they were quarreling,” said the Terror calmly.
+
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the
+din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish. It was as if the voices
+of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door—wide. Cats did not come out.… A large ball of cats came out,
+gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur. Ten yards from the door it
+dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore, yelling,
+to the four quarters of the heavens.
+
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: “I
+sometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens.”
+
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion. He
+walked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human
+ken. There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned
+against the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive
+bricks feebly.
+
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with
+an air of modest pride. A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of
+perfect, if highly-scented, peace. Twenty-three kittens and eight cats
+sat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead
+stillness. Their eyes were very bright. By a kindly provision of nature
+they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes of that
+vociferous fray.
+
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song. She was
+charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and healthiness
+of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness. She gushed
+enthusiastic approbation. “To think,” she cried, “that you have done
+this yourself! A boy of thirteen!”
+
+“Erebus did quite as much as I did,” said the Terror quickly.
+
+“And Wiggins helped a lot. He’s a friend of ours,” said Erebus no less
+quickly.
+
+Lady Ryehampton’s face softened to Erebus—to Erebus, the instructor of
+parrots.
+
+Sir Maurice joined them. His eyes were red and moist, as if they had
+but now been full of tears.
+
+“It’s a very creditable piece of work,” he said in a tone of warm
+approval.
+
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell. She
+said uneasily: “But you must be heavily in debt.”
+
+“In debt?” said the Terror. “Oh, no; we couldn’t be. Mother would hate
+us to be in debt.”
+
+“I thought—a cats’ home—oh, but I _am_ glad I brought my check-book
+with me!” cried Lady Ryehampton.
+
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl.
+She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus
+kicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously
+realized that the future of the home, the wages of “overseering,” were
+secure.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER V
+AND THE SACRED BIRD
+
+
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the
+Terror did all he could to foster her interest in it. The crowning
+effect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty
+sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many
+pauses to gambol and play. The only thing about the home which was not
+quite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door. She
+liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did not like
+its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all of them of
+the same size. At the same time she did not like to hurt the feelings
+of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork.
+
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: “By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform—the same as the boards over the
+entrances of my other cats’ homes. The lettering of them is always in
+gold.”
+
+“All right. I’ll get some gold paint, and paint them over,” said the
+Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+
+“No, no, I can’t give you the trouble of doing it all over again,” said
+Lady Ryehampton quickly. “I’ll have a board made, and painted in
+London—exactly like the board of my cats’ home at Tysleworth—and sent
+down to you to fix up.”
+
+“Thanks very much,” said the Terror. “It will save me a great deal of
+trouble. Painting isn’t nearly so easy as it looks.”
+
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction. She invited them all
+to lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs.
+Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simple
+establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver. As she told her
+neighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in the
+house. The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebus
+was very quiet for two hours after it.
+
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating
+visit to the cats’ home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the
+Terror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to
+London.
+
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to
+travel with Lady Ryehampton. Besides, the question what was to be done
+with the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled. He
+felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep,
+since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats’ home.
+At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them any
+more.
+
+They discussed the matter. Erebus was inclined to keep the cats,
+declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens. The
+Terror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view,
+wished to be relieved of them. In the end it was decided that Sir
+Maurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he had
+bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer.
+
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this
+unexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home.
+Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings a
+week. The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each.
+Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put
+fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank. He thought it a wise
+thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum on
+some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove. The
+cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board
+came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror’s
+handiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along
+with Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the
+important matter of their mother’s Christmas present.
+
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their
+breakfasts and discussing it gravely. The kittens were indulging in
+engaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion which
+always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling
+eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds. They could see
+their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; and
+so large a sum must be expended with judgment. It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and
+attractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the
+hair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: “I know what she really
+wants though.”
+
+“What’s that?” said the Terror sharply.
+
+“It’s one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker’s at Rowington,”
+said Erebus. “I heard her sigh when she looked at it. She used to have
+beautiful furs once—when father was alive. But she sold them—to get
+things for us, I suppose. Uncle Maurice told me so—at least I got it
+out of him.”
+
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of
+decision: “How much is that stole?”
+
+“Oh, it’s no good thinking about it—it’s three guineas,” said Erebus
+quickly.
+
+“That’s a mort o’ money, as old Stubbs says,” said the Terror; and the
+frown deepened on his brow.
+
+“I wonder if we could get it?” said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face. “I should like
+to. It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things—much harder than for
+us, because we’ve never had them—at least, we had them when we were
+small, but we never got used to them. So we’ve forgotten.”
+
+“No, we’re all right as long as we have useful things,” said the
+Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown. “But you’re right about
+Mum—she must be different. I’ve got to think this out.”
+
+“Three guineas is such a lot to think out,” said Erebus despondently.
+
+“I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago,” said the Terror
+firmly. “And if you come to think of it, Mum’s stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats’ home, though not so useful.”
+
+“But it’s different—we _had_ to have bicycles—you said so,” said Erebus
+eagerly.
+
+“Well, we’ve got to have this stole,” said the Terror in a tone of
+finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+
+“But how?” said Erebus eagerly.
+
+“Things will occur to us. They always do,” said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches. Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+
+“I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens? Does any one ever buy
+kittens?”
+
+“We did; we gave threepence each for these,” said Erebus.
+
+“Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home. We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that. We shouldn’t have
+dreamt of doing such a thing.”
+
+“I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn’t got any,” said Erebus
+in a tone of decision.
+
+“You would, would you? That’s just what I wanted to know: girls will
+buy kittens,” said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction. “Well, we’ll
+sell these.”
+
+“But we can’t empty the home,” said Erebus.
+
+“We wouldn’t. We’d buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepence
+each, and sell these at a shilling. We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way.”
+
+“So we should—a whole sovereign!” cried Erebus; then she added in a
+somewhat envious tone: “You do think of things.”
+
+“I have to. Where should we be, if I didn’t?” said the Terror.
+
+“But who are we going to sell them to? Everybody round here has cats.”
+
+“Yes, they have,” said the Terror, frowning again. “Well, we shall have
+to sell them somewhere else.”
+
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to
+the house, pondering. The Terror collected the books for his morning’s
+work slowly, still thoughtful.
+
+As he was leaving the house he said: “Look here; the place for us to
+sell them is Rowington. The people round here sell most of their things
+at Rowington—butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits.”
+
+“And Ellen would sell them for us—in the market,” said Erebus quickly.
+
+“Of course she would! You see, you think of things, too!” cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter
+of selling their kittens. She had been their nurse for the first four
+years of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a
+small farmer. She had an affection for them, especially for the Terror;
+and she had not lost touch with them. She welcomed them warmly, ushered
+them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter of elderberry wine
+and a cake. When she had helped them to cake and poured out their wine,
+the Terror broached the matter that had brought them to her house.
+
+Ellen’s mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her
+pony-cart. She laughed consumedly at the Terror’s belief that any one
+would want to buy kittens. But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was
+very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell
+their kittens at her stall in Rowington market. Ellen consented to make
+the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist the Terror
+when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to oblige him;
+but she held out no hopes of success.
+
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not
+share her despondency. Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen’s
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+“I tell you what: even if we don’t sell those kittens, we can always
+buy the stole. There’s all that cats’ home money in the bank. We can
+take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees.”
+
+“No, we can’t,” said the Terror firmly. “We’re not going to use that
+money for anything but the cats’ home. I promised Mum I wouldn’t.
+Besides, she’d like the stole ever so much better if we’d really earned
+it ourselves.”
+
+“But we shan’t,” said Erebus gloomily. “If we sold all the kittens, it
+will only make twenty-three shillings.”
+
+“Then we must find something else to sell,” said the Terror with
+decision.
+
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little
+Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field
+of mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability.
+
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very
+good friends. Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an
+honest day’s work in his life. Yet he was the smartest man in the
+village, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his
+constitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the English pheasants from all
+dangers save the small shot of those who have them fed. Tom Cobb waged
+war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird. Sometimes for a
+whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with
+never a check to his ardor. In another season some prying gamekeeper
+would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and an
+infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him. The fine was always
+paid. Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against
+a rainy day.
+
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted
+one another with smiles of mutual respect. They rode on a few yards;
+and then the Terror said, “By Jove!” stopped, slipped off his bicycle,
+and wheeled it back to the gate. Erebus followed him more slowly.
+
+“I’ve been wondering if you’d do me a favor, Tom,” said the Terror.
+“I’ve always wanted to know how to make a snare. I’ll give you
+half-a-crown if you’ll teach me.”
+
+Tom Cobb’s clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated. He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little
+knowledge was a dangerous thing—for others. He foresaw trouble for the
+sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the gamekeepers.
+He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them. And very
+distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+
+He grinned and said slowly, “Yes, Master Terror, I’ll be very ’appy to
+teach you ’ow to make a snare.”
+
+“Thank you. I’ll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two,” said the
+Terror gratefully.
+
+“It _will_ be nice to know how to make snares!” cried Erebus happily as
+they rode on. “I wonder we never thought of it before.”
+
+“We didn’t want a fur stole before,” said the Terror.
+
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to
+Tom Cobb’s cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares. But
+the Terror would not. Often he was indulgent; often he was firm. To-day
+he was firm.
+
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather
+sadly: “I’ve still a lot to learn. But come on: I’ve got to buy
+something in Rowington.”
+
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and
+they had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell. At Rowington the
+Terror bought copper wire at an ironmonger’s; and he was very careful
+to buy it of a certain thickness.
+
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the
+experiment. Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they
+washed them thoroughly in the kitchen. They dried them, and decided to
+keep them in its warmth till the next morning.
+
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making
+of snares. Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares
+at once. The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while
+before he got one at all to his liking.
+
+Remembering Tom Cobb’s instructions, he washed it, and then put on
+gloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the
+rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the
+cabbages. He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare,
+and thrilled with joy. The fur stole had come within the range of
+possibility.
+
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens,
+brushing them with the Terror’s hair-brush till their fur was of a
+sleekness it had never known before. Then Erebus adorned the neck of
+each with a bow of blue ribbon. Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed
+on the bows, and sewed them on firmly. It could not be doubted that
+they looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens. Directly after
+breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of their
+bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen.
+
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but
+they had to return to their lessons. After lunch they made three more
+snares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if
+anything, more deft at snare-making than his own.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and
+when they came to Ellen’s stall, they found to their joy that the
+basket which had held the six kittens was empty.
+
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and
+said: “Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong. I’ve sold
+them kitties—every one—and I’ve had two more ordered. It was when the
+ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went.”
+
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the
+Terror.
+
+“Five,” said the Terror. “I must pay you a shilling for selling them.
+It’s what they call commission.”
+
+“No, sir; I don’t want any commission,” said Ellen firmly. “As long as
+those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than
+any one else in the market. I haven’t had such a good day not ever
+before. And I’ll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me.”
+
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm.
+The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden
+about the common. He caught three rabbits.
+
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed
+the kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+
+At last he said rather sadly: “It’s sometimes rather awkward being a
+Dangerfield.”
+
+“Why?” said Erebus surprised.
+
+“Those rabbits,” said the Terror. “I want to sell them. But it’s no
+good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer. Even
+if he wanted rabbits—which he mightn’t—he’d only give me sixpence each
+for them. But if I were to sell them myself _here_, I could get
+eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them. But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can’t go about selling things. Uncle Maurice said I had the
+makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn’t go into
+business. It’s the family tradition not to. That’s what he said.”
+
+“Perhaps he was only rotting,” said Erebus hopefully.
+
+“No, he wasn’t. I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition,
+too. I expect that’s why we’re all so hard up.”
+
+“But the squire sells things,” said Erebus quickly. “And you can’t say
+he isn’t a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren’t so old as the
+Dangerfields.”
+
+“Of course, he does. He sells some of his game,” said the Terror, in a
+tone of great relief. “Game must be all right, and we can easily count
+rabbits as game.”
+
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they
+had caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of
+the neighborhood. The Terror went to the back doors of their well-to-do
+neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the gratifying
+result that in less than an hour he had sold all four of them at
+eightpence each.
+
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them. They
+had already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three
+shillings.
+
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew
+when to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went
+on. It was the fault of the rabbit market. At the fifteenth rabbit,
+when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole,
+the bottom fell out of it. For the time the desire of Little Deeping to
+eat rabbits was sated.
+
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who,
+after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: “Now, if you was to
+bring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different
+thing, Master Dangerfield.”
+
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: “And how much
+would you pay for pheasants?”
+
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic
+she had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of
+threepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: “Two and
+threepence each, sir.”
+
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer. He
+saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: “All right,
+I’ll bring you two or three a week. But you’ll have to pay cash.”
+
+“Oh, yes, sir. Of course, sir,” said the cook.
+
+“Do you know any one else who’d buy pheasants?” he said.
+
+“Well, there’s Mr. Carrington’s cook,” said the cook slowly. “She has
+the management of the housekeeping money like I do. I think she might
+buy pheasants from you. Mr. Carrington’s very partial to game.”
+
+“Right,” said the Terror. “And thank you for telling me.”
+
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the
+matter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits. He made a
+direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each.
+After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted
+it.
+
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught
+rabbits would catch pheasants. At first he was for catching those
+pheasants by himself. Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;
+snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl’s work.
+Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebus
+and must tell her.
+
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: “But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?”
+
+“Woods,” said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture.
+
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled
+fiercely.
+
+“The only thing is, we don’t know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants. And I don’t like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;
+and that wouldn’t do at all,” said the Terror.
+
+“But there’s nobody else to ask.”
+
+“I don’t know about that. There’s Wiggins’ father. He knows a lot of
+useful things besides higher mathematics. The only thing is, we must do
+it in such a way that he doesn’t see we’re trying to get anything out
+of him.”
+
+“Well, I should think we could do that. He’s really quite simple,” said
+Erebus.
+
+“As long as _you_ understand what I’m driving at,” said the Terror.
+
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington
+market, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next
+morning. Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rival
+poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell. The Twins at
+once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance
+that those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling. They were
+right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; and the
+joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of
+coming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the
+third afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly,
+about three miles from Little Deeping.
+
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington. They had a
+great respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor. In
+Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his presence.
+She did not know what he might say about her next. He was, therefore,
+somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles and joined him.
+He wondered what they wanted.
+
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the
+society of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk
+was running on pheasants. Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants, except
+from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the
+devastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:
+villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might live
+undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woods
+to itself.
+
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was
+not aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he
+bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to
+the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained the
+villages of all the intelligent. The skilful poacher who harried the
+sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the
+poacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words.
+He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher
+with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to
+display in the presence of the young. The Terror came from that talk
+with a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of
+raisins at the leading grocer’s. They might well have bought them at
+Little Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought
+Rowington safer. They always took every possible precaution at the
+beginning of an enterprise. They did not ride straight home. Three
+miles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill. At the
+foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping
+wood, acre upon acre. It had lately passed, along with the rest of the
+Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain. He
+was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less modern
+stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of having the
+finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it, he
+did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them. His friends came
+wholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins’ came to the clump on
+the hill. The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them
+behind the hedge. He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle
+basket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down
+the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked
+through it. One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the
+wood below. The occurrence pleased him. He crawled out of the clump on
+the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the
+ditch of the hedge to the wood. He did not lay it right down to the
+wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it. Then he returned
+with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus. They rode home well content.
+
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again.
+Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood
+to the clump. But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the
+clump. Just above the end of the ditch. Later he took from that snare a
+plump but sacred bird. Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs.
+Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+
+
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence
+to Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself
+serenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+
+“That’s all right,” said Erebus cheerfully. “That makes—that makes
+twenty-eight and eleven-pence. We _are_ getting on.”
+
+“Yes; it’s twenty-eight and eleven-pence now,” said the Terror quickly.
+“But you don’t seem to see that when we’ve got the stole for Mum these
+pheasants will still be going on.”
+
+“Of course they will!” cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightly
+indeed at the joyful thought.
+
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after
+breakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the
+clump above Great Deeping wood. He reached it at the hour when
+gamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thorough
+examination of it. He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose the two
+likeliest places for his snares. He did not set them then and there; a
+keeper on his afternoon round might see them. He came again in the
+evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then. Later he
+sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the cook of
+Mr. Carrington.
+
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens. They found themselves in the happy position of needing only
+six shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the
+clump of trees above Great Deeping wood. They had laid a trail of
+raisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it
+on the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and
+since the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over
+Great Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley.
+The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear and
+bright. But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided that
+instead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as well
+examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey.
+It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads,
+alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of
+his purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of
+his friends’ latest exploits) and made his dispositions. When they came
+to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a lookout
+ahead. The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins. Wiggins
+held the two bicycles. The Terror listened. The wood was very still in
+its winter silence. He slipped through the hedge into it, and presently
+came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasant indeed. He put
+it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted.
+
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty
+yards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting
+fashion as he came. There was neither time nor room to turn. They rode
+on; and the keeper made for the Terror. The Terror swerved; and the
+keeper swerved. Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came to the
+ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as he could.
+
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of “Keeper!” set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently,
+when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and
+dismounted.
+
+“The keeper’s got him. This is a mess!” said the Terror, who was
+panting a little from their spurt.
+
+“If only it had been one of us!” cried Erebus. “Whatever are we to do?”
+
+“If that beastly keeper hadn’t seen me with the pheasant, I’d get
+Wiggins away, somehow,” said the Terror. “But, as it is, it’s me they
+really want; and I’d get fined to a dead certainty. Come on, let’s go
+back and see what’s happened to him. You scout on ahead. Nobody knows
+you’re in it.”
+
+“All right,” said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a
+sign of an ambush. The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty
+yards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the
+alarm. They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond the end
+of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way up the
+drive, they saw the keeper and his prey. The keeper held Wiggins with
+his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right. The
+Twins dismounted. Even at that distance they could see the deep
+dejection of their friend.
+
+“There’s not really any reason for him to be frightened. He was never
+in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant,” said the
+Terror.
+
+“What does that matter? He _will_ be frightened out of his life; he’s
+so young,” cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after their
+receding friend with very anxious eyes. “He’s not like us; he won’t
+cheek the keeper all the way like we should.”
+
+“Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck,” said the Terror in a reassuring
+tone.
+
+“But he won’t understand he’s all right. He’s only ten. And there’s no
+saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bully
+him,” cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+
+“Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he’ll be out of
+it,” said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+
+“No, no! That won’t do at all!” cried Erebus fiercely. “We’ve got to
+rescue him now—at once. We got him into the mess; and we’ve got to get
+him out of it. You’ve got to find a way.”
+
+“It’s all very well,” said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took off
+his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: “I can’t see what we can
+do.”
+
+“Oh, I’m going to get him out of it somehow!” cried Erebus in a furious
+desperation.
+
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty
+yards. It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher
+of the three, the only one in real danger. As he leaned on his machine,
+watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth. For all his natural
+serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant to him.
+
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and
+the keeper. She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that the
+keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door, when
+she saw Wiggins’ bicycle standing against one of the pillars of the
+great porch. In a natural elation at having captured a poacher, and
+eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gone straight
+into the great hall.
+
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then
+she moved Wiggins’ bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came
+out, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of
+sight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered
+the knocker firmly, and rang the bell. The moment the door opened she
+stepped quickly past the footman into the hall. The keeper sat on a
+chair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking white
+and woebegone.
+
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+“What are you doing with my little brother?”
+
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her
+position.
+
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone,
+but he said triumphantly:
+
+“I caught ’im poachin’—”
+
+“Stand up! What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?” cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+“’E was poachin’,” he said sulkily.
+
+“He was not! A little boy like that!” cried Erebus scornfully.
+
+“Anyways, ’e was aidin’ an’ abettin’, an’ I’ve brought ’im to Mr.
+D’Arcy Rosynimer an’ it’s for ’im to say,” said the keeper stubbornly.
+
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle
+click by which the Twins called each other to attention. At the sound
+Wiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself. Erebus
+measured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there came
+into the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-faced
+young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+“Where’s the boacher?” he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting in
+his emotion to the ancestral “b.”
+
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it
+wide.
+
+“Bolt, Wiggins!” she cried.
+
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the
+footman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus. She slammed the
+door behind the vanished Wiggins.
+
+Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door. He caught her by the left arm to
+sling her out of the way. It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught
+him a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing
+of her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack of
+a whip-lash. Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender. He howled
+again, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists. She caught the
+first blow on an uncommonly acute elbow. The second never fell, for the
+footman caught him by the collar and swung him round.
+
+“It’s not for the likes of you to ’it Henglish young ladies!” he cried
+with patriotic indignation.
+
+Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+“Ged out of my house! Now—at once—ged out!”
+
+“And pleased I shall be to go—when I’ve bin paid my wages. It’s a month
+to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow. I’ve had enough of furriners,”
+said the footman with cold exultation.
+
+“Go—go—ged oud!” roared Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+“When I’ve bin paid my wages,” said the footman coldly.
+
+Erebus waited to hear no more. She turned the latch, slipped through
+the door, and slammed it behind her. To her dismay she saw a big
+motorcar coming round the corner of the house. She mounted quickly and
+raced down the drive. Wiggins was already out of sight.
+
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+
+“I’ve sent Wiggins on!” he shouted as she passed.
+
+“Come on! Come on!” she shrieked back. “The beastly foreigner’s got a
+motor-car!”
+
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car
+had been ready to start. They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down
+the road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew. They
+were fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles to
+their one on that good road. The Twins alone would have made a longer
+race of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins. They had gone
+little more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as it
+came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them.
+
+“Go on, Terror!” cried Erebus. “You’re the one that matters! You did
+the poaching! I’ll look after Wiggins! He’ll be all right with me.”
+
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the
+advice sank in, and he shot ahead. Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and they
+rode on. The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly as it
+would have done had not Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the courage
+of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it. He was howling at his
+straining chauffeur to go slower.
+
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than
+fifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging
+briskly along.
+
+“It’s your father!” gasped Erebus.
+
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and
+Erebus cried: “Wiggins hasn’t been poaching at all! It was the Terror!”
+
+“Was it, indeed?” said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D’Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+
+“I’ve got you, you liddle devil!” he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
+incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
+father.
+
+“What’s the matter?” said Mr. Carrington.
+
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
+single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence. Mr. Carrington
+seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
+arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
+technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as “an uppercut on
+the point which put him to sleep.” He fell as falls a sack of potatoes,
+and lay like a log.
+
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried
+forward.
+
+“Do you want some too, my good man?” said Mr. Carrington in his most
+agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
+no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
+between them.
+
+“I can’t say as I do, sir,” he said civilly; and he backed away.
+
+“Then perhaps you’ll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
+young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion,” said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+
+“Assaults?—’Im assault?—Yes, sir; it’s Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, of Great
+Deeping Court, sir,” said the keeper respectfully.
+
+“Then tell Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
+be summoned for assault. Good afternoon,” said Mr. Carrington, and he
+turned on his heel.
+
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
+employer. Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head. He put his
+walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
+with rueful tenderness. None the less he looked pleased; it was
+gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
+such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
+Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
+proud air. They felt that they shone with his reflected glory. It was a
+delightful sensation.
+
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: “Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?”
+
+“No, my child. I am not a pork-butcher,” said Mr. Carrington amiably.
+
+“He _looked_ as if he was dead,” said Erebus; and there was a faint
+ring of disappointment in her tone.
+
+“In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope
+that it will be a better and wiser self,” said Mr. Carrington. “But
+what was it all about? What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?”
+
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;
+then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: “It
+was a pheasant in Great Deeping wood,” she said. “The Terror found it,
+I suppose. I had gone on, and I didn’t see that part. But it was
+Wiggins the keeper caught. Of course—”
+
+“I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,”
+broke in Mr. Carrington. “Had you ridden on too, Rupert? Or did you see
+what happened?”
+
+“Oh, yes; I was there,” said Wiggins readily. “And the Terror found the
+pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket. And we had just
+got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I ran
+into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court. I wasn’t
+really frightened—at least, not much.”
+
+“The keeper had no right to touch him,” Erebus broke in glibly.
+“Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn’t even go into the wood;
+and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and
+the keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then
+that horrid Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold
+of me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once. I should
+think that the mark is still there “—her speed of speech slackened to a
+slower vengeful gratification and then quickened again—“and he began to
+thump me and the footman interfered, and I came away, and they came
+after us in the car, and you saw what happened—at least you did it.”
+
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+
+“Lucidity itself,” said Mr. Carrington. “But let us have the matter of
+the pheasant clear. Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance of
+finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?”
+
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly,
+and said, “Well, there was a snare, you know.”
+
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: “I thought so. I thought we should
+come to that snare in time. Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?”
+
+“Oh, no, he didn’t know anything about it!” Erebus broke in quickly.
+“We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous! He’s so young!”
+
+“I shall be eleven in a fortnight!” said Wiggins with some heat.
+
+“You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker’s in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could
+think of getting it,” said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+
+“Light! Light at last!” cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently.
+“Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitely
+Pomeranian! But it’s just as well that they have, or that ingenious
+brother of yours would be in a fine mess. As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited.” He
+chuckled again.
+
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from
+Erebus the full story of their poaching. When they reached the village
+he did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr.
+Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and had
+retired to Little Deeping. At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good
+afternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on the
+notice of any of Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer’s keepers who might be sent out
+to hunt for the real culprit. He would better keep quiet.
+
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home. She found the Terror
+in the cats’ home, awaiting her impatiently.
+
+“Well, did Wiggins get away all right?” he cried. “I passed Mr.
+Carrington; and I thought he’d see that they didn’t carry him off
+again.”
+
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr.
+Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+
+“By Jove! That was ripping! I do wish I’d been there!” said the Terror.
+“He only hit him once, you say?”
+
+“Only once. And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer’s keepers are out hunting for you,” said Erebus.
+
+“I am lying low,” said the Terror. “And I’ve got rid of that pheasant.
+I sold it to Mr. Carrington’s cook as I came through the village. I
+thought it was better out of the way.”
+
+“Then that’s all right. We only want about another half-crown,” said
+Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to
+a better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he
+still retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly
+interest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching
+not only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because
+she could so ill afford the expense of the case. He readily fell in
+with the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take the
+offensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer had
+given them the weapons.
+
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o’clock that
+evening Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R.
+S.; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served
+with a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington.
+
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer was in
+a chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been “put to
+sleep by an uppercut on the point.” He made haste to despatch a car
+into Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+
+The lawyer knew his client’s unpopularity in the county, and advised
+him earnestly to try to hush these matters up. He declared that however
+Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench of
+English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by a big
+young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of European reputation,
+or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen, gallantly
+rescuing that higher mathematician’s little boy from wrongful arrest
+and detention.
+
+Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his
+devotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy. But he
+perceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him too
+far, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shoot
+the particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not be
+deeply touched by it. Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use every
+effort to settle the matter out of court.
+
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over
+to Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington’s house. He found Mr.
+Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to
+placate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude
+which had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford to
+be generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with an
+uppercut on the point.
+
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the
+more prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a
+veritable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms. The summonses
+should be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about that
+poached pheasant and that Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty
+guineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital. The lawyer
+accepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection to
+complying with them.
+
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington
+sent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this
+poaching. He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at
+length on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caught
+and prosecuted. In the end he gave him the choice of giving his word to
+snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that he was
+poaching. The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants the more
+readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching, she
+would forbid him to set another snare for anything. Besides, he had
+been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before. Only he
+pointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a
+pheasant, for pheasants went everywhere. Mr. Carrington admitted this
+fact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting his
+snares on ground sacred to the sacred bird. If pheasants wandered into
+them on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault. Thanks therefore to
+the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of the
+Terror’s narrow escape.
+
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds,
+since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete. They
+turned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the
+hedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs. Mrs. Blenkinsop’s cook
+paid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time
+making the purchase. As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of
+more stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush. Accordingly on
+the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to
+buy it.
+
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing
+hard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker’s shop, Erebus
+gazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer,
+the confectioner, and said sadly:
+
+“It’s a pity it isn’t Saturday and we had our ‘overseering’ salary. We
+might have gone to Springer’s and had a jolly good blow-out for once.”
+
+The Terror gazed at Springer’s window thoughtfully, and said: “Yes, it
+is a pity. We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance.”
+
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed
+somewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles. She was
+very thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had
+chosen the very best of them. The girl who was serving them made out
+the bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the three
+guineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purse
+of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, and
+counted them slowly.
+
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole
+when a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: “I
+shall want five per cent. discount for cash.”
+
+“Oh, we don’t do that sort of thing here,” said the girl quickly. “This
+is such an old-established establishment.”
+
+“I can’t help that. I must have discount for cash,” said the Terror yet
+more firmly.
+
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity. Mr. Barker
+came and she put the matter to him.
+
+“Oh, no, sir; I’m afraid we couldn’t think of it. Barker’s is too old
+established a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doing
+business,” said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: “All right,” he
+said. “You can put the stole down to me—Master Hyacinth Dangerfield,
+Colet House, Little Deeping.”
+
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as
+the coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: “I’m afraid we can’t
+do that, sir. Our terms are cash—strictly cash.”
+
+“Oh, no, they’re not. My mother has had an account here for the last
+six years,” said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went into
+the bag.
+
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of
+warm geniality he cried: “Oh, that alters the case altogether! In the
+case of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we’re
+delighted to deduct five per cent. discount for cash—delighted. Make
+out the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins.”
+
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away
+the stole tenderly.
+
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave
+three shillings discount in his pocket and said: “Now for Springer’s!”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII
+AND PRINGLE’S POND
+
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an
+almost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had
+any. She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it
+had cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats’ home fund,
+since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should be
+diverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to them
+for the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it. On
+the whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had been
+raised.
+
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas. It was
+the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude and
+gently rollicked. There was a dearth of children, young men and maidens
+among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins were in
+request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings. Thanks to
+the Terror, the three of them took this brightening function with
+considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorous
+piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performed
+two charades in a very painstaking fashion. They had but little
+dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always
+well received.
+
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas. The weather broke about
+the middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy
+snow-storm. The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common in
+front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellent toboggan
+on which they rushed down the hill into the village street. These were
+but light pleasures. They watched the ponds with the most careful
+interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour’s skating.
+Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr. Carrington,
+meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the vicarage, drew from
+him a promise that he would not let his ardent son take any risk
+whatever.
+
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;
+and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear. They ate
+their breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered
+together his books for his morning’s work they made their plans.
+
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two
+pairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: “Then
+that’s settled. I’ll meet you at Pringle’s pond as soon after half past
+twelve as I can get there; but you’d better not go on it before I
+come.”
+
+“Oh, it’ll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday,” said Erebus
+impatiently.
+
+“Well, Wiggins isn’t to go on it before I come. You’ll do as you like
+of course—as usual—and if you fall in, it’ll be your own lookout. But
+he’s to wait till I come. If the ice does bear, it won’t bear any too
+well; and I’m responsible for Wiggins. I promised Mr. Carrington to
+look after him,” said the Terror in tones of stern gravity.
+
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: “As if I
+couldn’t take care of him just as well as you. I’m as old as you.”
+
+“Perhaps,” said the Terror doubtfully. “But you are a girl; there’s no
+getting over it; and it does make a difference.”
+
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she
+scowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly
+behind him. She hated to be reminded that she was a girl. The reminder
+rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs. Dangerfield
+asked her what was distressing her that she scowled so fiercely.
+
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she
+was ready to go skating. She set out briskly across the common, and
+found Wiggins waiting for her at his father’s garden-gate. He joined
+her in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its
+bearing with the most hopeful confidence. She displayed an equal
+confidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows.
+More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps and
+bounds. His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold winter
+sunlight.
+
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle’s pond. The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting. Also it
+looked quite thick and strong. Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
+that it bore her, and tested it with some care. She even jumped up and
+down on it. It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself that
+ice always cracks, more or less. She set about putting on her skates;
+and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed, followed
+her example.
+
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
+looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently. No; she
+would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
+till he came.… She could look after him quite as well as the Terror.…
+She had tested the ice thoroughly.… It was perfectly safe.
+
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him. The ice
+cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it cracked
+again. Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling Wiggins not
+to go far from the edge. She skated round and across the pond several
+times, then settled down to make a figure of eight, resolved to have it
+scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came. Wiggins skated about
+the pond.
+
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
+eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
+a shrill cry from Wiggins. She turned sharply to see the water welling
+up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
+row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
+the wind.
+
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+
+She screamed and dashed toward it. She had nearly reached it when his
+head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice. Two more
+steps and a loud crack gave her pause. It flashed on her that if she
+went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
+water herself.
+
+“Hold on! Hold on!” she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
+and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+
+She screamed again and yet again. Wiggins’ face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered. Then she sank down gently, at
+full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
+so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
+toward the hole. Half a minute’s cautious squirming brought her hands
+to the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists. The
+ice bent under her weight, but it did not break. The icy water, welling
+out over it, began to drench her arms and chest.
+
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could
+not. She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+
+Wiggins’ little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes. She
+could not.
+
+“C-c-can’t you p-p-pull m-m-me out?” chattered Wiggins.
+
+“No, not yet,” she said hoarsely. “But it’s all right. The Terror will
+be here in a minute.”
+
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+
+She listened with all her ears for an answer. A bird squeaked shrilly
+on the other side of the field; there was no other sound. Wiggins’
+white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of
+fear. Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+
+“It’s d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold,” said Wiggins in a very faint voice; he
+began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+
+“Try to stick it out! Don’t give in! It’s only a minute or two longer!
+The Terror _must_ come!” she cried fiercely.
+
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling
+ashamed of it. Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of hopeless
+bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in their
+sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal.
+
+They terrified Erebus beyond words. She screamed, and then she screamed
+and screamed. Wiggins’ face was a mere white blur through her blinding
+tears of terror.
+
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror
+cried loudly: “Stop that row!”
+
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir
+her and Wiggins. He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+
+Then he cried: “Squirm round to the left. I’ll help you.”
+
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and
+she squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending
+ice.
+
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a
+willow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull
+began to draw them toward the bank. The ice creaked as Wiggins’ chest
+came over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once
+flat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily.
+He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most of
+her weight off the ice. Then he stepped down on to it and picked up
+Wiggins. Erebus’ stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they did
+not open easily to let them go.
+
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then
+he pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened
+the blade with his teeth for quickness’ sake, tossed it to Erebus and
+cried: “Cut off his skates! Pull off his boots and stockings!”
+
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins’ coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began
+to rub his chest violently. In the spring the Twins had attended a
+course of the St. John’s Ambulance Society lectures, and among other
+things had learned how to treat those dying from exposure. The Terror
+was the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been the
+subject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid.
+
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into
+it. Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with cold
+and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his boots,
+pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at his
+legs. The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently till
+the blood reddened that. Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins’ knickerbockers and rubbed his
+thighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled
+them on Wiggins’ legs. The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror’s coat and jersey came well down them. Wiggins was completely
+covered. But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her
+jacket and tied it round Wiggins’ waist by the sleeves.
+
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no
+longer a dead waxen color. He opened his eyes twice and shut them
+feebly.
+
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: “Come on, old chap! Make an effort!
+We want to get you home!”
+
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins’ cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder,
+bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set
+off toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along. They
+went slowly for Wiggins’ feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly
+along. Their arms round him helped warm him. It would have taken them a
+long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soon
+after they came out of Pringle’s meadows on to the road, Jakes, the
+Great Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle
+Deeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart. Wiggins was
+quickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington’s
+in about four minutes.
+
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to
+Erebus: “You bolt home as hard as you can go. You must be awfully wet
+and cold; and if you don’t want to be laid up, the sooner you take some
+quinine and get to bed the better.”
+
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran
+home as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins
+as a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington’s house in an uproar. The
+Terror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and
+housemaid and Mr. Carrington himself. Wiggins was carried into the hot
+kitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet.
+The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expert
+Terror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must be
+restored slowly. As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and water
+with a teaspoon. In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able to talk
+faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation.
+
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed
+and warm the blankets. In another five minute’s Mr. Carrington carried
+Wiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine. Presently
+he fell asleep.
+
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without
+stockings and a jersey. He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr.
+Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over,
+he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the water
+and Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking. He was
+careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins go
+on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for saving him,
+he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and
+then further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine. On
+his way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle’s pond and picked
+up the skates and garments that had been left there. When he reached
+home he found that Erebus was in bed. She seemed little the worse for
+lying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins
+afloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worse
+and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite.
+
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her
+disregard for his instructions; he only said: “I just told Mr.
+Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the
+pond.”
+
+“That was awfully decent of you,” said Erebus after a pause in which
+she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+
+
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the
+spirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected. She was as
+quick as any one to realize that all’s well that ends well; and Wiggins
+escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed. The adventure, however,
+induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescending
+with him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquired
+something of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonly
+solicitous for his welfare. To such a point did this solicitude go that
+more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing about him.
+
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their
+lives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their
+games; then tended the inmates of the cats’ home, selling them as they
+grew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to
+lap.
+
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle
+Deeping Grange. The free water runs for rather more than half a mile on
+the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it with
+an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling that they
+left no fish for any one else. Also the Twins tried to get leave to
+fish Sir James Morgan’s preserved water, higher up the stream. But Mr.
+Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to give
+them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since Sir James was
+absent, shooting big game in Africa. They resented the refusal
+bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream. It was some
+consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early morning on the
+strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle Deeping Grange.
+
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their
+Aunt Amelia. Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that it
+was not the unbroken series of visits to cats’ homes Lady Ryehampton
+had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much. On his return he was
+able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt’s parrot still
+said “dam” with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan
+had let Muttle Deeping Grange. In the life of the Deeping villages the
+mere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the
+inhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of
+Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of
+their being when the news came that it had been let to a German
+princess. The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with the liveliest
+interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from their fine height
+when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of Cassel-Nassau, was only
+twelve years and seven months old.
+
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors.
+Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a
+_German_ princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the
+matter, and refused to be interested or impressed. Erebus was more
+resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high
+patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing
+to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea,
+gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with
+meaning, “And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!”
+
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass
+when it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she
+should model herself on a German.
+
+“I don’t suppose it would really make any difference who you modeled
+yourself on,” said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank than
+grammatical.
+
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of
+her neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her. She did
+not, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she
+had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor. They only saw her on her
+afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against the
+sun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness
+(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come to
+England.
+
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for
+her health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she
+should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the
+excellent Deeping air would strengthen her. The news abated a little
+the cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attention
+to their young neighbor.
+
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and
+her appetite was poor. Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and in
+particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit. It was not the best
+season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were coming to
+an end. Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas. The Twins were
+annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carry out the
+doctor’s orders; but there seemed no help for it.
+
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor’s
+visit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling
+their bicycles out of the cats’ home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes
+of the Terror; and he said:
+
+“I’ve got an idea!”
+
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried
+joyfully; “Thank goodness! I was beginning to get afraid that nothing
+was ever going to occur to us again. I thought it was the hot weather.
+What is it?”
+
+“Those Germans,” said the Terror darkly. “Now that they’ve got the
+Grange, why shouldn’t we make a raid on the peach-garden. They say the
+Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told me
+they ripen uncommon early. They’re probably ripe now.”
+
+“That’s a splendid idea! It will just teach those Germans!” cried
+Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot. Then after a pause she added reluctantly: “But if the princess
+is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches herself.”
+
+“She couldn’t want all of them. Why we couldn’t. There are hundreds,”
+said the Terror quickly. “And they’re the very thing for Mum. Bananas
+are all very well in their way; but they’re not like real fruit.”
+
+“Of course; Mum _must_ have them,” said Erebus with decision. “But how
+are we going to get into the peach-garden? The door in the wall only
+opens on the inside.”
+
+“We’re not. I’ve worked it out. Now you just hurry up and get some big
+leaves to put the peaches in. Mum will like them ever so much better
+with the bloom on, though it doesn’t really make any difference to the
+taste.”
+
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of
+different kinds. When she came back she found the Terror tying the
+landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing,
+to the backbone of his bicycle. She put the leaves into her bicycle
+basket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping.
+
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since
+they had spent several days in careful scouting before they had made
+their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds. A screen of
+trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; and
+the Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood,
+came down the wall behind that screen of trees.
+
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low
+bough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed
+the garden. It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound
+that disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed
+the golden burden of the tree beneath him. The ready Erebus handed the
+landing-net up to him. He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;
+slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the
+wall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a
+leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket. The Terror netted another
+and another and another.
+
+The garden was not as empty as he believed. On a garden chair in the
+little lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from
+him by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat,
+or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von
+Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor’s instructions
+that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was
+doing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her as
+little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spot
+on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden. Her
+eyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully
+crimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the
+sound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+
+The princess was warmly—very warmly—dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;
+the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her
+lap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look of
+intolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the
+end-of the wall of pear tree—a moving object against the garden wall.
+She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a
+peach rose and vanished over the top of the wall. She stared at the
+part of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds another
+peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that,
+in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the
+wall of pear-tree. As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the
+wall, a fair-haired boy. Even as she saw him something rose and
+vanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was a
+landing-net.
+
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably,
+raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: “How do you do?”
+
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to
+make admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke
+pursuit and risk his peaches.
+
+“How do you do?” said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+“What are you doing up there?”
+
+“I’m looking at the garden,” said the Terror truthfully, but not quite
+accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown. She
+thought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and
+his serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the
+lie. She thought that he looked a nice boy.
+
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval—as much approval as
+one could give to a girl. The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray
+eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line
+from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that it
+made her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face. She looked
+fragile; and he felt sorry for her.
+
+“This garden’s very hot,” he said. “It’s like holding one’s face over
+an oven.”
+
+“Oh, it is,” said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+
+“Yet there’s quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of the
+walls,” said the Terror.
+
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious
+examining eyes. Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+
+“I tell you what: come out into the wood. I know an awfully cool place.
+You’d find it very refreshing,” said the Terror in the tone of one who
+has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at
+the sleeping baroness. The sight of that richly crimson face made the
+garden feel hotter than ever.
+
+“Do come. My sister’s here, and it will be very jolly in the wood—the
+three of us,” said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+
+“Are you well-born?”
+
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:
+“Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in
+the Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns. And they did very well at
+Crécy and Agincourt, too,” he added pensively.
+
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+
+“Suppose the baroness were to wake?” she said.
+
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror’s face: “Oh, is that the
+baroness snoring? I thought it was a pig,” he said frankly. “She won’t
+wake for another hour. Nobody snoring like that could.”
+
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess. She
+cast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: “Very goot; I
+will coom.”
+
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall. When she came
+through it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it. The
+Terror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield. He
+gave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in the
+case of a princess, etiquette demanded it. Then they moved along the
+screen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood.
+
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess,
+which was uncommonly slow. She kept looking from one to the other with
+curious, rather timid, pleased eyes. She saw the landing-net that
+Erebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror’s bicycle; but she
+saw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches.
+
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the
+home wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through
+without difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths of
+the wood, and moved down it in single file.
+
+“I expect you never found this path,” said the Terror to the princess
+who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+
+“No, I haf not found it. I haf never been in this wood till now,” said
+the princess.
+
+“You haven’t been in this wood! But it’s the home wood—the jolliest
+part of the estate,” cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise. “And
+there are two paths straight into it from the gardens.”
+
+“But I stay always in the gardens,” said the princess sedately. “The
+Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that I
+go out of sight of her.”
+
+“But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time,”
+said Erebus.
+
+“Slack? What is slack?” said the princess.
+
+“She means feeble,” said the Terror. “But all the same those gardens
+are big enough; there’s plenty of room to run about in them.”
+
+“But I do not run. It is not dignified. The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked,” said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+
+“No wonder you’re delicate,” said Erebus, politely trying to keep a
+touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+
+“One can not help being delicate,” said the princess.
+
+“I don’t know,” said the Terror doubtfully. “If you’re in the open air
+a lot and do run about, you don’t _keep_ delicate. Wiggins used to be
+delicate, but he isn’t now.”
+
+“Who is Wiggins?” said the princess.
+
+“He’s a friend of ours—not so old as we are—quite a little boy,” said
+Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, would
+have resented with extreme bitterness. “Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told
+Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing with
+children of your own age, you’d soon get strong.”
+
+“That’s what I’ve come to England for,” said the princess.
+
+“I don’t think there’s much chance of your getting strong in that
+peach-garden. It didn’t feel to me like the open air at all,” said the
+Terror firmly.
+
+“But it is the open air,” said the princess.
+
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader
+one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep
+and pathless bank. The Twins started up it as if it were neither here
+nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
+
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+
+“Am I to climb this?”
+
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle
+against the trunk of a tree, and said:
+
+“I’ll help you up.”
+
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round
+the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of
+the bank. He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it; but
+none the less she reached the top panting a little.
+
+“You certainly aren’t in very good training,” he said rather sadly.
+
+“Training? What is training?” said the princess.
+
+“It’s being fit,” said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+
+“And what is being fit?” said the princess.
+
+“It’s being strong—and well—and able to run miles and miles,” said
+Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+
+“You needn’t shout at her,” said the Terror.
+
+“I’m trying to make her understand,” said Erebus firmly.
+
+“But I do understand—when it is not the slang you are using. I know
+English quite well,” said the princess.
+
+“You certainly speak it awfully well,” said the Terror politely.
+
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle. They went a little
+deeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in
+the cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+
+“This _is_ different,” she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure.
+
+[Illustration: “This is different,” she said.]
+
+“Yes; this is the real open air,” said the Terror.
+
+“But I do get lots of open air,” protested the princess. “Why, I sleep
+with my window open—at least that much.” She held out her two
+forefingers some six inches apart. “The baroness did not like it. She
+said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills. But Doctor
+Arbuthnot said that it must be open. I think I sleep better.”
+
+“We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they’ll go; and then
+they’re not wide enough in this hot weather,” said Erebus in the tone
+of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+
+“I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you’d be cooler still,”
+said the Terror rather quickly.
+
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat
+and jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure. She had quite
+lost her air of discomfort and boredom. Her eyes were shining brightly;
+and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitement of her
+situation.
+
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up
+children, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal
+personages unless they first speak to you. If they were, they did not
+let that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their
+healthy curiosity. It may be they felt that in the free green wood the
+etiquette of courts was out of place. At any rate they did not let it
+trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive,
+interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the
+lessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games
+she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea,
+her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner,
+the hour she went to bed.
+
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it
+was only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her
+importance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunate
+mortals. She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquette in
+not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question. Indeed she
+enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom that any
+one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom, indeed,
+that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her fellow
+creatures. She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had never had
+any really sympathetic playmates. The children of Cassel-Nassau were
+always awed and stiff in her society; their minds were harassed by the
+fear lest they should be guilty of some appalling breach of etiquette.
+The manner of the Twins, therefore, was a pleasant change for her. They
+were polite, but quite unconstrained; and the obsequious people by whom
+she had always been surrounded had never displayed that engaging
+quality, save when, like the baroness, they were safely asleep in her
+presence.
+
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new
+friends she looked for. As she exposed more and more of the trammeling
+net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was
+enmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have found
+so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said
+with heart-felt conviction:
+
+“Well, thank goodness, I’m not a princess! It must be perfectly awful!”
+
+“It must be nearly as bad to be a prince,” said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with
+parted lips and amazed incredulous eyes. Their words had given her the
+shock of her short lifetime. As far as memory carried her back, she had
+been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a German
+princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and delightful
+lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little less glorious and
+delightful than the lot of a German prince.
+
+“B-b-but it’s sp-p-plendid to be a princess! Everybody says so!” she
+stammered.
+
+“They were humbugging you. You’ve just made it quite clear that it’s
+horrid in every kind of way. Why, you can’t do any single thing you
+want to. There’s always somebody messing about you to see that you
+don’t,” said Erebus with cold decision.
+
+“B-b-but one is a _p-p-princess_,” stammered the princess, with
+something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+
+“You’re forgetting the food,” he said quickly to Erebus. “I don’t
+suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have all
+the sweets and ices she wants.”
+
+“Of course,” said the princess; and then she went on quickly: “B-b-but
+it isn’t what you have to eat that makes it so—so—so important being a
+princess. It’s—”
+
+“But it’s awfully important what you have to eat!” cried the Terror.
+
+“I should jolly well think so!” cried Erebus.
+
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her
+exalted station; but the Twins would not have it. They kept her firmly
+to the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets. The
+princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly
+but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
+new part of dispenser of information. Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
+and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.
+
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
+unheeded by the interested trio. The crimson baroness had awakened,
+missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
+her. A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
+was not in them. As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
+panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
+search of her.
+
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
+the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
+tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
+Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
+distant voice calling out.
+
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: “Listen! There’s some one
+calling. I expect they’ve missed you and you’ll have to be getting
+back.”
+
+The princess rose reluctantly. Then her face clouded; and she said in a
+tone of faint dismay: “Oh, dear! How annoyed the baroness will be!”
+
+“You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness,” said Erebus.
+
+“But I have to; she’s my—my _gouvernante_,” said the princess.
+
+“I don’t see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time,” said Erebus coldly.
+
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+
+“I don’t think I should tell her that you’ve been with us. She mightn’t
+think we were good for you. Some people round here don’t seem to
+understand us,” said the Terror suavely.
+
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
+brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, “Are you
+coming to-morrow?”
+
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully. They had no plans for the
+morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
+exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its
+inhabitants.
+
+At their hesitation the princess’ face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror’s heart.
+
+“We should like to come very much,” he said.
+
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on
+him.
+
+“I don’t think I shall be able to come,” said Erebus with the important
+air of one burdened with many affairs.
+
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: “But if your
+brother comes?”
+
+“Oh, I’ll come, anyhow,” said the Terror.
+
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+
+“Oh, it isn’t the baroness. It’s Miss Lambart,” said the princess in a
+tone of relief.
+
+“You take too much notice of that baroness,” said Erebus again firmly.
+“Who is Miss Lambart?”
+
+“She’s my English lady-in-waiting. I always have one when I’m in
+England, of course. I like her. She tries to amuse me. But the baroness
+doesn’t like her,” said the princess, and she sighed.
+
+“Come along, I’ll help you down the bank and take you pretty close to
+Miss Lambart. It wouldn’t do for her to know of this place. It’s our
+secret lair,” said the Terror.
+
+“I see,” said the princess.
+
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried
+her down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from
+which Miss Lambart had called. As they went he adjured her to confine
+herself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walking
+in the wood. His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of the
+drive, were:
+
+“Don’t you stand so much nonsense from that baroness.”
+
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and
+found her thirty yards away. The Terror slipped noiselessly away
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess’ footsteps, and said:
+“Oh, here you are, Highness. We’ve all been hunting for you. The
+baroness thought you were lost.”
+
+“I thought I would walk in the wood,” said the princess demurely.
+
+“It certainly seems to have done you good. You’re looking brighter and
+fresher than you’ve looked since you’ve been down here.”
+
+“The wood is real open air,” said the princess.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+
+
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease,
+eating a peach.
+
+“I should have liked one a good deal sooner,” he said, as he took one
+from the basket. “But I didn’t like to say anything about them. She
+mightn’t have understood.”
+
+“It wouldn’t have mattered if she hadn’t,” said Erebus somewhat
+truculently.
+
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had
+so plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+
+“She’s not a bad kid,” said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+“She’s awfully feeble. Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a bank.
+She’s not any use to us,” said Erebus in a tone of contempt. “In fact,
+if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should find her a
+perfect nuisance.”
+
+“Perhaps. Still we may as well amuse her a bit. She seems to be having
+a rotten time with that old red baroness and all that etiquette,” said
+the Terror in a kindly tone.
+
+“She needn’t stand it, if she doesn’t like it. I shouldn’t,” said
+Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: “I tell you
+what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that old
+red baroness.”
+
+“Yes,” said the Terror doubtfully. “But I expect she’d take a lot of
+teaching. I don’t think she’s the kind of kid to do much jumping on
+people.”
+
+“Oh, you never know. We can always try,” said Erebus cheerfully.
+
+“Yes,” said the Terror.
+
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood. It
+was not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered
+by bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved
+as the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but
+little attention to it. The Twins moved out of it safely and returned
+home with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they had
+been treating a princess with singular firmness. Nor were they at all
+troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mental
+kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuum
+applied to fruit.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that
+afternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and
+bought them for her there. When two more were forthcoming for her
+dessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so much
+of their salary for “overseering” on her. The Twins said nothing. It
+was only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she
+began to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not of
+trade. Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little late to
+inquire and protest. Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twins had
+admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit of it.
+Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing.
+
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping
+home wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who
+met them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes.
+This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain to
+them of this unheard-of breach of etiquette. She was doubtful how the
+complaint would be received at any rate by Erebus.
+
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since
+the sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it
+rather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror. There was
+something very satisfactory in his strength. Again they settled
+themselves comfortably on the bank of the pool.
+
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another. Beside the clear
+golden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the
+pale face of the princess looked waxen. The blue linen blouse, short
+serge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt,
+serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them an
+air not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb. In
+her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings and
+heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddled
+sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased
+by the Terror’s observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all
+when one had such thick hair as she. But she was some time acting on
+Erebus’ suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be
+more comfortable still.
+
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to
+tell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her
+having gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home
+wood.
+
+“I tell you what: you’ve spoilt that baroness,” said the Terror when
+she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+
+“But she’s my _gouvernante_. I have to do as she bids,” protested the
+princess.
+
+“That’s all rubbish. You’re the princess; and other people ought to do
+what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any silly
+thing you don’t want to. She wouldn’t me,” said Erebus with even
+greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+
+“I don’t think she would,” said the princess with a faint sigh; and she
+looked at Erebus with envious eyes. “But when she starts making a fuss
+and gets so red and excited, she—she—rather frightens me.”
+
+“It would take a lot more than that to frighten me,” said Erebus with a
+very cold ferocity.
+
+“I rather like people like that. I think they look so funny when
+they’re really red and excited,” said the Terror gently. “But what
+you’ve got to do is to stand up to her.”
+
+“Stand up to her?” said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+
+“Tell her that you don’t care what she says,” said the Terror.
+
+“Cheek her,” said Erebus.
+
+“I couldn’t. It would be too difficult,” said the princess, shaking her
+head.
+
+“Of course it isn’t easy at first; but you’ll be surprised to find how
+soon you’ll get used to shutting her up,” said the Terror. “But I don’t
+believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy. I believe in being
+quite polite but not giving way.”
+
+“She is very noisy,” said the princess.
+
+“Oh, then you’ll have to shout at her. It’s the only way. But mind you
+only have rows when you’re in the right about something,” said the
+Terror. “Then she’ll soon learn to leave you alone. It’s no good having
+a row when you’re in the wrong.”
+
+“I think it’s best always to have a row,” said Erebus with an air of
+wide experience.
+
+“Well, it isn’t—at least it wouldn’t be for the princess—she’s not like
+you,” said the Terror quickly.
+
+“Oh, no: not always—only when one is in the right. I see that,” said
+the princess. “But what should I have a row about?”
+
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a
+pretext for an honest row.
+
+Presently the Terror said: “Why don’t you make them let you have some
+one to play with? It’s silly being as dull as you are. What’s the good
+of being a princess, if you haven’t any friends?”
+
+“Oh, yes!” cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled. “It would be nice! You and Erebus could come to tea with me
+and sooper and loonch often and again!”
+
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay. It
+was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go
+to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and
+girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+
+“That wouldn’t do at all,” said the Terror quickly. “You had better not
+tell them anything at all about us. They wouldn’t let us come to the
+Grange; and they’d stop you coming here. It’s ever so much nicer
+meeting secretly like this.”
+
+“But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here,” said
+the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+
+“It couldn’t be done. They wouldn’t have us at the Grange,” said
+Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+
+“But why not?” said the princess in surprise.
+
+“The people about here don’t understand us,” said the Terror somewhat
+sadly. “They’d think we should be bad for you.”
+
+“But it is not so! You are ever so good to me!” cried the princess
+hotly.
+
+“It’s no good. You couldn’t make grown-ups see that—you know what they
+are. No; you’d much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet us
+here,” said the Terror.
+
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she
+sighed and said: “Well, I will do what you say. You know more about
+it.”
+
+“That’s all right,” said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: “I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you. Suppose
+we taught you some exercises. You could practise them at home; and soon
+you’d be able to do things when you were with us.”
+
+“What things?” said the princess.
+
+“Oh, you’d be able to run—and jump. Why we might even be able to teach
+you to climb,” said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his tone
+as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner vision.
+
+“Oh, that would be nice!” cried the princess. Forthwith the Twins set
+about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of
+muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil. In spite of the seeds
+of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back to the
+peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate before
+she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the house
+or about the gardens. The Terror therefore conducted her down the
+screen of trees to the door in the wall. She had left it unlatched; and
+he pushed it open gently. There was no sound of snoring: the baroness
+had awoke and left the garden.
+
+“I expect she is still looking for me in the house,” said the princess
+calmly. “They’d be shouting if she weren’t.”
+
+“Yes. I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?” said the Terror, looking
+round the loaded walls.
+
+“Me? No. I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch. But I
+don’t care for peaches much. It’s the way the baroness eats them, I
+think—the juice roonning down, you know. And she eats six or seven
+always.”
+
+“That woman’s a pig. I thought she looked like one,” said the Terror
+with conviction. “But if you don’t want them all, may I have some for
+my mother? The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she’s very fond of
+peaches.”
+
+“Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus. Take them
+all,” said the princess with quick generosity.
+
+“Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps,” said the Terror.
+
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large
+cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil. But when she
+was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.
+Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked
+the Twins how they came by them. They assured her that they had been
+given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a
+secret. She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it likely
+that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom took
+an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that either
+of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on eating
+the peaches with a clear conscience.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess’ spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body. They adjured her again and again to thrust off
+the yoke of the baroness. The last pregnant words of Erebus to her
+were: “You just call her an old red pig, and see.”
+
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that
+very evening. The princess was dining with the Baroness Von
+Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly
+jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk
+with the princess; and she had done it rudely. The princess, who wanted
+to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed. They had reached dessert; and
+Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in her appetite
+since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that it must be the
+air of Muttle Deeping. The baroness uttered a loud and contemptuous
+snort, and filled her plate with peaches. The princess looked at her
+with an expression of great dislike. The baroness gobbled up one peach
+with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human being, and very
+noisily, and was midway through the second when the princess spoke.
+
+“I want some children to play with,” she said.
+
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped
+down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: “Zere are no
+children in zis country, your Royal Highness.”
+
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in
+England.
+
+“But I see plenty of children when I drive,” said the princess.
+
+“Zey are nod children; zey are nod ’igh an’ well-born,” said the
+baroness in rasping tones.
+
+“Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with,” said the princess.
+
+“Moost? Moost?” cried the baroness in a high voice. “Bud eed ees whad I
+know ees goot for you.”
+
+“They’re good for me,” said the princess firmly. “And you must find
+them.”
+
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display
+of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer
+crimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: “Bud eed ees
+eembossible whad your royal highness ask! Zere are no ’igh an’
+well-born children ’ere. Zey are een Loondon.”
+
+“Well, you must send for some,” said the princess, who, having taken
+the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+
+“Moost? Moost? I do nod know whad ees ’appen to you, your Royal
+Highness. I say eed ees eembossible!” shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+
+“But surely her highness’ request is a very natural one, Baroness; and
+there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look
+for them. Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have
+children of her own age to play with,” said Miss Lambart who had been
+pitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping
+her to the companionship she needed.
+
+“Do nod indervere, Englanderin!” bellowed the baroness; and her crimson
+was enriched with streaks of purple. “I am in ze charge of ’er royal
+highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay.”
+
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow. She
+was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her young
+mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+
+“Old—red—peeg.”
+
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping
+grunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+
+“But whad—but whad—” she said faintly.
+
+“Old—red—peeg,” said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effect of
+the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+
+“Bud whad ees eed zat ’appen?” muttered the bewildered baroness.
+
+“If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father
+that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
+everything what the English doctor bids,” said the princess in a
+sinister tone. “Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the Baroness
+Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_.”
+
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
+happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
+Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
+well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.
+
+“Bud zere are no ’igh an’ well-born children, your Royal Highness,” she
+said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+
+The princess frowned at her and said: “Mees Lambart will find them. Is
+it not, Mees Lambart?”
+
+“I shall be charmed to try, Highness,” said Miss Lambart readily.
+
+“Do nod indervere! I veel zose childen vind myzelf!” snapped the
+baroness.
+
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
+glowing with the joy of victory. At the door she paused to say:
+
+“And I want them soon—at once.”
+
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
+night air, she went firmly out into the garden. The next morning at
+breakfast she again demanded children to play with.
+
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
+baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
+to come to play with the princess. She only stipulated that they should
+be high and well-born.
+
+“Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins—Mrs. Dangerfield’s boy and girl. They’re high and well-born
+enough. But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl. They’re independent young people. Besides, I’m not at all sure
+that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess. It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such—er—er ardent spirits. You might have her developing a spirit of
+freedom; and you wouldn’t like that.”
+
+“_Mein Gott_, no!” said the baroness with warm conviction.
+
+“Then there’s Wiggins—Rupert Carrington. He’s younger and quieter but
+active enough. He’d soon teach her to run about.”
+
+“But is he well-born?” said the careful baroness.
+
+“Well-born? He’s a _Carrington_,” said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
+impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily. When the princess, who had
+hoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him
+with resignation. Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of
+Wiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on the
+qualifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+
+“Of course, he’ll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; he
+always does. But you mustn’t mind that.”
+
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate
+be a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their
+fair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend. Not only was his
+reluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English young
+gentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit as
+sincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a little
+girl far more insulting than they would have done. They did their best
+to soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing out
+to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, and
+impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+
+“Yes; that’s all very well,” said Wiggins gloomily. “But I’ve been
+seeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now I
+shall see less than ever.”
+
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the
+stiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and he
+scalped her with gratifying frequency. In this way it came about that,
+in the matter of play, the princess led a double life. She spent the
+early part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from tea
+till the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society of
+Wiggins. She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wiggins
+was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he could
+tell. Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER X
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+
+
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air.
+They took that change at but a short distance from their home, since
+the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford.
+They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in
+the dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle of
+Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther.
+
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from
+the knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of
+philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they
+could. She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going
+to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been
+made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was
+presently weeping. She was ashamed; but she could not help it. The
+compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would try
+to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly
+the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was
+magnificently inspired.
+
+“Look here: why shouldn’t you come with us into camp?” he said eagerly.
+“A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange. You
+really do get open air camping out at the knoll.”
+
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid
+thought. Then it fell; and she said: “They’d never let me—never.”
+
+“But you’d never ask them,” said the Terror. “You’d just slip away and
+come with us. We’ve kept our knowing you so dark that they’d never
+dream you were with us in the knoll caves.”
+
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect. She
+had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the
+afternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them
+would be beyond the delight of dreams. But to her unadventured soul the
+difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting. The Twins, however, were
+used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began surmounting
+these.
+
+“The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,”
+said the Terror thoughtfully. “You see, I’ve got to go down every day
+for milk and things, and they’re sure to ask me if I’ve seen anything
+of you. Of course, I can’t lie about it; and then they’ll not only take
+you away, but they’ll probably turn us out of the caves.”
+
+“That’s the drawback,” said Erebus.
+
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment. A deep frown
+furrowed the Terror’s brow; and he said: “If only you weren’t a
+princess they wouldn’t make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I
+might never be asked anything about you.”
+
+“I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course,” said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a
+glorious smile, and he cried:
+
+“By Jove! Of course you would! I never thought of that! Why, you’d be
+some one else and not the princess at all! We shouldn’t know where the
+princess was if we were asked.”
+
+“Of course we shouldn’t!” said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of this
+ignorance.
+
+“I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel,” said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: “I
+suppose you have to have a title. But I think an English one would be
+best here: Lady Rowington now. No one would ever ask us where Lady
+Rowington is, because there isn’t any Lady Rowington.”
+
+“Oh, yes: Lady Rowington—I would wish an English title,” said the
+princess readily.
+
+“If we could only think of some way of making them think that she’d
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still,” said Erebus.
+
+“Gipsies don’t steal children nowadays,” said the Terror; and he paused
+considering. Then he added, “I tell you what though: Nihilists would—at
+least they’d steal a princess. Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?”
+
+“I never heard of any,” said the princess. “There are thousands of
+Socialists.”
+
+“Socialists will do,” said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till
+the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have
+everything in order. Then they discussed her needs. She could not bring
+away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not been
+stolen. She must share the wardrobe of Erebus.
+
+“But, no. I have money,” said the princess, thrusting her hand into her
+pocket. “Will you not buy me clothes?”
+
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and
+handed it to the Terror. He and Erebus examined it with warm
+admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
+
+“We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow. There’s a pool
+just under the knoll,” said the Terror. “How much shall we want,
+Erebus?”
+
+“You’d better have two pounds and be on the safe side,” said Erebus.
+
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to
+his own. Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of
+the peach-garden at nine o’clock, or thereabouts at night. He would
+wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
+the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will. He made several
+suggestions about the manner of her escape.
+
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
+purchasing her outfit. They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
+shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
+stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress. They carried the parcels
+home on their bicycles. When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
+Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
+
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
+throwing the searchers off the scent. It was:
+
+[Illustration: “We are avenged.
+A Desparate Socialist”]
+
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
+Knoll. The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so that
+they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom Cobb’s
+donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
+encamped with them. This year she had not cared for the effort; and she
+had also felt that ten days’ holiday out of the strenuous atmosphere
+which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and pleasant. She
+was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to encamp by
+themselves on Deeping Knoll. Not only were they of approved readiness
+and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were as safe
+from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea isle. She
+was somewhat surprised by the Terror’s readiness to take as many
+blankets as she suggested. In other years he had been disposed to
+grumble at the number she thought necessary.
+
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite. Then they began to
+arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
+brought them up, in their proper caves. With a break of an hour for a
+bath this occupied them till tea-time. After tea they bathed again and
+then set about collecting fuel from the wood. They were too tired to
+spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
+their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs. They
+were up betimes, bathing.
+
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before. They spent most of
+it in the pool or on its bank. In the afternoon Wiggins came and did
+not leave them till seven. Soon after eight o’clock the Terror set out
+to keep his tryst with the princess. He took with him the Socialist
+manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening from the
+gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange to Deeping
+Knoll. Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall two or
+three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
+
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess
+on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it. He shook
+hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told
+him how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone
+to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen,
+down the stairs and out of the house. He praised her skill; and she
+found his praise very grateful.
+
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the
+princess found them daunting. They were full of strange noises, many of
+them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes seemed
+to move. The Terror was not long discovering her fear, and forthwith
+put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the path was
+broad enough to allow it. When she quivered to some woodland sound, he
+told her what it was and eased her mind.
+
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active
+games with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough
+ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down
+and rested. The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled
+to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror.
+When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into
+the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests
+of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her. She was
+almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+
+[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot
+of the knoll.]
+
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey
+the princess found it grateful indeed. They sat for a while in a row
+before the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the
+princess had visited. But soon the yawns which she could not repress
+showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that she
+should go to bed.
+
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to
+herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it
+alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the
+cave of Erebus. After the journey and the excitement she was not long
+falling into a dreamless sleep.
+
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk.
+Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath. The
+princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but
+under the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went. She came
+out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she came
+to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her life
+enjoyed.
+
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the
+caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games
+of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to
+an active life. It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;
+after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of
+which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as
+hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you
+could yell. After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported
+themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o’clock.
+
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping
+her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required
+speed. Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full
+half-hour before he and Erebus left it. After dinner the princess was
+so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terror
+insisted that she should lie down for an hour. She protested that she
+did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this
+glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
+
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon. But he could be admitted
+safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had
+become Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to
+profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts. Also he would be very
+useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the
+excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess. So far
+its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were
+content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three
+counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for
+some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists and
+a princess. It was the general belief that she had been chloroformed
+and abducted through her bedroom window.
+
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the
+probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the
+routes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and the
+towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be. At the
+end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes,
+very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+“You might have told me that she was coming here.”
+
+“You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing,” said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+“So I should, if I’d known you knew her at all,” said Wiggins.
+
+“That’s what nobody knows,” said Erebus triumphantly.
+
+“And look here: she’s here incognita,” said the Terror. “She’s taken
+the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she’s not the princess at
+all. So if you’re asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully say
+she isn’t.”
+
+“Of course—I see. This is a go!” said Wiggins cheerfully; and he
+spurned the earth.
+
+“The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we’re not expecting them and see her,” said the Terror. “So I’m going
+to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will
+shout to us. But there’s no need to do that yet; nobody will think
+about us for a day or two.”
+
+“No; of course they won’t. I didn’t,” said Wiggins.
+
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that
+followed. It kept the princess always beside the Terror. Always he was
+using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required speed.
+Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princess been so
+hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough ground. On
+the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly move; but
+by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing yell that
+would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had
+died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his
+pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly
+fond of no one. It is hardly too much to say that she was coming to
+adore the Terror. Even at their most violent and thrilling moments his
+care for her never relaxed. He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he
+plastered her scratches. He saw to it that she came out of the pool the
+moment that she looked chill. He picked out for her the tidbits at
+their meals. He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass
+was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly
+refused to play the lady’s-maid. Since the Terror was one of those who
+enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently
+forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in
+handling the silken strands.
+
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her
+hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe
+shock. Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;
+indeed, she had never had the chance. But he had just finished his task
+and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a
+sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and
+kissed him.
+
+“Oh, you _are_ nice!” she said.
+
+The Terror’s ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds. He
+flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any one
+should have seen it!
+
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: “Don’t
+you like for me to kiss you?”
+
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said,
+faintly but gallantly: “Yes—oh, rather.”
+
+“Then kiss me,” said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her
+gingerly.
+
+“I _am_ fond of you, you know,” said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+
+The Terror’s scattered wits at last worked. He rose to his feet, and
+said quickly:
+
+“Yes; let’s be getting to the others.”
+
+The princess rose obediently.
+
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not
+frequent, were, at any rate, not rare. The Terror at first endured
+them; then he came rather to like them. But he strictly enjoined
+discretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that she
+kissed him. The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one else for
+that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no natural
+affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware of the
+practise.
+
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;
+and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out
+of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+
+“I suppose the Terror’s in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that. I think it’s awfully silly.” And he spurned the earth.
+
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: “He never does!”
+
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;
+and her eyes were flashing. He had seen her angry often enough, but
+never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a
+grievous indiscretion.
+
+“Perhaps she kissed him,” he said quickly.
+
+“He’d never let her!” cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+“Perhaps they didn’t,” said Wiggins readily.
+
+“You know they did!” cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+
+“I may have made a mistake. It’s quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing,” said Wiggins.
+
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from
+his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl. He had seen the
+princess with an arm round the Terror’s neck, and they had kissed.
+
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the
+least resistance, sought the princess. She found her lying back
+drowsily against a sunny bank.
+
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: “Princess
+or no princess, you shan’t kiss the Terror!”
+
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up. Her gray eyes darkened
+and sparkled. She had never made a face in her life; it is not
+improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was
+ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous
+face at Erebus, and said:
+
+“I shall!”
+
+“If you do, I’ll smack you!” cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth.
+
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by
+a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in
+the matter of a male. She met Erebus’ blazing eyes squarely and said
+confidently:
+
+“He won’t let you. And if you do he’ll smack you—much harder!”
+
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then
+and there. But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules
+only permit you to strike any one standing up. Erebus forgot them,
+stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a
+really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror.
+
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and
+she cried:
+
+“I know all about your kissing the princess! I never heard of such
+silly babyishness!”
+
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to
+the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as
+he said:
+
+“Well, what harm is there in it?”
+
+“It’s babyish! It’s what mollycoddles do! It’s girlish! It’s—”
+
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+
+“You mind your own business! It isn’t babyish at all! She’s asked me to
+marry her; and when we’re grown up I’m going to—so there!”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI
+AND THE UNREST CURE
+
+
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by
+what she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission
+had raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered
+no protest. She knew that protest would be vain, that against his
+obstinacy she was helpless. She wrung her hands and turned aside into
+the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiest
+ideals.
+
+Then followed a period of strain. She assumed an attitude of very
+haughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins,
+and let them coldly alone. From this attitude Wiggins was the chief
+sufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;
+Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the
+strenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily. As
+often as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined the
+errant pair. It is to be feared that the princess found the kisses
+sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on
+Deeping Knoll. There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the
+Twins had had a hand in her disappearance. But no one had any reason to
+suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted. Doctor
+Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but they
+were mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always very
+careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was at
+the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficient
+truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was. The
+bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down.
+Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice
+Falconer in the matter. When he first read in his _Morning Post_ of the
+disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from Muttle
+Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: “The Twins again!” and
+to that conviction his mind clung.
+
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the
+Socialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny
+paper. He told himself that Socialists are an educated, even
+over-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skull
+and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rate
+accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialist
+would spell desperate with two “a’s” in an important document without
+being corrected by a confederate. On the other hand the drawing of the
+skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which the
+immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two “a’s” in
+any document.
+
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of
+his relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been
+for the international situation produced by the disappearance of the
+princess. As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings,
+dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled to
+postpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organ
+and organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudly
+disavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England and
+Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at one
+another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiring
+frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets. Even then
+Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would
+not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet
+minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty
+thousand pounds’ worth of consols. He disliked the lady so strongly
+that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt
+that the time had come to ease the international situation.
+
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping. His conviction
+that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess
+became certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were
+encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that
+disappearance. But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his
+habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
+
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood
+and park to Muttle Deeping Grange. He gave his card to the butler and
+told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms
+of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three
+minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
+
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:
+“Is this business worrying you?”
+
+“It is rather. You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible. Besides, since I’m
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being
+taken explained; and they want the same explanation over and over
+again. Since the archduke came it has been very trying. I think that he
+is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met.”
+
+“I’m sorry to hear that they’ve been worrying you like this. If I’d
+known, I’d have come down and stopped it earlier,” said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of lively self-reproach.
+
+“Stop it? Why, what can you do?” cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyes
+wide in her surprise.
+
+“Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess. But it’s only a belief, mind. So don’t be too hopeful.”
+
+Miss Lambart’s pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+
+“Oh, if you could!” she cried.
+
+“Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can,
+for the easier part; and we’ll put my belief to the test,” said Sir
+Maurice briskly.
+
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: “I shan’t be able to
+get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss. They’re very unpleasant
+people, you know. Could we take the baroness with us? She’ll _have_ to
+be carried in something.”
+
+“Is she very fat?”
+
+“Very.”
+
+“Then she’d never get to the place I have in mind,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+“Is it very far? Couldn’t we walk to it?”
+
+“It’s about three miles,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+“Oh, that’s nothing—at least not for me. But you?” said Miss Lambart,
+who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
+weakling.
+
+“I can manage it. Your companionship will stimulate my flagging limbs,”
+said Sir Maurice. “Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and pleasant
+afternoon will be an experience I haven’t enjoyed for years.”
+
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
+park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
+surface of the distant wood. Sir Maurice had once walked to it with the
+Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
+inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
+course. It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
+charming companion through such a charming country.
+
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+“Where are we going to? Where do you think the princess is?”
+
+“You’ve been here a month. Haven’t you heard of the Dangerfield twins?”
+said Sir Maurice.
+
+“Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
+and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them. But he said that they were not the
+kind of children for her, though they were the only high and well-born
+ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood. He seemed to
+think that they would make her rebellious.”
+
+“Then the princess didn’t know them?” said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+“No.”
+
+“I wonder,” said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+
+“We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her—a very
+nice little boy,” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“Wiggins! The Twins’ greatest friend! Well, I’ll be shot!” cried Sir
+Maurice; and he laughed.
+
+“But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
+something to do with the princess’ disappearance? How old are they?”
+said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
+mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
+Socialists and foreigners.
+
+“I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen. But I do know that
+nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their having
+a hand in it. I have the honor to be their uncle,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+“But they’d never be able to persuade her to run away with them. She’s
+a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
+she is delicate to fragility,” Miss Lambart protested.
+
+“If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse,” said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of deep conviction. “But it would not necessarily be a matter
+of persuasion.”
+
+“But what else could it be—children of thirteen or fourteen!” cried
+Miss Lambart.
+
+“I assure you that it might quite easily have been force,” said Sir
+Maurice seriously. “My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll.
+It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part
+communicating with one another. I can conceive of nothing more likely
+than that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;
+and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom. They
+might lure her to some distance from the Grange before they had
+recourse to force.”
+
+“It sounds incredible—children,” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“Well, we shall see,” said Sir Maurice cheerfully. Then he added in a
+more doubtful tone; “If only we can take them by surprise, which won’t
+be so easy as it sounds.”
+
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase. But it was a
+very pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking
+with him through this pleasant sunny land. When presently he turned the
+talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still. He was
+very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance at having
+had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome _corvée_ of acting
+as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to the
+domineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome _corvée_
+indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been. He
+sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented by
+that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess.
+
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the
+baroness and the archduke during the last few days. The baroness had
+tried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; and
+the archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at
+having been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash to
+England, had been very rude indeed. She was much pleased by the warmth
+of Sir Maurice’s indignation; but she protested against his making any
+attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, without
+harming himself. But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke,
+nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in
+the broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path
+led to the knoll. Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take
+it. He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have it guarded,
+if the princess were indeed with them. He led the way into the wood on
+the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for her carefully, seeing
+to it that she did not get scratched, or her frock get torn, he brought
+her in a circuit round to the very back of the knoll.
+
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir
+Maurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering
+earnestly ahead through the branches. Now and again a loud yell came
+from the knoll; and once a chorus of yells. Finding that her coldness
+(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on her
+insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;
+and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in
+an astonished whisper:
+
+“That was awfully like the princess’ voice.”
+
+“I thought you said she was delicate,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+“So she was,” said Miss Lambart firmly.
+
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen
+and unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the
+knoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in its
+face. They waited, watching it.
+
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning
+to wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed
+kin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging
+down her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped
+into a clump of bushes to the right of it.
+
+“The princess!” said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward,
+but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing
+in a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+
+“That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an
+ear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms
+round his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came
+to the ground.
+
+“Delicate to fragility,” muttered Sir Maurice.
+
+“Whatever has she been doing to herself?” said Miss Lambart faintly,
+gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+
+“You don’t know the Twins,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a
+breakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the
+battling pair. As far as the spectators could judge she and the
+princess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelled
+their shrillest. Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from the
+cave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the aching
+welkin rang.
+
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and
+Wiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled. The princess
+and the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled. The princess
+wriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an arm
+round his neck.
+
+“It was splendid!” she cried, and kissed him.
+
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very
+good grace.
+
+“Well, I never!” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“These delicate children,” said Sir Maurice. “But it’s certainly a
+delightful place for lovers. I’m so glad we’ve found it.”
+
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was
+flushing.
+
+“Come along!” she said quickly.
+
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first. He did not stir; but a curious,
+short, sharp cry came from his throat. It seemed to loose a spring in
+the princess. She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly, frowning.
+The Terror rose more slowly.
+
+“Good afternoon, Highness. I’ve come to take you back to the Grange,”
+said Miss Lambart.
+
+“I’m not going,” said the princess firmly.
+
+“I’m afraid you must. Your father is there; and he wants you,” said
+Miss Lambart.
+
+“No,” said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewise
+toward the mouth of the cave.
+
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his
+pockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator.
+
+“But if you don’t come of yourself, we shall have to carry you,” said
+Miss Lambart sternly.
+
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: “I don’t see
+how you can. You can’t touch a princess you know. It would be
+_lèse-majesté_. She’s told me all about it.”
+
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir
+Maurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively. But he said: “Oh, come;
+this won’t do, Terror, don’t you know! Her highness will _have_ to
+come.”
+
+“I don’t see how you’re going to get her. The only person who could use
+force is the prince himself, and I don’t think he could be got up to
+the knoll. He’s too heavy. I’ve seen him. And if you did get him up, I
+don’t really think he’d ever find her in these caves,” said the Terror
+in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirely impersonal
+matter.
+
+“Anyhow, I’m not going,” said the princess with even greater firmness.
+
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal
+perplexity.
+
+“You see, there isn’t any real reason why she shouldn’t stay here,”
+said the Terror. “She came to England to improve her health; and she’s
+improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange. You
+can _see_ how improved it is. She eats nearly as much as Erebus.”
+
+“She has certainly changed,” said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+
+“The Twins have a transforming effect on the young,” said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of resignation.
+
+“I am much better,” said the princess. “I’m getting quite strong, and I
+can run ever so fast.”
+
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+“But it’s nonsense!” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“But what can you _do_?” said the Terror gently.
+
+“I’ll chance the _lèse-majesté_!” cried Miss Lambart; and she sprang
+swiftly forward.
+
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it. Miss Lambart followed
+swiftly. The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage
+forked into three dimmer passages. Miss Lambart stopped short and tried
+to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of the
+retiring princess. It came from none of the three; the floor of the
+eaves was covered with sound-deadening sand. Miss Lambart walked back
+to the entrance of the cave.
+
+“She has escaped,” she said in a tone of resignation.
+
+“Well, I really don’t see any reason for you to put yourself about for
+the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange. You have done more
+than you were called on to do in finding her. You can leave the
+catching of her to them. There’s nothing to worry about: it’s quite
+clear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good,” said Sir
+Maurice in a comforting tone.
+
+“Yes; there is that,” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“Let me introduce my nephew. Hyacinth Dangerfield—better, much better,
+known as the Terror—to you,” Said Sir Maurice.
+
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: “How do you do? I’ve been
+wanting to know you: the princess—I mean Lady Rowington—likes you ever
+so much.”
+
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+
+“Perhaps you could give us some tea? We want it badly,” said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+“Yes, I can. We only drink milk and cocoa, of course. But we have some
+tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday,” said the Terror.
+
+“I take it that she saw nothing of the princess,” said Sir Maurice.
+
+“Oh, no; she didn’t see Lady Rowington. You must remember that she’s
+Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all,” said the Terror.
+
+“Oh? I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess,” said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+“Yes; that was how,” said the Terror blandly.
+
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their
+kettle on the fire for some time. Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed
+the picnic greatly. On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed. Miss
+Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess; and
+she came out of hiding and took her tea with them.
+
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical
+change in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was
+a browner, brighter, stronger child. Plainly, too, she was a more
+determined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved of
+that change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved by
+the princess’ kinsfolk and train. But she was somewhat distressed that
+the legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deep
+scratches. She had none of the experienced Twins’ quickness to see and
+dodge thorns. She took Miss Lambart’s sympathy lightly enough; indeed
+she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorable
+warfare.
+
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was
+assured that this green wood life was the very thing the princess
+needed, she was resolved to give him no help herself. She was pleased
+to learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess’
+acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance and
+cultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in the
+peach-garden.
+
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of
+their entertainers and set out through the wood. They had not gone a
+hundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that the
+strenuous life had again begun.
+
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle
+Deeping Grange with the news of their great discovery. But she found
+that Sir Maurice had formed other plans. They were both agreed that no
+consideration was owing to the billowy archduke. His manners deprived
+him of any right to it. Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping
+post-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and help
+wrote two long telegrams. The first was to the editor of the Morning
+Post, the second was to the prime minister. In both he set forth his
+discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in a
+wood, and her reasons for running away to them. The postmistress
+despatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease
+the international situation at once. Since both the editor and the
+prime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there was
+no fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect.
+
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of
+Mrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged
+Europe into Armageddon. Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with
+unruffled calm. She showed no surprise at all; she only said that she
+had found it very strange that a princess should vanish at Muttle
+Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it. She perceived at once that
+the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name of
+Lady Rowington.
+
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no
+haste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant
+atmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange. It was past seven therefore when
+the Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archduke
+with her news.
+
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he
+always fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with
+sufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of her
+news. He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it. It
+annoyed him greatly. He was taking considerable pleasure in standing on
+a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern sire.
+His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laugh consumedly
+when it learned the truth of the matter. His second feeling was that
+his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirring things about
+the Terror’s manifesto and the stolen princess, would be furiously
+angry with him.
+
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss
+Lambart was ignorant. Then when he grew cooler and paler his
+oft-repeated phrase was: “Eet must be ’ushed!”
+
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care
+that the affair should not be hushed up. She did not wish every blow to
+strike him at once. Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste he
+rolled off to the dining-room.
+
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke’s equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up
+the stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at
+once, as she was. She took no heed of the command, dressed at her ease,
+and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after his
+struggle with the hors-d’oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his
+first entrée.
+
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about
+the place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was
+encamped with. Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as
+clearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible.
+Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercised
+her authority and brought the princess back with her.
+
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that
+if she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and
+that it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through
+miles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns were
+sacrosanct.
+
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and
+summon home his truant child. Miss Lambart objected that it would mean
+hewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit his
+passage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allow
+it. Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go. Miss Lambart with
+infinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must be
+hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there was
+not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves.
+
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity. Then he
+struck the table and cried:
+
+“Count Zerbst shall do eet! To-morrow morning! You shall ’eem lead to
+ze wood. ’E shall breeng ’er.”
+
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a
+German count would hardly be proper.
+
+“Brobare? What ees ‘brobare’?” said the archduke.
+
+“_Convenable_,” said Miss Lambart.
+
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to
+militate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the
+earliest possible moment. Miss Lambart said that they must. In the end
+it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowington and
+that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to the
+entrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to the
+princess her father’s command to return to the Grange, and if she
+should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car.
+
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would
+never set eyes, much less hands, on the princess. Count Zerbst’s smooth
+pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little mustache, which
+in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion accentuated the
+extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his small eyes sparkled; and
+he muttered fiercely something about “sdradegy.” He looked at Miss
+Lambart very unamiably. He felt that she was not impressed by him as
+were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resented it. He resolved to
+capture the princess at any cost.
+
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the _Morning
+Post_ the true story of his daughter’s disappearance; and he was fuming
+still when the car came from Rowington. It was a powerful car and a
+weight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been
+careful to demand a weight-carrier. With immense fuss the archduke
+disposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled with
+billowy curves. The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang to
+the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she might
+the more easily direct his course.
+
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no
+objection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran
+the path to the knoll. At the entrance of it the count stepped out of
+the car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the air
+of a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but he
+was to bring her at once.
+
+In a last generous outburst he cried: “Pooll ’er by the ear! Bud breeng
+’er.”
+
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and
+martial air. Miss Lambart was not impressed by it. She thought that in
+his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently
+tighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place
+under the green wood trees. She remembered how lightly the Twins and
+the princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his getting
+near any of them. Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods she
+had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which
+to approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent. Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with
+all the competence of a trumpet.
+
+Her doubt was well-grounded. The quick ears of Erebus were the first to
+catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred yards
+from the entrance of the path to the knoll. Ever since the departure of
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been making ready against
+invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings to the secret
+caves.
+
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to
+the knoll. They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well
+lighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge. But the
+entrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave
+in the heart of the knoll. On this shaft the Twins had spent their best
+pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they had reduced
+some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches high and
+eighteen inches broad. The opening into this passage could, naturally,
+be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was hard indeed
+to distinguish it from the wall of the cave. It had been a somewhat
+difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so narrow a
+passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite
+sure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car
+was coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed
+their way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind
+them, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between the
+larger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of the
+wall of the cave. Then she betook herself to a point of vantage among
+the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch the
+entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an
+excellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train
+from Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais. Miss
+Lambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on the
+efforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll. She stepped out of the car and
+strolled up and down on the pleasant turf. Presently she saw a figure
+coming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when it
+came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice.
+
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the
+discoverer of his daughter’s hiding-place. The archduke, mindful of the
+fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance to
+the world, received him ungraciously. Miss Lambart at once told Sir
+Maurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectation
+that anything would come of it. Sir Maurice agreed with her; and the
+fuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promising
+soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau. Then Sir Maurice suggested that
+they should go to the knoll and help the count. Miss Lambart assented
+readily; and they set out at once. They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll. It was quiet and seemed utterly
+deserted.
+
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer.
+Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they
+should find him and help him search them; they plunged into the caves
+and began to hunt for him. They did not find the count; neither did
+they find the princess nor the Twins. They shouted to him many times as
+they traversed the caves; but they had no answer.
+
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they
+reached it. He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the
+princess. He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to the
+princess. No answer had come to his calling. He had kept coming out of
+the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll. At one of these exits, to
+his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl, dressed in the
+short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told the princess was
+wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the knoll. With a
+loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged after her into
+the wood. Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among the bushes, and
+by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in sight. Once,
+indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good and all, it
+suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take up the chase
+again. But he did not catch her. Indeed he did not lessen the distance
+between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye. For a delicate
+princess she was running with uncommon speed and endurance. Considering
+his dress and boots and the roughness of the going, he, too, was
+running with uncommon speed and endurance. It was true that his face
+was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff, tall, white collar
+lay limply gray round his neck. But he was not near enough to his
+quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly flushed by
+her efforts and hardly perspiring at all. All the while he was buoyed
+up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course of the next
+hundred yards.
+
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran
+down a field path toward the village of Little Deeping. By the time the
+count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards. To his
+joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost
+ground quickly. When they reached the common, he was a bare forty yards
+behind her. He was not surprised when in despair she left the path and
+bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it.
+
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious
+air, and knocked firmly on the door. Sarah opened it; and he demanded
+the instant surrender of the princess. Sarah heard him with an
+exasperating air of blank bewilderment. He repeated his demand more
+firmly and loudly.
+
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: “Please, mum: ’ere’s a furrin
+gentleman asking for a princess. I expect as it’s that there missing
+one.”
+
+“Do nod mock! She ’ees ’ere!” cried the count fiercely.
+
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been
+arranging flowers, and came to the door.
+
+“The princess is not here,” she said gently.
+
+“But I haf zeen ’er! She haf now ad once coom! She ’ides!” cried the
+count.
+
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet
+by its strings. The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+
+“I expect he means me. At least he’s run after me all the way from the
+knoll here,” said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+
+The count’s eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden
+outburst of fluent German. He did not think that any of his hearers
+could understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; he
+hoped they could not; he could not help it if they did.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully. She did not
+suppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the
+count to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day. She was sorry
+for him. He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fall foul
+of the Twins.
+
+Erebus caught her mother’s thoughtful eye. At once she cried
+resentfully: “How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made
+him think I was the princess? He never asked me who I was. He just
+shouted once and ran after me. I was hurrying home to get some salad
+oil and get back to the knoll by lunch.”
+
+“Yes, you would run all the way,” said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+
+“Well, you’d have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!
+Just look at that mustache! It would frighten anybody!” cried Erebus in
+the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+
+“Yes, I see,” said her mother with undiminished patience.
+
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed
+his fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda. He
+explained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistake
+Erebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to
+appear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman. Erebus left them
+together; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to the
+knoll. They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been an
+after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it. That would
+be the safe course.
+
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car,
+looking frequently at his watch. He had expected the count to return
+with the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour. Then he had
+expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count and the
+princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour. None of them
+returned. The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highest
+of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of this
+enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair. The count sat drinking
+whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had not
+really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased that
+he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of her
+acquaintance. Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and talked
+seriously about everything and certain other things, but chiefly about
+themselves and each other.
+
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay
+between him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter
+remained uncaught. He chafed and fumed. His vexation grew even more
+keen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that the
+thoughtless count had borne away the case. He appealed to the chauffeur
+for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington and ignorant of
+Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car,
+bellowed: “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!” and sank down again panting with
+the effort.
+
+[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!”]
+
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes. The archduke’s
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry. No
+answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+“P’raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace,” said the chauffeur,
+somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+
+“Yes, shout!” said the archduke quickly.
+
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: “Zerbst!
+Zerbst! Zerbst!”
+
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: “I shout—you shout—all ad
+vonce!”
+
+“Every little ’elps,” said the chauffeur politely.
+
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together
+bellowed: “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!”
+
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+“He seems to be growing impatient.”
+
+“He isn’t calling us. And it’s no use our going back without either the
+princess or the count,” said Miss Lambart quickly.
+
+“Not the slightest,” said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if that
+were possible, to him and kissed her.
+
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and
+their discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their
+earlier friendship. They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been
+discussing the matter of being married at an early date.
+
+“I don’t think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all. They don’t
+treat you decently, you know—not even for royalties,” he went on.
+
+“Oh, it wouldn’t do not to go back—at any rate for to-night—though, of
+course, there’s no point in my staying longer, since the princess isn’t
+there,” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“You don’t know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is hauling
+her to her circular sire,” said Sir Maurice. “The Twins can not be
+successful all the time.”
+
+“We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly,” said Miss Lambart.
+
+“That wouldn’t be the slightest use,” said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete certainty. “If the princess is in the caves, she is not in an
+accessible one. But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or even
+likelier, to be at the Grange. The Twins are quite intelligent enough
+to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to look for
+them. It’s no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we’re very
+comfortable here. Why not stay just as we are?”
+
+They stayed there.
+
+But the archduke’s impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the
+minutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away. At ten
+minutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers
+should be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once
+he despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+
+The chauffeur made no haste about it. He had heard of the caves on
+Deeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them. Besides, he made
+it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in his
+mouth since eleven o’clock; and he felt now off duty. He explored half
+a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir
+Maurice and gave them the archduke’s message. They joined him in his
+search for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to him
+loudly.
+
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near.
+The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late
+for it. There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from
+his solar plexus.
+
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and
+bellowed: “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!”
+
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the
+knoll.
+
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to
+sink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a
+gloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the
+chauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to the
+knoll.
+
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst. The archduke cursed his equerry
+wheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the
+car and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the
+car went bumping down the turfed aisle. Once in the road the chauffeur,
+anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducal hospitality,
+let her rip. But half a mile down the road, they came upon a
+slow-going, limping wayfarer. It was Count Zerbst. After a long
+discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebus had
+slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to find
+his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping Grange.
+In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his patent
+leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he was indeed
+footsore. He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh of relief.
+
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone
+was cheerful. The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and
+disappointments of the morning. Count Zerbst had acquired a deep
+respect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; and
+he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter with
+Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princess
+good, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimson
+baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage her
+charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial
+social reasons. The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to
+recover her lost charge.
+
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the
+baroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily. He made no secret of the
+fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to the
+woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but it might
+take a week or ten days. The archduke cried shame upon a strategist of
+his ability that he should be baffled by children for a week or ten
+days. Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the children who would
+baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were using. At last they
+began to discuss the measure of summoning to their aid the local
+police; and for some time debated whether it was worth the risk of the
+ridicule it might bring upon them.
+
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had
+something more pleasant to give her mind to. But at last she said with
+some impatience: “Why can’t the princess stay where she is? That
+open-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good. She is
+eating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as ever
+she took in her life before.”
+
+“Eembossible! Shall I live in a cave?” cried the baroness.
+
+“It doesn’t matter at all where you live. It is the princess we are
+considering,” said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+
+“Drue!” said the archduke quickly.
+
+“Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?”
+cried the baroness.
+
+“She isn’t,” said Miss Lambart shortly. “In fact she’s leading a far
+better and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here. The
+doctor’s orders were never properly carried out.”
+
+“Ees zat zo?” said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+
+“Eengleesh doctors! What zey know? Modern!” cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders. The baroness
+defended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be
+dying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water the
+doctors had ordered her. But the archduke stormed on. At last he had
+some one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show of
+reason; and he vented it.
+
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart’s counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of
+the princess remaining at the knoll. They found many objections to it,
+and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be
+encamped by themselves in the heart of a wood.
+
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more
+efficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+
+“Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself. Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind
+at ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better
+health than if she had stayed on here.”
+
+“Bud ’ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and—” cried the
+baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority.
+
+“Goot!” cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed at
+the thought of escaping forthwith to his home. “Eet shall be zo! And ze
+baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who do
+as ze doctors zay.”
+
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting
+provisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the
+path to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewest
+possible number of garments she would need during her stay.
+
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the
+Rowington car to the knoll. Not far from the park gates she met Sir
+Maurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her. At the
+entrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisions
+and Miss Lambart’s trunk from the car, and dismissed it. Then they went
+to the knoll.
+
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it. But
+after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in
+peace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves
+above them and heard the news. She made haste to bear it to the Terror
+and the princess who received it with joy. They had already been cooped
+up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge once more
+into the strenuous life. They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; and the
+princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her position
+at the knoll secure.
+
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full
+share of the strenuous life. She played her part in it manfully. Even
+Erebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to
+admit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her
+engaged in the strenuous life. Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;
+and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the
+speed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life on
+the lower place. Both of them found the knoll a delightful place for
+lovers.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+
+
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the
+princess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the
+beginning arranged. Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss
+Lambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly with
+her. It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was not
+only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to him
+in the course of the next few weeks. She grumbled about it to the
+Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in the
+matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads. Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss
+Lambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriage
+were very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous
+life. She failed. Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that plain
+fact, and failed again. He declared that it was his first duty, as an
+uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were not quick
+about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him. Erebus carried his
+defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; and there was a
+touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for several days. The
+princess on the other hand found the engagement the most natural and
+satisfactory thing in the world. Her only complaint was that she and
+the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same day as Miss
+Lambart.
+
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll
+even more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest
+felicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them. Sir Maurice
+arrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, than
+sunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset. But the
+pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, since
+the archduke’s tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess must
+return to Germany. She was bitterly grieved at parting with the Terror,
+and assured him that she would certainly come to England the next
+summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again. It
+seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive association
+with the Twins she would have her way about it. Nevertheless, in spite
+of her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm
+ideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the most
+unaffected fashion.
+
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir
+James Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for
+years been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at
+any rate for a while. It had always been their keen desire to fish the
+Grange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished all
+the years Sir James had been wandering about the world. But Mr. Hilton,
+the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused their request. He
+believed that their presence would be good neither for the stream, the
+fish, nor the estate.
+
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they
+felt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that
+they might be able to compass their desire. Also they felt that the
+sooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hear
+unfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freely
+with his neighbors. Therefore, with the help of their literary
+mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leave
+to fish the Grange water. Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath
+indeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so
+many years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he
+left their honeyed missive unanswered.
+
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days. Then it was
+slowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their
+letter at all; and they grew very angry indeed. Their anger was in
+close proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter. The name of
+Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carried in
+their retentive minds.
+
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him
+for the affront he had put on them. Scorching, in his feverish, Central
+African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerful motor-car,
+he looked well beyond their reach. But Fortune favors the industrious
+who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus came bicycling swiftly
+up to the cats’ home, and cried:
+
+“As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook’s water!”
+
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his
+hands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+
+“Are you sure?” he said calmly. “It’s a long way from the ridge to the
+stream.”
+
+“Not for my eyes!” said Erebus with some measure of impatience in her
+tone. “I’m quite sure that it was Sir James; and I’m quite sure that it
+was old Glazebrook’s meadow. Lend me your handkerchief.”
+
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a
+less pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a
+perfect content. She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with her
+interesting news.
+
+“I wish I’d seen him too,” said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+“It’s quite enough for me to have seen him!” said Erebus with some
+heat.
+
+“It would be better if we’d both seen him,” said the Terror firmly.
+
+“It’s such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice of
+our letter!” said Erebus indignantly.
+
+“Yes, it is,” said the Terror.
+
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor
+at considerable length. The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be
+listening to her. In truth he was considering what advantage might be
+drawn from Sir James’ transgression.
+
+At last he said: “The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching.”
+
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result
+that two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream,
+stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of
+the wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream
+below.
+
+“He’ll soon be at the boundary fence,” said the Terror in a hushed
+voice of quiet satisfaction.
+
+“If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!” said Erebus
+who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+
+“It’s on the other side of it they’re rising,” said the Terror in a
+calmly hopeful tone.
+
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast
+after vain cast. He was a big game hunter; he had given but little time
+and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at which his
+water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket still
+empty of trout. He looked longingly at his neighbor’s water; as the
+Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely. Then the watchers
+saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+
+“He’s not going to poach, after all!” cried Erebus in a tone of acute
+disappointment.
+
+“Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all? Long
+Ridge is a good way off,” said the Terror looking across to it.
+
+“I did. I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook’s meadow,” said
+Erebus firmly.
+
+“It’s very disappointing,” said the Terror, frowning at the disobliging
+fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: “Well, it can’t be
+helped; we’ve got to go on watching him every evening till he does. If
+he’s poached once, he’ll poach again.”
+
+“Look!” said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary
+fence. He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning
+the little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter’s
+eyes. It is to be feared that he had been too long used to the
+high-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where big
+game dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor’s
+fish. Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of netting
+his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant.
+Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to give
+them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since
+Glazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the
+Morgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty
+years. Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught him
+poaching.
+
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human
+beings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper
+in the wood. Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of
+view, regard poaching with abhorrence. But he would perceive that his
+master was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them
+that chance of making a sportsman-like end. At any rate the keeper
+would hold his tongue.
+
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a
+tone of triumph: “Well, he’s gone and done it now.”
+
+“Yes, we’ve got him all right,” said the Terror in a tone of calm
+thankfulness.
+
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir
+James caught three good fish.
+
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a
+figure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+
+“Look! There’s old Glazebrook! He’ll catch him! Won’t it be fun?” she
+cried, wriggling in her joy.
+
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+“Yes: it would be fun. There’d be no end of a row. But it wouldn’t be
+any use to us. I’m going to warn him.”
+
+With that he sent a clear cry of “Cave!” ringing down the stream.
+
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly
+and noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: “We’ll
+teach him not to answer our letters.”
+
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road,
+took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and
+lifted them over the gate. They reached home in time for dinner.
+
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the
+time since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had
+been for a bicycle ride. She did not press him to be more particular in
+his account of their doings, though from Erebus’ air of subdued
+excitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise
+was in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror’s
+uncommon power of polite evasion.
+
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o’clock, she went out into
+the garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they
+were not within hearing. She told herself that she would be lucky if
+she got them to bed by ten. But she would have been surprised, indeed,
+had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in
+a condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best.
+
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats’ home quietly, mounted,
+rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house,
+and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool
+and tidy. They timed their arrival with such nicety that as they
+dismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the
+content inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himself
+comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not
+only assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it
+would prevail. A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his
+fish with the usual strictness, _can not_ allow himself to be
+prosecuted for poaching.
+
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at
+the coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+
+“Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business,” said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;
+and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted
+Sir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return to
+Cassel-Nassau. He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during the
+last days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and had
+formed a high opinion of their ability and their manners. Moreover, of
+a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield
+whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful
+tone: “It’s very late, Master Terror. You can’t expect Sir James to see
+people at this hour.”
+
+“I know it’s late; but the business is important—very important,” said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+Mawley hesitated. His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous
+of obliging her children. Then he said:
+
+“If you’ll sit down a minute, I’ll tell Sir James that you’re here.”
+
+“Thank you,” said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round
+them at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master
+and Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+
+“Oh? They’re the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to fish.
+But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little devils in
+the county, so I took no notice of their letter,” said Sir James.
+
+“Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so. But it’s my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do. And after all they’re
+Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn’t expect them to behave like
+ordinary children,” said Mawley in the tone and manner of a persuasive
+diplomat.
+
+“Well, I don’t see myself giving them leave to fish,” said Sir James.
+“There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of
+noisy children won’t make those easier to catch. But I may as well tell
+them so myself; so you may bring them here.”
+
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room. They
+entered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of
+themselves, and greeted Sir James politely.
+
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his
+steward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick,
+red-faced and robustious. He felt that these pleasant-looking young
+gentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation.
+There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him
+than they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large
+arched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the
+small clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of
+the Terror, pleased them. He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+
+“Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?”
+he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+
+“We saw you in Glazebrook’s meadow this afternoon—poaching,” said the
+Terror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone.
+
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort. He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+
+“And you caught three fish,” said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+
+“Oh? Then it was one of you who called ‘Cave!’ from the wood?” said Sir
+James.
+
+“Yes; we didn’t want old Glazebrook to catch you,” said the Terror.
+
+“Oh—er—thanks,” said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+
+“That wouldn’t have been any use to us,” said the Terror.
+
+“Of use to you?” said Sir James.
+
+“Yes; if he’d caught you, there wouldn’t be any reason why we should
+fish your water,” said the Terror.
+
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+
+“But is there any reason now?” he said.
+
+“Yes. You see, you were poaching,” said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+
+“And you caught three fish,” said Erebus in something of the manner of
+a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished
+enlightenment:
+
+“Well, I’m—hanged if it isn’t blackmail!” he cried.
+
+“Blackmail?” said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation. “Why,
+that’s what the Scotch reavers used to do! I never knew exactly what it
+was.”
+
+“And we’re doing it. That is nice,” said Erebus, almost preening
+herself.
+
+“But this is disgraceful! If you’d been village children—but
+gentlefolk!” cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+
+“Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed,” said the
+Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+
+“Poaching’s a misdemeanor; blackmailing’s a kind of stealing,” said
+Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother’s fur stole.
+
+“Poaching’s a misdemeanor; blackmailing’s a felony,” said Sir James
+loftily.
+
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+“Poaching’s worse.”
+
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
+very angry eyes. The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air. Their
+appearance no longer pleased him.
+
+“It’s your own fault entirely,” said the Terror coldly. “If you’d been
+civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn’t have
+bothered about you. But you didn’t take any notice of it—”
+
+“And it was beastly cheek,” said Erebus.
+
+“You couldn’t expect us to stand that kind of thing. So we kept an eye
+on you and caught you poaching,” said the Terror.
+
+“Without any excuse for it. You’ve plenty of fishing of your own,” said
+Erebus severely.
+
+“And if I don’t give you leave to fish my water, you’re going to sneak
+to the police, are you?” said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
+
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: “We aren’t going
+to do anything of the kind; and we don’t want any leave to fish your
+water at all. We’re just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you’ve started it you’ll get
+prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook. That’s what we came to say.”
+
+“And that’ll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
+write to you,” said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
+find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
+night, and left the room.
+
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
+expressed his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. It
+was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
+been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
+rankled. He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of Africa,
+by much more ferocious creatures. But after sleeping on the matter, he
+perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased it, in a
+cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield children
+were allowed to fish his water.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII
+AND AN APOLOGY
+
+
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
+triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
+fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother’s
+faint appetite.
+
+She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed,
+definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman of
+spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness
+of her life in the country. It was sapping her strength and energy; in
+it she would grow old long before her time. The Twins had been used to
+find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;
+and the change troubled them. Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for
+her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the
+trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her. But she
+made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound
+of the Twins on the bank of the stream. To his pleased surprise he
+neither saw nor heard them. For the most part they fished in the early
+morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother’s appetite
+at breakfast. But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other
+acted as scout, watching Sir James’ movements; and they kept out of his
+sight. They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assured
+them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James. As the
+Terror phrased it:
+
+“He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there’s no point in
+rubbing it in.”
+
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them. Erebus was
+playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare
+Sir James’ feelings. Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was
+impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it
+snapped the gut and was gone.
+
+“Evidently you’re no so good at fishing as blackmailing,” said Sir
+James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+
+“I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!” said Erebus with some heat;
+and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself
+looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep
+brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]
+
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene
+of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his
+eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.
+
+“This is Sir James Morgan, mother,” said the Terror quickly.
+
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+“It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish.”
+
+“Oh—ah—yes—n-n-not at all,” stammered Sir James, blushing faintly.
+
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+
+“Oh, but it was,” said Mrs. Dangerfield. “And I’m seeing that they
+don’t take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that,
+thanks to Mr. Glazebrook’s netting his part of it, there are none too
+many fish in the stream.”
+
+“It’s very good of you. B-b-but I don’t mind how many they catch,” said
+Sir James.
+
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished
+to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence. Yet he did not
+wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: “You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they’d like to.”
+
+“Are they as good fishermen as that?” said Sir James.
+
+“Well, they’ve been fishing ever since they could handle a rod. They
+are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring. So I limit them to three fish a day,” said Mrs. Dangerfield;
+and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+
+“It’s very good of you,” said Sir James. He hesitated, shuffled his
+feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs.
+Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: “I should like to
+stay and see how they do it. I might pick up a wrinkle or two.”
+
+“Of course. Why, it’s your stream,” she said.
+
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to
+the fishing. Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air of
+fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness. His first
+discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest
+desire to remain in her presence. He not only stayed with them till the
+Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to Colet House
+with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of the deepest
+reluctance. It can hardly be doubted that he had been smitten by an
+emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we more gently
+phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not
+received the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth. If,
+instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them,
+he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate
+condition of meeting her often. It did not for a moment enter his mind
+that if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily have
+failed to fall in love with her at all. He cudgeled his brains to find
+some way of meeting her again and meeting her often. He was to meet her
+quite soon without any effort on his part.
+
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had
+been smitten by that emotional _coup de foudre_, for she was walking
+with a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she
+said in a really cheerful tone:
+
+“I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the
+exciting life he had in Africa.”
+
+“Rather!”, said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+
+She had not missed Sir James’ sentence about the superiority of Erebus’
+blackmailing to her fishing. But she knew the Twins far too well to ask
+them for an explanation of it before him. None the less it clung to her
+mind.
+
+At supper therefore she said: “What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?”
+
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the
+explanation; and he said suavely:
+
+“Oh, it was about the fishing.”
+
+“How—about the fishing?” said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+
+“Well, he didn’t want to give us leave. In fact he never answered our
+letter asking for it,” said the Terror.
+
+“And of course we couldn’t stand that; and we had to make him,” said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+“Make him? How did you make him?” said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+The Terror told her.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised
+and annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that
+her offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger. She felt chiefly
+annoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to
+blackmail should be Sir James.
+
+“Then you did blackmail him,” she said in a tone of dismay.
+
+“He seemed to think that we were—like the Douglases used to,” said the
+Terror in an amiable tone.
+
+“But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong—very wrong,
+indeed,” said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+“Well, he _did_ seem to think so,” said the Terror. “But we thought he
+was prejudiced; and we didn’t take much notice of him.”
+
+“And we couldn’t possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum—it
+was such a polite letter—and not take it out of him,” said Erebus.
+
+“And it hasn’t done any harm, you know. We wanted those trout ever so
+much more than he did,” said the Terror.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as
+she pondered how to deal with the affair. She was still chiefly annoyed
+that Sir James should have been the victim. The Twins gazed at her with
+a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they were burdened
+by a sense of wrong-doing. They were merely sorry that she was annoyed.
+
+“Well, there’s nothing for it: you’ll have to apologize to Sir
+James—both of you,” she said at last.
+
+“Apologize to him! But he never answered our letter!” cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it,
+opened it again and said in a soothing tone: “All right, Mum; we’ll
+apologize.”
+
+“I’ll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it,” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel
+Sir James to invite them to continue to fish.
+
+There had been some such intention in the Terror’s mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real
+apology. But he said amiably: “All right; just as you like, Mum.”
+
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her
+breath. After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the
+Terror bitterly for not refusing firmly.
+
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path
+across the fields, to the Grange. Surprise and extreme pleasure were
+mingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into the
+drawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would
+find Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching
+her children fish. His night’s rest had trebled his interest in her and
+his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her. The appeal to him of
+her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever.
+
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless
+enough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been
+dead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put to
+it to make both ends meet. His compassion had been deeply stirred; she
+was so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life. He
+wished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to that
+smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as he
+possibly could.
+
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could
+scarcely believe his joyful ears. He had to put a constraint on himself
+to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley’s eyes, and
+not dash to it at full speed. He entered the room with his eyes shining
+very brightly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily. She was
+looking grave and ill at ease.
+
+“I’ve come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James,” she said as
+they shook hands. “I find that these children have been blackmailing
+you; and I’ve brought them to apologize. I—I’m exceedingly distressed
+about it.”
+
+“Oh, there’s no need to be—no need at all. It was rather a joke,” Sir
+James protested quickly.
+
+“But blackmailing isn’t a joke—though of course they didn’t realize
+what a serious thing it is—”
+
+“It was the Douglases doing it,” broke in the Terror in an explanatory
+tone.
+
+“I don’t think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James,” said
+Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+
+“But I hadn’t any choice, I assure you. They had me in a cleft stick,”
+protested Sir James.
+
+“Well then you ought to have come straight to me,” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+“Oh, but really—a little fishing—what is a little fishing? I couldn’t
+come bothering you about a thing like that,” protested Sir James.
+
+“But it isn’t a little thing if you get it like that,” said Mrs.
+Dangerfield. “Anyhow, it’s going to stop; and they’re going to
+apologize.”
+
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one
+voice:
+
+“I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James.”
+
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very
+stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+
+“Oh, not at all—not at all—don’t mention it. Besides, I owe you an
+apology for not answering your letter,” said Sir James in all the
+discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due. Then he
+heaved a sigh of relief and added: “Well, that’s all right. And now I
+hope you’ll do all the fishing you want to.”
+
+“Certainly not; I can’t allow them to fish your water any more,” said
+Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+
+“Oh, but really,” said Sir James with a harried air.
+
+“No,” said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+
+“But you’ll have some tea—after that hot walk!” cried Sir James.
+
+“No, thank you, I must be getting home,” said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly.
+
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out. As Erebus
+passed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him. She was
+desirous that he should not overrate her apology.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap
+from the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it. He came down
+the steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the
+park, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the
+gardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shooting
+about the world.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship. But she could not drive him from her side on his own
+land. They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead. When Sir James and
+Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight.
+Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way with
+her.
+
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James,
+the Terror said:
+
+“Well, he was quite decent about it. It made him much more
+uncomfortable than we were. I suppose it was because we’re more used to
+Mum.”
+
+“What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?” said the
+unappeased Erebus.
+
+“Oh, well; he didn’t mean to. It was an accident, you know,” said the
+Terror.
+
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer
+intimacy with Sir James.
+
+“Accident! People shouldn’t have accidents like that!” said Erebus in a
+tone of bitter scorn.
+
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James
+diplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty,
+their grace and their intelligence. The diplomacy was not natural (he
+was no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject he
+could at the moment think of. He could not have found a quicker way to
+Mrs. Dangerfield’s approval. She had been disposed to dislike him for
+having been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart.
+Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it was
+only natural that she should invite him to tea. He accepted with
+alacrity. At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to
+see more of her. With a natural simplicity he used his skill in
+woodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covert
+afforded by the common to watch Colet House. Thanks to this simple
+device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere in
+the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;
+and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he
+had ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in
+his enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right. He had
+been making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but he
+perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty to
+settle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his duty
+by his estate and his neighbors.
+
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his
+instinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that
+to bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the
+land of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed
+of. But he had a stout heart, the hunter’s pertinacity, and a burning
+resolve to succeed.
+
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be
+useful friends in the matter. But did they chance on him walking with
+their mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily
+aloof. He must abate their hostility.
+
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were
+starting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully,
+stopped and said: “I’m awfully sorry I gave you away the other day. But
+I never saw your mother till I’d done it.”
+
+“Don’t mention it,” said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+
+“So you ought to be,” said Erebus.
+
+“It’s a pity you should lose your fishing. If I’d known how good you
+both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter,”
+said Sir James hypocritically. “But I was misinformed about you.”
+
+“It’s worse that mother should lose the trout. She does hate butcher’s
+meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly,” said
+Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+
+“It’s like that, is it?” said Sir James quickly; and an expression of
+deep concern filled his face.
+
+“Yes, and she did eat those trout,” said Erebus plaintively.
+
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched
+him with little hope in their faces. Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;
+and he said:
+
+“Look here: you mayn’t fish my water; but there’s no reason why you
+shouldn’t fish Glazebrook’s. _I_ think that a man who nets his water
+loses all rights.”
+
+“Yes, he does,” said the Terror firmly.
+
+“Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I’ll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined. I
+want to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook—he’s not a sportsman.”
+
+The Terror’s face had brightened; but he said: “But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?”
+
+“You can reckon them presents from me. They would be—practically—if I’m
+going to pay the fines,” said Sir James.
+
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing
+tenderly with exactitude which appealed to them. The Terror himself
+could not have been more tender with it.
+
+“That’s a ripping idea!” said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval.
+
+The peace was thus concluded.
+
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win
+their good will. He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of
+chocolate. If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he
+would carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with
+sumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained them
+with stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even
+more than they thrilled them. But he won their hearts most by his
+sympathy with them in the matter of their mother’s appetite, and by
+joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of
+taking the short cut to her heart by praising them. He laid himself out
+to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for
+himself as large as possible a place in her life. She was not long
+discovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as a
+very pleasant shock. None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster,
+who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, had
+attracted her so strongly as did Sir James. Even as her delicacy made
+the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorous
+robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the
+keener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues. When
+no less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James
+and Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tongues
+began to wag.
+
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
+London, one morning met the Twins in the village. They greeted her
+politely and made to escape. But she was in the mood, her most constant
+mood, to babble. She stopped them, and with a knowing air, and even
+more offensive smile, said:
+
+“So, young people, we’re going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
+soon in Little Deeping, are we?”
+
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
+them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
+said:
+
+“Are we?”
+
+“I should have thought you would have known all about it,” she said
+with a cackling little giggle. “Mind you tell me as soon as you’re
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother.”
+
+“What do you mean?” snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
+and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
+her own.
+
+“Oh, nothing—nothing!” cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
+sternness. “Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother—But
+there—there’s probably nothing in it—the Morgans always were rovers—one
+foot at sea and one on shore—I dare say he’ll be in the middle of
+Africa before the week is out. Good morning—good morning.”
+
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
+the grocer’s shop.
+
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning. Then Erebus
+said: “Silly old idiot!”
+
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning. At last he broke out:
+“This won’t do! We can’t have these old idiots gossiping about Mum. And
+it’s a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
+cheerful for her.”
+
+“But you don’t think there’s anything in what the old cat said? It
+would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!” cried Erebus in a
+panic.
+
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+
+“_Do_ you think there’s anything in it?” cried Erebus.
+
+“I dare say there is. Sir James is always about with Mum; and he’s
+always very civil to us—people aren’t generally,” said the Terror.
+
+“Oh, but we must stop it! We must stop it at once!” cried Erebus.
+
+“Why must we?”
+
+“It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!” cried
+Erebus fiercely.
+
+“It isn’t altogether what we like—there’s Mum,” said the Terror. “She
+does have a rotten time of it—always being hard up and never going
+anywhere. And, after all, we shouldn’t mind Sir James when we got used
+to him.”
+
+“But we should! And look how we stopped the Cruncher!”
+
+“Sir James isn’t like the Cruncher—at all,” said the Terror.
+
+“All stepfathers are alike; and they’re beastly!” cried Erebus.
+
+“Now, it’s no good your getting yourself obstinate about it,” said the
+Terror firmly. “That won’t be of any use at all, if they’ve made up
+their minds. But what’s bothering me is what that old cat meant by
+saying that the Morgans were rovers.”
+
+Erebus’ frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
+utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop. Then she said in a tone of considerable
+relief:
+
+“She must have meant that he wasn’t really in earnest about marrying
+Mum.”
+
+“Yes, that’s what she did mean,” growled the Terror. “And she’ll go
+about telling everybody that he’s only fooling.”
+
+“But I don’t think he is. I don’t think he would,” said Erebus quickly.
+
+“No more do I,” said the Terror.
+
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence. Then the Terror’s face
+cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+
+“I know the thing to do! I’ll go and ask him his intentions. That’s
+what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut—you know:
+that fellow from Rowington—was fooling about with Miss Hawley.”
+
+“All right, we’ll go and ask him,” said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.
+
+“No, no, you can’t go. I must go alone,” said the Terror quickly. “It’s
+the kind of thing the men of the family always do—people said so about
+Miss Hawley—and I’m the only man of the family about. If Uncle Maurice
+were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do it.”
+
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint. She alleged that the restrictions
+which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
+to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
+everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
+successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
+which he performed alone.
+
+“It’s no good talking like that: it isn’t the thing to do,” said the
+Terror with very cold severity. “You know what Mrs. Morton said about
+Miss Hawley and the Cut—that the men of the family did it.”
+
+“You’re only a boy; and I’m as old as you!” snapped Erebus.
+
+“Well, when there isn’t a man to do a thing, a boy does it. So it’s no
+use you’re making a fuss,” said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir
+James would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone,
+early in the afternoon.
+
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him
+straight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over
+his after-lunch coffee. Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was
+beginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in the
+country, and poured him out a cup of coffee.
+
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple
+matter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his
+usual diplomacy, said with firm directness: “I’ve come to ask your
+intentions, sir.”
+
+“My intentions?” said Sir James, not taking him.
+
+“Yes. You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you’re only fooling,” said the Terror.
+
+“The deuce they are!” cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angry
+comprehension.
+
+“Yes. So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions,” said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+“Of course—of course,” said Sir James.
+
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled.
+Then he added gravely: “My intentions are not only extremely serious
+but they’re extremely immediate. I’d marry your mother to-morrow if
+she’d let me.”
+
+“That’s all right,” said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief. “Of
+course I knew you were all right. Only, it was the thing to do, with
+these silly old idiots talking.”
+
+“Quite so—quite so,” said Sir James.
+
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly
+drinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been
+suffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the
+Terror’s serenity was soothing.
+
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: “Do
+you think your mother would marry me?”
+
+“I haven’t the slightest idea; women are so funny,” said the Terror
+with a sage air.
+
+Sir James pulled at his mustache. Then the compulsion to have some
+one’s opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy’s, came
+on him strongly; and he said:
+
+“I wish I knew what to do. As it is we’re very good friends; and if I
+asked her to marry me, I might spoil that.”
+
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: “I
+don’t think you would. Mum’s very sensible, though she is so pretty.”
+
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: “I’ll
+risk it!”
+
+He rang the bell and ordered his car. He talked to the Terror jerkily
+and somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his
+perturbation with considerable interest. It seemed to him very curious
+in a hard-bitten hunter of big game. They started and in the two level
+miles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car’s speeds nine times.
+
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air
+of detachment: “I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed.”
+
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for
+her.
+
+“If I only could!” said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he
+entered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a
+thrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come.
+
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of
+him; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+
+“Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!”
+
+“Oh!” said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+
+“Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!”
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield’s face was one flush; and she cried: “B-b-but it’s out
+of the question. I—I’m old enough to be your mother!”
+
+“Now how?—I’m three years and seven months older than you,” said Sir
+James, taken aback.
+
+“I shall be an old woman while you’re still quite young!” she
+protested.
+
+“You won’t ever be old! You’re not the kind!” cried Sir James with some
+heat; and then with sudden understanding: “If that’s your only reason,
+why, that settles it!”
+
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+
+When he set her down and held her at arm’s length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: “Oh, James, you are—ever
+so much more—impetuous—than I thought. You gave me—no time.”
+
+“Thank goodness, I took the Terror’s tip!” said Sir James.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Terrible Twins</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Edgar Jepson</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Hanson Booth</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 14, 2006 [eBook #19043]<br />
+[Most recently updated: May 26, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Al Haines</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***</div>
+
+<h1>The Terrible Twins</h1>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by Edgar Jepson</h2>
+
+<h3>Author of<br />
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.</h3>
+
+<h3>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br />
+HANSON BOOTH</h3>
+
+<h4>INDIANAPOLIS<br />
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY<br />
+PUBLISHERS</h4>
+
+<h5>COPYRIGHT 1913<br />
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY</h5>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. AND CAPTAIN BASTER</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. GUARDIAN ANGELS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. AND THE CATS' HOME</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. AND THE SACRED BIRD</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. AND PRINGLE'S POND</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. AND THE UNREST CURE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. AND AN APOLOGY</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="img-front"></a>
+<img src="images/img-front.jpg" width="565" height="417" alt="[Illustration: ]" />
+<p class="caption">&ldquo;Cats for the cats&rsquo; home!&rdquo; said Sir
+Maurice Falconer.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#img-front">&ldquo;Cats for the cats&rsquo; home!&rdquo; said Sir Maurice Falconer.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#img-194">&ldquo;This is different,&rdquo; she said.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#img-229">We are avenged.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#img-232">She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#img-280">The Archduke bellowed, &ldquo;Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!&rdquo;</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#img-312">Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>THE TERRIBLE TWINS</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a> CHAPTER I<br />
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER</h2>
+
+<p>
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really discussing
+the question who had hit Stubb&rsquo;s bull-terrier with the greatest number of
+stones, in the most amicable spirit. It was indeed a nice question and hard to
+decide since both of them could throw stones quicker, straighter and harder
+than any one of their size and weight for miles and miles round; and they had
+thrown some fifty at the bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but
+irritated, quadruped that his master&rsquo;s interests did not really demand
+his presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him. Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth Wolfram
+Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the same number; and
+both of them were defending their claims with loud vehemence, because if you
+were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said firmly,
+&ldquo;I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of times.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty, which hung
+from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps we did,&rdquo; said Anastasia amiably. They went swiftly down
+the road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike. No
+stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed, dark-haired,
+dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and piquant a face, for the
+cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so
+fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed, on whose firmly chiseled features rested
+so perpetual, so contrasting a serenity. But it was a whim of man, of their
+wicked uncle Sir Maurice Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty names.
+He had named Violet &ldquo;Erebus&rdquo; because, he said,
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry spheres:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+and he had forthwith named Hyacinth the &ldquo;Terror&rdquo; because, he said,
+the ill-fated Sir John Franklin had made the Terror the eternal companion of
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus and the Terror they became. Even their mother never called them by their
+proper pretty names save in moments of the severest displeasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;re good apples,&rdquo; said the Terror presently, as he threw
+away the core of his third and took two more from the bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are,&rdquo; said Erebus in a grateful tone&mdash;&ldquo;worth all
+the trouble we had with that dog.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;d have cleared him out of the orchard in half the time, if
+we&rsquo;d had our catapults and bullets. It was hard luck being made to
+promise never to use catapults again,&rdquo; said the Terror sadly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All that fuss about a little lead from the silly old belfry
+gutter!&rdquo; said Erebus bitterly. could easily have put slates in the place
+of the sheet of lead we took,&rdquo; said the Terror with equal bitterness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not to
+have catapults,&rdquo; said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich
+autumn scene through which they moved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of their
+catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons to enrich the simple
+diet which was all their mother&rsquo;s slender means allowed them; on
+fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the game laws. Keepers and
+farmers had made no secret of their suspicions that this was the case: but the
+careful Twins never afforded them the pleasure of adducing evidence in support
+of those suspicions. Then a heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had
+removed a sheet of lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry
+gutter, to cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public
+opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of them;
+and their mother, yielding to the
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As if belfries wanted lead gutters. They could easily have put slates in
+the place of the sheet of lead we took,&rdquo; said the Terror with equal
+bitterness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not to
+have catapults,&rdquo; said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich
+autumn scene through which they moved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of their
+catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons to enrich the simple
+diet which was all their mother&rsquo;s slender means allowed them; on
+fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the game laws. Keepers and
+farmers had made no secret of their suspicions that this was the case: but the
+careful Twins never afforded them the pleasure of adducing evidence in support
+of those suspicions. Then a heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had
+removed a sheet of lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry
+gutter, to cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public
+opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of them;
+and their mother, yielding to the demand, had forbidden them to use them any
+longer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the action of
+Little Deeping. It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since their exploits
+afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation they loved. In a
+bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves to become the finest
+stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and since they had every natural
+aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness of eye, they were well on their way
+to realize their ambition. There may, indeed, have been northern boys of
+thirteen who could outthrow the Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a
+stone straighter or harder than Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted it
+gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over it (for the
+Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate than to unlatch it
+and walk through) and took their way along a narrow path through the gorse and
+bracken. They had gone some fifty yards, when from among the bracken on their
+right a voice cried: &ldquo;Bang-g-g! Bang-g-g!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the gorse,
+his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on his richly
+freckled face. He stood over the fallen Twins; and his smile of triumph changed
+to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ha! Ha! Shot through the heads!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Their bones will
+bleach in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red Bear
+the terror of the Cherokees!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife. Then he took from
+his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an inconceivable
+note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant imagination of Erebus)
+made an entry in it, and said in a tone of lively satisfaction:
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re only one game ahead.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought we were three,&rdquo; said Erebus, rising.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;re down in the book,&rdquo; said Wiggins; firmly; and his
+bright blue eyes were very stern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of you
+again,&rdquo; said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins. He ambushed and scalped them; they
+ambushed and scalped him. Seeing that they had already passed their thirteenth
+birthday, it was a great condescension on their part to play with a boy of ten;
+and they felt it. But Wiggins was a favored friend; and the game filled
+intervals between sterner deeds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly on
+across the common. Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth. Now and again,
+for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly spring into the air and
+proceed by leaps and bounds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, &ldquo;The game
+isn&rsquo;t really fair; you&rsquo;re two to one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You keep very level,&rdquo; said the Terror politely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; it&rsquo;s my superior astuteness,&rdquo; said Wiggins sedately.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Goodness! What words you use!&rdquo; said Erebus in a somewhat jealous
+tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation,&rdquo; Wiggins explained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, everybody says that. But what is a European reputation?&rdquo; said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Everybody in Europe knows him,&rdquo; said Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert. It seemed to them a name
+both affected and ostentatious. Besides, crop it as you might, his hair
+<i>would</i> assume the appearance of a mop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to see two
+figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Mum,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of booty,
+and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And&mdash;and&mdash;it&rsquo;s the Cruncher with her!&rdquo; cried
+Erebus in a tone in which disgust outrang surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of all the sickening things! The Cruncher!&rdquo; cried the Terror,
+echoing her disgust. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s he come down again for?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the approaching
+pair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gentleman whom they called the &ldquo;Cruncher,&rdquo; and who from their
+tones of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher on
+account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of superiority:
+&ldquo;<i>I</i> know why he&rsquo;s come down.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; said the Terror quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s come down to marry your mother,&rdquo; said Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What?&rdquo; cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How dare you say a silly thing like that?&rdquo; cried Erebus fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>I</i> didn&rsquo;t say it,&rdquo; protested Wiggins. &ldquo;Mrs.
+Blenkinsop said it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That silly old gossip!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Mrs. Morton said it, too,&rdquo; said Wiggins. &ldquo;They came to
+tea yesterday and talked about it. I was there: there was a plum cake&mdash;one
+of those rich ones from Springer&rsquo;s at Rowington. And they said it would
+be such a good thing for both of you because he&rsquo;s so awfully rich: the
+Terror would go to Eton; and you&rsquo;d go to a good school and get a proper
+bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t go! I should hate it!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; they said you wouldn&rsquo;t like wholesome discipline,&rdquo; said
+the faithful reporter. &ldquo;And they didn&rsquo;t seem to think your mother
+would like it either&mdash;marrying the Cruncher.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Like it? She wouldn&rsquo;t dream of it&mdash;a bounder like
+that!&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;if she thought it
+would be good for us&mdash;she&rsquo;d do anything for us&mdash;you know she
+would!&rdquo; cried Erebus, wringing her hands in anxious fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out in
+dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was flushed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This must be stopped,&rdquo; he said through his set teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how?&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll find a way. It&rsquo;s war!&rdquo; said the Terror darkly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m on your side,&rdquo; he
+said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a trusty ally. He called me Freckles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d better face
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy. As they drew near, the
+Terror&rsquo;s face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty voice:
+&ldquo;How&rsquo;s Terebus and the Error; and how&rsquo;s Freckles?&rdquo; he
+cried, and laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins shook
+hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain Baster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins,&rdquo; said
+Mrs. Dangerfield with her delightful smile. &ldquo;I know you keep them out of
+mischief.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s generally all over before I come,&rdquo; said Wiggins
+somewhat glumly; and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve not had that kiss yet, Terebus. I&rsquo;m going to have it
+this time I&rsquo;m here,&rdquo; said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed
+his rich laugh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you?&rdquo; said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at
+him with the eyes of hate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll come to tea with
+us, Wiggins?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you very much,&rdquo; said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth. As
+he alighted on it once more, he added. &ldquo;Tea at other people&rsquo;s
+houses is so much nicer than at home. Don&rsquo;t you think so, Terror?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I always eat more&mdash;somehow,&rdquo; said the Terror with a grave
+smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side of Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein, enlivened the
+walk with his delightful humor. The gallant officer was the very climax of the
+florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed, glossy-haired young man of
+twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose, neatly rounded off in a little knob
+forever shiny. The son of the famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every
+advantage which great wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave
+career in a crack regiment. The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic,
+unappreciative, was not enjoying it. To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark,
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a very pally man.&rdquo; It was very true: it was difficult,
+indeed, for any one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his
+friendship, for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows,
+he enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of personal talk
+that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused the face of Wiggins
+with a flush of mortification that dimmed his freckles, and wrinkled Mrs.
+Dangerfield&rsquo;s white brow in a distressful frown. The Terror, serene,
+impassive, showed no sign of hearing him; his mind was hard at work on this
+very serious problem with which he had been so suddenly confronted. More than
+once Erebus countered a witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp
+enough to pierce the rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer. Once this
+unbidden but humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality
+denied her even this relief. She could only treat him with a steely civility.
+The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he was too
+new for it. The old, worn, faded, carefully polished furniture, for the most
+part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, seemed abashed in the
+presence of his floridness. It seemed to demand the setting of spacious,
+ornately glittering hotels. Mrs. Dangerfield liked him less in her own
+drawing-room than anywhere. When her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled
+by a curious feeling that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had
+he escaped calling in a bright plaid satin tie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not unconscious of
+it, did not trouble Captain Baster. Indeed, he took some credit to himself for
+being so little contemptuous of the shabby furniture. In a high good humor he
+went on shining and shining all through tea; and though at the end of it his
+luster was for a while dimmed by the discovery that he had left his
+cigarette-case at the inn and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was
+presently shining again. Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly
+into the garden.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a pig&mdash;and a beast! We can&rsquo;t let Mum marry him! We
+<i>must</i> stop it!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all very well to say &lsquo;must.&rsquo; But you know what
+Mum is: if she thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will,&rdquo; said the
+Terror gloomily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And she never consults us&mdash;never!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only when she&rsquo;s a bit doubtful,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then she&rsquo;s not doubtful now. She hasn&rsquo;t said a word to us
+about it,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what looks so bad. It looks as if she&rsquo;d made up her
+mind already; and if she has, it&rsquo;s no use talking to her,&rdquo; said the
+Terror yet more gloomily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly backward and
+forward from one to the other. He preserved a decorous sympathetic silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s no good talking to Mum,&rdquo; said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t squash the Cruncher!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not? We&rsquo;ve squashed other people, haven&rsquo;t we?&rdquo;
+said the Terror sharply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never any one so thick-skinned as him,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror frowned deeply again: &ldquo;We can always try,&rdquo; he said
+coldly. &ldquo;And look here: I&rsquo;ve been thinking all tea-time: if
+stepchildren don&rsquo;t like stepfathers, there&rsquo;s no reason why
+stepfathers should like stepchildren.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Cruncher likes us, though it&rsquo;s no fault of ours,&rdquo; said
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just it; he doesn&rsquo;t really know us. If he saw the
+kind of stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But he can&rsquo;t even see we hate him,&rdquo; objected Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, and if he did, he wouldn&rsquo;t mind, he&rsquo;d think it a joke.
+My idea isn&rsquo;t to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if
+we give our minds to it,&rdquo; said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning. Then a dazzling smile illumined her
+charming face; and she cried: &ldquo;Oh, yes! Let&rsquo;s give him socks!
+Let&rsquo;s begin at once!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes: I&rsquo;ll help! I&rsquo;m a trusty ally!&rdquo; cried Wiggins; and
+he spurned the earth joyfully at the thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their brains
+for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Wiggins said: &ldquo;You might make him an apple-pie bed.
+They&rsquo;re very annoying when you&rsquo;re sleepy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s an apple-pie bed?&rdquo; said Erebus scornfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a beginning, anyhow,&rdquo; said the Terror in an approving
+tone; and he added with the air of a philosopher: &ldquo;Little things, and big
+things, they all count.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can&rsquo;t,&rdquo;
+said Erebus bitterly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By Jove! That cigarette-case! Come on!&rdquo; cried the Terror; and he
+led the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where are we going?&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to make him that apple-pie bed. There&rsquo;s nothing
+like making a beginning. We shall think of heaps of other things. If we
+don&rsquo;t worry about them, they&rsquo;ll occur to us. They always do,&rdquo;
+said the Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping, where,
+as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the front door which
+stood open. At the sound of their footsteps in her hall the stout but
+good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar to learn what they wanted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway,&rdquo; said the Terror politely.
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve come for Captain Baster&rsquo;s cigarette-case. He&rsquo;s
+left it somewhere in his room.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway rubbed her
+hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her eyes had rested on
+the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a frown; and she said:
+&ldquo;Bother the thing! It&rsquo;s sure to be stuck somewhere out of sight.
+And the bar full, too.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you trouble; I&rsquo;ll get it. I know the bedroom,&rdquo;
+said the Terror with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, thank you, sir,&rdquo; said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror. In less than
+two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the bed; and their
+intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless unprotected bedroom. Erebus
+sprang to the shaving-brush on the mantelpiece and thrust it under the
+mattress. The Terror locked Captain Baster&rsquo;s portmanteau; and as he
+placed the keys beside the shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;ll teach him not to be so careless.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster&rsquo;s inviting dress-boots with water. Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t stand giggling there! Why don&rsquo;t you do
+something?&rdquo; said Erebus sharply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: &ldquo;A clothes-brush in bed is very
+annoying when you stick your foot against it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him. He took
+the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against the bottom of
+the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the other of Captain
+Baster&rsquo;s feet was sure to find it. The Terror did not care which foot was
+successful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from the
+dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the inn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat vengeful
+triumph: &ldquo;There! you see things <i>do</i> occur to us.&rdquo; Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: &ldquo;But it was Wiggins who set us
+going.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m an ally; and he called me Freckles,&rdquo; said Wiggins
+vengefully; and once more he spurned the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most thickly
+overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too sheltered to have
+dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mind the mud, Wiggins,&rdquo; said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness
+in the matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: &ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t
+be a nice place to fall down in, would it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister little
+laugh, and said: &ldquo;Wiggins, you&rsquo;re a treasure!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it? What is it now?&rdquo; said Erebus quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A little job of my own. It wouldn&rsquo;t do for you and Wiggins to have
+a hand in it, he&rsquo;ll swear so,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who&rsquo;ll swear?&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Cruncher. And you&rsquo;re a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear
+such language,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rubbish!&rdquo; said Erebus sharply. &ldquo;Tell us what it is.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a beastly shame! I ought to help&mdash;I always do,&rdquo;
+cried Erebus in a bitterly aggrieved tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Erebus. &ldquo;Who wants to help in a stupid
+thing like that? But all the same you&rsquo;ll go and make a silly mull of it
+without me&mdash;you always do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You jolly well wait and see,&rdquo; said the Terror with calm
+confidence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached the
+house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster still
+talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story illustrating
+his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea and one
+three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies. He laid great stress on the prices he
+had paid for them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her offspring
+with an air of doubtful surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+&ldquo;Thank you, Error&mdash;thank you. But why didn&rsquo;t you bring it to
+me, Terebus? Then you&rsquo;d have earned that kiss I&rsquo;m going to give
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+&ldquo;Oh, I helped to get it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a> CHAPTER II<br />
+GUARDIAN ANGELS</h2>
+
+<p>
+At seven o&rsquo;clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn. Of his
+own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp. He left the house a
+proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining before Mrs.
+Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she was four
+years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two years younger,
+and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts. But he chiefly saw in her an
+admirable ladder to those social heights to which his ardent soul aspired to
+climb. She had but to return to the polite world from which the loss of her
+husband and her straightened circumstances had removed her, to find herself a
+popular woman with a host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster
+burned to adorn. Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing
+a mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to select to
+wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a gown with which she
+had never been truly pleased. The troubled air did not leave her face during
+dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins, for they, too, were gloomy. They
+were pleased, indeed, with the beginning of the campaign, but still very
+doubtful of success in the end. Where their interests were concerned their
+mother was of a firmness indeed hard to move.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that disturbed
+them, especially at the Terror. Erebus in a pretty light frock of her
+mother&rsquo;s days of prosperity, which had been cut down and fitted to her,
+was a sight to brighten any one&rsquo;s eyes; but the sleeves of the dark coat
+which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings, bared a length of wrist
+distressing to a mother&rsquo;s eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his failure to
+find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be unable to ravish Mrs.
+Dangerfield&rsquo;s eye that evening by his distinguished appearance in the
+unstained evening dress of an English gentleman. After a long hunt for the
+mislaid keys, in which the harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up
+his mind that he must appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit
+he was wearing. It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not
+really feel a conquering hero after eight o&rsquo;clock at night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water. It was a good
+water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water its lining
+had not soaked up. The gallant officer said a good deal about its retentive
+properties to the mute boot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had himself
+fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom. A flash of intuition connected the
+Terror with the watered boot; and he begged her, with loud acerbity, never
+again to let any one&mdash;any one!!&mdash;enter his bedroom. Mrs. Pittaway
+objected that slops could not be emptied, or beds made without human
+intervention. He begged her, not perhaps unreasonably, not to talk like a fool;
+and she liked him none the better for his directness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits. As he
+rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees which made the
+muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a clothes-line tight. It ran
+through the hedge that hid him to the hedge on the other side of the lane.
+There it was fastened to a stout stake; and he was fastening it to the lowest
+rail of a post and rails. At its tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just
+at the beginning of the mud-patch. It was at its tightest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain Baster set
+out for Colet House at a brisk pace. As he moved through the bracing autumn
+air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night&mdash;that very night he would
+crown Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s devotion with his avowal of an answering
+passion. He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror; and like a conqueror he
+whistled. Then he found the clothes-line, suddenly, pitched forward and fell,
+not heavily, for the mud was thick, but sprawling. He rose, oozy and dripping,
+took a long breath, and the welkin shuddered as it rang.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield waited
+restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a troubled
+frown. Her woman&rsquo;s instinct assured her that Captain Baster would propose
+that night; and she dreaded it. Two or three times she rose and walked up and
+down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark, troubled eyes in the two old,
+almost giltless round mirrors, they did not please her as they usually did.
+Those eyes were one of the sources from which had sprung Captain Baster&rsquo;s
+attraction to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful things for
+them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing them. She told
+herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and husband; that under his
+unfortunate manner were a good heart and sterling qualities. She assured
+herself that she had the power to draw them out; once he was her husband, she
+would change him. But still she was ill at ease. Perhaps, in her heart of
+hearts, she was doubtful of her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros
+hide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was unfortunately
+prevented from coming that evening, but would come next morning to take her for
+a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a relief that it frightened her. She
+sat down and wrote out a telegram to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their
+trusty hard-working maid, and bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly
+upstairs to bed at one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning. She did
+not wish to take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as
+possible. She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard for her
+interests. She tried not to hope that he would find marriage with Captain
+Baster incompatible with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness. He thought for a
+while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability. Then he rose
+and betook himself to his toilet. In the middle of it he missed his
+shaving-brush. He hunted for it furiously; he could have sworn that he had
+taken it out of his portmanteau. He did swear, but not to any definite fact.
+There was nothing for it: he must expose his tender chin to the cruel razor of
+a village barber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not vanished
+from it. In one short night it had lost its pristine freshness. This and the
+ordeal before his chin made his breakfast gloomy; and soon after it he entered
+the barber&rsquo;s shop with the air of one who has abandoned hope. Later he
+came out of it with his roving black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his
+scraped chin was smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches&mdash;red
+patches. At the door the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn
+accosted him with the news that she had just found his keys and his
+shaving-brush under the mattress of his bed. He looked round the village of
+Little Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to the
+expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new lock, for
+his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness of his soul. Half
+an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged chin, he took his way to
+Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of his future stepson. As he drew
+near it he saw that that stepson was awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer
+still he saw that he was awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile asked him if
+he had slept well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain&rsquo;s veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: &ldquo;Look here, my lad, I don&rsquo;t want any more of your
+tricks! You play another on me, and I&rsquo;ll give you the soundest licking
+you ever had in your life!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The serenity on the Terror&rsquo;s face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: &ldquo;Whatever&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; he said in a tone of
+amazement. &ldquo;I thought you loved a joke. You said you
+did&mdash;yesterday&mdash;at tea.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You try it on again!&rdquo; said Captain Baster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, whatever has put your back up?&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone of
+even greater amazement. &ldquo;Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or
+the water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat&rsquo;s swiftness: Captain
+Baster&rsquo;s boot missed him by a hair&rsquo;s breadth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the bedroom of
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Waxy?&rdquo; he cried joyously. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s black in the face! I
+told him he said he loved a joke.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat. She was bitterly aggrieved that
+she had not had a hand in Captain Baster&rsquo;s downfall the night before. The
+Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his glorious exploit and of the
+shuddering welkin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: &ldquo;Now, you
+quite understand. You&rsquo;ll stick to them like a leech. You won&rsquo;t give
+him any chance of talking to Mum alone. It&rsquo;s most important.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I understand. But what&rsquo;s that? Anybody could do it,&rdquo; she
+said in a tone of extreme bitterness. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s you that&rsquo;s
+getting all the real fun.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you&rsquo;ll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if
+you&rsquo;re careful,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course, I shall. But what&rsquo;s that? I tell you what it is:
+I&rsquo;m going to have my proper share of the real fun. The first chance I
+get, I&rsquo;m going to stone him&mdash;so there!&rdquo; said Erebus fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right. But it doesn&rsquo;t seem quite the thing for a girl to
+do,&rdquo; said the Terror in a judicial tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rats!&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave the
+purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat painfully, time to
+fade. When she did come to him, he was further annoyed by the fact that Erebus
+came too, and with a truculent air announced her intention of accompanying
+them. Mrs. Dangerfield was surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a
+gentle occupation. Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to
+propose before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to hide from
+himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her charm: she was the
+mother of the Terror. He found, too, that his instinctive distaste for the
+company of Erebus was not ungrounded. She was a nuisance; she would talk about
+wet boots; the subject seemed to fascinate her. Then, when at last he recovered
+his spirits, grew once more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point,
+there was no getting rid of her. She was impervious to hints; she refused,
+somewhat pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries. How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances? He felt that his humor was growing
+strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus&rsquo; own fault (he could swear it)
+that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal brambles. Her
+howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her ankle (he could swear
+it); there was not a tear. The moment he offered, furiously, to carry her, she
+walked without a vestige of a limp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one&rsquo;s children like that&mdash;well. Certainly she was losing her charm;
+she was the mother of Erebus also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of wife for
+him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near Colet House, a
+slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and distinction came through the
+garden gate to meet them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a cry of &ldquo;Uncle Maurice!&rdquo; the crippled Erebus dashed to meet
+him with the light bounds of an antelope. Captain Baster could hardly believe
+his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by repute. It was Sir
+Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his friend. With his aid a man might
+climb to the highest social peaks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never dreamed it)
+he could not believe his good fortune. But why had he not learned this splendid
+fact before? Why had he been kept in the dark? He did not reflect that he had
+been so continuously busy making confidences about himself, his possessions and
+his exploits to her that he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling
+him anything about herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up for
+lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated his right to
+the name of Pallybaster. His friendliness was overwhelming. Before the end of
+lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to dine with him at his mess, to dine with him
+at two of his clubs, to shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the
+forthcoming regimental steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in
+the Mediterranean.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew. He could not bear
+that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice. The Twins were
+intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their uncle&rsquo;s
+attention. They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their stepfather, it
+would be his first task to see that they learned a respectful silence in the
+presence of their elders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make it.
+Captain Baster&rsquo;s love was of his life a thing apart, but his social
+aspirations were the chief fact of his existence. Besides, there was no haste;
+he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his avowal with a passionate
+eagerness; any time would do for that. But he must seize the fleeting hour and
+bind Sir Maurice to himself by the bond of the warmest friendship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to the
+interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world, humorous, knowing,
+wealthy, to talk to. He tried to make opportunities for him to escape from
+them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he did not seem to see them. In
+truth Captain Baster was a little disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find
+him frankly responsive: polite&mdash;yes; indeed, politeness could go no
+further. But he lacked warmth. After all he had not pinned him down to the
+definite acceptance of a single invitation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When, at seven o&rsquo;clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a bosom
+friend. He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the air of
+one who has paused from exhausting toil: &ldquo;I feel sticky&mdash;positively
+sticky,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy friends! I thought
+we should never get rid of him. I thought he&rsquo;d stuck himself to us for
+the rest of our natural lives.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s up to.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a friend of mine!&rdquo; cried Erebus hotly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We call him the Cruncher&mdash;because of his teeth,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then beware, Erebus&mdash;beware! You are young and possibly
+savory,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You children had better go and get ready for dinner,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins went to the door. On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Mum he wants to crunch up&mdash;not me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oho! I see&mdash;heroism. That was what you wanted to consult me
+about.&rdquo; Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added:
+&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t do, Anne&mdash;it won&rsquo;t do at all. I am convinced
+of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you think so?&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think? I&rsquo;m sure of it,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete conviction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But the children; he could do so much for the children,&rdquo; pleaded
+Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He could, but he wouldn&rsquo;t. That kind of bounder never does any one
+any good but himself. No, no; the children are right in calling him the
+Cruncher. He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times better for
+them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that ever came out of
+pickles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, you know best. You do understand these things,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do understand Basters,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a weight
+oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus. Once Sir Maurice asked her the
+cause of it. She only shook her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he had
+made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it. But on his eager
+way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before him with his stick
+for clotheslines. He came out of the dark lane into the broad turf road, which
+runs across the common to the house, with a strong sense of relief and became
+once more his hearty care-free self.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he walked in
+all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for more serious
+matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with considerable force. He had
+barely finished the jump of pained surprise with which he greeted it, when
+another stone whizzed viciously past his head; then a third struck him on the
+shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed in the
+direction whence, he judged, the stones came. He was just in time to stop a
+singularly hard stone with his marble brow. Then he found a gorse-bush (by
+tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed unwilling to release him from
+its stimulating, not to say prickly, embrace. As he wallowed in it another
+stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet and
+realized that there was only one thing to do. He tore along the turf road to
+Colet House as hard as he could pelt. A stone struck the garden gate as he
+opened it. He did not pause to ring; he opened the front door, plunged heavily
+across the hall into the drawing-room. The Terror formed the center of a
+domestic scene; he was playing draughts with his Uncle Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: &ldquo;I&mdash;I
+made sure it was that young whelp!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a natural
+confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang to their feet,
+asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from it with
+a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush&rsquo;s clinging
+affection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been stoned&mdash;stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the
+common!&rdquo; he cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his
+marble brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was cool,
+interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate indignation of a
+bosom friend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How many of them were there?&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen,&rdquo; said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know&mdash;I know what it is!&rdquo; cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an
+illuminating flash of womanly intuition. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been humorous with
+some of the villagers!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no! I haven&rsquo;t joked with a single one of them!&rdquo; cried
+Captain Baster. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll teach the scoundrels a lesson! I&rsquo;ll
+put the police on them tomorrow morning. I&rsquo;ll send for a detective from
+London. I&rsquo;ll prosecute them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t find
+your handkerchief anywhere, Mum. It took me ever such a time,&rdquo; she said,
+giving it to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror&rsquo;s face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: &ldquo;Have you been running to find it? You&rsquo;re quite out
+of breath.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain Baster.&#8230; But
+no: it was impossible&mdash;a child in whose veins flowed some of the bluest
+blood in England. Besides, her slender arms could never have thrown the stones
+as straight and hard as that.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth slightly
+open. He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief, and stumbled out
+of the room. They heard a door bang up-stairs; then, through the ceiling, they
+heard a curious drumming sound. It occurred to the Terror that it might be the
+heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the gorse
+prickles out of Captain Baster&rsquo;s clothes. She had nearly finished when
+Sir Maurice returned. He carried a handkerchief in his hand, and he had
+recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed somewhat exhausted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero; and for
+a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he would wreak on the
+scoundrelly villagers. But after a while he forgot his pricks and bruises to
+bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he plied him with unflagging
+friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o&rsquo;clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of admiration and
+approval of Erebus&rsquo; strenuous endeavor to instil into Captain Baster the
+perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed out her abundant hair for
+her, an office he sometimes performed when she was in high favor with him. As
+he did it she related gleefully the stoning of their enemy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she had done, he said warmly: &ldquo;It was ripping. But the nuisance is:
+he doesn&rsquo;t know it was you who did it, and so it&rsquo;s rather
+wasted.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you worry: I&rsquo;ll let him know sometime
+to-morrow,&rdquo; said Erebus firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; but he&rsquo;s awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?&rdquo; said
+the Terror doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think
+he&rsquo;d do that; he&rsquo;d look so silly being stoned by a girl. Anyhow,
+I&rsquo;ll chance it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s worth chancing it
+to put him off marrying mother. And of course Uncle Maurice is here.
+He&rsquo;ll see nothing serious happens.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course he will,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster had
+weighed on their uncle&rsquo;s mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him from
+behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard him singing to
+himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It went:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;<i>Where did his colonel dig him up,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So young, so fair, so
+sweet,<br />
+With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Was it Wapping or Basinghall
+Street?</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself, softly,
+twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving but silent lips of
+Erebus repeated it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was silent; and she said: &ldquo;Oh, uncle! It&rsquo;s splendid!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: &ldquo;You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I&rsquo;ll pull your long ears,&rdquo; he said amiably.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes; then
+nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she said: &ldquo;Here
+he comes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds, paused and
+cried: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going back to bed! Tell him I&rsquo;m in bed!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when Erebus
+told him that he had gone back to bed. Mrs. Dangerfield, informed of her
+brother&rsquo;s shrinking, had to be very firm with his new friend to induce
+him to go for a walk with her and Erebus. He showed an inclination to linger
+about the house till his sun should rise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs. Dangerfield was
+firm. She did not bring him back till half past twelve, only to learn that Sir
+Maurice was very busy writing letters in his bedroom. Captain Baster hoped for
+an invitation to lunch (he hinted as much) but he was disappointed. In the end
+he returned to The Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been
+barren.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started on a
+walk with the Terror. Captain Baster said cheerily that he would overtake them,
+and set out briskly to do so. He walked hard enough to compass that end; and it
+is probable that he would have had a much better chance of succeeding, had not
+Erebus sent him eastward whereas Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart swelled
+big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some friends to meet
+him and her brother. Here was his chance to shine, to show Sir Maurice his
+social mettle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He could have wished that the party had been larger. They were only a dozen all
+told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar and his wife, the
+higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and
+Wiggins himself, who had spent most of the afternoon with Erebus. Captain
+Baster would have preferred thirty or forty, but none the less he fell to work
+with a will.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to have tea
+in the garden; and it gave him room to expand. He was soon the life and soul of
+the gathering. He was humorous with the vicar about the church, and with the
+squire about the dulling effect of the country on the intelligence. He tried to
+be humorous with Mr. Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have
+retired from some profession or business. This was so signal a failure that he
+dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town and his
+country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he told them about his
+motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at polo and at golf.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except Sir
+Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect equality, as
+&ldquo;Maurice, old boy,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Maurice, old chap,&rdquo; or plain
+&ldquo;Maurice.&rdquo; He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a
+warm perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were aware that
+their mother&rsquo;s tea-party was a failure. As a rule her little parties were
+so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness; and her guests went away
+pleased with themselves, her and one another. The Terror was keenly alive to
+the effect of Captain Baster; and a faint persistent frown troubled his
+serenity. Erebus was more dimly aware that her enemy was spoiling the party.
+Only Sir Maurice and Mr. Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir
+Maurice&rsquo;s enjoyment was mingled with vexation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain Baster in
+a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end of his panegyric
+on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered his grievance. Forthwith
+he related at length the affair of the night before: how he had been stoned by
+a dozen hulking scoundrels on the common. When he came to the end of it, he
+looked round for sympathy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them except
+the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing violently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: &ldquo;Er&mdash;er&mdash;yes; most
+extraordinary. But I don&rsquo;t think it could have been the villagers.
+They&rsquo;re&mdash;er&mdash;very peaceful people.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It must have been some rowdies from Rowington,&rdquo; said the squire in
+the loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what he
+said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an incredulous
+unwinking stare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some care. The
+first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right gable of the
+house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by a couple of inches;
+the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun round as if a vigorous gale
+were devoting itself to its tail only.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I meant to hit it the first time,&rdquo; said Erebus
+with a little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The silence that fell was oppressive. Captain Baster gazed earnestly at Erebus,
+his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking stare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions,&rdquo; said
+the higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice. &ldquo;I made sure it
+was the Terror.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So did I,&rdquo; said the vicar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have bet on it,&rdquo; said the squire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The silence fell again. Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue bump on his
+marble brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: &ldquo;Has any one heard Wiggins&rsquo; new
+song?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: &ldquo;No! Let&rsquo;s hear
+it!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on, Wiggins!&rdquo; cried the vicar heartily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew it in the
+depths of his horror-stricken heart. He ground his teeth softly and glared at
+the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he could have borne the
+earth&rsquo;s suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with his
+right. Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had chanted the
+song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear shrill treble, sang,
+slightly out of tune:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;<i>Where did his colonel dig him up,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So young, so fair, so
+sweet,<br />
+With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Was it Wapping or Basinghall
+Street?</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished everybody
+was looking at Captain Baster&rsquo;s boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster&rsquo;s face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt into
+irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the man he had made his bosom
+friend, for an indignant outburst; Sir Maurice was smiling, too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Captain Baster snorted fiercely; then he swelled with splendid dignity, and
+said loudly, but thickly, &ldquo;I refuse! Yes, I refuse to mix in a society
+where children are brought up as hooligans yes: as hooligans!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned on his heel, strode to the gate, and turned and bellowed,
+&ldquo;Hooligans!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He flung himself through the gate and strode violently across the common.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Wiggins! How could you?&rdquo; cried Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone of
+horror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t Wiggins! It was me! I taught him. He didn&rsquo;t
+understand,&rdquo; said Erebus loyally.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did understand&mdash;quite. But why did he call me Freckles?&rdquo;
+said Wiggins in a vengeful tone. &ldquo;Nobody can help having freckles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a> CHAPTER III<br />
+AND THE CATS&rsquo; HOME</h2>
+
+<p>
+They watched the retreating figure of Captain Baster till it was lost to sight
+among the gorse, in silence. They were glad at his going, but sorry at the
+manner of it, since Mrs. Dangerfield looked distressed and vexed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the vicar said: &ldquo;There is a good deal to be said for the point of
+view of Wiggins, Mrs. Dangerfield. After all, Captain Baster was the original
+aggressor.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nevertheless I must apologize for my son&rsquo;s exploding such an
+uncommonly violent bomb at a quiet garden party,&rdquo; said the higher
+mathematician. &ldquo;I suspect he underrated its effect.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His tone was apologetic, but there was no excess of contrition in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What I think is that Captain Baster&rsquo;s notion of humor is catching;
+and that it affected Erebus and Wiggins,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice amiably.
+&ldquo;And if we start apologizing, there will be no end to it. I should have
+to come in myself as the maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying
+about.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was certainly a happy effort,&rdquo; said the vicar, smiling. Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to London next
+week; perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and presently it was
+clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had lifted a wet blanket of
+quite uncommon thickness from the party. They were talking easily and freely;
+and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice were seeing to it that every one, even
+Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, were getting their little chances of shining.
+The Twins and Wiggins slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their
+ease for their going. In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had
+so nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a state
+of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the exploits of
+Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the two onslaughts his
+violent niece had made on a guest. The Terror was also doing his best in the
+matter: with unbending firmness he prevented Erebus, eager to enjoy her
+uncle&rsquo;s society, from returning to the house till it was time to dress
+for dinner. He wished to give his mother time to get over the worst of her
+annoyance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent daughter
+with any great severity. But even so, Erebus did not receive these milder
+rebukes in the proper meek spirit. Unlike the philosophic Terror, who for the
+most part accepted his mother&rsquo;s just rebukes, after a doubtful exploit,
+with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always make out a case for herself;
+and she did so now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was not
+really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a descent on the
+house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within the sphere of the laws of
+hospitality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Besides he never behaved like a guest,&rdquo; she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone. &ldquo;He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one&mdash;especially to me. And if he was always trying to score off me,
+I&rsquo;d a perfect right to score off him. And anyhow, I wasn&rsquo;t going to
+let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it. He&rsquo;d be a
+perfectly beastly stepfather&mdash;you know he would.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to discuss; and
+flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the discussion by telling
+Erebus not to do it again. She knew that however bitterly Erebus might protest
+against a just rebuke, she would take it sufficiently to heart. She was sure
+that she would not stone another guest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and Sir
+Maurice enjoyed very much his three days&rsquo; stay. The Twins, though they
+were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always fell after a
+signal exploit that came to their mother&rsquo;s notice, were very pleasant
+companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of Little Deeping were
+grateful after the London whirl. Also he had many talks with his sister on the
+matter of settling down in life, a course of action she frequently urged on
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness. It was not acute boredom; they
+were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went every morning to
+study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned English and French with
+her mother. Their afternoon leisure, therefore, rarely palled on them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus suggested that
+they should begin by ambushing Wiggins. They went, therefore, toward Mr.
+Carrington&rsquo;s house which stood nearly a mile away on the outskirts of
+Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the common. They saw their prey
+in the garden; and he tried their patience by staying there for nearly a
+quarter of an hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common. Their eyes began to shine with
+the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards from the
+common&rsquo;s edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for covert and
+disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left. They fell noiselessly
+back, going as quickly as concealment permitted, to cut him off. They were
+successful. They caught him crossing an open space, yelled &ldquo;Bang!&rdquo;
+together; and in accordance with the rules of the game Wiggins fell to the
+ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the immemorial oaks
+for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves hastily of the wood-pigeons
+feeding on their acorns.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily said:
+&ldquo;That makes you two games ahead.&rdquo; Then he spurned the earth and
+added: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have a bicycle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint frown broke
+the ineffable serenity of the Terror&rsquo;s face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be no living with Wiggins now, he&rsquo;ll be so
+cocky,&rdquo; said Erebus bitterly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no; he won&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;But we ought to
+have bicycles, too. We want them badly. We never get really far from the
+village. We always get stopped on the way&mdash;rats, or something.&rdquo; And
+his guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look of
+yearning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There are orchards over there where they don&rsquo;t know us,&rdquo;
+said Erebus wistfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We <i>must</i> have bicycles. I&rsquo;ve been thinking so for a long
+time,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We must have the moon!&rdquo; said Erebus with cold scorn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bicycles aren&rsquo;t so far away,&rdquo; said the Terror sagely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They moved swiftly across the common. Erebus poured forth a long monotonous
+complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made this Cosmic All a
+mere time-honored cheat. With ears impervious to his sister&rsquo;s vain
+lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful, pondering this pressing
+problem. Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the
+earth and proceeded by leaps and bounds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the Terror to
+say: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a penny. We&rsquo;ll go and get some
+bull&rsquo;s-eyes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing the
+village, when they met three small boys. One of them carried a kitten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus stopped short. &ldquo;What are you going to do with that kitten, Billy
+Beck?&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We be goin&rsquo; to drown &rsquo;im in the pond,&rdquo; said Billy Beck
+in the important tones of an executioner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going
+to do anything of the sort, you little beast!&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and disappointment,
+and he howled:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gimme my kitty! Mother says she won&rsquo;t &rsquo;ave &rsquo;im about
+the &rsquo;ouse, an&rsquo; I could drown &rsquo;im.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You won&rsquo;t have him,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst into
+blubbering roar of &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ourn! It ain&rsquo;t yourn! It&rsquo;s
+ourn!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t! A kitten isn&rsquo;t any one&rsquo;s to drown!&rdquo;
+cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice. Erebus edged away from him ready to fly,
+should human justice intervene actively. The Terror put his hand in his pocket
+and fumbled. He drew out a penny, and looked at it earnestly. He was weighing
+the respective merits of justice and bull&rsquo;s-eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a penny for your kitten. You can buy bull&rsquo;s-eyes with
+it,&rdquo; he said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck&rsquo;s tearful eyes.
+&ldquo;&rsquo;E&rsquo;s worth more&rsquo;n a penny&mdash;a kitty like
+&rsquo;im!&rdquo; he blubbered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not to drown. It&rsquo;s all you&rsquo;ll get,&rdquo; said the Terror
+curtly. He tossed the penny to Billy&rsquo;s feet, turned on his heel and went
+back across the common away from the village. Some of the brightness faded out
+of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have given him a penny. He was only going to drown the
+kitten,&rdquo; said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was his kitten. We couldn&rsquo;t take it without paying for
+it,&rdquo; said the Terror coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, &ldquo;There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants&mdash;and puppies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror stopped short, and said: &ldquo;By Jove! There&rsquo;s Aunt
+Amelia!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia, who had
+more money than all the rest of the family put together, and yet never rained
+postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but spent it all on horrid
+cats&rsquo; homes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just it,&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone of considerable
+animation. &ldquo;Come along; I want you to write a letter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to write any disgusting letter!&rdquo; cried Erebus
+hotly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you&rsquo;re not going to get any bicycle. Come on. I&rsquo;ll look
+out the words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he&rsquo;s got into the way of using grammar. It&rsquo;ll be
+useful. Come on!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of being a
+helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year, and only ten brief
+wet summers had passed over his own tousled head, Erebus clamoring to have her
+suddenly aroused curiosity gratified. Practise had made the Terror&rsquo;s ears
+impervious at will to his sister&rsquo;s questions, which were frequent and
+innumerable. Without a word of explanation he led the way home; without a word
+he set her down at the dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat
+down himself on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins
+by his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he said coldly: &ldquo;Now don&rsquo;t make any blots, or you&rsquo;ll
+have to do it all over again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I never make blots! It&rsquo;s you that makes blots!&rdquo; cried
+Erebus, ruffled. &ldquo;Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you
+do. Ever so much better.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why you&rsquo;re writing the letter and not me,&rdquo; said
+the Terror coldly. &ldquo;Fire away: &lsquo;My dear Aunt Amelia&rsquo;&mdash;I
+say, Wiggins, what&rsquo;s the proper words for &lsquo;awfully
+keen&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Keen&rsquo; is &lsquo;interested&rsquo;&mdash;I don&rsquo;t know
+how many &lsquo;r&rsquo;s&rsquo; there are in
+&lsquo;interested&rsquo;&mdash;and &lsquo;awfully&rsquo; is an awfully
+difficult word,&rdquo; said Wiggins, pondering.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror looked up &ldquo;interested&rdquo; in the dictionary with a
+laborious painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single
+&ldquo;r&rdquo; in it; then he said, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the right word for
+&lsquo;awfully,&rsquo; Wiggins? Buck up!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Tremendously,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Wiggins with the air of a
+successful Columbus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;&lsquo;My dear Aunt
+Amelia: I have often heard that you are tremendously interested in cats&rsquo;
+homes&rsquo;&rdquo;&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should think you had!&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now don&rsquo;t jabber, please; just stick to the writing,&rdquo; said
+the Terror. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to make this letter a corker; and how can I
+think if you jabber?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Little Deeping wants a cats&rsquo; home awfully&rsquo;&mdash;no:
+&lsquo;tremendously.&rsquo; I like that word &lsquo;tremendously&rsquo;; it
+means something,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re jabbering yourself now,&rdquo; said Erebus unpleasantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror continued:
+&ldquo;&lsquo;The quantity of kittens that are drowned is
+horrible&rsquo;&mdash;that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than
+cats&mdash;&lsquo;and I have been thinking&rsquo;&mdash;Oughtn&rsquo;t you to
+put in some stops?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m putting in stops&mdash;lots,&rdquo; said Erebus
+contemptuously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;I have been thinking&mdash;that if you wanted to have a
+cats&rsquo; home here&rsquo;&mdash;What&rsquo;s the right word for
+&lsquo;running a thing,&rsquo; Wiggins?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is a word &lsquo;overseer&rsquo;&mdash;slaves have them,&rdquo; he
+said cautiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it out, and
+continued: &ldquo;&lsquo;I could overseer it for you. I have got my eye on a
+building which would suit us tremendously well. But these things cost money,
+and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty pounds&rsquo;&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thirty pounds! My goodness!&rdquo; cried Erebus; and her eyes opened
+wide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We may as well go the whole hog,&rdquo; said the Terror philosophically.
+&ldquo;Go on: &lsquo;Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a
+real home&mdash;&rsquo; What&rsquo;s the word for &lsquo;bust up,&rsquo;
+Wiggins?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Burst up,&rdquo; said Wiggins without hesitation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no; not the grammar&mdash;the right word! Oh, I know; &lsquo;go
+bankrupt&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;it might go bankrupt. So it you would like to have
+a cats&rsquo; home here and send me some money, I will start it at once. Your
+affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.&rsquo; There!&rdquo; said
+the Terror with a sigh of relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you&rsquo;ve left me out altogether,&rdquo; said Erebus in a
+suddenly aggrieved tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should jolly well think I had! You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say &lsquo;Dam,&rsquo; she
+won&rsquo;t have anything to do with you,&rdquo; said the Terror firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no pleasing some people,&rdquo; said Erebus mournfully.
+&ldquo;When I went there the silly old parrot couldn&rsquo;t say a thing; and
+when I came away, he could say &lsquo;Dam! Dam! Dam!&rsquo; from morning till
+night without making a mistake.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a word people don&rsquo;t like,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river. I told Aunt Amelia
+so,&rdquo; said Erebus firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She might not believe you; she doesn&rsquo;t know how truthfully
+we&rsquo;ve been brought up,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;Go on; sign my name
+to the letter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s forgery. You ought to sign your name yourself,&rdquo; said
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter. Sign away,&rdquo; said the Terror firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: &ldquo;But what good&rsquo;s the money
+going to be to us, if we&rsquo;ve got to spend it on a silly old cats&rsquo;
+home? It only means a lot of trouble.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror&rsquo;s face.
+&ldquo;Well, you see, there aren&rsquo;t many cats in Little Deeping&mdash;not
+enough to fill a cats&rsquo; home decently,&rdquo; he said slowly. &ldquo;We
+should have to have bicycles to collect them&mdash;from Great Deeping, and
+Muttle Deeping, and farther off.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming face, as
+she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration: &ldquo;Well, you do
+think of things!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have to,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t we should
+never have a single thing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield. He did not tell her of the
+splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had thought he would
+write to Aunt Amelia. Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased with him for his thought:
+she wished him to stand well with his great-aunt, since she was a rich woman
+without children of her own. She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter
+should be shown to her, though she suspected that it contained some artless
+request. She thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt
+to make requests rather than not write at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their lives.
+Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their lives those bicycles
+would bring about; she would pause in the very middle of some important
+enterprise to discuss the rides they would take on them, the orchards that
+those machines would bring within their reach. But the Terror would have none
+of it; his calm philosophic mind forbade him to discuss his chickens before
+they were hatched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not remarkable that
+philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief characteristic of Lady
+Ryehampton. As the purport of her great-nephew&rsquo;s letter slowly penetrated
+her mind, a broad and beaming smile of gratification spread slowly over her
+large round face; and as she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her
+companion, she cried in unctuous tones: &ldquo;The dear boy! So young, but
+already enthusiastic about great things!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she was
+going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more victimized.
+She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady Ryehampton to a noble
+phrase. Her eyes brightened with humorous appreciation as she read the letter
+of Erebus; and when she came to the end of it she opened her mouth to point out
+that Little Deeping was one of the last places in England to need a cats&rsquo;
+home. Then she bethought herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a
+little click, and her face went blank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and said
+warmly: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really wonderful. You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose I must,&rdquo; said Lady Ryehampton with an air of
+satisfaction. &ldquo;And I must be careful not to discourage him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror&rsquo;s face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers. It was only right that some of Lady
+Ryehampton&rsquo;s money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school. It was monstrous that the great bulk of it
+should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings came first.
+And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm,&rdquo; she said
+gravely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats&rsquo; home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not better send
+fifty. Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite comfortable by compromising:
+she said that she thought thirty was enough to begin with; that if more were
+needful, Lady Ryehampton could give it later. Lady Ryehampton accepted the
+suggestion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having set her employer&rsquo;s hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back. Lady Ryehampton would spend money on cats, but
+she could not be hurried in the spending of it. But Miss Hendersyde kept
+referring to the Terror&rsquo;s enterprise all that day and the next morning,
+with the result that on the next afternoon Lady Ryehampton signed the check for
+thirty pounds. At Miss Hendersyde&rsquo;s suggestion she drew the money in
+cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it into postal orders, for there is no bank at
+Little Deeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House. The excited
+Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from him, signed the
+receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the precious packet to the
+Terror in the orchard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face; and he
+said in a somewhat breathless tone: &ldquo;Thirty pounds&mdash;well!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the spur of
+that marvelous moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s splendid&mdash;splendid!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s
+the best thing you ever thought of!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the envelope
+into the breast pocket of his coat. A frown of the most thoughtful
+consideration furrowed his brow. Then he said firmly: &ldquo;The first thing,
+to do is to get the bicycles. If once we&rsquo;ve got them, no one will take
+them away from us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course they won&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Erebus, with eager acceptance of
+his idea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning the
+earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a casual
+air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: &ldquo;May we have the
+cow-house for our very own, Mum?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Terror! Surely you don&rsquo;t want to keep ferrets!&rdquo; cried
+Mrs. Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror&rsquo;s developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think we
+could make a little pocket-money out of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am afraid you&rsquo;re growing terribly mercenary,&rdquo; said his
+mother; then she added with a sigh: &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t wonder at it,
+seeing how hard up you always are. You can have the cow-house. It&rsquo;s right
+at the end of the paddock&mdash;well away from the house&mdash;so that I
+don&rsquo;t see that you can do any harm with it whatever you do. But how are
+you going to make pocket-money out of it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, I haven&rsquo;t got it all worked out yet,&rdquo; said the Terror
+quickly. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ll tell you all about it when we have. Thanks ever
+so much for the cow-house.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a boy of his
+years. He changed but one of the six postal orders at Little Deeping&mdash;that
+would make talk enough&mdash;and then, having begged a holiday from the vicar,
+he took the train to Rowington, their market town, ten miles away, taking
+Erebus with him. There he changed three more postal orders; and then the Twins
+took their way to the bicycle shop, with hearts that beat high.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way which, in any
+one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus to the very limits of
+endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she had long ago learned the
+futility of exasperation. He began by an exhaustive examination of every make
+of bicycle in the shop; and he made it with a thoroughness that worried the
+eager bicycle-seller, one of those smart young men who pamper a chin&rsquo;s
+passion for receding by letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his
+nerves were all on edge. Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out
+of his pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young man
+perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of buying two.
+He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to develop the point
+that there must be a considerable reduction in price to the buyer of two
+bicycles. Then he made his offer: he would give fourteen pounds for two
+eight-pound-ten bicycles. His serenity was quite unruffled by the
+seller&rsquo;s furious protests. Then the real struggle began. The Terror came
+out of it with two bicycles, two lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to
+hold a cat; the seller came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant
+Twins wheeled their machines out of the shop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street. Then he
+said: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve saved the cats&rsquo; home quite two pounds.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And it&rsquo;s made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it,&rdquo; said
+the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It must have&mdash;arguing like that,&rdquo; said Erebus quickly; and
+her eyes brightened as she caught his drift.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment. It&rsquo;s a long
+ride home,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course it ought,&rdquo; said Erebus with decision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner&rsquo;s shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: &ldquo;Of course overseers
+have a salary.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course they do,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That settles the matter of pocket-money,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have sixpence a week each.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only sixpence?&rdquo; said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, you see, there are the bicycles. I don&rsquo;t think we can make
+it more than sixpence. And I tell you what: we shall have to keep accounts.
+I&rsquo;ll buy an account-book. You&rsquo;re very good at
+arithmetic&mdash;you&rsquo;ll like keeping accounts,&rdquo; said the Terror
+suavely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that it
+would be delicate at that moment to protest. Therefore on leaving the shop the
+Terror bought an account-book. His distrust of literature prevented him from
+paying more than a penny for it. From the stationer&rsquo;s he went to an
+ironmonger&rsquo;s and bought a saw, a brace, a gimlet, a screw-driver and two
+gross of screws&mdash;his tool-box had long needed refilling. Then they mounted
+their machines proudly (they had learned to ride on the machines of
+acquaintances) and rode home. After their visit to the confectioner&rsquo;s
+they rode rather sluggishly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the Terror
+turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a quiet orchard,
+in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on Erebus&rsquo; bicycle
+with excellent apples. The tools had been packed into the Terror&rsquo;s
+basket. They did not disturb the farmer&rsquo;s wife at the busy dinner-hour;
+the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: &ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t wonder
+if these bicycles didn&rsquo;t pay for themselves in time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I said there were orchards out here where they didn&rsquo;t know
+us,&rdquo; said Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in the
+cow-house. At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements. It had long been
+unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning. It was quite suitable to their
+purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a size to hold two cows. The
+measurements made, they went, with an important moneyed air, down to the
+village carpenter, the only timber merchant in the neighborhood, and bought
+planks from him. There was some discussion before his idea about the price of
+planks and that of the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he
+said, with some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns. Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he forthwith put the
+planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet House. The Twins, eager to
+be at work, helped him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable constructive genius
+to the creation of cat-hutches. That evening Erebus wrote his warm letter of
+thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus proposed that
+they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally forth on a splendid foray.
+The Terror would not hear of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he said firmly. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to get the
+cats&rsquo; home finished before we use those bicycles at all. Then nobody can
+complain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to go down
+to the vicarage for his morning&rsquo;s lessons with the vicar. He set to work
+again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon; and he saw to it
+that Erebus worked, too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came. He had spent a fruitless hour
+lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied forth into the
+world, and then had come to see what had kept them within their borders. He was
+deeply impressed by the sight of the bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his
+estimation of the powers of his friends was too high for any of their exploits
+to surprise him greatly. But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have
+obtained their bicycles before he had obtained his. None the less he helped
+them construct the cats&rsquo; home with enthusiasm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort. So much
+sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces were chipped
+out of them. But their spirits never flagged; and by sunset on the third day
+they had constructed accommodation for thirty cats. It may be that the wooden
+bars of the hutches were not all of the same breadth, but at any rate they were
+all of the same thickness: and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would
+squirm through them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the transformed
+cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said firmly: &ldquo;What we
+want now is cats.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a> CHAPTER IV<br />
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were willing to
+afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their owners no longer
+needed. They had, indeed, one offer of a cat suffering from the mange; but the
+Terror rejected it, saying coldly to its owner that theirs was a home, not a
+hospital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she pointed
+out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: &ldquo;Look here:
+I&rsquo;m going to begin with kittens.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How will you get kittens, if you can&rsquo;t get cats? Everybody likes
+kittens. It&rsquo;s only when they grow up and stop playing that they
+don&rsquo;t want them,&rdquo; said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to buy them,&rdquo; said the Terror firmly.
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to give threepence each for kittens that can just lap.
+We don&rsquo;t want kittens that can&rsquo;t lap. They&rsquo;d be too much
+trouble.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good idea,&rdquo; said Erebus, brightening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll stop them drowning kittens all right. The only thing
+I&rsquo;m not sure about is the accounts.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always bothering about those silly old accounts!&rdquo;
+said Erebus sharply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of their
+expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts.
+Aunt Amelia is so used to cats&rsquo; homes that are given their cats.
+She&rsquo;s told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be
+taken in.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>I</i> don&rsquo;t want them to go down. It makes all the less
+accounts to keep,&rdquo; said Erebus readily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s settled,&rdquo; said the Terror cheerfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the tidings of
+their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who could just lap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the impatient
+Erebus grew louder and louder. There was no doubt that she loved a grievance;
+and even more she loved making no secret of that grievance to those about her.
+Since she could only discuss this grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they
+heard enough about it. Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in
+her patient brother&rsquo;s resolve to take action; and he called her and
+Wiggins to a council.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He opened the discussion by saying: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to have kittens, or
+cats. We can&rsquo;t have any pocket-money for &lsquo;overseering&rsquo; till
+there&rsquo;s something to overseer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And that splendid cats&rsquo; home we&rsquo;ve made stopping empty all
+the time,&rdquo; said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind that. I&rsquo;m sick of hearing about it,&rdquo; said
+the Terror coldly. &ldquo;But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia
+will soon be wanting to know what&rsquo;s happening to the home; and
+she&rsquo;ll make a fuss if there aren&rsquo;t any cats in it. So we must have
+cats.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats. There are cats all over
+the country; and when we&rsquo;re out bicycling, a good way from home, we could
+easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with us. We ought to be
+able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in eight days the home would be
+full and two over.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And we should be prosecuted for stealing them,&rdquo; said the Terror
+coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But they&rsquo;d be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed,&rdquo; protested Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t make any difference. No; it&rsquo;s no good trying
+to get them that way,&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, they won&rsquo;t come of themselves,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They would with valerian,&rdquo; said Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s Valerian?&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t a who. It&rsquo;s a drug at the chemist&rsquo;s,&rdquo;
+said Wiggins. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been talking to my father about cats a good
+deal lately, and he says if you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the
+ground, cats will follow it for miles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your father seems to know everything&mdash;such a lot of useful things
+as well as higher mathematics,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why he has a European reputation,&rdquo; said Wiggins; and
+he spurned the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of the
+enchanting drug. Just before they reached the village, on their way home, the
+Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it, poured some valerian
+on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the village to his garden gate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the father
+of Wiggins. All that evening and far into the night twelve cats fought
+clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next day the Terror turned the cats&rsquo; home into a cat-trap. He cut a
+hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted it with a
+hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the outside, but lacked
+the intelligence to raise from the inside. He was late finishing it, and went
+from it to his dinner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring at the
+back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had come from the
+village with some kittens. The Twins excused themselves politely to their
+mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly had brought no less than
+five small kittens in a basket.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping test.
+Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they lapped. The fifth
+would not lap. It only mewed. Therefore the Terror took only four of the
+kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them. The fifth he returned to her,
+bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They took the four kittens down to the cats&rsquo; home; and since they were so
+small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk to satisfy
+their hunger during the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now we&rsquo;ve got these kittens, we needn&rsquo;t bother about getting
+cats,&rdquo; said the Terror as they returned to the house. &ldquo;And
+I&rsquo;m glad it is kittens and not cats. Kittens eat less.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you&rsquo;ve had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an emergency exit&mdash;like the theaters have&mdash;only
+it&rsquo;s an entrance,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;But thank goodness,
+we&rsquo;ve begun at last; now we can have salaries for
+&lsquo;overseering&rsquo;.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens to their
+stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady Ryehampton that the home
+was already constructed and in process of occupation. Accordingly Erebus wrote
+a letter, by no means devoid of enthusiasm, informing her that it already held
+eleven inmates, &ldquo;saved from the awful death of drowning.&rdquo; Lady
+Ryehampton replied promptly in a spirit of warm gratification that they had
+been so quick starting it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found themselves
+grappling earnestly with the food problem and the account-book.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations. Till they were six years
+old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in Monmouth, with toys
+beyond the dreams of Alnaschar. Then their father had fallen into the hands of
+a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had along with them lost nearly all his
+money, and presently died, leaving Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income
+indeed. All the while since his death it had been a hard struggle to make both
+ends meet; and the Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the
+desires of their hearts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak; and taking
+one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as the bulk of the
+children of the well-to-do. But it did not come in the way of a regular
+allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work; and the processes of
+getting it had given the Terror the liveliest interest in financial matters. He
+was resolved that the cats&rsquo; home and the wages of
+&ldquo;overseering&rdquo; should last as long as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a quart,
+the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with him that
+milk spelled ruin. But they could see no way of reducing the price of milk; and
+they were sure that it was the necessary food for growing kittens.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a heavy
+silence had fallen on them. Then of a sudden the face of the Terror brightened;
+and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got it;
+we&rsquo;ll feed them on skim-milk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens,&rdquo; said Erebus scornfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping. Butter-making was its chief
+industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens,&rdquo; said the Terror
+firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how can we get it? They don&rsquo;t sell it about here,&rdquo; said
+Erebus. &ldquo;And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn&rsquo;t sell
+skim-milk, nobody&rsquo;s going to sell skim-milk to-day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it,&rdquo; said the Terror confidently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Old Stubbs! But he hates us worse than any one!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes; he doesn&rsquo;t like us. But he&rsquo;s awfully keen on money;
+every one says so. And he won&rsquo;t care whose money he gets so long as he
+gets it. Come on; we&rsquo;ll go and talk to him about it,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs and
+knocked resolutely. The maid, who was well aware that her master and the Twins
+were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some hesitation. The Twins had
+never entered the farmer&rsquo;s house before, though they had often entered
+his orchard; and they felt slightly uncomfortable. They found the parlor into
+which they were shown uncommonly musty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate fringe
+that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion in his small,
+ferrety, red-rimmed eyes. Even when he learned that they had come on business,
+his face did not brighten till the Terror incidentally dropped a sovereign on
+the floor and talked of cash payments. Then his face shone; he made the
+admission, cautiously, that he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then
+they came to the discussion of prices. Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in
+quarts; the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of
+view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice. But the
+Terror&rsquo;s suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck a
+bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at threepence
+halfpenny the pailful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens to the
+home; and the Terror had yet another idea. Milk alone seemed an insufficient
+diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the matter of stale
+bread. There were more negotiations; and in the end the Terror made a contract
+with the baker for a supply of it at nearly his own price. Now he fed the
+kittens on bread and milk; they throve on it; and it went further than plain
+milk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure. They had been busy filling certain
+shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with the best apples
+the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the countryside afforded. But
+what spare time he had the Terror devoted to a great feat of painting. He
+painted in white letters on a black board:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<h3>LADY RYEHAMPTON&rsquo;S CATS&rsquo; HOME</h3>
+
+<p>
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that could be
+desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins agreed that it was
+extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their aunt saw it she would be
+deeply gratified.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be fixed up,
+they felt that the time had come to take their mother formally into their
+confidence. She had learned of the formation of the cats&rsquo; home from old
+Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked to her about it, and seemed
+surprised by her inability to give them details about its ultimate scope and
+purpose, for it had excited the interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent
+matter of discussion for fully a week. She had explained to them that she never
+interfered with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment,
+and that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats&rsquo; home. Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had been
+brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order. Therefore she
+had no idea of its size or of the cost of its construction. Like every one else
+she supposed it to be a ramshackle affair of makeshifts constructed from old
+planks and hen-coops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for they were
+judicious in their use. They were careful to sally forth when she was taking
+her siesta after lunch; they went across the common and came back across the
+common and their neighbors saw them riding very little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she accepted
+the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection of the home with
+a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise. She expressed her admiration of
+its convenience, its cleanliness, and the extensive scale on which it was being
+run. She agreed with the Terror that to have saved so many kittens from the
+awful death of drowning was a great work. But she asked no questions, not even
+how it was that the cats&rsquo; home was fragrant with the scent of hidden
+apples. She knew that an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility,
+was about to be given her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: &ldquo;The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What? Are those your bicycles?&rdquo; cried Mrs. Dangerfield. &ldquo;But
+wherever did you get the money from to buy them?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aunt Amelia found the money,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;You know
+she&rsquo;s very keen&mdash;tremendously interested in cats&rsquo; homes. She
+thinks we are doing a great work, as well as you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: &ldquo;You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a
+cats&rsquo; home in Little Deeping?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; said the Terror carelessly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she <i>must</i>
+not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins. She bit her tongue with a
+firmness that filled her eyes with tears. It was painful; but it enabled her to
+complete her inspection with the required gravity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke a fresh
+interest among their neighbors in their enterprise. Several of them, including
+the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to it; and Wiggins brought
+his father. All of them expressed an admiration of the institution and of the
+methods on which it was conducted. To one another they expressed an unfavorable
+opinion of the intelligence of Lady Ryehampton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience the Twins
+drew their salary for &ldquo;overseering.&rdquo; It provided them with many of
+the less expensive desires of their hearts. Now and again Erebus, mindful of
+the fact that they had still a little more than ten pounds left out of the
+original thirty, urged that it should be raised to a shilling a week. But the
+Terror would not consent: he said their salaries for &ldquo;overseeing&rdquo;
+would naturally be much higher, and that they would have charged for their work
+in constructing the home, if it had not been for the bicycles. As it was, they
+were bound to work off the price of the bicycles. Besides, he added with a
+philosophical air, six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling
+a week for six months.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained twenty-three
+inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle (probably a corruption of
+Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were informed that for the time being the
+home was full. Erebus clamored to have its full complement of thirty kittens
+made up; but the Terror maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three
+was quite enough. Everything was working smoothly. Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed for the
+door; and Erebus opened it. On the steps stood their Uncle Maurice; and he wore
+a harried air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, it&rsquo;s Uncle Maurice!&rdquo; cried Erebus springing upon him
+and embracing him warmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Uncle Maurice, mother!&rdquo; cried the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he&rsquo;s by no means
+sure of it himself! Is it my head or my heels I&rsquo;m standing on?&rdquo;
+said Sir Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping station,
+laden with wicker baskets. From the baskets came the sound of mewing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whatever is it?&rdquo; cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cats for the cats&rsquo; home!&rdquo; said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a neat
+row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and shut the
+door after him with an air of exhaustion. He leaned back against it and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I had a sudden message&mdash;Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise
+visit to this inf&mdash;this cats&rsquo; home these little friends are
+pretending to run for her. I saw that there was no time to lose&mdash;there
+must be a cats&rsquo; home with cats in it&mdash;or she&rsquo;d cut them both
+out of her will. I bought cats&mdash;all over London&mdash;they&rsquo;ve been
+with me ever since&mdash;yowling&mdash;they yowled in the taxi&mdash;all over
+London&mdash;they traveled down as far as Rowington with me and an old
+gentleman&mdash;a high-spirited old gentleman&mdash;yowling&mdash;not only the
+cats but the old gentleman, too&mdash;-and they traveled from Rowington to
+Little Deeping with me and two maiden ladies&mdash;timid maiden
+ladies!&mdash;yowling! But come on: we&rsquo;ve got to make a cats&rsquo; home
+at once!&rdquo; And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets with the air of a
+man desperately resolved to act on the instant or perish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve got a cats&rsquo; home&mdash;only it&rsquo;s full of
+kittens,&rdquo; said Erebus gently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good heavens! Do you mean to say I&rsquo;ve gone through this nightmare
+for nothing?&rdquo; cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!&rdquo; said the Terror with swift
+politeness. &ldquo;The cats will come in awfully useful.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll make the home look so much more natural. All kittens
+isn&rsquo;t natural,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And they&rsquo;ll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia. She was
+only expecting kittens,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What?&rdquo; howled Sir Maurice. &ldquo;Do you mean to say I&rsquo;ve
+parleyed for hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two&mdash;two&mdash;timid
+maiden ladies, just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly. &ldquo;I ought to have
+had more confidence in you,&rdquo; he said faintly. &ldquo;I ought to know your
+powers by now. And I did. I know well that any people who have dealings with
+you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt Amelia was going to
+get it; and I&rsquo;ve got it myself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you didn&rsquo;t think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?&rdquo; said
+the Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gracious, no!&rdquo; cried Sir Maurice. &ldquo;I only thought that you
+might possibly induce her to humbug herself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his words than
+met the ear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+Dangerfield. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m afraid there&rsquo;s very little for you. But
+I&rsquo;ll make you an omelette.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can not dine amid this yowling,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice firmly, waving
+his hand over the vocal baskets. &ldquo;These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan&rsquo;t be able to eat a morsel.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll put them in the cats&rsquo; home,&rdquo; said the Terror
+quickly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just put on a pair of thick gloves. Wiggins&rsquo;
+father&mdash;he&rsquo;s a higher mathematician, you know, and understands all
+this kind of thing&mdash;says that hydrophobia is very rare among cats. But
+it&rsquo;s just as well to be careful with these London ones.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, lord, I never thought of that,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice with a
+shudder. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been risking my life as well!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern. He and Erebus helped carry
+the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches. Their uncle was much
+impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession&mdash;a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable. At dinner he reduced his appreciative kinsfolk to
+the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his parleying with his
+excited fellow travelers. He could now view it with an impartial mind. After
+dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats&rsquo; home and helped him feed
+the newcomers with scraps. The rest of the evening passed peacefully and
+pleasantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed that the
+brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said: &ldquo;We
+ought to have more cats.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said: &ldquo;By
+Jove, yes. This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge. And it would
+mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the good of the home.
+The more we can say that we&rsquo;ve used them for it, the less any one can
+grumble about them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Most cats are shut up now,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; we must catch the morning cats. They get out quite early&mdash;when
+people start out to work,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an alarm.
+The Terror set it for half past five. At that hour it awoke him with extreme
+difficulty. He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty. Five minutes later they
+were munching bread and butter in the kitchen to stay themselves against the
+cold of the bitter November morning; then they sallied forth, equipped with
+rags, string and the bottle of valerian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping. There the Terror poured valerian on one of the
+rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus. Forthwith she started to trail it to
+the cats&rsquo; home. He rode on to Great Deeping and trailed a rag from there
+through Little Deeping to the cats&rsquo; home. When he reached it he found
+Erebus&rsquo; bicycle in its corner; and when, after strengthening the trail
+through the little hanging door with a rag freshly wetted with the drug, he
+returned to the house, he found that she was already in bed again. He made
+haste back to bed himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and put the
+cats they had attracted to it into hutches. But they slept on till breakfast
+was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon lured them straight into
+the dining-room. After all, as Erebus told the hesitating Terror, there was
+plenty of time to deal with the new cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach
+Little Deeping before eleven o&rsquo;clock. They could not escape from the
+home. The Twins therefore devoted their most careful attention to their
+breakfast with their minds quite at ease.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at ease,
+for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor. Then Sarah
+threw open the dining-room door, said &ldquo;Please, ma&rsquo;am, it&rsquo;s
+Lady Ryehampton&rdquo;; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold. Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking very
+anxious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton&rsquo;s stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness. To Erebus, the
+instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: &ldquo;I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats&rsquo; home. I always do. It&rsquo;s the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment.&rdquo; The frown
+on her face grew rhadamanthine. &ldquo;And last night I saw your Uncle Maurice
+at the station&mdash;he did not see me&mdash;with cats, London cats, in
+baskets. On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of well-known
+London cat-dealers. I do not support a cats&rsquo; home at Little Deeping for
+London cats bought at London dealers. Why have they been brought here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was Uncle Maurice&rsquo;s idea,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He
+didn&rsquo;t think that there ought only to be kittens in a cats&rsquo; home.
+We didn&rsquo;t mind ourselves; and of course, if he puts cats in it,
+he&rsquo;ll have to subscribe to the home. What we have started it for was
+kittens&mdash;to save them from the awful death of drowning. We wrote and told
+you. And we&rsquo;ve saved quite a lot.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats to
+bring them all the way from London to a cats&rsquo; home at Deeping? He hates
+cats, and always has!&rdquo; she said fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course, I hate cats,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice with cold severity.
+&ldquo;But I hate children&rsquo;s being brought up to be careless a great deal
+more. A cats&rsquo; home is not a cats&rsquo; home unless it has cats in it;
+and you&rsquo;ve been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling
+a kittens&rsquo; home a cats&rsquo; home. If you will interfere in their
+up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into careless
+ways.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady Ryehampton
+blinked at him somewhat owlishly: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all very well,&rdquo; she
+said in a less severe tone. &ldquo;But is there a kittens&rsquo; home at
+all&mdash;a kittens&rsquo; home with kittens in it? That&rsquo;s what I want to
+know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats&rsquo;
+home. You don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;d deceive you, Aunt Amelia?&rdquo; said
+the Terror in a deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There! I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be,&rdquo; said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course there&rsquo;s a cats&rsquo; home with kittens in it!&rdquo;
+said Mrs. Dangerfield with some heat. &ldquo;The Terror wouldn&rsquo;t lie to
+you!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!&rdquo; cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very good
+best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: &ldquo;Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there&rsquo;s a c-c-cats&rsquo; home&mdash;but Sir
+Maurice&rsquo;s senseless interference&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Senseless interference! Do you call saving children from careless habits
+senseless interference?&rdquo; cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You had no business to interfere without consulting me,&rdquo; said Lady
+Ryehampton. Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: &ldquo;But I want to
+see this cats&rsquo; home&mdash;now!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take you at once,&rdquo; said the Terror quickly, and
+politely he opened the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice his hat
+and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it. When they came into the
+paddock their ears became aware of a distant high-pitched din; and the farther
+they went down it the louder and more horrible grew the din.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of suspicious
+bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s beautiful eyes were wide open in an
+anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a defiant scowl; and Sir
+Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs. Dangerfield. Only the Terror was
+serene.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Surely those brutes I brought haven&rsquo;t got out of their
+cages,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no; those must be visiting cats,&rdquo; said the Terror calmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Visiting cats?&rdquo; said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come,&rdquo; said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now that&rsquo;s a very clever idea!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;I must
+tell the managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can&rsquo;t
+do it, too. But what are these cats doing?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It sounds as if they were quarreling,&rdquo; said the Terror calmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the din was
+ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish. It was as if the voices of all the cats
+in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door&mdash;wide. Cats did not come out.&#8230; A large ball of cats came out,
+gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur. Ten yards from the door it dissolved
+into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore, yelling, to the four
+quarters of the heavens.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: &ldquo;I sometimes
+think it sets a bad example to the kittens.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion. He walked
+hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human ken. There
+with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned against the wall, and
+shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive bricks feebly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with an air
+of modest pride. A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of perfect, if
+highly-scented, peace. Twenty-three kittens and eight cats sat staring
+earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead stillness. Their eyes were
+very bright. By a kindly provision of nature they had been able, in the
+darkness, to follow the fortunes of that vociferous fray.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song. She was
+charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and healthiness of the
+blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness. She gushed enthusiastic
+approbation. &ldquo;To think,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;that you have done this
+yourself! A boy of thirteen!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Erebus did quite as much as I did,&rdquo; said the Terror quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Wiggins helped a lot. He&rsquo;s a friend of ours,&rdquo; said
+Erebus no less quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton&rsquo;s face softened to Erebus&mdash;to Erebus, the instructor
+of parrots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice joined them. His eyes were red and moist, as if they had but now
+been full of tears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very creditable piece of work,&rdquo; he said in a tone of
+warm approval.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell. She said
+uneasily: &ldquo;But you must be heavily in debt.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In debt?&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;Oh, no; we couldn&rsquo;t be.
+Mother would hate us to be in debt.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought&mdash;a cats&rsquo; home&mdash;oh, but I <i>am</i> glad I
+brought my check-book with me!&rdquo; cried Lady Ryehampton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl. She did
+not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus kicked him
+joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously realized that the
+future of the home, the wages of &ldquo;overseering,&rdquo; were secure.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a> CHAPTER V<br />
+AND THE SACRED BIRD</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the Terror
+did all he could to foster her interest in it. The crowning effect was the
+feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty sight, since
+twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many pauses to gambol and
+play. The only thing about the home which was not quite to the liking of Lady
+Ryehampton was the board over the door. She liked it as an advertisement of her
+philanthropy; but she did not like its form; she preferred her name in
+straighter letters, all of them of the same size. At the same time she did not
+like to hurt the feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his
+handiwork.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: &ldquo;By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform&mdash;the same as the boards over the
+entrances of my other cats&rsquo; homes. The lettering of them is always in
+gold.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right. I&rsquo;ll get some gold paint, and paint them over,&rdquo;
+said the Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, I can&rsquo;t give you the trouble of doing it all over
+again,&rdquo; said Lady Ryehampton quickly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have a board
+made, and painted in London&mdash;exactly like the board of my cats&rsquo; home
+at Tysleworth&mdash;and sent down to you to fix up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thanks very much,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;It will save me a great
+deal of trouble. Painting isn&rsquo;t nearly so easy as it looks.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction. She invited them all to lunch
+at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs. Pittaway racked her
+brains and strained all the resources of her simple establishment to make the
+lunch worthy of its giver. As she told her neighbors later, nobody knew what it
+was to have a lady of title in the house. The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much
+indeed; and even Erebus was very quiet for two hours after it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating visit to
+the cats&rsquo; home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the Terror, and
+in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to London.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to travel
+with Lady Ryehampton. Besides, the question what was to be done with the eight
+cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled. He felt that he could not
+saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep, since only his unfounded distrust
+had brought them to the cats&rsquo; home. At the same time he could not bring
+himself to travel with them any more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They discussed the matter. Erebus was inclined to keep the cats, declaring that
+it would be so nice to grow their own kittens. The Terror, looking at the
+question from the cold monetary point of view, wished to be relieved of them.
+In the end it was decided that Sir Maurice should make terms with one of the
+dealers from whom he had bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to
+that dealer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this unexpected ten
+pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home. Erebus was for at once
+increasing their salaries to three shillings a week. The cautious Terror would
+only raise them to ninepence each. Then, keeping rather more than four pounds
+for current expenses, he put fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank. He
+thought it a wise thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a
+large sum on some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove. The cats
+were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board came from Lady
+Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror&rsquo;s handiwork; they
+did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along with Wiggins who now had
+his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the important
+matter of their mother&rsquo;s Christmas present.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their breakfasts and
+discussing it gravely. The kittens were indulging in engaging gambols before
+falling into the sleep of repletion which always followed their meals; but the
+Twins saw them with unsmiling eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their
+minds. They could see their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that
+present; and so large a sum must be expended with judgment. It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and attractions of
+a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the hair, when Erebus,
+frowning thoughtfully, said: &ldquo;I know what she really wants though.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; said the Terror sharply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker&rsquo;s at
+Rowington,&rdquo; said Erebus. &ldquo;I heard her sigh when she looked at it.
+She used to have beautiful furs once&mdash;when father was alive. But she sold
+them&mdash;to get things for us, I suppose. Uncle Maurice told me so&mdash;at
+least I got it out of him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of decision:
+&ldquo;How much is that stole?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s no good thinking about it&mdash;it&rsquo;s three
+guineas,&rdquo; said Erebus quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a mort o&rsquo; money, as old Stubbs says,&rdquo; said the
+Terror; and the frown deepened on his brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wonder if we could get it?&rdquo; said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face. &ldquo;I should like
+to. It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things&mdash;much harder than for
+us, because we&rsquo;ve never had them&mdash;at least, we had them when we were
+small, but we never got used to them. So we&rsquo;ve forgotten.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, we&rsquo;re all right as long as we have useful things,&rdquo; said
+the Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown. &ldquo;But you&rsquo;re
+right about Mum&mdash;she must be different. I&rsquo;ve got to think this
+out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Three guineas is such a lot to think out,&rdquo; said Erebus
+despondently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago,&rdquo; said the Terror
+firmly. &ldquo;And if you come to think of it, Mum&rsquo;s stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats&rsquo; home, though not so useful.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s different&mdash;we <i>had</i> to have bicycles&mdash;you
+said so,&rdquo; said Erebus eagerly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, we&rsquo;ve got to have this stole,&rdquo; said the Terror in a
+tone of finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how?&rdquo; said Erebus eagerly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Things will occur to us. They always do,&rdquo; said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches. Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens? Does any one ever buy
+kittens?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We did; we gave threepence each for these,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home. We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that. We shouldn&rsquo;t have dreamt
+of doing such a thing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn&rsquo;t got any,&rdquo;
+said Erebus in a tone of decision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You would, would you? That&rsquo;s just what I wanted to know: girls
+will buy kittens,&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction.
+&ldquo;Well, we&rsquo;ll sell these.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But we can&rsquo;t empty the home,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We wouldn&rsquo;t. We&rsquo;d buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for
+threepence each, and sell these at a shilling. We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So we should&mdash;a whole sovereign!&rdquo; cried Erebus; then she
+added in a somewhat envious tone: &ldquo;You do think of things.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have to. Where should we be, if I didn&rsquo;t?&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But who are we going to sell them to? Everybody round here has
+cats.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, they have,&rdquo; said the Terror, frowning again. &ldquo;Well, we
+shall have to sell them somewhere else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to the
+house, pondering. The Terror collected the books for his morning&rsquo;s work
+slowly, still thoughtful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he was leaving the house he said: &ldquo;Look here; the place for us to sell
+them is Rowington. The people round here sell most of their things at
+Rowington&mdash;butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Ellen would sell them for us&mdash;in the market,&rdquo; said Erebus
+quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course she would! You see, you think of things, too!&rdquo; cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter of
+selling their kittens. She had been their nurse for the first four years of
+their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a small farmer. She
+had an affection for them, especially for the Terror; and she had not lost
+touch with them. She welcomed them warmly, ushered them into her little parlor,
+brought in a decanter of elderberry wine and a cake. When she had helped them
+to cake and poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had
+brought them to her house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ellen&rsquo;s mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her pony-cart.
+She laughed consumedly at the Terror&rsquo;s belief that any one would want to
+buy kittens. But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was very patient with her
+and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell their kittens at her stall in
+Rowington market. Ellen consented to make the attempt, for she had always found
+it difficult to resist the Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she
+was eager to oblige him; but she held out no hopes of success.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not share
+her despondency. Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen&rsquo;s
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+&ldquo;I tell you what: even if we don&rsquo;t sell those kittens, we can
+always buy the stole. There&rsquo;s all that cats&rsquo; home money in the
+bank. We can take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, we can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said the Terror firmly. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re
+not going to use that money for anything but the cats&rsquo; home. I promised
+Mum I wouldn&rsquo;t. Besides, she&rsquo;d like the stole ever so much better
+if we&rsquo;d really earned it ourselves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But we shan&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Erebus gloomily. &ldquo;If we sold all
+the kittens, it will only make twenty-three shillings.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then we must find something else to sell,&rdquo; said the Terror with
+decision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little Deeping
+they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field of mangel-wurzel
+with vacant amiability.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very good
+friends. Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an honest
+day&rsquo;s work in his life. Yet he was the smartest man in the village, the
+most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his constitutional
+disability to observe those admirable laws which have been passed for the
+protection of the English pheasants from all dangers save the small shot of
+those who have them fed. Tom Cobb waged war, a war of varying fortunes against
+the sacred bird. Sometimes for a whole season he would sell the victims of the
+carnage of the war with never a check to his ardor. In another season some
+prying gamekeeper would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold,
+and an infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him. The fine was always
+paid. Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against a rainy
+day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted one
+another with smiles of mutual respect. They rode on a few yards; and then the
+Terror said, &ldquo;By Jove!&rdquo; stopped, slipped off his bicycle, and
+wheeled it back to the gate. Erebus followed him more slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been wondering if you&rsquo;d do me a favor, Tom,&rdquo; said
+the Terror. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to know how to make a snare.
+I&rsquo;ll give you half-a-crown if you&rsquo;ll teach me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tom Cobb&rsquo;s clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated. He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little knowledge was
+a dangerous thing&mdash;for others. He foresaw trouble for the sacred bird; he
+foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the gamekeepers. He did not foresee
+trouble for the Twins; he knew them. And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He grinned and said slowly, &ldquo;Yes, Master Terror, I&rsquo;ll be very
+&rsquo;appy to teach you &rsquo;ow to make a snare.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you. I&rsquo;ll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two,&rdquo;
+said the Terror gratefully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It <i>will</i> be nice to know how to make snares!&rdquo; cried Erebus
+happily as they rode on. &ldquo;I wonder we never thought of it before.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want a fur stole before,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to Tom
+Cobb&rsquo;s cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares. But the
+Terror would not. Often he was indulgent; often he was firm. To-day he was
+firm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather sadly:
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve still a lot to learn. But come on: I&rsquo;ve got to buy
+something in Rowington.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and they had
+to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell. At Rowington the Terror bought
+copper wire at an ironmonger&rsquo;s; and he was very careful to buy it of a
+certain thickness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the experiment.
+Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they washed them thoroughly
+in the kitchen. They dried them, and decided to keep them in its warmth till
+the next morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making of
+snares. Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares at once.
+The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while before he got one
+at all to his liking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Remembering Tom Cobb&rsquo;s instructions, he washed it, and then put on gloves
+before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the rabbits from the
+common were wont to enter their garden to eat the cabbages. He was up betimes
+next morning, found a rabbit in the snare, and thrilled with joy. The fur stole
+had come within the range of possibility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens, brushing them
+with the Terror&rsquo;s hair-brush till their fur was of a sleekness it had
+never known before. Then Erebus adorned the neck of each with a bow of blue
+ribbon. Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed on the bows, and sewed them on
+firmly. It could not be doubted that they looked much finer than ordinary
+unwashed kittens. Directly after breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket
+of either of their bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to
+Ellen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but they had
+to return to their lessons. After lunch they made three more snares; and the
+Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if anything, more deft at
+snare-making than his own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and when they
+came to Ellen&rsquo;s stall, they found to their joy that the basket which had
+held the six kittens was empty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and said:
+&ldquo;Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong. I&rsquo;ve sold
+them kitties&mdash;every one&mdash;and I&rsquo;ve had two more ordered. It was
+when the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Five,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;I must pay you a shilling for
+selling them. It&rsquo;s what they call commission.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, sir; I don&rsquo;t want any commission,&rdquo; said Ellen firmly.
+&ldquo;As long as those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and
+fowls than any one else in the market. I haven&rsquo;t had such a good day not
+ever before. And I&rsquo;ll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm. The Twins
+rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden about the
+common. He caught three rabbits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed the
+kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last he said rather sadly: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s sometimes rather awkward being
+a Dangerfield.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; said Erebus surprised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those rabbits,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;I want to sell them. But
+it&rsquo;s no good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer.
+Even if he wanted rabbits&mdash;which he mightn&rsquo;t&mdash;he&rsquo;d only
+give me sixpence each for them. But if I were to sell them myself <i>here</i>,
+I could get eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them. But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can&rsquo;t go about selling things. Uncle Maurice said I had the
+makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn&rsquo;t go into
+business. It&rsquo;s the family tradition not to. That&rsquo;s what he
+said.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps he was only rotting,&rdquo; said Erebus hopefully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, he wasn&rsquo;t. I asked Mum, and she said it was the family
+tradition, too. I expect that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re all so hard up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But the squire sells things,&rdquo; said Erebus quickly. &ldquo;And you
+can&rsquo;t say he isn&rsquo;t a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren&rsquo;t
+so old as the Dangerfields.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course, he does. He sells some of his game,&rdquo; said the Terror,
+in a tone of great relief. &ldquo;Game must be all right, and we can easily
+count rabbits as game.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they had
+caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of the
+neighborhood. The Terror went to the back doors of their well-to-do neighbors
+and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the gratifying result that in less
+than an hour he had sold all four of them at eightpence each.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them. They had
+already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three shillings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew when to
+stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went on. It was the
+fault of the rabbit market. At the fifteenth rabbit, when they had but eighteen
+shillings and eightpence toward the stole, the bottom fell out of it. For the
+time the desire of Little Deeping to eat rabbits was sated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who, after
+refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: &ldquo;Now, if you was to bring me
+a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different thing, Master
+Dangerfield.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: &ldquo;And how much would
+you pay for pheasants?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic she had
+learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of threepence, perhaps
+ninepence, on each bird, and said: &ldquo;Two and threepence each, sir.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer. He saw her
+profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: &ldquo;All right, I&rsquo;ll
+bring you two or three a week. But you&rsquo;ll have to pay cash.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes, sir. Of course, sir,&rdquo; said the cook.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you know any one else who&rsquo;d buy pheasants?&rdquo; he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, there&rsquo;s Mr. Carrington&rsquo;s cook,&rdquo; said the cook
+slowly. &ldquo;She has the management of the housekeeping money like I do. I
+think she might buy pheasants from you. Mr. Carrington&rsquo;s very partial to
+game.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Right,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;And thank you for telling
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the matter to his
+cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits. He made a direct offer to her of two
+pheasants a week at two and threepence each. After a vain attempt to beat him
+down to two shillings, she accepted it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught rabbits
+would catch pheasants. At first he was for catching those pheasants by himself.
+Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise; snaring pheasants was poaching; and
+poaching was not a girl&rsquo;s work. Then he came to the conclusion that he
+would need the help of Erebus and must tell her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: &ldquo;But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Woods,&rdquo; said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping
+gesture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The only thing is, we don&rsquo;t know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants. And I don&rsquo;t like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it; and
+that wouldn&rsquo;t do at all,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But there&rsquo;s nobody else to ask.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about that. There&rsquo;s Wiggins&rsquo; father. He
+knows a lot of useful things besides higher mathematics. The only thing is, we
+must do it in such a way that he doesn&rsquo;t see we&rsquo;re trying to get
+anything out of him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I should think we could do that. He&rsquo;s really quite
+simple,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As long as <i>you</i> understand what I&rsquo;m driving at,&rdquo; said
+the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington market, and
+carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next morning. Ellen told
+them, with some indignation, that two rival poultry-sellers had both brought
+three kittens to sell. The Twins at once went to inspect them, and came back
+with the cheering assurance that those kittens were not a patch on those she
+was selling. They were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold
+one; and the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of coming upon
+Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the third afternoon
+that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly, about three miles from
+Little Deeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington. They had a great
+respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor. In Erebus, this
+respect often took the form of wriggling in his presence. She did not know what
+he might say about her next. He was, therefore, somewhat surprised when they
+slipped off their bicycles and joined him. He wondered what they wanted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the society of
+their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk was running on
+pheasants. Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants, except from the point of view
+of eating; and he dwelt at length on the devastation the sacred bird was
+working in the English countryside: villages were being emptied and let fall to
+ruin that it might live undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to
+give it the woods to itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was not aware
+that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he bewailed the degeneracy
+of the British rustic, his slow reversion to the type of neolithic man, owing
+to the fact that the towns drained the villages of all the intelligent. The
+skilful poacher who harried the sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the poacher; and
+the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words. He discussed the
+methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher with intelligent relish
+and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to display in the presence of the
+young. The Terror came from that talk with a firm belief in the efficacy of
+raisins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of raisins
+at the leading grocer&rsquo;s. They might well have bought them at Little
+Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought Rowington safer. They
+always took every possible precaution at the beginning of an enterprise. They
+did not ride straight home. Three miles out of Rowington was a small clump of
+trees on a hill. At the foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay
+Great Deeping wood, acre upon acre. It had lately passed, along with the rest
+of the Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain. He was not
+loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less modern stocks, for,
+though he cherished the laudable ambition of having the finest pheasant shoot
+in England, and was on the way to realize it, he did not invite his neighbors
+to help shoot them. His friends came wholly from The Polite World which so
+adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins&rsquo; came to the clump on the
+hill. The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them behind the
+hedge. He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle basket to his pocket,
+and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down the hedge to the clump, crawled
+through a gap into it, and walked through it. One pheasant scuttled out of it,
+down the hedgerow to the wood below. The occurrence pleased him. He crawled out
+of the clump on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down
+the ditch of the hedge to the wood. He did not lay it right down to the wood
+lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it. Then he returned with fine, red
+Indian caution to Erebus. They rode home well content.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again. Again
+the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood to the clump.
+But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the clump. Just above the end
+of the ditch. Later he took from that snare a plump but sacred bird. Later
+still he sold it to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a> CHAPTER VI<br />
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence to
+Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself serenely
+unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right,&rdquo; said Erebus cheerfully. &ldquo;That
+makes&mdash;that makes twenty-eight and eleven-pence. We <i>are</i> getting
+on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; it&rsquo;s twenty-eight and eleven-pence now,&rdquo; said the
+Terror quickly. &ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t seem to see that when we&rsquo;ve
+got the stole for Mum these pheasants will still be going on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course they will!&rdquo; cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very
+brightly indeed at the joyful thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after breakfast;
+and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the clump above Great
+Deeping wood. He reached it at the hour when gamekeepers are at their dinner,
+and was able to make a thorough examination of it. He found it full of pheasant
+runs, and chose the two likeliest places for his snares. He did not set them
+then and there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them. He came again
+in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then. Later he
+sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the cook of Mr.
+Carrington.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens. They found themselves in the happy position of needing only six
+shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the clump of
+trees above Great Deeping wood. They had laid a trail of raisins and set a
+snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it on the valley road which
+divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and since
+the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over Great Deeping
+hill, but took the longer level road along the valley. The afternoon was still
+young, and for December, uncommonly clear and bright. But as they rode through
+the wood, the Terror decided that instead of returning to it in the favoring
+dusk he might as well examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself
+another journey. It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old
+heads, alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of his
+purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of his
+friends&rsquo; latest exploits) and made his dispositions. When they came to
+the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a lookout ahead. The
+Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins. Wiggins held the two
+bicycles. The Terror listened. The wood was very still in its winter silence.
+He slipped through the hedge into it, and presently came back bringing with him
+a very nice young pheasant indeed. He put it into the basket of his bicycle,
+and mounted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty yards
+ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting fashion as he
+came. There was neither time nor room to turn. They rode on; and the keeper
+made for the Terror. The Terror swerved; and the keeper swerved. Wiggins ran
+bang into the keeper; and they came to the ground together as the Terror shot
+ahead, pedaling as hard as he could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of &ldquo;Keeper!&rdquo; set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently, when no
+Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and dismounted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The keeper&rsquo;s got him. This is a mess!&rdquo; said the Terror, who
+was panting a little from their spurt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If only it had been one of us!&rdquo; cried Erebus. &ldquo;Whatever are
+we to do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If that beastly keeper hadn&rsquo;t seen me with the pheasant, I&rsquo;d
+get Wiggins away, somehow,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;But, as it is,
+it&rsquo;s me they really want; and I&rsquo;d get fined to a dead certainty.
+Come on, let&rsquo;s go back and see what&rsquo;s happened to him. You scout on
+ahead. Nobody knows you&rsquo;re in it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a sign of an
+ambush. The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty yards, ready to jump
+off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the alarm. They got no sight of
+Wiggins till they came, just beyond the end of the wood, to the lodges of Great
+Deeping Park; then, half-way up the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey.
+The keeper held Wiggins with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle
+with his right. The Twins dismounted. Even at that distance they could see the
+deep dejection of their friend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not really any reason for him to be frightened. He was
+never in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What does that matter? He <i>will</i> be frightened out of his life;
+he&rsquo;s so young,&rdquo; cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing
+after their receding friend with very anxious eyes. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not like
+us; he won&rsquo;t cheek the keeper all the way like we should.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck,&rdquo; said the Terror in a reassuring
+tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But he won&rsquo;t understand he&rsquo;s all right. He&rsquo;s only ten.
+And there&rsquo;s no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales
+will bully him,&rdquo; cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he&rsquo;ll be
+out of it,&rdquo; said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no! That won&rsquo;t do at all!&rdquo; cried Erebus fiercely.
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to rescue him now&mdash;at once. We got him into the
+mess; and we&rsquo;ve got to get him out of it. You&rsquo;ve got to find a
+way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all very well,&rdquo; said the Terror, frowning deeply; and
+he took off his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see what we
+can do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;m going to get him out of it somehow!&rdquo; cried Erebus in
+a furious desperation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty yards.
+It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher of the three,
+the only one in real danger. As he leaned on his machine, watching his
+vanishing sister, he ground his teeth. For all his natural serenity, inaction
+was in the highest degree repugnant to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and the
+keeper. She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that the keeper
+would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door, when she saw
+Wiggins&rsquo; bicycle standing against one of the pillars of the great porch.
+In a natural elation at having captured a poacher, and eager to display his
+prize without delay, the keeper had gone straight into the great hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then she
+moved Wiggins&rsquo; bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came out,
+set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of sight lest he
+should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered the knocker firmly,
+and rang the bell. The moment the door opened she stepped quickly past the
+footman into the hall. The keeper sat on a chair facing her, and on a chair
+beside him sat Wiggins looking white and woebegone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+&ldquo;What are you doing with my little brother?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her position.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone, but he
+said triumphantly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I caught &rsquo;im poachin&rsquo;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stand up! What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?&rdquo; cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+&ldquo;&rsquo;E was poachin&rsquo;,&rdquo; he said sulkily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He was not! A little boy like that!&rdquo; cried Erebus scornfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Anyways, &rsquo;e was aidin&rsquo; an&rsquo; abettin&rsquo;, an&rsquo;
+I&rsquo;ve brought &rsquo;im to Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosynimer an&rsquo; it&rsquo;s
+for &rsquo;im to say,&rdquo; said the keeper stubbornly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle click by
+which the Twins called each other to attention. At the sound Wiggins, his face
+faintly flushed with hope, braced himself. Erebus measured the distance with
+the eye of an expert, just as there came into the farther end of the hall that
+large, flabby, pudding-faced young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy
+Rosenheimer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s the boacher?&rdquo; he roared in an eager, angry voice,
+reverting in his emotion to the ancestral &ldquo;b.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bolt, Wiggins!&rdquo; she cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the footman
+grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus. She slammed the door behind the
+vanished Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door. He caught her by the left arm to sling
+her out of the way. It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught him a slap on
+his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing of her right, a slap
+that rang through the great hall like the crack of a whip-lash. Mr.
+D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender. He howled again, and thumped at
+Erebus with big flabby fists. She caught the first blow on an uncommonly acute
+elbow. The second never fell, for the footman caught him by the collar and
+swung him round.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not for the likes of you to &rsquo;it Henglish young
+ladies!&rdquo; he cried with patriotic indignation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+&ldquo;Ged out of my house! Now&mdash;at once&mdash;ged out!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And pleased I shall be to go&mdash;when I&rsquo;ve bin paid my wages.
+It&rsquo;s a month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow. I&rsquo;ve had enough
+of furriners,&rdquo; said the footman with cold exultation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go&mdash;go&mdash;ged oud!&rdquo; roared Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When I&rsquo;ve bin paid my wages,&rdquo; said the footman coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus waited to hear no more. She turned the latch, slipped through the door,
+and slammed it behind her. To her dismay she saw a big motorcar coming round
+the corner of the house. She mounted quickly and raced down the drive. Wiggins
+was already out of sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sent Wiggins on!&rdquo; he shouted as she passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on! Come on!&rdquo; she shrieked back. &ldquo;The beastly
+foreigner&rsquo;s got a motor-car!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car had been
+ready to start. They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down the road; and all
+three of them sat down to ride all they knew. They were fully eight miles from
+home, and the car could go three miles to their one on that good road. The
+Twins alone would have made a longer race of it; but the pace was set by the
+weaker Wiggins. They had gone little more than three miles when they heard the
+honk of the car as it came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go on, Terror!&rdquo; cried Erebus. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re the one that
+matters! You did the poaching! I&rsquo;ll look after Wiggins! He&rsquo;ll be
+all right with me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the advice
+sank in, and he shot ahead. Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and they rode on. The
+car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly as it would have done had
+not Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the courage of his famous
+grenadier ancestors, been in it. He was howling at his straining chauffeur to
+go slower.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than fifty yards
+behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging briskly along.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s your father!&rdquo; gasped Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and Erebus
+cried: &ldquo;Wiggins hasn&rsquo;t been poaching at all! It was the
+Terror!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Was it, indeed?&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got you, you liddle devil!&rdquo; he bellowed triumphantly,
+but quite incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind
+his father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a single
+glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence. Mr. Carrington seemed to step
+lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left arm shot out; and there
+befell Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the technical terms affected by
+the fancy, is described as &ldquo;an uppercut on the point which put him to
+sleep.&rdquo; He fell as falls a sack of potatoes, and lay like a log.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you want some too, my good man?&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington in his
+most agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made no effort
+to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay between them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say as I do, sir,&rdquo; he said civilly; and he backed
+away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then perhaps you&rsquo;ll be good enough to tell me the name of this
+hulking young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion,&rdquo; said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Assaults?&mdash;&rsquo;Im assault?&mdash;Yes, sir; it&rsquo;s Mr.
+D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer, of Great Deeping Court, sir,&rdquo; said the keeper
+respectfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then tell Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening be
+summoned for assault. Good afternoon,&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington, and he turned
+on his heel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young employer. Mr.
+Carrington did not so much as turn his head. He put his walking-stick under his
+arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand with rueful tenderness. None the
+less he looked pleased; it was gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary
+habit to have knocked down such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such
+exquisite neatness. Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside
+him with a proud air. They felt that they shone with his reflected glory. It
+was a delightful sensation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: &ldquo;Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, my child. I am not a pork-butcher,&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington
+amiably.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He <i>looked</i> as if he was dead,&rdquo; said Erebus; and there was a
+faint ring of disappointment in her tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope that
+it will be a better and wiser self,&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington. &ldquo;But what
+was it all about? What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration; then she
+dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: &ldquo;It was a
+pheasant in Great Deeping wood,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The Terror found it, I
+suppose. I had gone on, and I didn&rsquo;t see that part. But it was Wiggins
+the keeper caught. Of course&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,&rdquo;
+broke in Mr. Carrington. &ldquo;Had you ridden on too, Rupert? Or did you see
+what happened?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes; I was there,&rdquo; said Wiggins readily. &ldquo;And the Terror
+found the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket. And we had
+just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I ran into
+him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court. I wasn&rsquo;t really
+frightened&mdash;at least, not much.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The keeper had no right to touch him,&rdquo; Erebus broke in glibly.
+&ldquo;Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn&rsquo;t even go into the
+wood; and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and the
+keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then that horrid
+Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold of me by the
+arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once. I should think that the mark
+is still there &ldquo;&mdash;her speed of speech slackened to a slower vengeful
+gratification and then quickened again&mdash;&ldquo;and he began to thump me
+and the footman interfered, and I came away, and they came after us in the car,
+and you saw what happened&mdash;at least you did it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lucidity itself,&rdquo; said Mr. Carrington. &ldquo;But let us have the
+matter of the pheasant clear. Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance
+of finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly, and said,
+&ldquo;Well, there was a snare, you know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: &ldquo;I thought so. I thought we should come
+to that snare in time. Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no, he didn&rsquo;t know anything about it!&rdquo; Erebus broke in
+quickly. &ldquo;We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous! He&rsquo;s so young!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I shall be eleven in a fortnight!&rdquo; said Wiggins with some heat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker&rsquo;s in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could think of
+getting it,&rdquo; said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Light! Light at last!&rdquo; cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed
+gently. &ldquo;Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher;
+exquisitely Pomeranian! But it&rsquo;s just as well that they have, or that
+ingenious brother of yours would be in a fine mess. As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited.&rdquo; He chuckled
+again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from Erebus the
+full story of their poaching. When they reached the village he did not go to
+his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr. Tupping, the lawyer who
+had sold his practise at Rowington and had retired to Little Deeping. At his
+gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good afternoon and told her to tell the Terror
+not to thrust himself on the notice of any of Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy
+Rosenheimer&rsquo;s keepers who might be sent out to hunt for the real culprit.
+He would better keep quiet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home. She found the Terror in the
+cats&rsquo; home, awaiting her impatiently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, did Wiggins get away all right?&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I passed
+Mr. Carrington; and I thought he&rsquo;d see that they didn&rsquo;t carry him
+off again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr. Carrington
+had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By Jove! That was ripping! I do wish I&rsquo;d been there!&rdquo; said
+the Terror. &ldquo;He only hit him once, you say?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Only once. And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer&rsquo;s keepers are out hunting for you,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am lying low,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;ve got rid of
+that pheasant. I sold it to Mr. Carrington&rsquo;s cook as I came through the
+village. I thought it was better out of the way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then that&rsquo;s all right. We only want about another
+half-crown,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to a
+better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he still
+retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly interest; and
+among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching not only
+because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because she could so ill
+afford the expense of the case. He readily fell in with the view of Mr.
+Carrington that they had better take the offensive, and that the violent
+behavior of Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer had given them the weapons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o&rsquo;clock that
+evening Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, and with
+another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R. S.; and in the
+course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served with a summons for an
+assault on Rupert Carrington.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer was in a
+chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been &ldquo;put to sleep
+by an uppercut on the point.&rdquo; He made haste to despatch a car into
+Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lawyer knew his client&rsquo;s unpopularity in the county, and advised him
+earnestly to try to hush these matters up. He declared that however Pomeranian
+one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench of English magistrates would
+take a favorable view of an assault by a big young man on a middle-aged higher
+mathematician of European reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+aged thirteen, gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician&rsquo;s little boy
+from wrongful arrest and detention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his devotion to
+the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy. But he perceived clearly
+enough that he had let that devotion carry him too far, and that a Bench which
+never profited by it, so far as to shoot the particular sacred birds on which
+it was lavished, would not be deeply touched by it. Therefore he instructed the
+lawyer to use every effort to settle the matter out of court.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over to Little
+Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington&rsquo;s house. He found Mr. Carrington
+uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to placate him by
+urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude which had robbed it of
+its violence, and that he could well afford to be generous to a man whom he had
+so neatly put to sleep with an uppercut on the point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the more
+prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a veritable poached
+pheasant; and at last he made terms. The summonses should be withdrawn on
+condition that nothing more was heard about that poached pheasant and that Mr.
+D&rsquo;Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty guineas to the funds of the Deeping
+Cottage Hospital. The lawyer accepted the terms readily; and his client made no
+objection to complying with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington sent for
+the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this poaching. He did not
+profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at length on the extreme annoyance
+his mother would feel if he were caught and prosecuted. In the end he gave him
+the choice of giving his word to snare no more pheasants, or of having his
+mother informed that he was poaching. The Terror gave his word to snare no more
+pheasants the more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his
+poaching, she would forbid him to set another snare for anything. Besides, he
+had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before. Only he pointed
+out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a pheasant, for pheasants
+went everywhere. Mr. Carrington admitted this fact and said that it would be
+enough if he refrained from setting his snares on ground sacred to the sacred
+bird. If pheasants wandered into them on unpreserved ground, it was their own
+fault. Thanks therefore to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never
+learned of the Terror&rsquo;s narrow escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds, since
+the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete. They turned their
+attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the hedge of the
+farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs. Mrs. Blenkinsop&rsquo;s cook paid them
+half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time making the
+purchase. As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of more stoles if they
+bought it before the Christmas rush. Accordingly on the afternoon after the
+sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to buy it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing hard;
+and when they dismounted at the door of Barker&rsquo;s shop, Erebus gazed
+wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer, the
+confectioner, and said sadly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pity it isn&rsquo;t Saturday and we had our
+&lsquo;overseering&rsquo; salary. We might have gone to Springer&rsquo;s and
+had a jolly good blow-out for once.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror gazed at Springer&rsquo;s window thoughtfully, and said: &ldquo;Yes,
+it is a pity. We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed somewhat
+absent-minded during her examination of the stoles. She was very thorough in
+it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had chosen the very best of
+them. The girl who was serving them made out the bill; and the Terror drew the
+little bag which held the three guineas (since it was all in silver they had
+been able to find no purse of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on
+the counter, and counted them slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole when a
+flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: &ldquo;I shall
+want five per cent. discount for cash.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, we don&rsquo;t do that sort of thing here,&rdquo; said the girl
+quickly. &ldquo;This is such an old-established establishment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t help that. I must have discount for cash,&rdquo; said the
+Terror yet more firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity. Mr. Barker came and
+she put the matter to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no, sir; I&rsquo;m afraid we couldn&rsquo;t think of it.
+Barker&rsquo;s is too old established a house to connive at these sharp modern
+ways of doing business,&rdquo; said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: &ldquo;All right,&rdquo;
+he said. &ldquo;You can put the stole down to me&mdash;Master Hyacinth
+Dangerfield, Colet House, Little Deeping.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as the
+coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid we
+can&rsquo;t do that, sir. Our terms are cash&mdash;strictly cash.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no, they&rsquo;re not. My mother has had an account here for the
+last six years,&rdquo; said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went
+into the bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of warm
+geniality he cried: &ldquo;Oh, that alters the case altogether! In the case of
+the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we&rsquo;re delighted to
+deduct five per cent. discount for cash&mdash;delighted. Make out the bill for
+three pounds, Miss Perkins.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away the stole
+tenderly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave three
+shillings discount in his pocket and said: &ldquo;Now for
+Springer&rsquo;s!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a> CHAPTER VII<br />
+AND PRINGLE&rsquo;S POND</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an almost
+extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had any. She
+wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it had cost; she knew
+that it had not been drawn from the cats&rsquo; home fund, since the Terror had
+promised her that none of that money should be diverted from its proper
+purpose; and she was the more grateful to them for the thought and labor they
+must have devoted to acquiring it. On the whole she thought it wiser not to
+inquire how the money had been raised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas. It was the one
+week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude and gently
+rollicked. There was a dearth of children, young men and maidens among their
+Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins were in request as the
+lighter element in the Christmas gatherings. Thanks to the Terror, the three of
+them took this brightening function with considerable seriousness: each of them
+learned by heart a humorous piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting;
+and they performed two charades in a very painstaking fashion. They had but
+little dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always well
+received.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas. The weather broke about the
+middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy snow-storm. The Twins
+made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common in front of Colet House; and
+they constructed also an excellent toboggan on which they rushed down the hill
+into the village street. These were but light pleasures. They watched the ponds
+with the most careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an
+hour&rsquo;s skating. Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and
+Mr. Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the vicarage,
+drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son take any risk
+whatever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost; and the
+Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear. They ate their breakfast in
+a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered together his books for his
+morning&rsquo;s work they made their plans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two pairs of
+brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: &ldquo;Then
+that&rsquo;s settled. I&rsquo;ll meet you at Pringle&rsquo;s pond as soon after
+half past twelve as I can get there; but you&rsquo;d better not go on it before
+I come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;ll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday,&rdquo; said
+Erebus impatiently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Wiggins isn&rsquo;t to go on it before I come. You&rsquo;ll do as
+you like of course&mdash;as usual&mdash;and if you fall in, it&rsquo;ll be your
+own lookout. But he&rsquo;s to wait till I come. If the ice does bear, it
+won&rsquo;t bear any too well; and I&rsquo;m responsible for Wiggins. I
+promised Mr. Carrington to look after him,&rdquo; said the Terror in tones of
+stern gravity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: &ldquo;As if I
+couldn&rsquo;t take care of him just as well as you. I&rsquo;m as old as
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said the Terror doubtfully. &ldquo;But you are a girl;
+there&rsquo;s no getting over it; and it does make a difference.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she scowled
+at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly behind him. She
+hated to be reminded that she was a girl. The reminder rankled at intervals
+during her lessons; and twice Mrs. Dangerfield asked her what was distressing
+her that she scowled so fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she was
+ready to go skating. She set out briskly across the common, and found Wiggins
+waiting for her at his father&rsquo;s garden-gate. He joined her in a fine
+enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its bearing with the most
+hopeful confidence. She displayed an equal confidence; and they took their
+brisk way across the white meadows. More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth
+and advanced by leaps and bounds. His blue eyes were shining very brightly in
+the cold winter sunlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle&rsquo;s pond. The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting. Also it looked
+quite thick and strong. Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found that it bore
+her, and tested it with some care. She even jumped up and down on it. It
+cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself that ice always cracks,
+more or less. She set about putting on her skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all
+fear of disappointment allayed, followed her example.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she looked at
+him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently. No; she would not tell him
+that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate till he came.&#8230; She
+could look after him quite as well as the Terror.&#8230; She had tested the ice
+thoroughly.&#8230; It was perfectly safe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him. The ice cracked
+somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it cracked again. Erebus
+paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling Wiggins not to go far from the
+edge. She skated round and across the pond several times, then settled down to
+make a figure of eight, resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the
+Terror came. Wiggins skated about the pond.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of eight that
+it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and a shrill cry from
+Wiggins. She turned sharply to see the water welling up out of a dark
+triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a row of pollard willows
+had screened the ice from the full keenness of the wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She screamed and dashed toward it. She had nearly reached it when his head came
+up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice. Two more steps and a loud
+crack gave her pause. It flashed on her that if she went near it, she would
+merely widen the hole and be helpless in the water herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hold on! Hold on!&rdquo; she cried as she stopped ten yards from the
+hole; and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She screamed again and yet again. Wiggins&rsquo; face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered. Then she sank down gently, at full
+length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out so as to
+distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible, toward the hole. Half
+a minute&rsquo;s cautious squirming brought her hands to the edge of it; and
+with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists. The ice bent under her weight, but
+it did not break. The icy water, welling out over it, began to drench her arms
+and chest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could not. She
+could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins&rsquo; little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes. She could
+not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;C-c-can&rsquo;t you p-p-pull m-m-me out?&rdquo; chattered Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, not yet,&rdquo; she said hoarsely. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s all right.
+The Terror will be here in a minute.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She listened with all her ears for an answer. A bird squeaked shrilly on the
+other side of the field; there was no other sound. Wiggins&rsquo; white face
+was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of fear. Again she
+kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold,&rdquo; said Wiggins in a very faint
+voice; he began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Try to stick it out! Don&rsquo;t give in! It&rsquo;s only a minute or
+two longer! The Terror <i>must</i> come!&rdquo; she cried fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling ashamed
+of it. Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of hopeless bewildered
+distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in their sockets scanning the
+cold sky in desperate appeal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They terrified Erebus beyond words. She screamed, and then she screamed and
+screamed. Wiggins&rsquo; face was a mere white blur through her blinding tears
+of terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror cried
+loudly: &ldquo;Stop that row!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir her and
+Wiggins. He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he cried: &ldquo;Squirm round to the left. I&rsquo;ll help you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and she
+squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending ice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a willow,
+gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull began to draw
+them toward the bank. The ice creaked as Wiggins&rsquo; chest came over the
+edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once flat on the ice, the
+Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily. He dragged Erebus, still by
+the ankles, half up the bank to get most of her weight off the ice. Then he
+stepped down on to it and picked up Wiggins. Erebus&rsquo; stiff fingers still
+grasped his wrists; and they did not open easily to let them go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then he
+pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened the blade
+with his teeth for quickness&rsquo; sake, tossed it to Erebus and cried:
+&ldquo;Cut off his skates! Pull off his boots and stockings!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins&rsquo; coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began to rub
+his chest violently. In the spring the Twins had attended a course of the St.
+John&rsquo;s Ambulance Society lectures, and among other things had learned how
+to treat those dying from exposure. The Terror was the quicker dealing with
+Wiggins since he had so often been the subject on which he and Erebus had
+practised many kinds of first-aid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into it.
+Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with cold and terror)
+cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his boots, pulled them off,
+pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at his legs. The Terror turned
+Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently till the blood reddened that.
+Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins&rsquo; knickerbockers and rubbed his thighs
+till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled them on
+Wiggins&rsquo; legs. The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror&rsquo;s coat and jersey came well down them. Wiggins was completely
+covered. But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her jacket and
+tied it round Wiggins&rsquo; waist by the sleeves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no longer a
+dead waxen color. He opened his eyes twice and shut them feebly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: &ldquo;Come on, old chap! Make an effort! We
+want to get you home!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins&rsquo; cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder, bade
+Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set off toward
+the village half carrying, half dragging him along. They went slowly for
+Wiggins&rsquo; feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly along. Their arms
+round him helped warm him. It would have taken them a long time to haul him all
+the way to his home; but fortunately soon after they came out of
+Pringle&rsquo;s meadows on to the road, Jakes, the Great Deeping butcher, who
+supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle Deeping with meat, came clattering
+along in his cart. Wiggins was quickly hauled into it; and the three of them
+were at Mr. Carrington&rsquo;s in about four minutes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to Erebus:
+&ldquo;You bolt home as hard as you can go. You must be awfully wet and cold;
+and if you don&rsquo;t want to be laid up, the sooner you take some quinine and
+get to bed the better.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran home as
+quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins as a
+half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington&rsquo;s house in an uproar. The Terror,
+as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and housemaid and Mr.
+Carrington himself. Wiggins was carried into the hot kitchen and rolled in a
+blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet. The cook was for two blankets and
+two hot water bottles; but the expert Terror insisted with a firmness there was
+no bending that heat must be restored slowly. As Wiggins warmed he gave him
+warm brandy and water with a teaspoon. In ten minutes Wiggins was quite
+animate, able to talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning
+circulation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed and warm
+the blankets. In another five minute&rsquo;s Mr. Carrington carried Wiggins up
+to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine. Presently he fell asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without stockings
+and a jersey. He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr. Carrington, and now
+that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over, he told him how he had come
+to the pond to find Wiggins in the water and Erebus spread out on the ice,
+holding him back from sinking. He was careful not to tell him that he had
+forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to
+thank him for saving him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and then
+further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine. On his way home
+the Terror went briskly round by Pringle&rsquo;s pond and picked up the skates
+and garments that had been left there. When he reached home he found that
+Erebus was in bed. She seemed little the worse for lying with her arms and
+chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins afloat; and when she learned that
+Wiggins also seemed none the worse and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her
+lunch with a fair appetite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her disregard
+for his instructions; he only said: &ldquo;I just told Mr. Carrington that
+Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the pond.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That was awfully decent of you,&rdquo; said Erebus after a pause in
+which she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a> CHAPTER VIII<br />
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the spirit of
+Erebus for as long as might have been expected. She was as quick as any one to
+realize that all&rsquo;s well that ends well; and Wiggins escaped lightly, with
+a couple of days in bed. The adventure, however, induced a change in her
+attitude to him; she was far less condescending with him than she had been;
+indeed she seemed to have acquired something of a proprietary interest in him
+and was uncommonly solicitous for his welfare. To such a point did this
+solicitude go that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing
+about him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their lives
+followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their games; then
+tended the inmates of the cats&rsquo; home, selling them as they grew big, and
+replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to lap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle Deeping
+Grange. The free water runs for rather more than half a mile on the Little
+Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it with an assiduity and a
+skill which set the villagers grumbling that they left no fish for any one
+else. Also the Twins tried to get leave to fish Sir James Morgan&rsquo;s
+preserved water, higher up the stream. But Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate,
+was very firm in his refusal to give them leave: for no reason that the Twins
+could see, since Sir James was absent, shooting big game in Africa. They
+resented the refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream.
+It was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early morning on
+the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle Deeping Grange.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their Aunt
+Amelia. Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that it was not the
+unbroken series of visits to cats&rsquo; homes Lady Ryehampton had arranged for
+him; and he enjoyed it very much. On his return he was able to assure the
+interested Erebus that their aunt&rsquo;s parrot still said &ldquo;dam&rdquo;
+with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan had let
+Muttle Deeping Grange. In the life of the Deeping villages the mere letting of
+Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the inhabitants of Great
+Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of Middle Deeping), and Little
+Deeping were stirred to the very depths of their being when the news came that
+it had been let to a German princess. The women, at any rate, awaited her
+coming with the liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from
+their fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of Cassel-Nassau,
+was only twelve years and seven months old.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors. Resenting
+deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a <i>German</i> princess,
+they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the matter, and refused to be
+interested or impressed. Erebus was more resentful than the Terror; and it is
+to be suspected that the high patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was
+in some degree owing to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon
+to tea, gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with meaning,
+&ldquo;And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass when it
+was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she should model
+herself on a German.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t suppose it would really make any difference who you
+modeled yourself on,&rdquo; said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank
+than grammatical.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of her
+neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her. She did not, as they
+had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she had brought with her
+her own Lutheran pastor. They only saw her on her afternoon drives, a stiff
+little figure, thickly veiled against the sun, sitting bolt upright in the
+victoria beside the crimson baroness (crimson in face; she wore black) in whose
+charge she had come to England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for her
+health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she should develop
+consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the excellent Deeping air would
+strengthen her. The news abated a little the cold hostility of Erebus; but the
+Twins paid but little attention to their young neighbor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and her
+appetite was poor. Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and in particular
+he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit. It was not the best season for fruit:
+strawberries were over and raspberries were coming to an end. Mrs. Dangerfield
+made shift to do with bananas. The Twins were annoyed that this was the best
+that could be done to carry out the doctor&rsquo;s orders; but there seemed no
+help for it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor&rsquo;s visit
+that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling their
+bicycles out of the cats&rsquo; home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes of the
+Terror; and he said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got an idea!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried joyfully;
+&ldquo;Thank goodness! I was beginning to get afraid that nothing was ever
+going to occur to us again. I thought it was the hot weather. What is
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those Germans,&rdquo; said the Terror darkly. &ldquo;Now that
+they&rsquo;ve got the Grange, why shouldn&rsquo;t we make a raid on the
+peach-garden. They say the Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones;
+and Watkins told me they ripen uncommon early. They&rsquo;re probably ripe
+now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a splendid idea! It will just teach those Germans!&rdquo;
+cried Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot. Then after a pause she added reluctantly: &ldquo;But if the princess
+is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches herself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She couldn&rsquo;t want all of them. Why we couldn&rsquo;t. There are
+hundreds,&rdquo; said the Terror quickly. &ldquo;And they&rsquo;re the very
+thing for Mum. Bananas are all very well in their way; but they&rsquo;re not
+like real fruit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course; Mum <i>must</i> have them,&rdquo; said Erebus with decision.
+&ldquo;But how are we going to get into the peach-garden? The door in the wall
+only opens on the inside.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not. I&rsquo;ve worked it out. Now you just hurry up and get
+some big leaves to put the peaches in. Mum will like them ever so much better
+with the bloom on, though it doesn&rsquo;t really make any difference to the
+taste.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of different
+kinds. When she came back she found the Terror tying the landing-net they had
+borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing, to the backbone of his
+bicycle. She put the leaves into her bicycle basket, and they rode briskly to
+Muttle Deeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since they had
+spent several days in careful scouting before they had made their raid earlier
+in the summer on its strawberry beds. A screen of trees runs down from the home
+wood along the walls of the gardens; and the Twins, after coming from the road
+in the shelter of the home wood, came down the wall behind that screen of
+trees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low bough,
+raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed the garden. It
+was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound that disquieted him
+little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed the golden
+burden of the tree beneath him. The ready Erebus handed the landing-net up to
+him. He chose his peach, the ripest he could see; slipped the net under it,
+flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the wall, and lowered it down to
+Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle
+basket. The Terror netted another and another and another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The garden was not as empty as he believed. On a garden chair in the little
+lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from him by the
+thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat, or rather sprawled,
+her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von Aschersleben, who was following
+faithfully the doctor&rsquo;s instructions that her little charge should spend
+her time in the open air, but was doing her best to bring it about that the
+practise should do her as little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and
+most airless spot on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden. Her eyes were
+shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully crimson, and from her
+short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the sound of snoring which the
+Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess was warmly&mdash;very warmly&mdash;dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow; the
+story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her lap; and she
+was looking round the simmering garden with a look of intolerable discomfort
+and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the end-of
+the wall of pear tree&mdash;a moving object against the garden wall. She could
+not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a peach rose and
+vanished over the top of the wall. She stared at the part of the wall whence it
+had risen; and in a few seconds another peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that, in spite
+of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the wall of pear-tree.
+As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the wall, a fair-haired boy. Even
+as she saw him something rose and vanished over the wall far too swiftly for
+her to see that it was a landing-net.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably, raised
+his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: &ldquo;How do you do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to make
+admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke pursuit and
+risk his peaches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you do?&rdquo; said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+&ldquo;What are you doing up there?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking at the garden,&rdquo; said the Terror truthfully, but
+not quite accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown. She thought
+that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and his serene
+guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the lie. She thought
+that he looked a nice boy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval&mdash;as much approval as
+one could give to a girl. The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray eyes; and
+though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line from the cheek-bone
+to the corner of the chin was so straight that it made her face almost
+triangular, it was a pretty face. She looked fragile; and he felt sorry for
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This garden&rsquo;s very hot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like
+holding one&rsquo;s face over an oven.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, it is,&rdquo; said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet there&rsquo;s quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of
+the walls,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious examining eyes.
+Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I tell you what: come out into the wood. I know an awfully cool place.
+You&rsquo;d find it very refreshing,&rdquo; said the Terror in the tone of one
+who has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at the
+sleeping baroness. The sight of that richly crimson face made the garden feel
+hotter than ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do come. My sister&rsquo;s here, and it will be very jolly in the
+wood&mdash;the three of us,&rdquo; said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you well-born?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly: &ldquo;Well,
+from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in the Weald
+before they were any Hohenzollerns. And they did very well at Crécy and
+Agincourt, too,&rdquo; he added pensively.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Suppose the baroness were to wake?&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror&rsquo;s face: &ldquo;Oh, is that
+the baroness snoring? I thought it was a pig,&rdquo; he said frankly.
+&ldquo;She won&rsquo;t wake for another hour. Nobody snoring like that
+could.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess. She cast one
+more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: &ldquo;Very goot; I will
+coom.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall. When she came through it,
+she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it. The Terror, in a very
+dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield. He gave their full and so
+little-used names because he felt that, in the case of a princess, etiquette
+demanded it. Then they moved along the screen of trees, up the side of the
+garden wall toward the wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess, which was
+uncommonly slow. She kept looking from one to the other with curious, rather
+timid, pleased eyes. She saw the landing-net that Erebus had fastened to the
+backbone of the Terror&rsquo;s bicycle; but she saw no connection between it
+and the vanishing peaches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the home wood,
+a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through without difficulty,
+took a narrow, little used path into the depths of the wood, and moved down it
+in single file.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I expect you never found this path,&rdquo; said the Terror to the
+princess who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, I haf not found it. I haf never been in this wood till now,&rdquo;
+said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t been in this wood! But it&rsquo;s the home
+wood&mdash;the jolliest part of the estate,&rdquo; cried the Terror in the
+liveliest surprise. &ldquo;And there are two paths straight into it from the
+gardens.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I stay always in the gardens,&rdquo; said the princess sedately.
+&ldquo;The Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that
+I go out of sight of her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the
+time,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Slack? What is slack?&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She means feeble,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;But all the same those
+gardens are big enough; there&rsquo;s plenty of room to run about in
+them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I do not run. It is not dignified. The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked,&rdquo; said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No wonder you&rsquo;re delicate,&rdquo; said Erebus, politely trying to
+keep a touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One can not help being delicate,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said the Terror doubtfully. &ldquo;If
+you&rsquo;re in the open air a lot and do run about, you don&rsquo;t
+<i>keep</i> delicate. Wiggins used to be delicate, but he isn&rsquo;t
+now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is Wiggins?&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a friend of ours&mdash;not so old as we are&mdash;quite a
+little boy,&rdquo; said Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been
+present, would have resented with extreme bitterness. &ldquo;Besides, Doctor
+Arbuthnot told Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing
+with children of your own age, you&rsquo;d soon get strong.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve come to England for,&rdquo; said the
+princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s much chance of your getting strong in
+that peach-garden. It didn&rsquo;t feel to me like the open air at all,&rdquo;
+said the Terror firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it is the open air,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader one,
+and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep and pathless
+bank. The Twins started up it as if it were neither here nor there to them; as,
+indeed, it was not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Am I to climb this?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle against the
+trunk of a tree, and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll help you up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round the
+slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of the bank. He
+relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it; but none the less she
+reached the top panting a little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You certainly aren&rsquo;t in very good training,&rdquo; he said rather
+sadly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Training? What is training?&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s being fit,&rdquo; said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what is being fit?&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s being strong&mdash;and well&mdash;and able to run miles and
+miles,&rdquo; said Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You needn&rsquo;t shout at her,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to make her understand,&rdquo; said Erebus firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I do understand&mdash;when it is not the slang you are using. I know
+English quite well,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You certainly speak it awfully well,&rdquo; said the Terror politely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle. They went a little deeper into
+the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in the cool
+green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This <i>is</i> different,&rdquo; she said with a faint little sigh of
+pleasure.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="img-194"></a>
+<img src="images/img-194.jpg" width="417" height="611" alt="[Illustration: ]" />
+<p class="caption">&ldquo;This is different,&rdquo; she said.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; this is the real open air,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I do get lots of open air,&rdquo; protested the princess.
+&ldquo;Why, I sleep with my window open&mdash;at least that much.&rdquo; She
+held out her two forefingers some six inches apart. &ldquo;The baroness did not
+like it. She said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills. But
+Doctor Arbuthnot said that it must be open. I think I sleep better.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they&rsquo;ll go; and then
+they&rsquo;re not wide enough in this hot weather,&rdquo; said Erebus in the
+tone of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you&rsquo;d be cooler
+still,&rdquo; said the Terror rather quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat and
+jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure. She had quite lost her air
+of discomfort and boredom. Her eyes were shining brightly; and her pale cheeks
+were a little flushed with the excitement of her situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up children, were
+aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal personages unless they first
+speak to you. If they were, they did not let that knowledge stand in the way of
+the gratification of their healthy curiosity. It may be they felt that in the
+free green wood the etiquette of courts was out of place. At any rate they did
+not let it trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive, interrogation
+about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the lessons
+she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games she played, her
+afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea, her occupations after tea,
+her dinner, her occupations after dinner, the hour she went to bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it was
+only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her importance should
+be of the greatest interest to less fortunate mortals. She was not even annoyed
+by their carelessness of etiquette in not waiting to be spoken to before they
+asked a question. Indeed she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for
+it was seldom that any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was
+seldom, indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her
+fellow creatures. She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had never had
+any really sympathetic playmates. The children of Cassel-Nassau were always
+awed and stiff in her society; their minds were harassed by the fear lest they
+should be guilty of some appalling breach of etiquette. The manner of the
+Twins, therefore, was a pleasant change for her. They were polite, but quite
+unconstrained; and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded
+had never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness, they
+were safely asleep in her presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new friends she
+looked for. As she exposed more and more of the trammeling net of etiquette in
+which from her rising to her going to bed she was enmeshed, their faces did not
+fill with the envy she would have found so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said with
+heart-felt conviction:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, thank goodness, I&rsquo;m not a princess! It must be perfectly
+awful!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It must be nearly as bad to be a prince,&rdquo; said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with parted
+lips and amazed incredulous eyes. Their words had given her the shock of her
+short lifetime. As far as memory carried her back, she had been assured,
+frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a German princess, a
+Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and delightful lot a female human
+being could enjoy, only a little less glorious and delightful than the lot of a
+German prince.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;B-b-but it&rsquo;s sp-p-plendid to be a princess! Everybody says
+so!&rdquo; she stammered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They were humbugging you. You&rsquo;ve just made it quite clear that
+it&rsquo;s horrid in every kind of way. Why, you can&rsquo;t do any single
+thing you want to. There&rsquo;s always somebody messing about you to see that
+you don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Erebus with cold decision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;B-b-but one is a <i>p-p-princess</i>,&rdquo; stammered the princess,
+with something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re forgetting the food,&rdquo; he said quickly to Erebus.
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she
+can have all the sweets and ices she wants.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; said the princess; and then she went on quickly:
+&ldquo;B-b-but it isn&rsquo;t what you have to eat that makes it
+so&mdash;so&mdash;so important being a princess. It&rsquo;s&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s awfully important what you have to eat!&rdquo; cried the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should jolly well think so!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her exalted
+station; but the Twins would not have it. They kept her firmly to the broad
+human questions of German cookery and sweets. The princess, used to having
+information poured into her by many elderly but bespectacled gentlemen and
+ladies, was presently again enjoying her new part of dispenser of information.
+Her cheeks were faintly flushed; and her eyes were sparkling in an animated
+face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away unheeded by
+the interested trio. The crimson baroness had awakened, missed her little
+charge, and waddled off into the house in search of her. A slow search of the
+house and gardens revealed the fact that she was not in them. As soon as this
+was clear the baroness fell into a panic and insisted that the whole household
+should sally forth in search of her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to the Twins
+the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German tartlet, a kind, indeed,
+only found in the principality of Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the
+Terror caught the sound of a distant voice calling out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: &ldquo;Listen! There&rsquo;s some one
+calling. I expect they&rsquo;ve missed you and you&rsquo;ll have to be getting
+back.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess rose reluctantly. Then her face clouded; and she said in a tone of
+faint dismay: &ldquo;Oh, dear! How annoyed the baroness will be!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness,&rdquo; said
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I have to; she&rsquo;s my&mdash;my <i>gouvernante</i>,&rdquo; said
+the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time,&rdquo; said Erebus coldly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I should tell her that you&rsquo;ve been with us.
+She mightn&rsquo;t think we were good for you. Some people round here
+don&rsquo;t seem to understand us,&rdquo; said the Terror suavely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered brow; and
+then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, &ldquo;Are you coming
+to-morrow?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully. They had no plans for the morrow;
+but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more exciting occupation
+than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At their hesitation the princess&rsquo; face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror&rsquo;s heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We should like to come very much,&rdquo; he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I shall be able to come,&rdquo; said Erebus with the
+important air of one burdened with many affairs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: &ldquo;But if your
+brother comes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;ll come, anyhow,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, it isn&rsquo;t the baroness. It&rsquo;s Miss Lambart,&rdquo; said
+the princess in a tone of relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You take too much notice of that baroness,&rdquo; said Erebus again
+firmly. &ldquo;Who is Miss Lambart?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She&rsquo;s my English lady-in-waiting. I always have one when I&rsquo;m
+in England, of course. I like her. She tries to amuse me. But the baroness
+doesn&rsquo;t like her,&rdquo; said the princess, and she sighed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come along, I&rsquo;ll help you down the bank and take you pretty close
+to Miss Lambart. It wouldn&rsquo;t do for her to know of this place. It&rsquo;s
+our secret lair,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried her down
+it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from which Miss Lambart
+had called. As they went he adjured her to confine herself to the simple if
+incomplete statement that she had been walking in the wood. His last words to
+her, as they stood on the edge of the drive, were:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you stand so much nonsense from that baroness.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and found her
+thirty yards away. The Terror slipped noiselessly away through the undergrowth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess&rsquo; footsteps, and said:
+&ldquo;Oh, here you are, Highness. We&rsquo;ve all been hunting for you. The
+baroness thought you were lost.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought I would walk in the wood,&rdquo; said the princess demurely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It certainly seems to have done you good. You&rsquo;re looking brighter
+and fresher than you&rsquo;ve looked since you&rsquo;ve been down here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The wood is real open air,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a> CHAPTER IX<br />
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease, eating a
+peach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should have liked one a good deal sooner,&rdquo; he said, as he took
+one from the basket. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t like to say anything about them.
+She mightn&rsquo;t have understood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t have mattered if she hadn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Erebus
+somewhat truculently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had so
+plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She&rsquo;s not a bad kid,&rdquo; said the Terror thoughtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She&rsquo;s awfully feeble. Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a
+bank. She&rsquo;s not any use to us,&rdquo; said Erebus in a tone of contempt.
+&ldquo;In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should find
+her a perfect nuisance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps. Still we may as well amuse her a bit. She seems to be having a
+rotten time with that old red baroness and all that etiquette,&rdquo; said the
+Terror in a kindly tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She needn&rsquo;t stand it, if she doesn&rsquo;t like it. I
+shouldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she
+added: &ldquo;I tell you what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to
+jump on that old red baroness.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Terror doubtfully. &ldquo;But I expect she&rsquo;d
+take a lot of teaching. I don&rsquo;t think she&rsquo;s the kind of kid to do
+much jumping on people.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, you never know. We can always try,&rdquo; said Erebus cheerfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood. It was not so
+difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered by bicycles, about
+the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved as the woods farther away
+from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but little attention to it. The Twins
+moved out of it safely and returned home with easy minds: it did not occur to
+either of them that they had been treating a princess with singular firmness.
+Nor were they at all troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some
+curious mental kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and
+tuum applied to fruit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that afternoon; and
+she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and bought them for her
+there. When two more were forthcoming for her dessert after dinner, she
+reproached them gently for spending so much of their salary for
+&ldquo;overseering&rdquo; on her. The Twins said nothing. It was only when two
+more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she began to suspect that they
+had come by the ways of warfare and not of trade. Then, having already eaten
+four of them, it was a little late to inquire and protest. Moreover, if there
+had been a crime, the Twins had admitted her to a full share in it by letting
+her eat the fruit of it. Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying
+nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping home
+wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who met them on
+their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes. This was, indeed, a
+new experience to her; but she did not complain to them of this unheard-of
+breach of etiquette. She was doubtful how the complaint would be received at
+any rate by Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since the
+sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it rather
+pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror. There was something very
+satisfactory in his strength. Again they settled themselves comfortably on the
+bank of the pool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another. Beside the clear golden tan
+of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the pale face of the
+princess looked waxen. The blue linen blouse, short serge skirt and bare head
+and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt, serge knickerbockers and bare head
+and legs of the Terror gave them an air not only of coolness but also of a
+workmanlike freedom of limb. In her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and
+skirt, woolen stockings and heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little
+princess looked a swaddled sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased by the
+Terror&rsquo;s observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all when one
+had such thick hair as she. But she was some time acting on Erebus&rsquo;
+suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be more comfortable
+still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to tell of the
+fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her having gone alone
+into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I tell you what: you&rsquo;ve spoilt that baroness,&rdquo; said the
+Terror when she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But she&rsquo;s my <i>gouvernante</i>. I have to do as she bids,&rdquo;
+protested the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all rubbish. You&rsquo;re the princess; and other people
+ought to do what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any
+silly thing you don&rsquo;t want to. She wouldn&rsquo;t me,&rdquo; said Erebus
+with even greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think she would,&rdquo; said the princess with a faint
+sigh; and she looked at Erebus with envious eyes. &ldquo;But when she starts
+making a fuss and gets so red and excited, she&mdash;she&mdash;rather frightens
+me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would take a lot more than that to frighten me,&rdquo; said Erebus
+with a very cold ferocity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I rather like people like that. I think they look so funny when
+they&rsquo;re really red and excited,&rdquo; said the Terror gently. &ldquo;But
+what you&rsquo;ve got to do is to stand up to her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stand up to her?&rdquo; said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell her that you don&rsquo;t care what she says,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cheek her,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t. It would be too difficult,&rdquo; said the princess,
+shaking her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course it isn&rsquo;t easy at first; but you&rsquo;ll be surprised to
+find how soon you&rsquo;ll get used to shutting her up,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy. I
+believe in being quite polite but not giving way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She is very noisy,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, then you&rsquo;ll have to shout at her. It&rsquo;s the only way. But
+mind you only have rows when you&rsquo;re in the right about something,&rdquo;
+said the Terror. &ldquo;Then she&rsquo;ll soon learn to leave you alone.
+It&rsquo;s no good having a row when you&rsquo;re in the wrong.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s best always to have a row,&rdquo; said Erebus with an
+air of wide experience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, it isn&rsquo;t&mdash;at least it wouldn&rsquo;t be for the
+princess&mdash;she&rsquo;s not like you,&rdquo; said the Terror quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no: not always&mdash;only when one is in the right. I see
+that,&rdquo; said the princess. &ldquo;But what should I have a row
+about?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a pretext for
+an honest row.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently the Terror said: &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you make them let you have
+some one to play with? It&rsquo;s silly being as dull as you are. What&rsquo;s
+the good of being a princess, if you haven&rsquo;t any friends?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes!&rdquo; cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled. &ldquo;It would be nice! You and Erebus could come to tea with me and
+sooper and loonch often and again!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay. It was not in
+their scheme of things as they should be that they should go to the Grange in
+the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and girl, and spend stiff hours
+in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t do at all,&rdquo; said the Terror quickly.
+&ldquo;You had better not tell them anything at all about us. They
+wouldn&rsquo;t let us come to the Grange; and they&rsquo;d stop you coming
+here. It&rsquo;s ever so much nicer meeting secretly like this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here,&rdquo;
+said the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It couldn&rsquo;t be done. They wouldn&rsquo;t have us at the
+Grange,&rdquo; said Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But why not?&rdquo; said the princess in surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The people about here don&rsquo;t understand us,&rdquo; said the Terror
+somewhat sadly. &ldquo;They&rsquo;d think we should be bad for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it is not so! You are ever so good to me!&rdquo; cried the princess
+hotly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no good. You couldn&rsquo;t make grown-ups see that&mdash;you
+know what they are. No; you&rsquo;d much better leave it alone, and sit tight
+and meet us here,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she sighed
+and said: &ldquo;Well, I will do what you say. You know more about it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right,&rdquo; said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: &ldquo;I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you. Suppose we
+taught you some exercises. You could practise them at home; and soon
+you&rsquo;d be able to do things when you were with us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What things?&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;d be able to run&mdash;and jump. Why we might even be able
+to teach you to climb,&rdquo; said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his
+tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner vision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, that would be nice!&rdquo; cried the princess. Forthwith the Twins
+set about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of muscle;
+and the princess was a painstaking pupil. In spite of the seeds of revolt they
+had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back to the peach-garden before the
+baroness should awake, or at any rate before she should have satisfied herself
+that her charge was not in the house or about the gardens. The Terror therefore
+conducted her down the screen of trees to the door in the wall. She had left it
+unlatched; and he pushed it open gently. There was no sound of snoring: the
+baroness had awoke and left the garden.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I expect she is still looking for me in the house,&rdquo; said the
+princess calmly. &ldquo;They&rsquo;d be shouting if she weren&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes. I say; do you want <i>all</i> these peaches?&rdquo; said the
+Terror, looking round the loaded walls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Me? No. I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch. But I
+don&rsquo;t care for peaches much. It&rsquo;s the way the baroness eats them, I
+think&mdash;the juice roonning down, you know. And she eats six or seven
+always.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That woman&rsquo;s a pig. I thought she looked like one,&rdquo; said the
+Terror with conviction. &ldquo;But if you don&rsquo;t want them all, may I have
+some for my mother? The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she&rsquo;s very fond
+of peaches.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus. Take them
+all,&rdquo; said the princess with quick generosity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large cabbage-leaf; and
+then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil. But when she was
+provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs. Dangerfield could
+no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked the Twins how they came
+by them. They assured her that they had been given to them by a friend but that
+the name of the donor must remain a secret. She knew that they would not lie to
+her; and thinking it likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar,
+both of whom took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact
+that either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on
+eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess&rsquo; spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body. They adjured her again and again to thrust off the yoke
+of the baroness. The last pregnant words of Erebus to her were: &ldquo;You just
+call her an old red pig, and see.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that very
+evening. The princess was dining with the Baroness Von Aschersleben and Miss
+Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly jealous of Miss Lambart, had
+interrupted her several times in her talk with the princess; and she had done
+it rudely. The princess, who wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed.
+They had reached dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the
+improvement in her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said
+that it must be the air of Muttle Deeping. The baroness uttered a loud and
+contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches. The princess looked at
+her with an expression of great dislike. The baroness gobbled up one peach with
+a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human being, and very noisily, and was
+midway through the second when the princess spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I want some children to play with,&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped down
+the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: &ldquo;Zere are no children
+in zis country, your Royal Highness.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I see plenty of children when I drive,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Zey are nod children; zey are nod &rsquo;igh an&rsquo; well-born,&rdquo;
+said the baroness in rasping tones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with,&rdquo; said the princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Moost? Moost?&rdquo; cried the baroness in a high voice. &ldquo;Bud eed
+ees whad I know ees goot for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;re good for me,&rdquo; said the princess firmly. &ldquo;And
+you must find them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display of
+firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer crimson; and
+she cried in a loud blustering voice: &ldquo;Bud eed ees eembossible whad your
+royal highness ask! Zere are no &rsquo;igh an&rsquo; well-born children
+&rsquo;ere. Zey are een Loondon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, you must send for some,&rdquo; said the princess, who, having
+taken the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Moost? Moost? I do nod know whad ees &rsquo;appen to you, your Royal
+Highness. I say eed ees eembossible!&rdquo; shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But surely her highness&rsquo; request is a very natural one, Baroness;
+and there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look for
+them. Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have children of her own
+age to play with,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart who had been pitying the lonely
+child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping her to the companionship she
+needed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do nod indervere, Englanderin!&rdquo; bellowed the baroness; and her
+crimson was enriched with streaks of purple. &ldquo;I am in ze charge of
+&rsquo;er royal highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children
+blay.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow. She was
+angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her young mentors,
+especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Old&mdash;red&mdash;peeg.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping grunt; she
+blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But whad&mdash;but whad&mdash;&rdquo; she said faintly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Old&mdash;red&mdash;peeg,&rdquo; said the princess, somewhat pleased
+with the effect of the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bud whad ees eed zat &rsquo;appen?&rdquo; muttered the bewildered
+baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father that
+you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do everything
+what the English doctor bids,&rdquo; said the princess in a sinister tone.
+&ldquo;Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the Baroness Hochfelden will
+be my <i>gouvernante</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily happen, if the
+letter of the princess found the grand duke of Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood,
+that she would lose this comfortable well-paid post, and the hated Baroness
+Hochfelden take it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bud zere are no &rsquo;igh an&rsquo; well-born children, your Royal
+Highness,&rdquo; she said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess frowned at her and said: &ldquo;Mees Lambart will find them. Is it
+not, Mees Lambart?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I shall be charmed to try, Highness,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart readily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do nod indervere! I veel zose childen vind myzelf!&rdquo; snapped the
+baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but glowing with
+the joy of victory. At the door she paused to say:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And I want them soon&mdash;at once.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the night air,
+she went firmly out into the garden. The next morning at breakfast she again
+demanded children to play with.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the baroness
+asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited to come to play
+with the princess. She only stipulated that they should be high and well-born.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins&mdash;Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s boy and girl. They&rsquo;re high and
+well-born enough. But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl. They&rsquo;re independent young people. Besides, I&rsquo;m not at all
+sure that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess. It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such&mdash;er&mdash;er ardent spirits. You might have her developing a spirit
+of freedom; and you wouldn&rsquo;t like that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Mein Gott</i>, no!&rdquo; said the baroness with warm conviction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then there&rsquo;s Wiggins&mdash;Rupert Carrington. He&rsquo;s younger
+and quieter but active enough. He&rsquo;d soon teach her to run about.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But is he well-born?&rdquo; said the careful baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well-born? He&rsquo;s a <i>Carrington</i>,&rdquo; said Doctor Arbuthnot
+with an impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily. When the princess, who had hoped for
+the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him with resignation.
+Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of Wiggins; and
+they cheered her by reporting favorably on the qualifications of their friend,
+though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course, he&rsquo;ll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you;
+he always does. But you mustn&rsquo;t mind that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate be a
+change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their fair-haired,
+freckled, but infuriated friend. Not only was his reluctance to don the
+immaculate morning dress of an English young gentleman for the delectation of
+foreign princesses every whit as sincere as their own, but he felt the
+invitation to play with a little girl far more insulting than they would have
+done. They did their best to soothe him and make things pleasant for the
+princess, pointing out to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly
+enjoy, and impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; that&rsquo;s all very well,&rdquo; said Wiggins gloomily.
+&ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve been seeing ever such a little of you lately in the
+afternoons; and now I shall see less than ever.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the stiffness
+did not last; they became very good active friends; and he scalped her with
+gratifying frequency. In this way it came about that, in the matter of play,
+the princess led a double life. She spent the early part of the afternoon in
+the wood with the Twins; and from tea till the dressing-bell for dinner rang
+she enjoyed the society of Wiggins. She told no one of her friendship with the
+Twins; and Wiggins was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them
+he could tell. Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a> CHAPTER X<br />
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air. They took
+that change at but a short distance from their home, since the cost of a visit
+to the sea was more than their mother could afford. They were allowed to encamp
+for ten days, if the weather were fine, in the dry sandstone caves of Deeping
+Knoll, which rises in the middle of Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr.
+Anstruther.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from the
+knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of philanthropy; and
+they broke the news to the princess as gently as they could. She was so deeply
+grieved to learn that she was no longer going to enjoy their society that, in
+spite of the fact that she had been made well aware that they despised and
+abhorred tears, she was presently weeping. She was ashamed; but she could not
+help it. The compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would
+try to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly the fact
+that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was magnificently
+inspired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here: why shouldn&rsquo;t you come with us into camp?&rdquo; he
+said eagerly. &ldquo;A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the
+Grange. You really do get open air camping out at the knoll.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid thought. Then
+it fell; and she said: &ldquo;They&rsquo;d never let me&mdash;never.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you&rsquo;d never ask them,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;d just slip away and come with us. We&rsquo;ve kept our
+knowing you so dark that they&rsquo;d never dream you were with us in the knoll
+caves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect. She had come
+to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the afternoons she
+spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them would be beyond the
+delight of dreams. But to her unadventured soul the difficulties seemed beyond
+all surmounting. The Twins, however, were used to surmounting difficulties, and
+at once they began surmounting these.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you
+there,&rdquo; said the Terror thoughtfully. &ldquo;You see, I&rsquo;ve got to
+go down every day for milk and things, and they&rsquo;re sure to ask me if
+I&rsquo;ve seen anything of you. Of course, I can&rsquo;t lie about it; and
+then they&rsquo;ll not only take you away, but they&rsquo;ll probably turn us
+out of the caves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the drawback,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment. A deep frown furrowed the
+Terror&rsquo;s brow; and he said: &ldquo;If only you weren&rsquo;t a princess
+they wouldn&rsquo;t make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I might never be
+asked anything about you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course,&rdquo; said the
+princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a glorious
+smile, and he cried:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;By Jove! Of course you would! I never thought of that! Why, you&rsquo;d
+be some one else and not the princess at all! We shouldn&rsquo;t know where the
+princess was if we were asked.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course we shouldn&rsquo;t!&rdquo; said Erebus, perceiving the
+advantage of this ignorance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel,&rdquo; said the
+princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: &ldquo;I suppose
+you have to have a title. But I think an English one would be best here: Lady
+Rowington now. No one would ever ask us where Lady Rowington is, because there
+isn&rsquo;t any Lady Rowington.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes: Lady Rowington&mdash;I would wish an English title,&rdquo; said
+the princess readily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If we could only think of some way of making them think that she&rsquo;d
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gipsies don&rsquo;t steal children nowadays,&rdquo; said the Terror; and
+he paused considering. Then he added, &ldquo;I tell you what though: Nihilists
+would&mdash;at least they&rsquo;d steal a princess. Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I never heard of any,&rdquo; said the princess. &ldquo;There are
+thousands of Socialists.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Socialists will do,&rdquo; said the Terror cheerfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till the
+second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have everything in
+order. Then they discussed her needs. She could not bring away with her any
+clothes, or it would be plain that she had not been stolen. She must share the
+wardrobe of Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, no. I have money,&rdquo; said the princess, thrusting her hand into
+her pocket. &ldquo;Will you not buy me clothes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and handed
+it to the Terror. He and Erebus examined it with warm admiration, for it was
+indeed a pretty purse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow. There&rsquo;s a
+pool just under the knoll,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;How much shall we
+want, Erebus?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;d better have two pounds and be on the safe side,&rdquo; said
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to his
+own. Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of the
+peach-garden at nine o&rsquo;clock, or thereabouts at night. He would wait half
+an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse the suspicion that
+she had gone of her own free will. He made several suggestions about the manner
+of her escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about purchasing
+her outfit. They bought a short serge skirt, two linen shirts, a blue jersey
+against the evening chill, a cap, sandals, stockings, underclothing and a
+bathing-dress. They carried the parcels home on their bicycles. When she saw
+them on their arrival Mrs. Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their
+own equipment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for throwing the
+searchers off the scent. It was:
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="img-229"></a>
+<img src="images/img-229.jpg" width="261" height="137" alt="[Illustration: ]" />
+<p class="caption">&ldquo;We are avenged.<br />
+A Desparate Socialist&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping Knoll. The
+last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so that they transported
+their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom Cobb&rsquo;s donkey-cart, and
+carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had encamped with
+them. This year she had not cared for the effort; and she had also felt that
+ten days&rsquo; holiday out of the strenuous atmosphere which spread itself
+round the Twins, would be restful and pleasant. She was sure that they might
+quite safely be trusted to encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll. Not only were
+they of approved readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood,
+they were as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
+isle. She was somewhat surprised by the Terror&rsquo;s readiness to take as
+many blankets as she suggested. In other years he had been disposed to grumble
+at the number she thought necessary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite. Then they began to arrange
+their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they brought them up, in
+their proper caves. With a break of an hour for a bath this occupied them till
+tea-time. After tea they bathed again and then set about collecting fuel from
+the wood. They were too tired to spend much time on cooking their supper; and
+soon after it, rolled in their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping
+like logs. They were up betimes, bathing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before. They spent most of it in
+the pool or on its bank. In the afternoon Wiggins came and did not leave them
+till seven. Soon after eight o&rsquo;clock the Terror set out to keep his tryst
+with the princess. He took with him the Socialist manifesto and pinned it to
+the post of a wicket gate opening from the gardens into the park on the
+opposite side of the Grange to Deeping Knoll. Then he came round to the door in
+the peach-garden wall two or three minutes before the clock over the stables
+struck nine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess on the
+garden path, the door opened, and she came through it. He shook hands with her
+warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told him how she had bidden
+the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone to her bedroom, ruffled the bed,
+locked the door, and slipped, unseen, down the stairs and out of the house. He
+praised her skill; and she found his praise very grateful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the princess
+found them daunting. They were full of strange noises, many of them
+eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes seemed to move. The
+Terror was not long discovering her fear, and forthwith put his arm round her
+waist and kept it there wherever the path was broad enough to allow it. When
+she quivered to some woodland sound, he told her what it was and eased her
+mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active games with
+Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough ground at a stretch;
+and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down and rested. The princess was
+no longer frightened; she still thrilled to the eeriness of the woods, but she
+felt quite safe with the Terror. When they rested she snuggled up against him,
+stared before her into the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering
+through the forests of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her.
+She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="img-232"></a>
+<img src="images/img-232.jpg" width="425" height="619" alt="[Illustration: ]" />
+<p class="caption">She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of
+the knoll.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey the
+princess found it grateful indeed. They sat for a while in a row before the
+glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the princess had visited.
+But soon the yawns which she could not repress showed her hosts how sleepy she
+was, and the Terror suggested that she should go to bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to herself,
+but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it alone, that her
+couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the cave of Erebus. After the
+journey and the excitement she was not long falling into a dreamless sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk. Erebus
+conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath. The princess did not like
+it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but under the eye of Erebus she
+could not shrink; and in she went. She came out shivering, but Erebus helped
+rub her to a warm glow, and she came to breakfast with such an appetite as she
+had never before in her life enjoyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the caves with
+which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games of adventure; and
+the princess soon found that she had been called to an active life. It began
+directly after breakfast with dish-washing; after that she was breathless for
+an hour in two excited games both of which meant running through the caves and
+round and over the knoll as hard as you could run and at short intervals
+yelling as loud as you could yell. After this they put on their bathing-dresses
+and disported themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o&rsquo;clock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping her, for
+the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required speed. Also he
+turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full half-hour before he and
+Erebus left it. After dinner the princess was so sleepy that she could hardly
+keep her eyes open; and the Terror insisted that she should lie down for an
+hour. She protested that she did not want to rest, that she did not want to
+lose a moment of this glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon
+asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon. But he could be admitted safely
+into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had become Lady
+Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to profess an entire
+ignorance of her whereabouts. Also he would be very useful, for he could bring
+them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the excitement of
+the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess. So far its simple-minded
+inhabitants and the suite of the princess were content with the socialist
+explanation of her disappearance; and three counties round were being searched
+by active policemen on bicycles for some one who had seen a suspicious
+motor-car containing Socialists and a princess. It was the general belief that
+she had been chloroformed and abducted through her bedroom window.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the probabilities of
+their success and of the recovery of the princess, the routes by which the
+Socialists might have carried her off, and the towns in which the lair to which
+they had taken her might be. At the end of half an hour of it the princess came
+out of her cave, her eyes, very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+&ldquo;You might have told me that she was coming here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing,&rdquo;
+said Erebus sternly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I should, if I&rsquo;d known you knew her at all,&rdquo; said
+Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what nobody knows,&rdquo; said Erebus triumphantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And look here: she&rsquo;s here incognita,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+&ldquo;She&rsquo;s taken the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she&rsquo;s
+not the princess at all. So if you&rsquo;re asked if the princess is here, you
+can truthfully say she isn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course&mdash;I see. This is a go!&rdquo; said Wiggins cheerfully; and
+he spurned the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we&rsquo;re not expecting them and see her,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;So
+I&rsquo;m going to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up
+it will shout to us. But there&rsquo;s no need to do that yet; nobody will
+think about us for a day or two.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No; of course they won&rsquo;t. I didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that followed. It
+kept the princess always beside the Terror. Always he was using his greater
+strength to help her lead it at the required speed. Never in the history of the
+courts of Europe has a princess been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed
+and lugged over rough ground. On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she
+could hardly move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an
+ear-piercing yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had died
+when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his pleasures; no
+one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly fond of no one. It is
+hardly too much to say that she was coming to adore the Terror. Even at their
+most violent and thrilling moments his care for her never relaxed. He rubbed
+the ache out of her bruises; he plastered her scratches. He saw to it that she
+came out of the pool the moment that she looked chill. He picked out for her
+the tidbits at their meals. He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden
+mass was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly refused
+to play the lady&rsquo;s-maid. Since the Terror was one of those who enjoy
+doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently forgot the
+unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in handling the
+silken strands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her hair in the
+sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe shock. Heaven knows
+that the princess was not a demonstrative child; indeed, she had never had the
+chance. But he had just finished his task and was surveying the shining result
+with satisfaction, when, of a sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms
+round his neck and kissed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, you <i>are</i> nice!&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror&rsquo;s ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds. He
+flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any one should
+have seen it!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress:
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you like for me to kiss you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said, faintly but
+gallantly: &ldquo;Yes&mdash;oh, rather.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then kiss me,&rdquo; said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her gingerly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I <i>am</i> fond of you, you know,&rdquo; said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror&rsquo;s scattered wits at last worked. He rose to his feet, and said
+quickly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; let&rsquo;s be getting to the others.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess rose obediently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not frequent, were,
+at any rate, not rare. The Terror at first endured them; then he came rather to
+like them. But he strictly enjoined discretion on her; it would never do for
+Erebus to learn that she kissed him. The princess had no desire that Erebus, or
+any one else for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no
+natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware of the
+practise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other; and he
+never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out of a bag when
+during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose the Terror&rsquo;s in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that. I think it&rsquo;s awfully silly.&rdquo; And he spurned the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: &ldquo;He never does!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush; and her
+eyes were flashing. He had seen her angry often enough, but never so angry as
+this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a grievous indiscretion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps she kissed him,&rdquo; he said quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;d never let her!&rdquo; cried Erebus fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps they didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Wiggins readily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You know they did!&rdquo; cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I may have made a mistake. It&rsquo;s quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing,&rdquo; said Wiggins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from his
+reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl. He had seen the princess with
+an arm round the Terror&rsquo;s neck, and they had kissed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the least
+resistance, sought the princess. She found her lying back drowsily against a
+sunny bank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: &ldquo;Princess or
+no princess, you shan&rsquo;t kiss the Terror!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up. Her gray eyes darkened and
+sparkled. She had never made a face in her life; it is not improbable, seeing
+how sheltered a life she had led, that she was ignorant that faces were made;
+but quite naturally she made a hideous face at Erebus, and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I shall!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you do, I&rsquo;ll smack you!&rdquo; cried Erebus; and she ground her
+teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by a
+gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in the matter
+of a male. She met Erebus&rsquo; blazing eyes squarely and said confidently:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He won&rsquo;t let you. And if you do he&rsquo;ll smack you&mdash;much
+harder!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then and
+there. But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules only permit
+you to strike any one standing up. Erebus forgot them, stooped to strike,
+remembered them, straightened herself, and with a really pantherous growl
+dashed away in search of the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and she cried:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know all about your kissing the princess! I never heard of such silly
+babyishness!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to the
+emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as he said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, what harm is there in it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s babyish! It&rsquo;s what mollycoddles do! It&rsquo;s girlish!
+It&rsquo;s&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mind your own business! It isn&rsquo;t babyish at all! She&rsquo;s
+asked me to marry her; and when we&rsquo;re grown up I&rsquo;m going
+to&mdash;so there!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a> CHAPTER XI<br />
+AND THE UNREST CURE</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by what she
+called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission had raised her to
+the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered no protest. She knew that
+protest would be vain, that against his obstinacy she was helpless. She wrung
+her hands and turned aside into the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one
+of their loftiest ideals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed a period of strain. She assumed an attitude of very haughty
+contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins, and let them
+coldly alone. From this attitude Wiggins was the chief sufferer: the Terror had
+the princess and the princess had the Terror; Erebus enjoyed her display of
+haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the strenuous life, the rushing games, in
+which you yelled so heartily. As often as he could he stole away from the
+haughty Erebus and joined the errant pair. It is to be feared that the princess
+found the kisses sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on Deeping
+Knoll. There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the Twins had had a
+hand in her disappearance. But no one had any reason to suppose that they and
+the princess had even been acquainted. Doctor Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned
+both Wiggins and the Terror; but they were mindful of the fact that Lady
+Rowington (they were always very careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and
+not the princess, was at the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with
+sufficient truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was.
+The bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down. Suspicion
+is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice Falconer in the
+matter. When he first read in his <i>Morning Post</i> of the disappearance of
+the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from Muttle Deeping Grange he said
+confidently to himself: &ldquo;The Twins again!&rdquo; and to that conviction
+his mind clung.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the Socialist
+manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny paper. He told himself
+that Socialists are an educated, even over-educated folk, and if one of them
+did set himself to draw a skull and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not
+exquisite, at any rate accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable
+that a Socialist would spell desperate with two &ldquo;a&rsquo;s&rdquo; in an
+important document without being corrected by a confederate. On the other hand
+the drawing of the skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to
+which the immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two
+&ldquo;a&rsquo;s&rdquo; in any document.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of his
+relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been for the
+international situation produced by the disappearance of the princess. As it
+was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings, dinners, theater parties,
+dances and suppers that he was compelled to postpone intervention till the
+sixth day, when every Socialist organ and organization from San Francisco
+eastward to Japan was loudly disavowing any connection with the crime, the
+newspapers of England and Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and
+bellowing at one another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery
+were wiring frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets. Even then Sir
+Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would not have
+interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet minister consulted
+him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty thousand pounds&rsquo; worth
+of consols. He disliked the lady so strongly that after telling her how she
+could best compass her design, he felt that the time had come to ease the
+international situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping. His conviction that the
+Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess became certitude
+when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were encamped on Deeping Knoll,
+and had been there since the day before that disappearance. But he kept that
+certitude to himself, since it was his habit to do things in the pleasantest
+way possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood and
+park to Muttle Deeping Grange. He gave his card to the butler and told him to
+take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms of friendship
+rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three minutes she came to him in
+the drawing-room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said: &ldquo;Is
+this business worrying you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is rather. You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible. Besides, since I&rsquo;m
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being taken
+explained; and they want the same explanation over and over again. Since the
+archduke came it has been very trying. I think that he is more of an imbecile
+than any royalty I ever met.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry to hear that they&rsquo;ve been worrying you like this.
+If I&rsquo;d known, I&rsquo;d have come down and stopped it earlier,&rdquo;
+said Sir Maurice in a tone of lively self-reproach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop it? Why, what can you do?&rdquo; cried Miss Lambart, opening her
+eyes wide in her surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess. But it&rsquo;s only a belief, mind. So don&rsquo;t be too
+hopeful.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart&rsquo;s pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, if you could!&rdquo; she cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can, for the
+easier part; and we&rsquo;ll put my belief to the test,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice
+briskly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: &ldquo;I shan&rsquo;t be
+able to get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss. They&rsquo;re very
+unpleasant people, you know. Could we take the baroness with us? She&rsquo;ll
+<i>have</i> to be carried in something.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is she very fat?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then she&rsquo;d never get to the place I have in mind,&rdquo; said Sir
+Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it very far? Couldn&rsquo;t we walk to it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s about three miles,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s nothing&mdash;at least not for me. But you?&rdquo; said
+Miss Lambart, who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was
+something of a weakling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can manage it. Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
+limbs,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice. &ldquo;Indeed, a real country walk on a warm
+and pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven&rsquo;t enjoyed for
+years.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the park
+toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the surface of the
+distant wood. Sir Maurice had once walked to it with the Twins; and he thought
+that his memory of the walk helped by a few inquiries of people they met would
+take him to it on a fairly straight course. It was certainly very pleasant to
+be walking with such a charming companion through such a charming country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+&ldquo;Where are we going to? Where do you think the princess is?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been here a month. Haven&rsquo;t you heard of the
+Dangerfield twins?&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess; and
+Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them. But he said that they were not the kind of
+children for her, though they were the only high and well-born ones the
+baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood. He seemed to think that they
+would make her rebellious.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then the princess didn&rsquo;t know them?&rdquo; said Sir Maurice
+quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wonder,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her&mdash;a
+very nice little boy,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Wiggins! The Twins&rsquo; greatest friend! Well, I&rsquo;ll be
+shot!&rdquo; cried Sir Maurice; and he laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But do you mean to say that you think that these children have something
+to do with the princess&rsquo; disappearance? How old are they?&rdquo; said
+Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her mind was the
+belief that the princess had been carried off by the Socialists and foreigners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen. But I do know that
+nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their having a hand
+in it. I have the honor to be their uncle,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But they&rsquo;d never be able to persuade her to run away with them.
+She&rsquo;s a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life
+till she is delicate to fragility,&rdquo; Miss Lambart protested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of deep conviction. &ldquo;But it would not necessarily be a matter of
+persuasion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what else could it be&mdash;children of thirteen or fourteen!&rdquo;
+cried Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I assure you that it might quite easily have been force,&rdquo; said Sir
+Maurice seriously. &ldquo;My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll. It
+is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part communicating with
+one another. I can conceive of nothing more likely than that the idea of being
+brigands occurred to one or other of them; and they proceeded to kidnap the
+princess to hold her for ransom. They might lure her to some distance from the
+Grange before they had recourse to force.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It sounds incredible&mdash;children,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, we shall see,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice cheerfully. Then he added in
+a more doubtful tone; &ldquo;If only we can take them by surprise, which
+won&rsquo;t be so easy as it sounds.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase. But it was a very
+pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking with him
+through this pleasant sunny land. When presently he turned the talk to matters
+more personal to her, she liked it better still. He was very sympathetic: he
+sympathized with her in her annoyance at having had to waste so much of the
+summer on this tiresome <i>corvée</i> of acting as lady-in-waiting on the
+little princess; for, thanks to the domineering jealousy of the baroness, it
+had been a tiresome <i>corvée</i> indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it
+might have been. He sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been
+prevented by that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the
+princess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the baroness and
+the archduke during the last few days. The baroness had tried to lay the blame
+of the disappearance of the princess on her; and the archduke, a vast,
+sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at having been torn from the summer
+ease of his Schloss to dash to England, had been very rude indeed. She was much
+pleased by the warmth of Sir Maurice&rsquo;s indignation; but she protested
+against his making any attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could
+do it, without harming himself. But she agreed with him that neither the grand
+duke, nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in the broad
+aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path led to the knoll.
+Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take it. He knew that the Twins
+were far too capable not to have it guarded, if the princess were indeed with
+them. He led the way into the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the
+way for her carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her
+frock get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the
+knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir Maurice
+walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering earnestly ahead through
+the branches. Now and again a loud yell came from the knoll; and once a chorus
+of yells. Finding that her coldness (the Terror frankly called it sulking) had
+no effect whatever on her insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus
+had put it aside; and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in an
+astonished whisper:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That was awfully like the princess&rsquo; voice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought you said she was delicate,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So she was,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen and
+unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the knoll, from which
+they could see the entrance of five caves in its face. They waited, watching
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning to
+wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed kin, when a
+little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging down her back, came
+swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped into a clump of bushes to
+the right of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The princess!&rdquo; said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping
+forward, but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing in a
+crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an ear-piercing
+yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms round his neck; they
+swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came to the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Delicate to fragility,&rdquo; muttered Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whatever has she been doing to herself?&rdquo; said Miss Lambart
+faintly, gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t know the Twins,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a breakneck pace,
+yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the battling pair. As far as the
+spectators could judge she and the princess were rending Wiggins limb from
+limb; and they all three yelled their shrillest. Then with a yell the Terror
+leaped upon them from the cave and they were all four rolling on the ground
+while the aching welkin rang.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and Wiggins tore
+themselves free, gained their feet and fled. The princess and the Terror sat
+up, panting, flushed and disheveled. The princess wriggled close to the Terror,
+snuggled against him, and put an arm round his neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was splendid!&rdquo; she cried, and kissed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very good
+grace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I never!&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;These delicate children,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s
+certainly a delightful place for lovers. I&rsquo;m so glad we&rsquo;ve found
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was flushing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come along!&rdquo; she said quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first. He did not stir; but a curious, short,
+sharp cry came from his throat. It seemed to loose a spring in the princess.
+She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly, frowning. The Terror rose more
+slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good afternoon, Highness. I&rsquo;ve come to take you back to the
+Grange,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going,&rdquo; said the princess firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid you must. Your father is there; and he wants
+you,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step
+sidewise toward the mouth of the cave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his pockets; he
+wore the detached air of a spectator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But if you don&rsquo;t come of yourself, we shall have to carry
+you,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart sternly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+see how you can. You can&rsquo;t touch a princess you know. It would be
+<i>lèse-majesté</i>. She&rsquo;s told me all about it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir Maurice
+Falconer; he smiled appreciatively. But he said: &ldquo;Oh, come; this
+won&rsquo;t do, Terror, don&rsquo;t you know! Her highness will <i>have</i> to
+come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see how you&rsquo;re going to get her. The only person who
+could use force is the prince himself, and I don&rsquo;t think he could be got
+up to the knoll. He&rsquo;s too heavy. I&rsquo;ve seen him. And if you did get
+him up, I don&rsquo;t really think he&rsquo;d ever find her in these
+caves,&rdquo; said the Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an
+entirely impersonal matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Anyhow, I&rsquo;m not going,&rdquo; said the princess with even greater
+firmness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You see, there isn&rsquo;t any real reason why she shouldn&rsquo;t stay
+here,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;She came to England to improve her health;
+and she&rsquo;s improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the
+Grange. You can <i>see</i> how improved it is. She eats nearly as much as
+Erebus.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She has certainly changed,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Twins have a transforming effect on the young,&rdquo; said Sir
+Maurice in a tone of resignation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am much better,&rdquo; said the princess. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting
+quite strong, and I can run ever so fast.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s nonsense!&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what can you <i>do</i>?&rdquo; said the Terror gently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll chance the <i>lèse-majesté</i>!&rdquo; cried Miss Lambart;
+and she sprang swiftly forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it. Miss Lambart followed swiftly. The
+cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage forked into three
+dimmer passages. Miss Lambart stopped short and tried to hear from which of
+them came the sound of the footfalls of the retiring princess. It came from
+none of the three; the floor of the eaves was covered with sound-deadening
+sand. Miss Lambart walked back to the entrance of the cave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She has escaped,&rdquo; she said in a tone of resignation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I really don&rsquo;t see any reason for you to put yourself about
+for the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange. You have done more than
+you were called on to do in finding her. You can leave the catching of her to
+them. There&rsquo;s nothing to worry about: it&rsquo;s quite clear that this
+camping-out is doing her a world of good,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice in a
+comforting tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; there is that,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let me introduce my nephew. Hyacinth Dangerfield&mdash;better, much
+better, known as the Terror&mdash;to you,&rdquo; Said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: &ldquo;How do you do? I&rsquo;ve
+been wanting to know you: the princess&mdash;I mean Lady Rowington&mdash;likes
+you ever so much.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps you could give us some tea? We want it badly,&rdquo; said Sir
+Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I can. We only drink milk and cocoa, of course. But we have some
+tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I take it that she saw nothing of the princess,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no; she didn&rsquo;t see Lady Rowington. You must remember that
+she&rsquo;s Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh? I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; that was how,&rdquo; said the Terror blandly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their kettle on
+the fire for some time. Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed the picnic
+greatly. On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed. Miss Lambart agreed to
+make no further attempt to capture the princess; and she came out of hiding and
+took her tea with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical change in the
+princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was a browner, brighter,
+stronger child. Plainly, too, she was a more determined child; and while, for
+her own part, Miss Lambart approved of that change also, she was quite sure
+that it would not be approved by the princess&rsquo; kinsfolk and train. But
+she was somewhat distressed that the legs of the princess should be marred by
+so many and such deep scratches. She had none of the experienced Twins&rsquo;
+quickness to see and dodge thorns. She took Miss Lambart&rsquo;s sympathy
+lightly enough; indeed she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in
+honorable warfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was assured that
+this green wood life was the very thing the princess needed, she was resolved
+to give him no help herself. She was pleased to learn that she was in no way
+responsible for the princess&rsquo; acquaintance with the Twins; that she had
+made their acquaintance and cultivated their society while the careless
+baroness slept in the peach-garden.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of their
+entertainers and set out through the wood. They had not gone a hundred yards
+before a splendid yelling informed them that the strenuous life had again
+begun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle Deeping
+Grange with the news of their great discovery. But she found that Sir Maurice
+had formed other plans. They were both agreed that no consideration was owing
+to the billowy archduke. His manners deprived him of any right to it.
+Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping post-office, and with many appeals
+to her for suggestions and help wrote two long telegrams. The first was to the
+editor of the Morning Post, the second was to the prime minister. In both he
+set forth his discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in
+a wood, and her reasons for running away to them. The postmistress despatched
+them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease the international
+situation at once. Since both the editor and the prime minister were on
+friendly and familiar terms with him, there was no fear that the telegrams
+would fail of their effect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of Mrs.
+Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged Europe into
+Armageddon. Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with unruffled calm. She showed
+no surprise at all; she only said that she had found it very strange that a
+princess should vanish at Muttle Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it. She
+perceived at once that the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by
+assuming the name of Lady Rowington.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no haste to
+leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant atmosphere of
+Muttle Deeping Grange. It was past seven therefore when the Little Deeping fly
+brought her to it; and she went to the archduke with her news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he always fell
+before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with sufficient attention
+to understand her at the first telling of her news. He was some time
+understanding it, and longer believing it. It annoyed him greatly. He was
+taking considerable pleasure in standing on a pedestal before the eyes of
+Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern sire. His first, and accurate, feeling was
+that Europe would laugh consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter. His
+second feeling was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful,
+stirring things about the Terror&rsquo;s manifesto and the stolen princess,
+would be furiously angry with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss Lambart
+was ignorant. Then when he grew cooler and paler his oft-repeated phrase was:
+&ldquo;Eet must be &rsquo;ushed!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care that the
+affair should not be hushed up. She did not wish every blow to strike him at
+once. Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste he rolled off to the
+dining-room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke&rsquo;s equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up the
+stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at once, as she
+was. She took no heed of the command, dressed at her ease, and came down just
+as the archduke, perspiring freely after his struggle with the
+hors-d&rsquo;oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his first entrée.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about the
+place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was encamped with.
+Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as clearly as she could, and
+of the Twins she said as little as possible. Then he asked her with
+considerable acerbity why she had not exercised her authority and brought the
+princess back with her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that if she
+had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and that it was
+impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through miles of wood by force,
+since the persons of Hohenzollerns were sacrosanct.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and summon home
+his truant child. Miss Lambart objected that it would mean hewing expensively a
+path through the wood wide enough to permit his passage, and it was improbable
+that the owner of the wood would allow it. Thereupon the baroness volunteered
+to go. Miss Lambart with infinite pleasure explained that for her too an
+expensive path must be hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the
+knoll, there was not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its
+caves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity. Then he struck the
+table and cried:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Count Zerbst shall do eet! To-morrow morning! You shall &rsquo;eem lead
+to ze wood. &rsquo;E shall breeng &rsquo;er.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a German count
+would hardly be proper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Brobare? What ees &lsquo;brobare&rsquo;?&rdquo; said the archduke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Convenable</i>,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to militate
+against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the earliest possible
+moment. Miss Lambart said that they must. In the end it was decided that a
+motor-car should be procured from Rowington and that Miss Lambart should guide
+the archduke and the count to the entrance of the path to the knoll, the count
+should convey to the princess her father&rsquo;s command to return to the
+Grange, and if she should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the
+car.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would never set
+eyes, much less hands, on the princess. Count Zerbst&rsquo;s smooth pink face
+flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little mustache, which in some
+inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion accentuated the extraordinary
+insignificance of his nose; his small eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely
+something about &ldquo;sdradegy.&rdquo; He looked at Miss Lambart very
+unamiably. He felt that she was not impressed by him as were the maidens of
+Cassel-Nassau; and he resented it. He resolved to capture the princess at any
+cost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the <i>Morning Post</i>
+the true story of his daughter&rsquo;s disappearance; and he was fuming still
+when the car came from Rowington. It was a powerful car and a weight-carrier;
+Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been careful to demand a
+weight-carrier. With immense fuss the archduke disposed himself in the back of
+the tonneau which he filled with billowy curves. The moment he was settled in
+it Miss Lambart sprang to the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping
+it that she might the more easily direct his course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no objection to
+taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran the path to the knoll.
+At the entrance of it the count stepped out of the car; and the archduke gave
+him his final instructions with the air of a Roman father; he was to bring the
+princess in any fashion, but he was to bring her at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a last generous outburst he cried: &ldquo;Pooll &rsquo;er by the ear! Bud
+breeng &rsquo;er.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and martial
+air. Miss Lambart was not impressed by it. She thought that in his
+tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently tighter-fitting patent
+leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place under the green wood trees. She
+remembered how lightly the Twins and the princess went; and she had the poorest
+expectation of his getting near any of them. Also, as they had come up the
+aisle of the woods she had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which to
+approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent. Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with all the
+competence of a trumpet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her doubt was well-grounded. The quick ears of Erebus were the first to catch
+its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred yards from the
+entrance of the path to the knoll. Ever since the departure of Miss Lambart and
+Sir Maurice the Twins had been making ready against invasion, conveying their
+provisions and belongings to the secret caves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to the
+knoll. They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well lighted by two
+inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge. But the entrance to them was by
+a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave in the heart of the knoll. On
+this shaft the Twins had spent their best pains for two and a half wet days the
+year before; and they had reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage
+fifteen inches high and eighteen inches broad. The opening into this passage
+could, naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was
+hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave. It had been a somewhat
+difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so narrow a
+passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite sure that
+the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car was coming up the
+board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed their way up to the secret
+caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind them, and with small chunks filled
+in the interstices between the larger pieces of stone so that it looked more
+than ever a part of the wall of the cave. Then she betook herself to a point of
+vantage among the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch
+the entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an excellent
+cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train from Rowington to
+London and the night boat from Dover to Calais. Miss Lambart wasted no breath
+encouraging him in an expectation based on the efforts of Count Zerbst on the
+knoll. She stepped out of the car and strolled up and down on the pleasant
+turf. Presently she saw a figure coming down the aisle from the direction of
+Little Deeping; when it came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized
+Sir Maurice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the discoverer of his
+daughter&rsquo;s hiding-place. The archduke, mindful of the fact that Sir
+Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance to the world, received
+him ungraciously. Miss Lambart at once told Sir Maurice of the errand of Count
+Zerbst and of her very small expectation that anything would come of it. Sir
+Maurice agreed with her; and the fuming archduke assured them that the count
+was the most promising soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau. Then Sir Maurice
+suggested that they should go to the knoll and help the count. Miss Lambart
+assented readily; and they set out at once. They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll. It was quiet and seemed utterly deserted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer. Miss
+Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they should find him
+and help him search them; they plunged into the caves and began to hunt for
+him. They did not find the count; neither did they find the princess nor the
+Twins. They shouted to him many times as they traversed the caves; but they had
+no answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they reached
+it. He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the princess. He had gone
+through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to the princess. No answer had come
+to his calling. He had kept coming out of the labyrinth on to the side of the
+knoll. At one of these exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a
+little girl, dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told
+the princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the knoll.
+With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged after her into
+the wood. Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among the bushes, and by great
+good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in sight. Once, indeed, when he thought
+that he had lost it for good and all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and
+he was able to take up the chase again. But he did not catch her. Indeed he did
+not lessen the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
+For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and endurance.
+Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the going, he, too, was
+running with uncommon speed and endurance. It was true that his face was a very
+bright red and that his so lately stiff, tall, white collar lay limply gray
+round his neck. But he was not near enough to his quarry to be mortified by
+seeing that she was but faintly flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at
+all. All the while he was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in
+the course of the next hundred yards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran down a
+field path toward the village of Little Deeping. By the time the count was
+through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards. To his joy, in the open
+country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost ground quickly. When they
+reached the common, he was a bare forty yards behind her. He was not surprised
+when in despair she left the path and bolted into the refuge of an old house
+that stood beside it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious air,
+and knocked firmly on the door. Sarah opened it; and he demanded the instant
+surrender of the princess. Sarah heard him with an exasperating air of blank
+bewilderment. He repeated his demand more firmly and loudly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: &ldquo;Please, mum: &rsquo;ere&rsquo;s a
+furrin gentleman asking for a princess. I expect as it&rsquo;s that there
+missing one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do nod mock! She &rsquo;ees &rsquo;ere!&rdquo; cried the count fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been arranging
+flowers, and came to the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The princess is not here,&rdquo; she said gently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I haf zeen &rsquo;er! She haf now ad once coom! She
+&rsquo;ides!&rdquo; cried the count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet by its
+strings. The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I expect he means me. At least he&rsquo;s run after me all the way from
+the knoll here,&rdquo; said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The count&rsquo;s eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden outburst
+of fluent German. He did not think that any of his hearers could understand
+that portion of his native tongue he was using; he hoped they could not; he
+could not help it if they did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully. She did not suppose
+for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the count to take so
+much violent exercise on such a hot day. She was sorry for him. He looked so
+fierce and young and inexperienced to fall foul of the Twins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus caught her mother&rsquo;s thoughtful eye. At once she cried resentfully:
+&ldquo;How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made him think I
+was the princess? He never asked me who I was. He just shouted once and ran
+after me. I was hurrying home to get some salad oil and get back to the knoll
+by lunch.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, you would run all the way,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, you&rsquo;d have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after
+you! Just look at that mustache! It would frighten anybody!&rdquo; cried Erebus
+in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I see,&rdquo; said her mother with undiminished patience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed his
+fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda. He explained to her
+at length, three times, how he had come to mistake Erebus for the flying
+princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to appear foolish in the eyes of
+such a pretty woman. Erebus left them together; she made a point of taking a
+small bottle of salad oil to the knoll. They had no use for salad oil indeed;
+but it had been an after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it.
+That would be the safe course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car, looking
+frequently at his watch. He had expected the count to return with the princess
+in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour. Then he had expected Miss Lambart and
+Sir Maurice to return with the count and the princess in, at the longest, a
+quarter of an hour. None of them returned. The princess was sitting on a heap
+of bracken in the highest of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking
+advantage of this enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair. The count
+sat drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had not
+really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased that he had
+been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of her acquaintance.
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and talked seriously about
+everything and certain other things, but chiefly about themselves and each
+other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay between
+him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter remained uncaught. He
+chafed and fumed. His vexation grew even more keen when he came to the end of
+his cigar and found that the thoughtless count had borne away the case. He
+appealed to the chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington
+and ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car, bellowed:
+&ldquo;Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!&rdquo; and sank down again panting with the
+effort.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="img-280"></a>
+<img src="images/img-280.jpg" width="393" height="530" alt="[Illustration: ]" />
+<p class="caption">The archduke bellowed: &ldquo;Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes. The archduke&rsquo;s
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry. No answer
+came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;P&rsquo;raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace,&rdquo; said the
+chauffeur, somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, shout!&rdquo; said the archduke quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: &ldquo;Zerbst!
+Zerbst! Zerbst!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: &ldquo;I shout&mdash;you
+shout&mdash;all ad vonce!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Every little &rsquo;elps,&rdquo; said the chauffeur politely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together bellowed:
+&ldquo;Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+&ldquo;He seems to be growing impatient.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t calling us. And it&rsquo;s no use our going back without
+either the princess or the count,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not the slightest,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if
+that were possible, to him and kissed her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and their
+discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their earlier
+friendship. They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been discussing the matter of
+being married at an early date.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all. They
+don&rsquo;t treat you decently, you know&mdash;not even for royalties,&rdquo;
+he went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, it wouldn&rsquo;t do not to go back&mdash;at any rate for
+to-night&mdash;though, of course, there&rsquo;s no point in my staying longer,
+since the princess isn&rsquo;t there,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is
+hauling her to her circular sire,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice. &ldquo;The Twins can
+not be successful all the time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly,&rdquo; said Miss
+Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t be the slightest use,&rdquo; said Sir Maurice in a
+tone of complete certainty. &ldquo;If the princess is in the caves, she is not
+in an accessible one. But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or even
+likelier, to be at the Grange. The Twins are quite intelligent enough to hide
+princesses in the last place you would be likely to look for them. It&rsquo;s
+no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we&rsquo;re very comfortable
+here. Why not stay just as we are?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They stayed there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the archduke&rsquo;s impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the minutes
+that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away. At ten minutes to one he
+was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers should be so long
+returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once he despatched the
+chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chauffeur made no haste about it. He had heard of the caves on Deeping
+Knoll and had always been curious to see them. Besides, he made it a point of
+honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in his mouth since eleven
+o&rsquo;clock; and he felt now off duty. He explored half a dozen caves
+thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice and gave them the
+archduke&rsquo;s message. They joined him in his search for Count Zerbst, going
+through the caves and calling to him loudly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near. The face
+of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late for it. There was
+a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from his solar plexus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and bellowed:
+&ldquo;Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to sink
+heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a gloriously spread
+German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the chauffeur, Miss Lambart and
+Sir Maurice came out of the path to the knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst. The archduke cursed his equerry wheezily
+but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the car and drive to
+the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the car went
+bumping down the turfed aisle. Once in the road the chauffeur, anxious to make
+trial at an early moment of the archducal hospitality, let her rip. But half a
+mile down the road, they came upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer. It was Count
+Zerbst. After a long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since
+Erebus had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to
+find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping Grange. In
+the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his patent leather boots
+had found him out with great severity; and he was indeed footsore. He stepped
+into the grateful car with a deep sigh of relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone was
+cheerful. The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and disappointments
+of the morning. Count Zerbst had acquired a deep respect for the intelligence
+of the young friends of the princess; and he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield,
+who had discussed the matter with Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll
+was doing the princess good, and was certainly better for her than life with
+the crimson baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage
+her charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial social
+reasons. The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to recover her lost
+charge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the baroness
+with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily. He made no secret of the fact that he
+believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to the woods, he would in
+the end find and capture the princess, but it might take a week or ten days.
+The archduke cried shame upon a strategist of his ability that he should be
+baffled by children for a week or ten days. Count Zerbst said sulkily that it
+was not the children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they
+were using. At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their aid
+the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth the risk of
+the ridicule it might bring upon them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had something
+more pleasant to give her mind to. But at last she said with some impatience:
+&ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t the princess stay where she is? That open-air life, day
+and night, is doing her a world of good. She is eating lots of good food and
+taking ten times as much exercise as ever she took in her life before.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eembossible! Shall I live in a cave?&rdquo; cried the baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter at all where you live. It is the princess we are
+considering,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Drue!&rdquo; said the archduke quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a
+gave?&rdquo; cried the baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She isn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Miss Lambart shortly. &ldquo;In fact
+she&rsquo;s leading a far better and healthier and more intelligent life than
+she does here. The doctor&rsquo;s orders were never properly carried
+out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ees zat zo?&rdquo; said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eengleesh doctors! What zey know? Modern!&rdquo; cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders. The baroness defended
+herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be dying of a galloping
+consumption had she had all the air and water the doctors had ordered her. But
+the archduke stormed on. At last he had some one on whom he could vent his
+anger with an excellent show of reason; and he vented it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart&rsquo;s counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of the
+princess remaining at the knoll. They found many objections to it, and the
+chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be encamped by
+themselves in the heart of a wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more efficient
+persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself. Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind at ease;
+and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better health than if
+she had stayed on here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bud &rsquo;ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant
+and&mdash;&rdquo; cried the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her
+authority.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Goot!&rdquo; cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed
+at the thought of escaping forthwith to his home. &ldquo;Eet shall be zo! And
+ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who do as
+ze doctors zay.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting provisions,
+arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the path to the knoll
+every morning and preparing and packing the fewest possible number of garments
+she would need during her stay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the Rowington car
+to the knoll. Not far from the park gates she met Sir Maurice strolling toward
+the Grange, and took him with her. At the entrance of the path to the knoll
+they took the baskets of provisions and Miss Lambart&rsquo;s trunk from the
+car, and dismissed it. Then they went to the knoll.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it. But after
+Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in peace-bearing terms,
+Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves above them and heard the news.
+She made haste to bear it to the Terror and the princess who received it with
+joy. They had already been cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were
+eager to plunge once more into the strenuous life. They welcomed Miss Lambart
+warmly; and the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her
+position at the knoll secure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full share of
+the strenuous life. She played her part in it manfully. Even Erebus, who was
+inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to admit that as a brigand,
+an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her engaged
+in the strenuous life. Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared; and always spent
+some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the speed at which she had
+been living it, and on cooling down to life on the lower place. Both of them
+found the knoll a delightful place for lovers.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a> CHAPTER XII<br />
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the princess, the
+Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the beginning arranged.
+Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss Lambart, it was only natural that
+they should grow very friendly with her. It was therefore a bitter blow to
+Erebus to find that she was not only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also
+about to be married to him in the course of the next few weeks. She grumbled
+about it to the Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in
+the matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads. Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss Lambart,
+making every effort to convince her that love and marriage were very silly
+things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous life. She failed. Then
+she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that plain fact, and failed again. He
+declared that it was his first duty, as an uncle, to be married before his
+nephew, and that if he were not quick about it the Terror would certainly
+anticipate him. Erebus carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter
+triumph; and there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for
+several days. The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most
+natural and satisfactory thing in the world. Her only complaint was that she
+and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same day as Miss
+Lambart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll even more
+than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest felicity, and the
+knoll is the ideal place for them. Sir Maurice arrived at it not so very much
+later, considering his urban habit, than sunrise; and he did not leave it till
+long after sunset. But the pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp
+was broken up, since the archduke&rsquo;s tenancy of the Grange expired, and
+the princess must return to Germany. She was bitterly grieved at parting with
+the Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the next
+summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again. It seemed not
+unlikely that after her short but impressive association with the Twins she
+would have her way about it. Nevertheless, in spite of her exhaustive
+experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm ideals of those who led it,
+at their parting she cried in the most unaffected fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir James
+Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for years been
+hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at any rate for a
+while. It had always been their keen desire to fish the Grange water, for it
+had been carefully preserved and little fished all the years Sir James had been
+wandering about the world. But Mr. Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate,
+had always refused their request. He believed that their presence would be good
+neither for the stream, the fish, nor the estate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they felt to be
+prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that they might be able to
+compass their desire. Also they felt that the sooner they made the attempt to
+do so the better: Sir James might hear unfavorable accounts of them, if they
+gave him time to consort freely with his neighbors. Therefore, with the help of
+their literary mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking
+leave to fish the Grange water. Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath indeed
+to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so many years
+that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he left their honeyed
+missive unanswered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days. Then it was slowly
+borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their letter at all;
+and they grew very angry indeed. Their anger was in close proportion to the
+pains they had spent on the letter. The name of Sir James was added to the list
+of proscribed persons they carried in their retentive minds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him for the
+affront he had put on them. Scorching, in his feverish, Central African way,
+along the road to Rowington in a very powerful motor-car, he looked well beyond
+their reach. But Fortune favors the industrious who watch their chances; and
+one evening Erebus came bicycling swiftly up to the cats&rsquo; home, and
+cried:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook&rsquo;s water!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his hands,
+for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you sure?&rdquo; he said calmly. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long way from
+the ridge to the stream.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not for my eyes!&rdquo; said Erebus with some measure of impatience in
+her tone. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite sure that it was Sir James; and I&rsquo;m
+quite sure that it was old Glazebrook&rsquo;s meadow. Lend me your
+handkerchief.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a less
+pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a perfect
+content. She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with her interesting
+news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wish I&rsquo;d seen him too,&rdquo; said the Terror thoughtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite enough for me to have seen him!&rdquo; said Erebus with
+some heat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would be better if we&rsquo;d both seen him,&rdquo; said the Terror
+firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no
+notice of our letter!&rdquo; said Erebus indignantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, it is,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor at
+considerable length. The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be listening
+to her. In truth he was considering what advantage might be drawn from Sir
+James&rsquo; transgression.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last he said: &ldquo;The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result that two
+evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream, stretched at full
+length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of the wood at Sir James
+Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll soon be at the boundary fence,&rdquo; said the Terror in a
+hushed voice of quiet satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!&rdquo; said
+Erebus who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s on the other side of it they&rsquo;re rising,&rdquo; said the
+Terror in a calmly hopeful tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast after vain
+cast. He was a big game hunter; he had given but little time and pains to this
+milder sport; and he came to the fence at which his water ceased and that of
+Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket still empty of trout. He looked longingly
+at his neighbor&rsquo;s water; as the Terror had said, the trout in it were
+rising freely. Then the watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not going to poach, after all!&rdquo; cried Erebus in a tone
+of acute disappointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all? Long
+Ridge is a good way off,&rdquo; said the Terror looking across to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did. I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook&rsquo;s
+meadow,&rdquo; said Erebus firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very disappointing,&rdquo; said the Terror, frowning at the
+disobliging fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: &ldquo;Well, it
+can&rsquo;t be helped; we&rsquo;ve got to go on watching him every evening till
+he does. If he&rsquo;s poached once, he&rsquo;ll poach again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look!&rdquo; said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary fence. He
+stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning the little valley
+down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter&rsquo;s eyes. It is to be
+feared that he had been too long used to the high-handed methods that prevail
+in the ends of the earth where big game dwell, to have a proper sense of the
+sanctity of his neighbor&rsquo;s fish. Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of
+the practise of netting his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a
+London restaurant. Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman
+to give them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since Glazebrook
+farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the Morgans and the
+Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty years. Assuredly the
+farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught him poaching.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human beings; and
+as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper in the wood.
+Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of view, regard poaching
+with abhorrence. But he would perceive that his master was doing a real
+kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them that chance of making a
+sportsman-like end. At any rate the keeper would hold his tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a tone of
+triumph: &ldquo;Well, he&rsquo;s gone and done it now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, we&rsquo;ve got him all right,&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone of
+calm thankfulness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir James
+caught three good fish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a figure
+coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look! There&rsquo;s old Glazebrook! He&rsquo;ll catch him! Won&rsquo;t
+it be fun?&rdquo; she cried, wriggling in her joy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+&ldquo;Yes: it would be fun. There&rsquo;d be no end of a row. But it
+wouldn&rsquo;t be any use to us. I&rsquo;m going to warn him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that he sent a clear cry of &ldquo;Cave!&rdquo; ringing down the stream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly and
+noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness:
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll teach him not to answer our letters.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road, took their
+bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and lifted them over the
+gate. They reached home in time for dinner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the time
+since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had been for a
+bicycle ride. She did not press him to be more particular in his account of
+their doings, though from Erebus&rsquo; air of subdued excitement and
+expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise was in hand; she had no
+desire to put any strain on the Terror&rsquo;s uncommon power of polite
+evasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o&rsquo;clock, she went out into the
+garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they were not
+within hearing. She told herself that she would be lucky if she got them to bed
+by ten. But she would have been surprised, indeed, had she seen them, half an
+hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in a condition of exemplary tidiness,
+dressed in their Sunday best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats&rsquo; home quietly, mounted, rode
+quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house, and then
+slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool and tidy. They
+timed their arrival with such nicety that as they dismounted before the door of
+Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the content inspired by an excellent dinner,
+was settling himself comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not only
+assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it would prevail.
+A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his fish with the usual
+strictness, <i>can not</i> allow himself to be prosecuted for poaching.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at the
+coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business,&rdquo; said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth; and since
+he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted Sir James to keep
+him on at the Grange after her return to Cassel-Nassau. He had made the
+acquaintance of the Twins during the last days of her stay, after the camp had
+been broken up, and had formed a high opinion of their ability and their
+manners. Moreover, of a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of
+Mrs. Dangerfield whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful tone:
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very late, Master Terror. You can&rsquo;t expect Sir James to
+see people at this hour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s late; but the business is important&mdash;very
+important,&rdquo; said the Terror firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mawley hesitated. His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous of
+obliging her children. Then he said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you&rsquo;ll sit down a minute, I&rsquo;ll tell Sir James that
+you&rsquo;re here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round them at
+the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master and Miss
+Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh? They&rsquo;re the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to
+fish. But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little devils in
+the county, so I took no notice of their letter,&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so. But it&rsquo;s my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do. And after all they&rsquo;re
+Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn&rsquo;t expect them to behave like
+ordinary children,&rdquo; said Mawley in the tone and manner of a persuasive
+diplomat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t see myself giving them leave to fish,&rdquo; said
+Sir James. &ldquo;There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a
+couple of noisy children won&rsquo;t make those easier to catch. But I may as
+well tell them so myself; so you may bring them here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room. They entered
+it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of themselves, and greeted
+Sir James politely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his steward had
+somehow given him the impression that they were thick, red-faced and
+robustious. He felt that these pleasant-looking young gentlefolk could never
+have really earned their unfortunate reputation. There must be a mistake
+somewhere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him than
+they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large arched nose,
+the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the small clipped
+mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of the Terror, pleased
+them. He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me
+about?&rdquo; he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We saw you in Glazebrook&rsquo;s meadow this
+afternoon&mdash;poaching,&rdquo; said the Terror in a gentle, almost
+deprecatory tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort. He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you caught three fish,&rdquo; said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh? Then it was one of you who called &lsquo;Cave!&rsquo; from the
+wood?&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; we didn&rsquo;t want old Glazebrook to catch you,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh&mdash;er&mdash;thanks,&rdquo; said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t have been any use to us,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of use to you?&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; if he&rsquo;d caught you, there wouldn&rsquo;t be any reason why we
+should fish your water,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But is there any reason now?&rdquo; he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes. You see, you were poaching,&rdquo; said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you caught three fish,&rdquo; said Erebus in something of the manner
+of a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished enlightenment:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m&mdash;hanged if it isn&rsquo;t blackmail!&rdquo; he
+cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Blackmail?&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation.
+&ldquo;Why, that&rsquo;s what the Scotch reavers used to do! I never knew
+exactly what it was.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And we&rsquo;re doing it. That is nice,&rdquo; said Erebus, almost
+preening herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But this is disgraceful! If you&rsquo;d been village children&mdash;but
+gentlefolk!&rdquo; cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed,&rdquo; said
+the Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Poaching&rsquo;s a misdemeanor; blackmailing&rsquo;s a kind of
+stealing,&rdquo; said Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her
+mother&rsquo;s fur stole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Poaching&rsquo;s a misdemeanor; blackmailing&rsquo;s a felony,&rdquo;
+said Sir James loftily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+&ldquo;Poaching&rsquo;s worse.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with very
+angry eyes. The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air. Their appearance no longer
+pleased him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s your own fault entirely,&rdquo; said the Terror coldly.
+&ldquo;If you&rsquo;d been civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we
+shouldn&rsquo;t have bothered about you. But you didn&rsquo;t take any notice
+of it&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And it was beastly cheek,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t expect us to stand that kind of thing. So we kept an
+eye on you and caught you poaching,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Without any excuse for it. You&rsquo;ve plenty of fishing of your
+own,&rdquo; said Erebus severely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And if I don&rsquo;t give you leave to fish my water, you&rsquo;re going
+to sneak to the police, are you?&rdquo; said Sir James in a tone of angry
+disgust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: &ldquo;We aren&rsquo;t
+going to do anything of the kind; and we don&rsquo;t want any leave to fish
+your water at all. We&rsquo;re just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you&rsquo;ve started it you&rsquo;ll
+get prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook. That&rsquo;s what we came to
+say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And that&rsquo;ll teach you to be polite and answer people next time
+they write to you,&rdquo; said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to find
+words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good night, and
+left the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and expressed
+his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. It was rather on the
+wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had been worsted in his own
+smoking-room, and that by two children, rankled. He was not used to being
+worsted, even in the heart of Africa, by much more ferocious creatures. But
+after sleeping on the matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him,
+as he phrased it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the
+Dangerfield children were allowed to fish his water.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a> CHAPTER XIII<br />
+AND AN APOLOGY</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated triumph;
+but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to fish in
+well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother&rsquo;s faint
+appetite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed, definitely ill;
+she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman of spirit and intelligence, she
+was suffering from the wearisome emptiness of her life in the country. It was
+sapping her strength and energy; in it she would grow old long before her time.
+The Twins had been used to find her livelier and more spirited, keenly
+interested in their doings; and the change troubled them. Doctor Arbuthnot
+prescribed a tonic for her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches
+and now of the trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her. But
+she made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound of the
+Twins on the bank of the stream. To his pleased surprise he neither saw nor
+heard them. For the most part they fished in the early morning and brought
+their catch home to tempt their mother&rsquo;s appetite at breakfast. But if
+they did fish in the evening, one or the other acted as scout, watching Sir
+James&rsquo; movements; and they kept out of his sight. They had gained their
+end; and their natural delicacy assured them that the sight of them could not
+be pleasant to Sir James. As the Terror phrased it:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there&rsquo;s no point
+in rubbing it in.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them. Erebus was playing
+a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare Sir James&rsquo;
+feelings. Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was impracticable, since
+Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it snapped the
+gut and was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Evidently you&rsquo;re no so good at fishing as blackmailing,&rdquo;
+said Sir James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!&rdquo; said Erebus with some
+heat; and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself looking into
+the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="img-312"></a>
+<img src="images/img-312.jpg" width="425" height="557" alt="[Illustration: ]" />
+<p class="caption">Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep
+brown eyes of a very pretty woman.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene of the
+struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his eyes from it;
+and she had watched it from behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is Sir James Morgan, mother,&rdquo; said the Terror quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+&ldquo;It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh&mdash;ah&mdash;yes&mdash;n-n-not at all,&rdquo; stammered Sir James,
+blushing faintly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, but it was,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m
+seeing that they don&rsquo;t take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for
+they told me that, thanks to Mr. Glazebrook&rsquo;s netting his part of it,
+there are none too many fish in the stream.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very good of you. B-b-but I don&rsquo;t mind how many they
+catch,&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished to remove
+himself swiftly from her disturbing presence. Yet he did not wish to; he found
+her voice as charming as her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: &ldquo;You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they&rsquo;d like to.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are they as good fishermen as that?&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, they&rsquo;ve been fishing ever since they could handle a rod.
+They are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring. So I limit them to three fish a day,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield; and
+there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very good of you,&rdquo; said Sir James. He hesitated,
+shuffled his feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at
+Mrs. Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: &ldquo;I should like to
+stay and see how they do it. I might pick up a wrinkle or two.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course. Why, it&rsquo;s your stream,&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to the
+fishing. Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air of fragility
+made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness. His first discomfort sternly
+vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest desire to remain in her
+presence. He not only stayed with them till the Twins had caught their three
+fish, but he walked nearly to Colet House with them, and at last bade them
+good-by with an air of the deepest reluctance. It can hardly be doubted that he
+had been smitten by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as
+we more gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not received the
+social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth. If, instead of staying
+firmly at home, he had been moving about among them, he would have met Mrs.
+Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate condition of meeting her
+often. It did not for a moment enter his mind that if he had met her stiffly in
+a drawing-room he might easily have failed to fall in love with her at all. He
+cudgeled his brains to find some way of meeting her again and meeting her
+often. He was to meet her quite soon without any effort on his part.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had been
+smitten by that emotional <i>coup de foudre</i>, for she was walking with a
+much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she said in
+a really cheerful tone:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the exciting
+life he had in Africa.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rather!&rdquo;, said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had not missed Sir James&rsquo; sentence about the superiority of
+Erebus&rsquo; blackmailing to her fishing. But she knew the Twins far too well
+to ask them for an explanation of it before him. None the less it clung to her
+mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At supper therefore she said: &ldquo;What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the explanation;
+and he said suavely:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, it was about the fishing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How&mdash;about the fishing?&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, he didn&rsquo;t want to give us leave. In fact he never answered
+our letter asking for it,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And of course we couldn&rsquo;t stand that; and we had to make
+him,&rdquo; said Erebus sternly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Make him? How did you make him?&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror told her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised and
+annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that her
+offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger. She felt chiefly annoyed by the
+fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to blackmail should be Sir
+James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you did blackmail him,&rdquo; she said in a tone of dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He seemed to think that we were&mdash;like the Douglases used to,&rdquo;
+said the Terror in an amiable tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong&mdash;very wrong,
+indeed,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, he <i>did</i> seem to think so,&rdquo; said the Terror. &ldquo;But
+we thought he was prejudiced; and we didn&rsquo;t take much notice of
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And we couldn&rsquo;t possibly let him take no notice of our letter,
+Mum&mdash;it was such a polite letter&mdash;and not take it out of him,&rdquo;
+said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And it hasn&rsquo;t done any harm, you know. We wanted those trout ever
+so much more than he did,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as she
+pondered how to deal with the affair. She was still chiefly annoyed that Sir
+James should have been the victim. The Twins gazed at her with a sympathetic
+gravity which by no means meant that they were burdened by a sense of
+wrong-doing. They were merely sorry that she was annoyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, there&rsquo;s nothing for it: you&rsquo;ll have to apologize to
+Sir James&mdash;both of you,&rdquo; she said at last.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Apologize to him! But he never answered our letter!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it, opened it
+again and said in a soothing tone: &ldquo;All right, Mum; we&rsquo;ll
+apologize.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it,&rdquo;
+said Mrs. Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel Sir James
+to invite them to continue to fish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There had been some such intention in the Terror&rsquo;s mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real apology.
+But he said amiably: &ldquo;All right; just as you like, Mum.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her breath. After
+supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the Terror bitterly for not
+refusing firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path across
+the fields, to the Grange. Surprise and extreme pleasure were mingled with the
+respect with which Mawley ushered them into the drawing-room; and he almost ran
+to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would find Mrs.
+Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching her children fish.
+His night&rsquo;s rest had trebled his interest in her and his desire to see
+more, a great deal more, of her. The appeal to him of her frail and delicate
+beauty was stronger than ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless enough
+air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been dead seven years,
+that she had a very small income, and was hard put to it to make both ends
+meet. His compassion had been deeply stirred; she was so plainly a creature who
+deserved the smoothest path in life. He wished that he could now, at once, see
+his way to help her to that smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that
+way as soon as he possibly could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could scarcely
+believe his joyful ears. He had to put a constraint on himself to walk to its
+door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley&rsquo;s eyes, and not dash to it at
+full speed. He entered the room with his eyes shining very brightly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily. She was looking
+grave and ill at ease.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James,&rdquo; she
+said as they shook hands. &ldquo;I find that these children have been
+blackmailing you; and I&rsquo;ve brought them to apologize. I&mdash;I&rsquo;m
+exceedingly distressed about it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, there&rsquo;s no need to be&mdash;no need at all. It was rather a
+joke,&rdquo; Sir James protested quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But blackmailing isn&rsquo;t a joke&mdash;though of course they
+didn&rsquo;t realize what a serious thing it is&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It was the Douglases doing it,&rdquo; broke in the Terror in an
+explanatory tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you ought to have given way to them, Sir
+James,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I hadn&rsquo;t any choice, I assure you. They had me in a cleft
+stick,&rdquo; protested Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well then you ought to have come straight to me,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, but really&mdash;a little fishing&mdash;what is a little fishing? I
+couldn&rsquo;t come bothering you about a thing like that,&rdquo; protested Sir
+James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But it isn&rsquo;t a little thing if you get it like that,&rdquo; said
+Mrs. Dangerfield. &ldquo;Anyhow, it&rsquo;s going to stop; and they&rsquo;re
+going to apologize.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very stiffly from
+the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, not at all&mdash;not at all&mdash;don&rsquo;t mention it. Besides, I
+owe you an apology for not answering your letter,&rdquo; said Sir James in all
+the discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due. Then he heaved
+a sigh of relief and added: &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s all right. And now I hope
+you&rsquo;ll do all the fishing you want to.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly not; I can&rsquo;t allow them to fish your water any
+more,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, but really,&rdquo; said Sir James with a harried air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you&rsquo;ll have some tea&mdash;after that hot walk!&rdquo; cried
+Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, thank you, I must be getting home,&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield
+firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out. As Erebus passed
+out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him. She was desirous that he
+should not overrate her apology.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a> CHAPTER XIV<br />
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap from the
+horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it. He came down the steps, along
+the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the park, talking to Mrs.
+Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the gardens of the Grange after his
+last five years of big game shooting about the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship. But she could not drive him from her side on his own land. They
+walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead. When Sir James and Mrs. Dangerfield came
+out of the park, the Twins were out of sight. Mere politeness demanded that he
+should walk the rest of the way with her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James, the
+Terror said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, he was quite decent about it. It made him much more uncomfortable
+than we were. I suppose it was because we&rsquo;re more used to Mum.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?&rdquo; said
+the unappeased Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, well; he didn&rsquo;t mean to. It was an accident, you know,&rdquo;
+said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer intimacy
+with Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Accident! People shouldn&rsquo;t have accidents like that!&rdquo; said
+Erebus in a tone of bitter scorn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James diplomatically
+fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty, their grace and their
+intelligence. The diplomacy was not natural (he was no diplomat) but
+accidental: the Twins were the only subject he could at the moment think of. He
+could not have found a quicker way to Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s approval. She
+had been disposed to dislike him for having been blackmailed by them; his
+praise of them softened her heart. Discussing them, they came right to the gate
+of Colet House; and it was only natural that she should invite him to tea. He
+accepted with alacrity. At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to see more
+of her. With a natural simplicity he used his skill in woodcraft to compass his
+end, and availed himself of the covert afforded by the common to watch Colet
+House. Thanks to this simple device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs.
+Dangerfield, somewhere in the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness; and he
+found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he had ever wanted
+anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in his enthusiastic youth,
+to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right. He had been making arrangements for
+another shooting expedition; but he perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it
+was his immediate duty to settle down in life, provide the Hall with a
+mistress, and do his duty by his estate and his neighbors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his instinct
+and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that to bring Mrs.
+Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the land of romance was
+the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed of. But he had a stout heart,
+the hunter&rsquo;s pertinacity, and a burning resolve to succeed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be useful
+friends in the matter. But did they chance on him walking with their mother, or
+at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily aloof. He must abate their
+hostility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were starting one
+afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully, stopped and said:
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m awfully sorry I gave you away the other day. But I never saw
+your mother till I&rsquo;d done it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t mention it,&rdquo; said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So you ought to be,&rdquo; said Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pity you should lose your fishing. If I&rsquo;d known how
+good you both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your
+letter,&rdquo; said Sir James hypocritically. &ldquo;But I was misinformed
+about you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s worse that mother should lose the trout. She does hate
+butcher&rsquo;s meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat
+properly,&rdquo; said Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like that, is it?&rdquo; said Sir James quickly; and an
+expression of deep concern filled his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, and she did eat those trout,&rdquo; said Erebus plaintively.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched him with
+little hope in their faces. Of a sudden his brow grew smooth; and he said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here: you mayn&rsquo;t fish my water; but there&rsquo;s no reason
+why you shouldn&rsquo;t fish Glazebrook&rsquo;s. <i>I</i> think that a man who
+nets his water loses all rights.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, he does,&rdquo; said the Terror firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I&rsquo;ll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined. I want
+to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook&mdash;he&rsquo;s not a
+sportsman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror&rsquo;s face had brightened; but he said: &ldquo;But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You can reckon them presents from me. They would
+be&mdash;practically&mdash;if I&rsquo;m going to pay the fines,&rdquo; said Sir
+James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing tenderly with
+exactitude which appealed to them. The Terror himself could not have been more
+tender with it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a ripping idea!&rdquo; said Erebus in a tone of the warmest
+approval.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The peace was thus concluded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win their good
+will. He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of chocolate. If he
+chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he would carry them off,
+bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with sumptuous teas at the Grange;
+and at Colet House he entertained them with stories of the African forest which
+thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even more than they thrilled them. But he won their
+hearts most by his sympathy with them in the matter of their mother&rsquo;s
+appetite, and by joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of taking
+the short cut to her heart by praising them. He laid himself out to be useful
+to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for himself as large as
+possible a place in her life. She was not long discovering that he was in love
+with her; and the discovery came as a very pleasant shock. None of the
+neighbors, much less Captain Baster, who, during her stay at Colet House, had
+asked her to marry them, had attracted her so strongly as did Sir James. Even
+as her delicacy made the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his
+vigorous robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the keener for
+having so few chances of plying their active tongues. When no less than four
+ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James and Mrs. Dangerfield walking
+together along the lanes, those tongues began to wag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of London,
+one morning met the Twins in the village. They greeted her politely and made to
+escape. But she was in the mood, her most constant mood, to babble. She stopped
+them, and with a knowing air, and even more offensive smile, said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So, young people, we&rsquo;re going to hear the sound of wedding bells
+very soon in Little Deeping, are we?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about them; but
+the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness, said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are we?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should have thought you would have known all about it,&rdquo; she said
+with a cackling little giggle. &ldquo;Mind you tell me as soon as you&rsquo;re
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo; snapped the Terror with a disconcerting
+suddenness; and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare
+into her own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, nothing&mdash;nothing!&rdquo; cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by
+his sternness. &ldquo;Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother&mdash;But
+there&mdash;there&rsquo;s probably nothing in it&mdash;the Morgans always were
+rovers&mdash;one foot at sea and one on shore&mdash;I dare say he&rsquo;ll be
+in the middle of Africa before the week is out. Good morning&mdash;good
+morning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into the
+grocer&rsquo;s shop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning. Then Erebus said:
+&ldquo;Silly old idiot!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning. At last he broke out:
+&ldquo;This won&rsquo;t do! We can&rsquo;t have these old idiots gossiping
+about Mum. And it&rsquo;s a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so
+much more cheerful for her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anything in what the old cat
+said? It would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!&rdquo; cried Erebus in
+a panic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Do</i> you think there&rsquo;s anything in it?&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I dare say there is. Sir James is always about with Mum; and he&rsquo;s
+always very civil to us&mdash;people aren&rsquo;t generally,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, but we must stop it! We must stop it at once!&rdquo; cried Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why must we?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!&rdquo;
+cried Erebus fiercely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t altogether what we like&mdash;there&rsquo;s Mum,&rdquo;
+said the Terror. &ldquo;She does have a rotten time of it&mdash;always being
+hard up and never going anywhere. And, after all, we shouldn&rsquo;t mind Sir
+James when we got used to him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But we should! And look how we stopped the Cruncher!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir James isn&rsquo;t like the Cruncher&mdash;at all,&rdquo; said the
+Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All stepfathers are alike; and they&rsquo;re beastly!&rdquo; cried
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, it&rsquo;s no good your getting yourself obstinate about it,&rdquo;
+said the Terror firmly. &ldquo;That won&rsquo;t be of any use at all, if
+they&rsquo;ve made up their minds. But what&rsquo;s bothering me is what that
+old cat meant by saying that the Morgans were rovers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus&rsquo; frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic utterance
+of Mrs. Blenkinsop. Then she said in a tone of considerable relief:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She must have meant that he wasn&rsquo;t really in earnest about
+marrying Mum.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s what she did mean,&rdquo; growled the Terror.
+&ldquo;And she&rsquo;ll go about telling everybody that he&rsquo;s only
+fooling.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think he is. I don&rsquo;t think he would,&rdquo; said
+Erebus quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No more do I,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence. Then the Terror&rsquo;s face cleared
+and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know the thing to do! I&rsquo;ll go and ask him his intentions.
+That&rsquo;s what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the
+Cut&mdash;you know: that fellow from Rowington&mdash;was fooling about with
+Miss Hawley.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right, we&rsquo;ll go and ask him,&rdquo; said Erebus with equal
+cheerfulness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, you can&rsquo;t go. I must go alone,&rdquo; said the Terror
+quickly. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the kind of thing the men of the family always
+do&mdash;people said so about Miss Hawley&mdash;and I&rsquo;m the only man of
+the family about. If Uncle Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might
+send for him to do it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint. She alleged that the restrictions which
+were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied to her, since
+she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in everything else they ought
+to cooperate in this; that he was much more successful in those exploits in
+which they did cooperate, than in those which he performed alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no good talking like that: it isn&rsquo;t the thing to
+do,&rdquo; said the Terror with very cold severity. &ldquo;You know what Mrs.
+Morton said about Miss Hawley and the Cut&mdash;that the men of the family did
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re only a boy; and I&rsquo;m as old as you!&rdquo; snapped
+Erebus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, when there isn&rsquo;t a man to do a thing, a boy does it. So
+it&rsquo;s no use you&rsquo;re making a fuss,&rdquo; said the Terror in a tone
+of finality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir James
+would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone, early in the
+afternoon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him straight
+to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over his after-lunch
+coffee. Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was beginning to learn that the
+Terror was quite good company, in the country, and poured him out a cup of
+coffee.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple matter of
+this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his usual diplomacy,
+said with firm directness: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come to ask your intentions,
+sir.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My intentions?&rdquo; said Sir James, not taking him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes. You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you&rsquo;re only fooling,&rdquo; said the Terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The deuce they are!&rdquo; cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and
+angry comprehension.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes. So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions,&rdquo;
+said the Terror firmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course&mdash;of course,&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled. Then he
+added gravely: &ldquo;My intentions are not only extremely serious but
+they&rsquo;re extremely immediate. I&rsquo;d marry your mother to-morrow if
+she&rsquo;d let me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right,&rdquo; said the Terror with a faint sigh of
+relief. &ldquo;Of course I knew you were all right. Only, it was the thing to
+do, with these silly old idiots talking.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite so&mdash;quite so,&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly drinking
+his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been suffering badly
+from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the Terror&rsquo;s serenity was
+soothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: &ldquo;Do you
+think your mother would marry me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t the slightest idea; women are so funny,&rdquo; said the
+Terror with a sage air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James pulled at his mustache. Then the compulsion to have some one&rsquo;s
+opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy&rsquo;s, came on him
+strongly; and he said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wish I knew what to do. As it is we&rsquo;re very good friends; and if
+I asked her to marry me, I might spoil that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: &ldquo;I
+don&rsquo;t think you would. Mum&rsquo;s very sensible, though she is so
+pretty.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said:
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll risk it!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rang the bell and ordered his car. He talked to the Terror jerkily and
+somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his perturbation
+with considerable interest. It seemed to him very curious in a hard-bitten
+hunter of big game. They started and in the two level miles to Little Deeping
+Sir James changed his car&rsquo;s speeds nine times.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air of
+detachment: &ldquo;I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If I only could!&rdquo; said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he entered the
+drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a thrill half of pleasure,
+half of apprehension, why he had come.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of him; but
+with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Dangerfield&rsquo;s face was one flush; and she cried: &ldquo;B-b-but
+it&rsquo;s out of the question. I&mdash;I&rsquo;m old enough to be your
+mother!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now how?&mdash;I&rsquo;m three years and seven months older than
+you,&rdquo; said Sir James, taken aback.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I shall be an old woman while you&rsquo;re still quite young!&rdquo; she
+protested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You won&rsquo;t ever be old! You&rsquo;re not the kind!&rdquo; cried Sir
+James with some heat; and then with sudden understanding: &ldquo;If
+that&rsquo;s your only reason, why, that settles it!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he set her down and held her at arm&rsquo;s length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: &ldquo;Oh, James, you
+are&mdash;ever so much more&mdash;impetuous&mdash;than I thought. You gave
+me&mdash;no time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank goodness, I took the Terror&rsquo;s tip!&rdquo; said Sir James.
+</p>
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #19043 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19043)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Terrible Twins
+
+Author: Edgar Jepson
+
+Illustrator: Hanson Booth
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2006 [EBook #19043]
+[This file last updated February 8, 2008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+By
+
+EDGAR JEPSON
+
+
+
+Author of
+
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+HANSON BOOTH
+
+
+
+
+INDIANAPOLIS
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT 1913
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+[Updater's note: In the originally posted version of this book (August
+14, 2006), four pages (3, 4, 53, 54) were missing.  In early February
+2008, the missing pages were found, scanned and submitted by a reader
+of the original etext and incorporated into this updated version.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Chapter
+
+    I  AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+   II  GUARDIAN ANGELS
+  III  AND THE CATS' HOME
+   IV  AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+    V  AND THE SACRED BIRD
+   VI  AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+  VII  AND PRINGLE'S POND
+ VIII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+   IX  AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+    X  AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+   XI  AND THE UNREST CURE
+  XII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+ XIII  AND AN APOLOGY
+  XIV  AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said
+  Sir Maurice Falconer. . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"This is different," she said.
+
+We are avenged.
+
+She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.
+
+The Archduke bellowed, "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of
+a very pretty woman.
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really
+discussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with the
+greatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit.  It was indeed
+a nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw
+stones quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size and
+weight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the
+bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated,
+quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand his
+presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him.  Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth
+Wolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the
+same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud
+vehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said
+firmly, "I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of
+times."
+
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty,
+which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+
+"Perhaps we did," said Anastasia amiably.  They went swiftly down the
+road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike.
+No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed,
+dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and
+piquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting a
+serenity.  But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir Maurice
+Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty names.  He had named
+Violet "Erebus" because, he said,
+
+  She walks in beauty like the night
+  Of cloudless climes and starry spheres:
+
+and he had forthwith named Hyacinth the "Terror" because, he said, the
+ill-fated Sir John Franklin had made the Terror the eternal companion
+of Erebus.
+
+Erebus and the Terror they became.  Even their mother never called them
+by their proper pretty names save in moments of the severest
+displeasure.
+
+"They're good apples," said the Terror presently, as he threw away the
+core of his third and took two more from the bag.
+
+"They are," said Erebus in a grateful tone--"worth all the trouble we
+had with that dog."
+
+"We'd have cleared him out of the orchard in half the time, if we'd had
+our catapults and bullets.  It was hard luck being made to promise
+never to use catapults again," said the Terror sadly.
+
+"All that fuss about a little lead from the silly old belfry gutter!"
+said Erebus bitterly.
+
+"As if belfries wanted lead gutters.  They could easily have put slates
+in the place of the sheet of lead we took," said the Terror with equal
+bitterness.
+
+"Why can't they leave us alone?  It quite spoils the country not to
+have catapults," said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich
+autumn scene through which they moved.
+
+The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of
+their catapults was the bitterest.  They had used those weapons to
+enrich the simple diet which was all their mother's slender means
+allowed them; on fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the
+game laws.  Keepers and farmers had made no secret of their suspicions
+that this was the case: but the careful Twins never afforded them the
+pleasure of adducing evidence in support of those suspicions.  Then a
+heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had removed a sheet of
+lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry gutter, to
+cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public
+opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of
+them; and their mother, yielding to the demand, had forbidden them to
+use them any longer.
+
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the
+action of Little Deeping.  It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since
+their exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation
+they loved.  In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves
+to become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and
+since they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness
+of eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition.  There
+may, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow the
+Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter or
+harder than Erebus.
+
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted
+it gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over
+it (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate
+than to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrow
+path through the gorse and bracken.  They had gone some fifty yards,
+when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: "Bang-g-g!
+Bang-g-g!"
+
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the
+gorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on
+his richly freckled face.  He stood over the fallen Twins; and his
+smile of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+
+"Ha!  Ha!  Shot through the heads!" he cried.  "Their bones will bleach
+in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red
+Bear the terror of the Cherokees!"
+
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife.  Then he
+took from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an
+inconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant
+imagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone of
+lively satisfaction: "You're only one game ahead."
+
+"I thought we were three," said Erebus, rising.
+
+"They're down in the book," said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blue
+eyes were very stern.
+
+"Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of
+you again," said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins.  He ambushed and scalped
+them; they ambushed and scalped him.  Seeing that they had already
+passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their
+part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it.  But Wiggins was a
+favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
+
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly
+on across the common.  Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth.
+Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly
+spring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
+
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The game
+isn't really fair; you're two to one."
+
+"You keep very level," said the Terror politely.
+
+"Yes; it's my superior astuteness," said Wiggins sedately.
+
+"Goodness!  What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
+
+"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation," Wiggins explained.
+
+"Yes, everybody says that.  But what is a European reputation?" said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+
+"Everybody in Europe knows him," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.
+
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert.  It seemed to them
+a name both affected and ostentatious.  Besides, crop it as you might,
+his hair _would_ assume the appearance of a mop.
+
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to
+see two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+
+"It's Mum," said Erebus.
+
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of
+booty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+
+"And--and--it's the Cruncher with her!" cried Erebus in a tone in which
+disgust outrang surprise.
+
+"Of all the sickening things!  The Cruncher!" cried the Terror, echoing
+her disgust.  "What's he come down again for?"
+
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the
+approaching pair.
+
+The gentleman whom they called the "Cruncher," and who from their tones
+of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher
+on account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent
+teeth.
+
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of
+superiority: "_I_ know why he's come down."
+
+"Why?" said the Terror quickly.
+
+"He's come down to marry your mother," said Wiggins.
+
+"What?" cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+
+"How dare you say a silly thing like that?" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"_I_ didn't say it," protested Wiggins.  "Mrs. Blenkinsop said it."
+
+"That silly old gossip!" cried Erebus.
+
+"And Mrs. Morton said it, too," said Wiggins.  "They came to tea
+yesterday and talked about it.  I was there: there was a plum cake--one
+of those rich ones from Springer's at Rowington.  And they said it
+would be such a good thing for both of you because he's so awfully
+rich: the Terror would go to Eton; and you'd go to a good school and
+get a proper bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all--"
+
+"I wouldn't go!  I should hate it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Yes; they said you wouldn't like wholesome discipline," said the
+faithful reporter.  "And they didn't seem to think your mother would
+like it either--marrying the Cruncher."
+
+"Like it?  She wouldn't dream of it--a bounder like that!" said the
+Terror.
+
+"I don't know--I don't know--if she thought it would be good for
+us--she'd do anything for us--you know she would!" cried Erebus,
+wringing her hands in anxious fear.
+
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out
+in dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was
+flushed.
+
+"This must be stopped," he said through his set teeth.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus.
+
+"We'll find a way.  It's war!" said the Terror darkly.
+
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: "I'm on your side," he said.  "I'm
+a trusty ally.  He called me Freckles."
+
+"Come on," said the Terror.  "We'd better face him."
+
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy.  As they drew near, the
+Terror's face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty
+voice: "How's Terebus and the Error; and how's Freckles?" he cried, and
+laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins
+shook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain
+Baster.
+
+"I'm always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with her delightful smile.  "I know you keep them out of
+mischief."
+
+"It's generally all over before I come," said Wiggins somewhat glumly;
+and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+
+"I've not had that kiss yet, Terebus.  I'm going to have it this time
+I'm here," said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich laugh.
+
+"Are you?" said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at him
+with the eyes of hate.
+
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, "You'll come to tea with us,
+Wiggins?"
+
+"Thank you very much," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.  As he
+alighted on it once more, he added.  "Tea at other people's houses is
+so much nicer than at home.  Don't you think so, Terror?"
+
+"I always eat more--somehow," said the Terror with a grave smile.
+
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side
+of Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein,
+enlivened the walk with his delightful humor.  The gallant officer was
+the very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed,
+glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose,
+neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny.  The son of the
+famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which great
+wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in a
+crack regiment.  The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative,
+was not enjoying it.  To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, "I'm
+a very pally man."  It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for any
+one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship,
+for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, he
+enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of
+personal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused
+the face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed his
+freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield's white brow in a distressful
+frown.  The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;
+his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which he
+had been so suddenly confronted.  More than once Erebus countered a
+witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce the
+rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer.  Once this unbidden but
+humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied her
+even this relief.  She could only treat him with a steely civility.
+The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he
+was too new for it.  The old, worn, faded, carefully polished
+furniture, for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
+century, seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness.  It seemed
+to demand the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels.  Mrs.
+Dangerfield liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere.  When
+her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feeling
+that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had he escaped
+calling in a bright plaid satin tie.
+
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not
+unconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster.  Indeed, he took
+some credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabby
+furniture.  In a high good humor he went on shining and shining all
+through tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a while
+dimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the inn
+and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shining
+again.  Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into the
+garden.
+
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+
+"He's a pig--and a beast!  We can't let Mum marry him!  We _must_ stop
+it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"It's all very well to say 'must.'  But you know what Mum is: if she
+thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said the Terror
+gloomily.
+
+"And she never consults us--never!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Only when she's a bit doubtful," said the Terror.
+
+"Then she's not doubtful now.  She hasn't said a word to us about it,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"That's what looks so bad.  It looks as if she'd made up her mind
+already; and if she has, it's no use talking to her," said the Terror
+yet more gloomily.
+
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly
+backward and forward from one to the other.  He preserved a decorous
+sympathetic silence.
+
+"No, it's no good talking to Mum," said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+
+"Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves," said the Terror.
+
+"But you can't squash the Cruncher!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why not?  We've squashed other people, haven't we?" said the Terror
+sharply.
+
+"Never any one so thick-skinned as him," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror frowned deeply again: "We can always try," he said coldly.
+"And look here: I've been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don't
+like stepfathers, there's no reason why stepfathers should like
+stepchildren."
+
+"The Cruncher likes us, though it's no fault of ours," said Erebus.
+
+"That's just it; he doesn't really know us.  If he saw the kind of
+stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off," said the Terror.
+
+"But he can't even see we hate him," objected Erebus.
+
+"No, and if he did, he wouldn't mind, he'd think it a joke.  My idea
+isn't to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if we
+give our minds to it," said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning.  Then a dazzling smile
+illumined her charming face; and she cried: "Oh, yes!  Let's give him
+socks!  Let's begin at once!"
+
+"Yes: I'll help!  I'm a trusty ally!" cried Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth joyfully at the thought.
+
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their
+brains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+
+Presently Wiggins said: "You might make him an apple-pie bed.  They're
+very annoying when you're sleepy."
+
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+
+"What's an apple-pie bed?" said Erebus scornfully.
+
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+
+"It's a beginning, anyhow," said the Terror in an approving tone; and
+he added with the air of a philosopher: "Little things, and big things,
+they all count."
+
+"I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can't," said Erebus
+bitterly.
+
+"By Jove!  That cigarette-case!  Come on!" cried the Terror; and he led
+the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+
+"Where are we going?" said Erebus.
+
+"We're going to make him that apple-pie bed.  There's nothing like
+making a beginning.  We shall think of heaps of other things.  If we
+don't worry about them, they'll occur to us.  They always do," said the
+Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping,
+where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the
+front door which stood open.  At the sound of their footsteps in her
+hall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar
+to learn what they wanted.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway," said the Terror politely.  "We've come
+for Captain Baster's cigarette-case.  He's left it somewhere in his
+room."
+
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway
+rubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her
+eyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a
+frown; and she said: "Bother the thing!  It's sure to be stuck
+somewhere out of sight.  And the bar full, too."
+
+"Don't you trouble; I'll get it.  I know the bedroom," said the Terror
+with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir," said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror.  In
+less than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the
+bed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless
+unprotected bedroom.  Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on the
+mantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress.  The Terror locked
+Captain Baster's portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside the
+shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+
+"That'll teach him not to be so careless."
+
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster's inviting dress-boots with water.  Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+
+"Don't stand giggling there!  Why don't you do something?" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: "A clothes-brush in bed is
+very annoying when you stick your foot against it."
+
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him.
+He took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against
+the bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the
+other of Captain Baster's feet was sure to find it.  The Terror did not
+care which foot was successful.
+
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from
+the dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the
+inn.
+
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat
+vengeful triumph: "There! you see things _do_ occur to us."  Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: "But it was Wiggins who set us
+going."
+
+"I'm an ally; and he called me Freckles," said Wiggins vengefully; and
+once more he spurned the earth.
+
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most
+thickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too
+sheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+
+"Mind the mud, Wiggins," said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness in
+the matter.
+
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: "It wouldn't be
+a nice place to fall down in, would it?"
+
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister
+little laugh, and said: "Wiggins, you're a treasure!"
+
+"What is it?  What is it now?" said Erebus quickly.
+
+"A little job of my own.  It wouldn't do for you and Wiggins to have a
+hand in it, he'll swear so," said the Terror.
+
+"Who'll swear?" said Erebus.
+
+"The Cruncher.  And you're a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear such
+language," said the Terror.
+
+"Rubbish!" said Erebus sharply.  "Tell us what it is."
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"It's a beastly shame!  I ought to help--I always do," cried Erebus in
+a bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"All right," said Erebus.  "Who wants to help in a stupid thing like
+that?  But all the same you'll go and make a silly mull of it without
+me--you always do."
+
+"You jolly well wait and see," said the Terror with calm confidence.
+
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached
+the house.
+
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster
+still talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story
+illustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea
+and one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies.  He laid great stress on
+the prices he had paid for them.
+
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her
+offspring with an air of doubtful surprise.
+
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+"Thank you, Error--thank you.  But why didn't you bring it to me,
+Terebus?  Then you'd have earned that kiss I'm going to give you."
+
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+"Oh, I helped to get it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GUARDIAN ANGELS
+
+At seven o'clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn.  Of
+his own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp.  He left
+the house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining
+before Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she
+was four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two
+years younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts.  But he
+chiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to which
+his ardent soul aspired to climb.  She had but to return to the polite
+world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened
+circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a
+host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.
+Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing a
+mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield's brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to
+select to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a
+gown with which she had never been truly pleased.  The troubled air did
+not leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins,
+for they, too, were gloomy.  They were pleased, indeed, with the
+beginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in the
+end.  Where their interests were concerned their mother was of a
+firmness indeed hard to move.
+
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that
+disturbed them, especially at the Terror.  Erebus in a pretty light
+frock of her mother's days of prosperity, which had been cut down and
+fitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one's eyes; but the sleeves
+of the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings,
+bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye.
+
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his
+failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be
+unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by his
+distinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English
+gentleman.  After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the
+harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must
+appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was
+wearing.  It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not
+really feel a conquering hero after eight o'clock at night.
+
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water.  It was a
+good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water
+its lining had not soaked up.  The gallant officer said a good deal
+about its retentive properties to the mute boot.
+
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had
+himself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom.  A flash of
+intuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he begged
+her, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one--any one!!--enter
+his bedroom.  Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied,
+or beds made without human intervention.  He begged her, not perhaps
+unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the
+better for his directness.
+
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
+As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees
+which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a
+clothes-line tight.  It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge
+on the other side of the lane.  There it was fastened to a stout stake;
+and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails.  At its
+tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the
+mud-patch.  It was at its tightest.
+
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain
+Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace.  As he moved through
+the bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night--that
+very night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield's devotion with his avowal
+of an answering passion.  He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror;
+and like a conqueror he whistled.  Then he found the clothes-line,
+suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick,
+but sprawling.  He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the
+welkin shuddered as it rang.
+
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield
+waited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a
+troubled frown.  Her woman's instinct assured her that Captain Baster
+would propose that night; and she dreaded it.  Two or three times she
+rose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark,
+troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they did
+not please her as they usually did.  Those eyes were one of the sources
+from which had sprung Captain Baster's attraction to her.
+
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful
+things for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing
+them.  She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and
+husband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart and
+sterling qualities.  She assured herself that she had the power to draw
+them out; once he was her husband, she would change him.  But still she
+was ill at ease.  Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful of
+her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide.
+
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was
+unfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come next
+morning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a
+relief that it frightened her.  She sat down and wrote out a telegram
+to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, and
+bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed at
+one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning.  She did not wish to
+take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible.
+She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard
+for her interests.  She tried not to hope that he would find marriage
+with Captain Baster incompatible with them.
+
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness.  He thought
+for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability.
+Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet.  In the middle of it he
+missed his shaving-brush.  He hunted for it furiously; he could have
+sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau.  He did swear, but
+not to any definite fact.  There was nothing for it: he must expose his
+tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.
+
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not
+vanished from it.  In one short night it had lost its pristine
+freshness.  This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast
+gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air of
+one who has abandoned hope.  Later he came out of it with his roving
+black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was
+smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches--red patches.  At the door
+the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted him
+with the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brush
+under the mattress of his bed.  He looked round the village of Little
+Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to
+the expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new
+lock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness
+of his soul.  Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged
+chin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of
+his future stepson.  As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was
+awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was
+awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile
+asked him if he had slept well.
+
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of your
+tricks!  You play another on  me, and I'll give you the soundest
+licking you ever had in your life!"
+
+The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: "Whatever's the matter?" he said in a tone of amazement.
+"I thought you loved a joke.  You said you did--yesterday--at tea."
+
+"You try it on again!" said Captain Baster.
+
+"Now, whatever has put your back up?" said the Terror in a tone of even
+greater amazement.  "Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the
+water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?"
+
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness:
+Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth.
+
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the
+bedroom of Erebus.
+
+"Waxy?" he cried joyously.  "He's black in the face!  I told him he
+said he loved a joke."
+
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat.  She was bitterly
+aggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall the
+night before.  The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his
+glorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin.
+
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: "Now, you
+quite understand.  You'll stick to them like a leech.  You won't give
+him any chance of talking to Mum alone.  It's most important."
+
+"I understand.  But what's that?  Anybody could do it," she said in a
+tone of extreme bitterness.  "It's you that's getting all the real fun."
+
+"But you'll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you're
+careful," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course, I shall.  But what's that?  I tell you what it is: I'm
+going to have my proper share of the real fun.  The first chance I get,
+I'm going to stone him--so there!" said Erebus fiercely.
+
+"All right.  But it doesn't seem quite the thing for a girl to do,"
+said the Terror in a judicial tone.
+
+"Rats!" said Erebus.
+
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave
+the purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat
+painfully, time to fade.  When she did come to him, he was further
+annoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent air
+announced her intention of accompanying them.  Mrs. Dangerfield was
+surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation.
+Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to propose
+before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to
+hide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her
+charm: she was the mother of the Terror.  He found, too, that his
+instinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded.  She
+was a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed to
+fascinate her.  Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew once
+more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was no
+getting rid of her.  She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhat
+pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries.  How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances?  He felt that his humor
+was growing strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus' own fault (he could swear
+it) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal
+brambles.  Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her
+ankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear.  The moment he
+offered, furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of a
+limp.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one's children like that--well.  Certainly she was losing her charm;
+she was the mother of Erebus also.
+
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of
+wife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near
+Colet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and
+distinction came through the garden gate to meet them.
+
+With a cry of "Uncle Maurice!" the crippled Erebus dashed to meet him
+with the light bounds of an antelope.  Captain Baster could hardly
+believe his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by
+repute.  It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his
+friend.  With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks.
+
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never
+dreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune.  But why had he not
+learned this splendid fact before?  Why had he been kept in the dark?
+He did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy making
+confidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her that
+he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anything
+about herself.
+
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up
+for lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated
+his right to the name of Pallybaster.  His friendliness was
+overwhelming.  Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to
+dine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, to
+shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimental
+steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean.
+
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew.  He could not
+bear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice.  The Twins
+were intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their
+uncle's attention.  They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their
+stepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned a
+respectful silence in the presence of their elders.
+
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make
+it.  Captain Baster's love was of his life a thing apart, but his
+social aspirations were the chief fact of his existence.  Besides,
+there was no haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his
+avowal with a passionate eagerness; any time would do for that.  But he
+must seize the fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by the
+bond of the warmest friendship.
+
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to
+the interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world,
+humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to.  He tried to make opportunities
+for him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he
+did not seem to see them.  In truth Captain Baster was a little
+disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:
+polite--yes; indeed, politeness could go no further.  But he lacked
+warmth.  After all he had not pinned him down to the definite
+acceptance of a single invitation.
+
+When, at seven o'clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a
+bosom friend.  He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the
+air of one who has paused from exhausting toil: "I feel
+sticky--positively sticky," he said.  "Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy
+friends!  I thought we should never get rid of him.  I thought he'd
+stuck himself to us for the rest of our natural lives."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+"That's what he's up to."
+
+"He's not a friend of mine!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"We call him the Cruncher--because of his teeth," said the Terror.
+
+"Then beware, Erebus--beware!  You are young and possibly savory," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"You children had better go and get ready for dinner," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+The Twins went to the door.  On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+"It's Mum he wants to crunch up--not me."
+
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+
+"Oho!  I see--heroism.  That was what you wanted to consult me about."
+Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: "It
+won't do, Anne--it won't do at all.  I am convinced of it."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+
+"Think?  I'm sure of it," said Sir Maurice in a tone of complete
+conviction.
+
+"But the children; he could do so much for the children," pleaded Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"He could, but he wouldn't.  That kind of bounder never does any one
+any good but himself.  No, no; the children are right in calling him
+the Cruncher.  He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times
+better for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that
+ever came out of pickles."
+
+"Well, you know best.  You do understand these things," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+
+"I do understand Basters," said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a
+weight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus.  Once Sir Maurice asked
+her the cause of it.  She only shook her head.
+
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he
+had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it.  But
+on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before
+him with his stick for clotheslines.  He came out of the dark lane into
+the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a
+strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
+
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he
+walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for
+more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with
+considerable force.  He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise
+with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his
+head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
+
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed
+in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came.  He was just in
+time to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow.  Then he
+found a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed
+unwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly,
+embrace.  As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet
+and realized that there was only one thing to do.  He tore along the
+turf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt.  A stone struck the
+garden gate as he opened it.  He did not pause to ring; he opened the
+front door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room.  The
+Terror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughts
+with his Uncle Maurice.
+
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: "I--I
+made sure it was that young whelp!"
+
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a
+natural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang
+to their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from
+it with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush's
+clinging affection.
+
+"I've been stoned--stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!" he
+cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble brow.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was
+cool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate
+indignation of a bosom friend.
+
+"How many of them were there?" said the Terror.
+
+"From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen," said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+
+"I know--I know what it is!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an
+illuminating flash of womanly intuition.  "You've been humorous with
+some of the villagers!"
+
+"No, no!  I haven't joked with a single one of them!" cried Captain
+Baster.  "But I'll teach the scoundrels a lesson!  I'll put the police
+on them tomorrow morning.  I'll send for a detective from London.  I'll
+prosecute them."
+
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: "I couldn't find your
+handkerchief anywhere, Mum.  It took me ever such a time," she said,
+giving it to her.
+
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror's face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: "Have you been running to find it?  You're quite out of
+breath."
+
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain Baster. . .
+.  But no: it was impossible--a child in whose veins flowed some of the
+bluest blood in England.  Besides, her slender arms could never have
+thrown the stones as straight and hard as that.
+
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth
+slightly open.  He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief,
+and stumbled out of the room.  They heard a door bang up-stairs; then,
+through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound.  It occurred
+to the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the
+gorse prickles out of Captain Baster's clothes.  She had nearly
+finished when Sir Maurice returned.  He carried a handkerchief in his
+hand, and he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed
+somewhat exhausted.
+
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;
+and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he
+would wreak on the scoundrelly villagers.  But after a while he forgot
+his pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he
+plied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o'clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of
+admiration and approval of Erebus' strenuous endeavor to instil into
+Captain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed
+out her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed when
+she was in high favor with him.  As he did it she related gleefully the
+stoning of their enemy.
+
+When she had done, he said warmly: "It was ripping.  But the nuisance
+is: he doesn't know it was you who did it, and so it's rather wasted."
+
+"Don't you worry: I'll let him know sometime to-morrow," said Erebus
+firmly.
+
+"Yes; but he's awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?" said the
+Terror doubtfully.
+
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: "I don't think he'd do
+that; he'd look so silly being stoned by a girl.  Anyhow, I'll chance
+it."
+
+"All right," said the Terror.  "It's worth chancing it to put him off
+marrying mother.  And of course Uncle Maurice is here.  He'll see
+nothing serious happens."
+
+"Of course he will," said Erebus.
+
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster
+had weighed on their uncle's mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him
+from behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard
+him singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+
+It went:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself,
+softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving
+but silent lips of Erebus repeated it.
+
+He was silent; and she said: "Oh, uncle!  It's splendid!"
+
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: "You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I'll pull your long ears," he said amiably.
+
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;
+then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she
+said: "Here he comes."
+
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds,
+paused and cried: "I'm going back to bed!  Tell him I'm in bed!"
+
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
+Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed.  Mrs. Dangerfield,
+informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
+friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus.  He showed
+an inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.
+
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
+Dangerfield was firm.  She did not bring him back till half past
+twelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in
+his bedroom.  Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he
+hinted as much) but he was disappointed.  In the end he returned to The
+Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.
+
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
+on a walk with the Terror.  Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
+overtake them, and set out briskly to do so.  He walked hard enough to
+compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
+better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
+Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
+swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
+friends to meet him and her brother.  Here was his chance to shine, to
+show Sir Maurice his social mettle.
+
+He could have wished that the party had been larger.  They were only a
+dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
+and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
+Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
+the afternoon with Erebus.  Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
+or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
+have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand.  He was soon
+the life and soul of the gathering.  He was humorous with the vicar
+about the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the
+country on the intelligence.  He tried to be humorous with Mr.
+Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from
+some profession or business.  This was so signal a failure that he
+dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town
+and his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he
+told them about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at
+polo and at golf.
+
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except
+Sir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect
+equality, as "Maurice, old boy," or "Maurice, old chap," or plain
+"Maurice."  He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warm
+perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were
+aware that their mother's tea-party was a failure.  As a rule her
+little parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness;
+and her guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another.
+The Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and a
+faint persistent frown troubled his serenity.  Erebus was more dimly
+aware that her enemy was spoiling the party.  Only Sir Maurice and Mr.
+Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice's enjoyment was
+mingled with vexation.
+
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain
+Baster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end
+of his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered
+his grievance.  Forthwith he related at length the affair of the night
+before: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on the
+common.  When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy.
+
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them
+except the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing
+violently.
+
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: "Er--er--yes; most extraordinary.
+But I don't think it could have been the villagers.  They're--er--very
+peaceful people."
+
+"It must have been some rowdies from Rowington," said the squire in the
+loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what
+he said.
+
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an
+incredulous unwinking stare.
+
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some
+care.  The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right
+gable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by
+a couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun
+round as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only.
+
+"That's where I meant to hit it the first time," said Erebus with a
+little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+
+The silence that fell was oppressive.  Captain Baster gazed earnestly
+at Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking
+stare.
+
+"That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions," said the
+higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice.  "I made sure it was
+the Terror."
+
+"So did I," said the vicar.
+
+"I'd have bet on it," said the squire.
+
+The silence fell again.  Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue
+bump on his marble brow.
+
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: "Has any one heard Wiggins' new
+song?"
+
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: "No!  Let's hear it!"
+
+"Come on, Wiggins!" cried the vicar heartily.
+
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew
+it in the depths of his horror-stricken heart.  He ground his teeth
+softly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he
+could have borne the earth's suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with
+his right.  Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had
+chanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear
+shrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished
+everybody was looking at Captain Baster's boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+
+Captain Baster's face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt
+into irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the man he had
+made his bosom friend, for an indignant outburst; Sir Maurice was
+smiling, too.
+
+Captain Baster snorted fiercely; then he swelled with splendid dignity,
+and said loudly, but thickly, "I refuse!  Yes, I refuse to mix in a
+society where children are brought up as hooligans yes: as hooligans!"
+
+He turned on his heel, strode to the gate, and turned and bellowed,
+"Hooligans!"
+
+He flung himself through the gate and strode violently across the
+common.
+
+"Oh, Wiggins!  How could you?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone of
+horror.
+
+"It wasn't Wiggins! It was me!  I taught him.  He didn't understand,"
+said Erebus loyally.
+
+"I did understand--quite.  But why did he call me Freckles?" said
+Wiggins in a vengeful tone.  "Nobody can help having freckles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AND THE CATS' HOME
+
+They watched the retreating figure of Captain Baster till it was lost
+to sight among the gorse, in silence.  They were glad at his going, but
+sorry at the manner of it, since Mrs. Dangerfield looked distressed and
+vexed.
+
+Then the vicar said: "There is a good deal to be said for the point of
+view of Wiggins, Mrs. Dangerfield.  After all, Captain Baster was the
+original aggressor."
+
+"Nevertheless I must apologize for my son's exploding such an
+uncommonly violent bomb at a quiet garden party," said the higher
+mathematician.  "I suspect he underrated its effect."
+
+His tone was apologetic, but there was no excess of contrition in it.
+
+"What I think is that Captain Baster's notion of humor is catching; and
+that it affected Erebus and Wiggins," said Sir Maurice amiably.  "And
+if we start apologizing, there will be no end to it.  I should have to
+come in myself as the maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying
+about."
+
+"It was certainly a happy effort," said the vicar, smiling.  Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: "We're going to London next week;
+perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice."
+
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and
+presently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had
+lifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party.  They
+were talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice
+were seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton,
+were getting their little chances of shining.  The Twins and Wiggins
+slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for their
+going.  In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had so
+nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a
+state of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one
+another.
+
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the
+exploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the
+two onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest.  The Terror was
+also doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he prevented
+Erebus, eager to enjoy her uncle's society, from returning to the house
+till it was time to dress for dinner.  He wished to give his mother
+time to get over the worst of her annoyance.
+
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
+daughter with any great severity.  But even so, Erebus did not receive
+these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit.  Unlike the philosophic
+Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, after
+a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
+make out a case for herself; and she did so now.
+
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
+not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
+descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
+the sphere of the laws of hospitality.
+
+"Besides he never behaved like a guest," she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone.  "He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one--especially to me.  And if he was always trying to score off me,
+I'd a perfect right to score off him.  And anyhow, I wasn't going to
+let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it.  He'd be
+a perfectly beastly stepfather--you know he would."
+
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
+discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
+discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again.  She knew that however
+bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
+sufficiently to heart.  She was sure that she would not stone another
+guest.
+
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
+Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay.  The Twins, though
+they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
+fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, were
+very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
+Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl.  Also he had many
+talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
+of action she frequently urged on him.
+
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness.  It was not acute
+boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
+every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
+English and French with her mother.  Their afternoon leisure,
+therefore, rarely palled on them.
+
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
+suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins.  They went,
+therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile away
+on the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the
+common.  They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patience
+by staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour.
+
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common.  Their eyes began to
+shine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards
+from the common's edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for
+covert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left.
+They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted,
+to cut him off.  They were successful.  They caught him crossing an
+open space, yelled "Bang!" together; and in accordance with the rules
+of the game Wiggins fell to the ground.
+
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the
+immemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves
+hastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns.
+
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily
+said: "That makes you two games ahead."  Then he spurned the earth and
+added: "I'm going to have a bicycle."
+
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint
+frown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror's face.
+
+"There'll be no living with Wiggins now, he'll be so cocky," said
+Erebus bitterly.
+
+"Oh, no; he won't," said the Terror.  "But we ought to have bicycles,
+too.  We want them badly.  We never get really far from the village.
+We always get stopped on the way--rats, or something."  And his
+guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look
+of yearning.
+
+"There are orchards over there where they don't know us," said Erebus
+wistfully.
+
+"We _must_ have bicycles.  I've been thinking so for a long time," said
+the Terror.
+
+"We must have the moon!" said Erebus with cold scorn.
+
+"Bicycles aren't so far away," said the Terror sagely.
+
+They moved swiftly across the common.  Erebus poured forth a long
+monotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made
+this Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat.  With ears impervious to his
+sister's vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful,
+pondering this pressing problem.  Now and again, for obscure but
+profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps and
+bounds.
+
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the
+Terror to say: "I've got a penny.  We'll go and get some bull's-eyes."
+
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing
+the village, when they met three small boys.  One of them carried a
+kitten.
+
+Erebus stopped short.  "What are you going to do with that kitten,
+Billy Beck?" she said.
+
+"We be goin' to drown 'im in the pond," said Billy Beck in the
+important tones of an executioner.
+
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands.  "You're not going to
+do anything of the sort, you little beast!" she said.
+
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and
+disappointment, and he howled:
+
+"Gimme my kitty!  Mother says she won't 'ave 'im about the 'ouse, an' I
+could drown 'im."
+
+"You won't have him," said Erebus.
+
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst
+into blubbering roar of "It's ourn!  It ain't yourn!  It's ourn!"
+
+"It isn't!  A kitten isn't any one's to drown!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice.  Erebus edged away from him ready to
+fly, should human justice intervene actively.  The Terror put his hand
+in his pocket and fumbled.  He drew out a penny, and looked at it
+earnestly.  He was weighing the respective merits of justice and
+bull's-eyes.
+
+"Here's a penny for your kitten.  You can buy bull's-eyes with it," he
+said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck's tearful eyes.  "'E's worth
+more'n a penny--a kitty like 'im!" he blubbered.
+
+"Not to drown.  It's all you'll get," said the Terror curtly.  He
+tossed the penny to Billy's feet, turned on his heel and went back
+across the common away from the village.  Some of the brightness faded
+out of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+
+"I wouldn't have given him a penny.  He was only going to drown the
+kitten," said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+
+"It was his kitten.  We couldn't take it without paying for it," said
+the Terror coldly.
+
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, "There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants--and puppies."
+
+The Terror stopped short, and said: "By Jove!  There's Aunt Amelia!"
+
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia,
+who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, and
+yet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but
+spent it all on horrid cats' homes.
+
+"That's just it," said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation.
+"Come along; I want you to write a letter."
+
+"I'm not going to write any disgusting letter!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"Then you're not going to get any bicycle.  Come on.  I'll look out the
+words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he's got into the way of using grammar.  It'll be
+useful.  Come on!"
+
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of
+being a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year,
+and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head,
+Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified.
+Practise had made the Terror's ears impervious at will to his sister's
+questions, which were frequent and innumerable.  Without a word of
+explanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at the
+dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himself
+on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by his
+side.
+
+Then he said coldly: "Now don't make any blots, or you'll have to do it
+all over again."
+
+"I never make blots!  It's you that makes blots!" cried Erebus,
+ruffled.  "Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do.
+Ever so much better."
+
+"That's why you're writing the letter and not me," said the Terror
+coldly.  "Fire away: 'My dear Aunt Amelia'--I say, Wiggins, what's the
+proper words for 'awfully keen'?"
+
+"'Keen' is 'interested'--I don't know how many 'r's' there are in
+'interested'--and 'awfully' is an awfully difficult word," said
+Wiggins, pondering.
+
+The Terror looked up "interested" in the dictionary with a laborious
+painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single "r"
+in it; then he said, "What's the right word for 'awfully,' Wiggins?
+Buck up!"
+
+"'Tremendously,'" said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus.
+
+"That's it," said the Terror.  "'My dear Aunt Amelia: I have often
+heard that you are tremendously interested in cats' homes'"--
+
+"I should think you had!" said Erebus.
+
+"Now don't jabber, please; just stick to the writing," said the Terror.
+"I've got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if you
+jabber?"
+
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+
+"'Little Deeping wants a cats' home awfully'--no: 'tremendously.'  I
+like that word 'tremendously'; it means something," said the Terror.
+
+"You're jabbering yourself now," said Erebus unpleasantly.
+
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror
+continued: "'The quantity of kittens that are drowned is
+horrible'--that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than
+cats--'and I have been thinking'--Oughtn't you to put in some stops?"
+
+"I'm putting in stops--lots," said Erebus contemptuously.
+
+"'I have been thinking--that if you wanted to have a cats' home
+here'--What's the right word for 'running a thing,' Wiggins?"
+
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+
+"There is a word 'overseer'--slaves have them," he said cautiously.
+
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it
+out, and continued: "'I could overseer it for you.  I have got my eye
+on a building which would suit us tremendously well.  But these things
+cost money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty
+pounds'--
+
+"Thirty pounds!  My goodness!" cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide.
+
+"We may as well go the whole hog," said the Terror philosophically.
+"Go on: 'Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a
+real home--'  What's the word for 'bust up,' Wiggins?"
+
+"Burst up," said Wiggins without hesitation.
+
+"No, no; not the grammar--the right word!  Oh, I know; 'go
+bankrupt'--'it might go bankrupt.  So it you would like to have a cats'
+home here and send me some money, I will start it at once.  Your
+affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.'  There!" said the
+Terror with a sigh of relief.
+
+"But you've left me out altogether," said Erebus in a suddenly
+aggrieved tone.
+
+"I should jolly well think I had!  You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say 'Dam,' she won't have
+anything to do with you," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"There's no pleasing some people," said Erebus mournfully.  "When I
+went there the silly old parrot couldn't say a thing; and when I came
+away, he could say 'Dam!  Dam!  Dam!' from morning till night without
+making a mistake."
+
+"It's a word people don't like," said the Terror.
+
+"Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river.  I told Aunt Amelia
+so," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"She might not believe you; she doesn't know how truthfully we've been
+brought up," said the Terror.  "Go on; sign my name to the letter."
+
+"That's forgery.  You ought to sign your name yourself," said Erebus.
+
+"No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter.  Sign away," said the Terror firmly.
+
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: "But what good's the money going
+to be to us, if we've got to spend it on a silly old cats' home?  It
+only means a lot of trouble."
+
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror's face.  "Well,
+you see, there aren't many cats in Little Deeping--not enough to fill a
+cats' home decently," he said slowly.  "We should have to have bicycles
+to collect them--from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and farther
+off."
+
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming
+face, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:
+"Well, you do think of things!"
+
+"I have to," said the Terror.  "If I didn't we should never have a
+single thing."
+
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield.  He did not tell her
+of the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had
+thought he would write to Aunt Amelia.  Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased
+with him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with his
+great-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own.
+She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her,
+though she suspected that it contained some artless request.  She
+thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt to
+make requests rather than not write at all.
+
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their
+lives.  Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their
+lives those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the very
+middle of some important enterprise to discuss the rides they would
+take on them, the orchards that those machines would bring within their
+reach.  But the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mind
+forbade him to discuss his chickens before they were hatched.
+
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not
+remarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief
+characteristic of Lady Ryehampton.  As the purport of her
+great-nephew's letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beaming
+smile of gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and as
+she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried in
+unctuous tones: "The dear boy!  So young, but already enthusiastic
+about great things!"
+
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she
+was going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more
+victimized.  She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady
+Ryehampton to a noble phrase.  Her eyes brightened with humorous
+appreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to the
+end of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was one
+of the last places in England to need a cats' home.  Then she bethought
+herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, and
+her face went blank.
+
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and
+said warmly: "It's really wonderful.  You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself."
+
+"I suppose I must," said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction.
+"And I must be careful not to discourage him."
+
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror's face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers.  It was only right that some of
+Lady Ryehampton's money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school.  It was monstrous that the great bulk
+of it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings
+came first.  And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+
+"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm," she said
+gravely.
+
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats' home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not
+better send fifty.  Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite
+comfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty was
+enough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton could
+give it later.  Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion.
+
+Having set her employer's hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back.  Lady Ryehampton would spend money on
+cats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it.  But Miss
+Hendersyde kept referring to the Terror's enterprise all that day and
+the next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon Lady
+Ryehampton signed the check for thirty pounds.  At Miss Hendersyde's
+suggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it
+into postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping.
+
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House.  The
+excited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from
+him, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the
+precious packet to the Terror in the orchard.
+
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly.
+
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;
+and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: "Thirty pounds--well!"
+
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the
+spur of that marvelous moment.
+
+"It's splendid--splendid!" she cried.  "It's the best thing you ever
+thought of!"
+
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the
+envelope into the breast pocket of his coat.  A frown of the most
+thoughtful consideration furrowed his brow.  Then he said firmly: "The
+first thing, to do is to get the bicycles.  If once we've got them, no
+one will take them away from us."
+
+"Of course they won't," said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea.
+
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning
+the earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a
+casual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: "May we have
+the cow-house for our very own, Mum?"
+
+"Oh, Terror!  Surely you don't want to keep ferrets!" cried Mrs.
+Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror's developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+
+"Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think
+we could make a little pocket-money out of it."
+
+"I am afraid you're growing terribly mercenary," said his mother; then
+she added with a sigh: "But I don't wonder at it, seeing how hard up
+you always are.  You can have the cow-house.  It's right at the end of
+the paddock--well away from the house--so that I don't see that you can
+do any harm with it whatever you do.  But how are you going to make
+pocket-money out of it?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't got it all worked out yet," said the Terror quickly.
+"But we'll tell you all about it when we have.  Thanks ever so much for
+the cow-house."
+
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a
+boy of his years.  He changed but one of the six postal orders at
+Little Deeping--that would make talk enough--and then, having begged a
+holiday from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their market
+town, ten miles away, taking Erebus with him.  There he changed three
+more postal orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycle
+shop, with hearts that beat high.
+
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way
+which, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus
+to the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she
+had long ago learned the futility of exasperation.  He began by an
+exhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and he
+made it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, one
+of those smart young men who pamper a chin's passion for receding by
+letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all on
+edge.  Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of his
+pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young
+man perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of
+buying two.  He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to
+develop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in price
+to the buyer of two bicycles.  Then he made his offer: he would give
+fourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles.  His serenity was
+quite unruffled by the seller's furious protests.  Then the real
+struggle began.  The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, two
+lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the seller
+came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeled
+their machines out of the shop.
+
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street.
+Then he said: "We've saved the cats' home quite two pounds."
+
+"Yes," said Erebus.
+
+"And it's made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it," said the Terror.
+
+"It must have--arguing like that," said Erebus quickly; and her eyes
+brightened as she caught his drift.
+
+"Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment.  It's a long ride
+home," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course it ought," said Erebus with decision.
+
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner's shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: "Of course overseers
+have a salary."
+
+"Of course they do," said Erebus.
+
+"That settles the matter of pocket-money," said the Terror.  "We'll
+have sixpence a week each."
+
+"Only sixpence?" said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+
+"Well, you see, there are the bicycles.  I don't think we can make it
+more than sixpence.  And I tell you what: we shall have to keep
+accounts.  I'll buy an account-book.  You're very good at
+arithmetic--you'll like keeping accounts," said the Terror suavely.
+
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that
+it would be delicate at that moment to protest.  Therefore on leaving
+the shop the Terror bought an account-book.  His distrust of literature
+prevented him from paying more than a penny for it.  From the
+stationer's he went to an ironmonger's and bought a saw, a brace, a
+gimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws--his tool-box had long
+needed refilling.  Then they mounted their machines proudly (they had
+learned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home.  After
+their visit to the confectioner's they rode rather sluggishly.
+
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the
+Terror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a
+quiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on
+Erebus' bicycle with excellent apples.  The tools had been packed into
+the Terror's basket.  They did not disturb the farmer's wife at the
+busy dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to
+Erebus.
+
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: "I shouldn't wonder if
+these bicycles didn't pay for themselves in time."
+
+"I said there were orchards out here where they didn't know us," said
+Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in
+the cow-house.  At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the
+morning.
+
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements.  It had
+long been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning.  It was quite
+suitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a
+size to hold two cows.  The measurements made, they went, with an
+important moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timber
+merchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him.  There was
+some discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that of
+the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, with
+some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns.  Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he
+forthwith put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet
+House.  The Twins, eager to be at work, helped him.
+
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable
+constructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches.  That evening
+Erebus wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus
+proposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally
+forth on a splendid foray.  The Terror would not hear of it.
+
+"No," he said firmly.  "We're going to get the cats' home finished
+before we use those bicycles at all.  Then nobody can complain."
+
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to
+go down to the vicarage for his morning's lessons with the vicar.  He
+set to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;
+and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too.
+
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came.  He had spent a fruitless
+hour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied
+forth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept them
+within their borders.  He was deeply impressed by the sight of the
+bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers of
+his friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise him
+greatly.  But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtained
+their bicycles before he had obtained his.  None the less he helped
+them construct the cats' home with enthusiasm.
+
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort.  So
+much sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces
+were chipped out of them.  But their spirits never flagged; and by
+sunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirty
+cats.  It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all of
+the same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness:
+and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them.
+
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the
+transformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said
+firmly: "What we want now is cats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were
+willing to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their
+owners no longer needed.  They had, indeed, one offer of a cat
+suffering from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly to
+its owner that theirs was a home, not a hospital.
+
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she
+pointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: "Look
+here: I'm going to begin with kittens."
+
+"How will you get kittens, if you can't get cats?  Everybody likes
+kittens.  It's only when they grow up and stop playing that they don't
+want them," said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+
+"I'm going to buy them," said the Terror firmly.  "I'm going to give
+threepence each for kittens that can just lap.  We don't want kittens
+that can't lap.  They'd be too much trouble."
+
+"That's a good idea," said Erebus, brightening.
+
+"It'll stop them drowning kittens all right.  The only thing I'm not
+sure about is the accounts."
+
+"You're always bothering about those silly old accounts!" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of
+their expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+
+"Well, I don't think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts.
+Aunt Amelia is so used to cats' homes that are given their cats.  She's
+told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be
+taken in."
+
+"_I_ don't want them to go down.  It makes all the less accounts to
+keep," said Erebus readily.
+
+"Well, that's settled," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the
+tidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who
+could just lap.
+
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the
+impatient Erebus grew louder and louder.  There was no doubt that she
+loved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of that
+grievance to those about her.  Since she could only discuss this
+grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it.
+Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patient
+brother's resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to a
+council.
+
+He opened the discussion by saying: "We've got to have kittens, or
+cats.  We can't have any pocket-money for 'overseering' till there's
+something to overseer."
+
+"And that splendid cats' home we've made stopping empty all the time,"
+said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+"I don't mind that.  I'm sick of hearing about it," said the Terror
+coldly.  "But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia will
+soon be wanting to know what's happening to the home; and she'll make a
+fuss if there aren't any cats in it.  So we must have cats."
+
+"Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats.  There are cats all
+over the country; and when we're out bicycling, a good way from home,
+we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with
+us.  We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in
+eight days the home would be full and two over."
+
+"And we should be prosecuted for stealing them," said the Terror coldly.
+
+"But they'd be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed," protested Erebus.
+
+"That wouldn't make any difference.  No; it's no good trying to get
+them that way," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+"Well, they won't come of themselves," said Erebus.
+
+"They would with valerian," said Wiggins.
+
+"Who's Valerian?" said Erebus.
+
+"It isn't a who.  It's a drug at the chemist's," said Wiggins.  "I've
+been talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says if
+you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats will
+follow it for miles."
+
+"Your father seems to know everything--such a lot of useful things as
+well as higher mathematics," said the Terror.
+
+"That's why he has a European reputation," said Wiggins; and he spurned
+the earth.
+
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of
+the enchanting drug.  Just before they reached the village, on their
+way home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it,
+poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the
+village to his garden gate.
+
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the
+father of Wiggins.  All that evening and far into the night twelve cats
+fought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+
+The next day the Terror turned the cats' home into a cat-trap.  He cut
+a hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted
+it with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the
+outside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside.  He was
+late finishing it, and went from it to his dinner.
+
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring
+at the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had
+come from the village with some kittens.  The Twins excused themselves
+politely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly
+had brought no less than five small kittens in a basket.
+
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping
+test.  Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they
+lapped.  The fifth would not lap.  It only mewed.  Therefore the Terror
+took only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them.  The
+fifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+
+They took the four kittens down to the cats' home; and since they were
+so small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk
+to satisfy their hunger during the night.
+
+"Now we've got these kittens, we needn't bother about getting cats,"
+said the Terror as they returned to the house.  "And I'm glad it is
+kittens and not cats.  Kittens eat less."
+
+"Then you've had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing," said Erebus.
+
+"It's an emergency exit--like the theaters have--only it's an
+entrance," said the Terror.  "But thank goodness, we've begun at last;
+now we can have salaries for 'overseering'."
+
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens
+to their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady
+Ryehampton that the home was already constructed and in process of
+occupation.  Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid of
+enthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, "saved
+from the awful death of drowning."  Lady Ryehampton replied promptly in
+a spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it.
+
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found
+themselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and the
+account-book.
+
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations.  Till they were
+six years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in
+Monmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar.  Then their father
+had fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had
+along with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leaving
+Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed.  All the while since
+his death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and the
+Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires of
+their hearts.
+
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;
+and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as
+the bulk of the children of the well-to-do.  But it did not come in the
+way of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;
+and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliest
+interest in financial matters.  He was resolved that the cats' home and
+the wages of "overseering" should last as long as possible.
+
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a
+quart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with
+him that milk spelled ruin.  But they could see no way of reducing the
+price of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food for
+growing kittens.
+
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a
+heavy silence had fallen on them.  Then of a sudden the face of the
+Terror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:
+"I've got it; we'll feed them on skim-milk."
+
+"They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens," said Erebus scornfully.
+
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping.  Butter-making was its
+chief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+
+"If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"But how can we get it?  They don't sell it about here," said Erebus.
+"And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn't sell skim-milk,
+nobody's going to sell skim-milk to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it," said the Terror confidently.
+
+"Old Stubbs!  But he hates us worse than any one!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Oh, yes; he doesn't like us.  But he's awfully keen on money; every
+one says so.  And he won't care whose money he gets so long as he gets
+it.  Come on; we'll go and talk to him about it," said the Terror.
+
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs
+and knocked resolutely.  The maid, who was well aware that her master
+and the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some
+hesitation.  The Twins had never entered the farmer's house before,
+though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightly
+uncomfortable.  They found the parlor into which they were shown
+uncommonly musty.
+
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate
+fringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion
+in his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes.  Even when he learned that they
+had come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terror
+incidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cash
+payments.  Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, that
+he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to the
+discussion of prices.  Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts;
+the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of
+view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice.  But the
+Terror's suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck
+a bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at
+threepence halfpenny the pailful.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens
+to the home; and the Terror had yet another idea.  Milk alone seemed an
+insufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the
+matter of stale bread.  There were more negotiations; and in the end
+the Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearly
+his own price.  Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throve
+on it; and it went further than plain milk.
+
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure.  They had been busy filling
+certain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with
+the best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the
+countryside afforded.  But what spare time he had the Terror devoted to
+a great feat of painting.  He painted in white letters on a black
+board:--
+
+LADY RYEHAMPTON'S CATS' HOME
+
+
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that
+could be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins
+agreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their
+aunt saw it she would be deeply gratified.
+
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be
+fixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their mother
+formally into their confidence.  She had learned of the formation of
+the cats' home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked
+to her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give them
+details about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited the
+interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussion
+for fully a week.  She had explained to them that she never interfered
+with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, and
+that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats' home.  Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had
+been brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order.
+Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of its
+construction.  Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackle
+affair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops.
+
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for
+they were judicious in their use.  They were careful to sally forth
+when she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the common
+and came back across the common and their neighbors saw them riding
+very little.
+
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she
+accepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection
+of the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise.  She
+expressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and the
+extensive scale on which it was being run.  She agreed with the Terror
+that to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning was
+a great work.  But she asked no questions, not even how it was that the
+cats' home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples.  She knew that
+an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to be
+given her.
+
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: "The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course."
+
+"What?  Are those your bicycles?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield.  "But
+wherever did you get the money from to buy them?"
+
+"Aunt Amelia found the money," said the Terror.  "You know she's very
+keen--tremendously interested in cats' homes.  She thinks we are doing
+a great work, as well as you."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: "You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats'
+home in Little Deeping?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Terror carelessly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she
+_must_ not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins.  She bit her
+tongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears.  It was
+painful; but it enabled her to complete her inspection with the
+required gravity.
+
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke
+a fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise.  Several of
+them, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to
+it; and Wiggins brought his father.  All of them expressed an
+admiration of the institution and of the methods on which it was
+conducted.  To one another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of the
+intelligence of Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience
+the Twins drew their salary for "overseering."  It provided them with
+many of the less expensive desires of their hearts.  Now and again
+Erebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than ten
+pounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raised
+to a shilling a week.  But the Terror would not consent: he said their
+salaries for "overseeing" would naturally be much higher, and that they
+would have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it had
+not been for the bicycles.  As it was, they were bound to work off the
+price of the bicycles.  Besides, he added with a philosophical air,
+six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week for
+six months.
+
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained
+twenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle
+(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were
+informed that for the time being the home was full.  Erebus clamored to
+have its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terror
+maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quite
+enough.  Everything was working smoothly.  Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed
+for the door; and Erebus opened it.  On the steps stood their Uncle
+Maurice; and he wore a harried air.
+
+"Why, it's Uncle Maurice!" cried Erebus springing upon him and
+embracing him warmly.
+
+"It's Uncle Maurice, mother!" cried the Terror.
+
+"It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he's by no means sure
+of it himself!  Is it my head or my heels I'm standing on?" said Sir
+Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping
+station, laden with wicker baskets.  From the baskets came the sound of
+mewing.
+
+"Whatever is it?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a
+neat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and
+shut the door after him with an air of exhaustion.  He leaned back
+against it and said:
+
+"I had a sudden message--Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visit
+to this inf--this cats' home these little friends are pretending to run
+for her.  I saw that there was no time to lose--there must be a cats'
+home with cats in it--or she'd cut them both out of her will.  I bought
+cats--all over London--they've been with me ever since--yowling--they
+yowled in the taxi--all over London--they traveled down as far as
+Rowington with me and an old gentleman--a high-spirited old
+gentleman--yowling--not only the cats but the old gentleman, too---and
+they traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maiden
+ladies--timid maiden ladies!--yowling!  But come on: we've got to make
+a cats' home at once!"  And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets
+with the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant or
+perish.
+
+"But we've got a cats' home--only it's full of kittens," said Erebus
+gently.
+
+"Good heavens!  Do you mean to say I've gone through this nightmare for
+nothing?" cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+
+"Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!" said the Terror with swift
+politeness.  "The cats will come in awfully useful."
+
+"They'll make the home look so much more natural.  All kittens isn't
+natural," said Erebus.
+
+"And they'll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia.  She was only
+expecting kittens," said the Terror.
+
+"What?" howled Sir Maurice.  "Do you mean to say I've parleyed for
+hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two--two--timid maiden ladies,
+just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?"
+
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly.  "I ought to
+have had more confidence in you," he said faintly.  "I ought to know
+your powers by now.  And I did.  I know well that any people who have
+dealings with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt
+Amelia was going to get it; and I've got it myself."
+
+"But you didn't think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?" said the
+Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+
+"Gracious, no!" cried Sir Maurice.  "I only thought that you might
+possibly induce her to humbug herself."
+
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his
+words than met the ear.
+
+"You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+"And I'm afraid there's very little for you.  But I'll make you an
+omelette."
+
+"I can not dine amid this yowling," said Sir Maurice firmly, waving his
+hand over the vocal baskets.  "These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan't be able to eat a morsel."
+
+"We'll put them in the cats' home," said the Terror quickly.  "I'll
+just put on a pair of thick gloves.  Wiggins' father--he's a higher
+mathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing--says
+that hydrophobia is very rare among cats.  But it's just as well to be
+careful with these London ones."
+
+"Oh, lord, I never thought of that," said Sir Maurice with a shudder.
+"I've been risking my life as well!"
+
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern.  He and Erebus
+helped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches.
+Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession--a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable.  At dinner he reduced his appreciative
+kinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his
+parleying with his excited fellow travelers.  He could now view it with
+an impartial mind.  After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats'
+home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps.  The rest of the
+evening passed peacefully and pleasantly.
+
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed
+that the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:
+"We ought to have more cats."
+
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:
+"By Jove, yes.  This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge.
+And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the
+good of the home.  The more we can say that we've used them for it, the
+less any one can grumble about them."
+
+"Most cats are shut up now," said Erebus.
+
+"Yes; we must catch the morning cats.  They get out quite early--when
+people start out to work," said the Terror.
+
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an
+alarm.  The Terror set it for half past five.  At that hour it awoke
+him with extreme difficulty.  He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty.
+Five minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchen
+to stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning;
+then they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle of
+valerian.
+
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping.  There the Terror poured valerian on
+one of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus.  Forthwith she
+started to trail it to the cats' home.  He rode on to Great Deeping and
+trailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats' home.
+When he reached it he found Erebus' bicycle in its corner; and when,
+after strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with a
+rag freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he found
+that she was already in bed again.  He made haste back to bed himself.
+
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and
+put the cats they had attracted to it into hutches.  But they slept on
+till breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon
+lured them straight into the dining-room.  After all, as Erebus told
+the hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the new
+cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleven
+o'clock.  They could not escape from the home.  The Twins therefore
+devoted their most careful attention to their breakfast with their
+minds quite at ease.
+
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at
+ease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor.
+Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said "Please, ma'am, it's
+Lady Ryehampton"; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold.  Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking
+very anxious.
+
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton's stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness.  To
+Erebus, the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: "I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats' home.  I always do.  It's the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment."  The
+frown on her face grew rhadamanthine.  "And last night I saw your Uncle
+Maurice at the station--he did not see me--with cats, London cats, in
+baskets.  On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of
+well-known London cat-dealers.  I do not support a cats' home at Little
+Deeping for London cats bought at London dealers.  Why have they been
+brought here?"
+
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+
+"It was Uncle Maurice's idea," he said.  "He didn't think that there
+ought only to be kittens in a cats' home.  We didn't mind ourselves;
+and of course, if he puts cats in it, he'll have to subscribe to the
+home.  What we have started it for was kittens--to save them from the
+awful death of drowning.  We wrote and told you.  And we've saved quite
+a lot."
+
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats
+to bring them all the way from London to a cats' home at Deeping?  He
+hates cats, and always has!" she said fiercely.
+
+"Of course, I hate cats," said Sir Maurice with cold severity.  "But I
+hate children's being brought up to be careless a great deal more.  A
+cats' home is not a cats' home unless it has cats in it; and you've
+been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling a
+kittens' home a cats' home.  If you will interfere in their
+up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into
+careless ways."
+
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady
+Ryehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: "That's all very well,"
+she said in a less severe tone.  "But is there a kittens' home at
+all--a kittens' home with kittens in it?  That's what I want to know."
+
+"But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats' home.
+You don't think we'd deceive you, Aunt Amelia?" said the Terror in a
+deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+
+"There!  I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be," said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+
+"Of course there's a cats' home with kittens in it!" said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with some heat.  "The Terror wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+"Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!" cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very
+good best.
+
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: "Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there's a c-c-cats' home--but Sir Maurice's senseless
+interference--"
+
+"Senseless interference!  Do you call saving children from careless
+habits senseless interference?" cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+
+"You had no business to interfere without consulting me," said Lady
+Ryehampton.  Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: "But I want to
+see this cats' home--now!"
+
+"I'll take you at once," said the Terror quickly, and politely he
+opened the door.
+
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice
+his hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it.  When
+they came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distant
+high-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and more
+horrible grew the din.
+
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of
+suspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were wide
+open in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a
+defiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  Only the Terror was serene.
+
+"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats," said the Terror calmly.
+
+"Visiting cats?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+
+"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come," said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+
+"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed.  "I must tell the
+managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it,
+too.  But what are these cats doing?"
+
+"It sounds as if they were quarreling," said the Terror calmly.
+
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the
+din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish.  It was as if the voices
+of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door--wide.  Cats did not come out. . . .  A large ball of cats came
+out, gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur.  Ten yards from the door
+it dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore,
+yelling, to the four quarters of the heavens.
+
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: "I
+sometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens."
+
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion.  He
+walked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human
+ken.  There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned
+against the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive
+bricks feebly.
+
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with
+an air of modest pride.  A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of
+perfect, if highly-scented, peace.  Twenty-three kittens and eight cats
+sat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead
+stillness.  Their eyes were very bright.  By a kindly provision of
+nature they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes of
+that vociferous fray.
+
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song.  She
+was charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and
+healthiness of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness.
+She gushed enthusiastic approbation.  "To think," she cried, "that you
+have done this yourself!  A boy of thirteen!"
+
+"Erebus did quite as much as I did," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"And Wiggins helped a lot.  He's a friend of ours," said Erebus no less
+quickly.
+
+Lady Ryehampton's face softened to Erebus--to Erebus, the instructor of
+parrots.
+
+Sir Maurice joined them.  His eyes were red and moist, as if they had
+but now been full of tears.
+
+"It's a very creditable piece of work," he said in a tone of warm
+approval.
+
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell.
+She said uneasily: "But you must be heavily in debt."
+
+"In debt?" said the Terror.  "Oh, no; we couldn't be.  Mother would
+hate us to be in debt."
+
+"I thought--a cats' home--oh, but I _am_ glad I brought my check-book
+with me!" cried Lady Ryehampton.
+
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl.
+She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus
+kicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously
+realized that the future of the home, the wages of "overseering," were
+secure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AND THE SACRED BIRD
+
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the
+Terror did all he could to foster her interest in it.  The crowning
+effect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty
+sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many
+pauses to gambol and play.  The only thing about the home which was not
+quite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door.
+She liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did not
+like its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all of
+them of the same size.  At the same time she did not like to hurt the
+feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork.
+
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: "By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform--the same as the boards over
+the entrances of my other cats' homes.  The lettering of them is always
+in gold."
+
+"All right.  I'll get some gold paint, and paint them over," said the
+Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+
+"No, no, I can't give you the trouble of doing it all over again," said
+Lady Ryehampton quickly.  "I'll have a board made, and painted in
+London--exactly like the board of my cats' home at Tysleworth--and sent
+down to you to fix up."
+
+"Thanks very much," said the Terror.  "It will save me a great deal of
+trouble.  Painting isn't nearly so easy as it looks."
+
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction.  She invited them all
+to lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs.
+Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simple
+establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver.  As she told her
+neighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in the
+house.  The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebus
+was very quiet for two hours after it.
+
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating
+visit to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the
+Terror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to
+London.
+
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to
+travel with Lady Ryehampton.  Besides, the question what was to be done
+with the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled.
+He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep,
+since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats' home.
+At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them any
+more.
+
+They discussed the matter.  Erebus was inclined to keep the cats,
+declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens.  The
+Terror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view,
+wished to be relieved of them.  In the end it was decided that Sir
+Maurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he had
+bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer.
+
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this
+unexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home.
+Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings a
+week.  The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each.
+Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put
+fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank.  He thought it a wise
+thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum on
+some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove.
+The cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board
+came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror's
+handiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along
+with Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the
+important matter of their mother's Christmas present.
+
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their
+breakfasts and discussing it gravely.  The kittens were indulging in
+engaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion which
+always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling
+eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds.  They could see
+their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; and
+so large a sum must be expended with judgment.  It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and
+attractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the
+hair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: "I know what she really
+wants though."
+
+"What's that?" said the Terror sharply.
+
+"It's one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker's at Rowington,"
+said Erebus.  "I heard her sigh when she looked at it.  She used to
+have beautiful furs once--when father was alive.  But she sold them--to
+get things for us, I suppose.  Uncle Maurice told me so--at least I got
+it out of him."
+
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of
+decision: "How much is that stole?"
+
+"Oh, it's no good thinking about it--it's three guineas," said Erebus
+quickly.
+
+"That's a mort o' money, as old Stubbs says," said the Terror; and the
+frown deepened on his brow.
+
+"I wonder if we could get it?" said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face.  "I should like
+to.  It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things--much harder than
+for us, because we've never had them--at least, we had them when we
+were small, but we never got used to them.  So we've forgotten."
+
+"No, we're all right as long as we have useful things," said the
+Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown.  "But you're right about
+Mum--she must be different.  I've got to think this out."
+
+"Three guineas is such a lot to think out," said Erebus despondently.
+
+"I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago," said the Terror
+firmly.  "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats' home, though not so useful."
+
+"But it's different--we _had_ to have bicycles--you said so," said
+Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Well, we've got to have this stole," said the Terror in a tone of
+finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Things will occur to us.  They always do," said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches.  Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+
+"I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens?  Does any one ever buy
+kittens?"
+
+"We did; we gave threepence each for these," said Erebus.
+
+"Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home.  We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that.  We shouldn't have
+dreamt of doing such a thing."
+
+"I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn't got any," said Erebus
+in a tone of decision.
+
+"You would, would you?  That's just what I wanted to know: girls will
+buy kittens," said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction.  "Well, we'll
+sell these."
+
+"But we can't empty the home," said Erebus.
+
+"We wouldn't.  We'd buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepence
+each, and sell these at a shilling.  We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way."
+
+"So we should--a whole sovereign!" cried Erebus; then she added in a
+somewhat envious tone: "You do think of things."
+
+"I have to.  Where should we be, if I didn't?" said the Terror.
+
+"But who are we going to sell them to?  Everybody round here has cats."
+
+"Yes, they have," said the Terror, frowning again.  "Well, we shall
+have to sell them somewhere else."
+
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to
+the house, pondering.  The Terror collected the books for his morning's
+work slowly, still thoughtful.
+
+As he was leaving the house he said: "Look here; the place for us to
+sell them is Rowington.  The people round here sell most of their
+things at Rowington--butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits."
+
+"And Ellen would sell them for us--in the market," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"Of course she would!  You see, you think of things, too!" cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter
+of selling their kittens.  She had been their nurse for the first four
+years of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a
+small farmer.  She had an affection for them, especially for the
+Terror; and she had not lost touch with them.  She welcomed them
+warmly, ushered them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter of
+elderberry wine and a cake.  When she had helped them to cake and
+poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had brought
+them to her house.
+
+Ellen's mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her
+pony-cart.  She laughed consumedly at the Terror's belief that any one
+would want to buy kittens.  But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was
+very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell
+their kittens at her stall in Rowington market.  Ellen consented to
+make the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist the
+Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to oblige
+him; but she held out no hopes of success.
+
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not
+share her despondency.  Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen's
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+"I tell you what: even if we don't sell those kittens, we can always
+buy the stole.  There's all that cats' home money in the bank.  We can
+take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees."
+
+"No, we can't," said the Terror firmly.  "We're not going to use that
+money for anything but the cats' home.  I promised Mum I wouldn't.
+Besides, she'd like the stole ever so much better if we'd really earned
+it ourselves."
+
+"But we shan't," said Erebus gloomily.  "If we sold all the kittens, it
+will only make twenty-three shillings."
+
+"Then we must find something else to sell," said the Terror with
+decision.
+
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little
+Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field
+of mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability.
+
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very
+good friends.  Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an
+honest day's work in his life.  Yet he was the smartest man in the
+village, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his
+constitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the English pheasants from all
+dangers save the small shot of those who have them fed.  Tom Cobb waged
+war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird.  Sometimes for
+a whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with
+never a check to his ardor.  In another season some prying gamekeeper
+would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and an
+infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him.  The fine was always
+paid.  Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against
+a rainy day.
+
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted
+one another with smiles of mutual respect.  They rode on a few yards;
+and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped, slipped off his bicycle,
+and wheeled it back to the gate.  Erebus followed him more slowly.
+
+"I've been wondering if you'd do me a favor, Tom," said the Terror.
+"I've always wanted to know how to make a snare.  I'll give you
+half-a-crown if you'll teach me."
+
+Tom Cobb's clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated.  He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little
+knowledge was a dangerous thing--for others.  He foresaw trouble for
+the sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the
+gamekeepers.  He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them.
+And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+
+He grinned and said slowly, "Yes, Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy to
+teach you 'ow to make a snare."
+
+"Thank you.  I'll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two," said the
+Terror gratefully.
+
+"It _will_ be nice to know how to make snares!" cried Erebus happily as
+they rode on.  "I wonder we never thought of it before."
+
+"We didn't want a fur stole before," said the Terror.
+
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to
+Tom Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares.
+But the Terror would not.  Often he was indulgent; often he was firm.
+To-day he was firm.
+
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather
+sadly: "I've still a lot to learn.  But come on: I've got to buy
+something in Rowington."
+
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and
+they had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell.  At Rowington the
+Terror bought copper wire at an ironmonger's; and he was very careful
+to buy it of a certain thickness.
+
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the
+experiment.  Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they
+washed them thoroughly in the kitchen.  They dried them, and decided to
+keep them in its warmth till the next morning.
+
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making
+of snares.  Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares
+at once.  The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while
+before he got one at all to his liking.
+
+Remembering Tom Cobb's instructions, he washed it, and then put on
+gloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the
+rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the
+cabbages.  He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare,
+and thrilled with joy.  The fur stole had come within the range of
+possibility.
+
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens,
+brushing them with the Terror's hair-brush till their fur was of a
+sleekness it had never known before.  Then Erebus adorned the neck of
+each with a bow of blue ribbon.  Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed
+on the bows, and sewed them on firmly.  It could not be doubted that
+they looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens.  Directly after
+breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of their
+bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen.
+
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but
+they had to return to their lessons.  After lunch they made three more
+snares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if
+anything, more deft at snare-making than his own.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and
+when they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their joy that the
+basket which had held the six kittens was empty.
+
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and
+said: "Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong.  I've sold
+them kitties--every one--and I've had two more ordered.  It was when
+the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went."
+
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the
+Terror.
+
+"Five," said the Terror.  "I must pay you a shilling for selling them.
+It's what they call commission."
+
+"No, sir; I don't want any commission," said Ellen firmly.  "As long as
+those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than
+any one else in the market.  I haven't had such a good day not ever
+before.  And I'll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me."
+
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm.
+The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden
+about the common.  He caught three rabbits.
+
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed
+the kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+
+At last he said rather sadly: "It's sometimes rather awkward being a
+Dangerfield."
+
+"Why?" said Erebus surprised.
+
+"Those rabbits," said the Terror.  "I want to sell them.  But it's no
+good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer.  Even
+if he wanted rabbits--which he mightn't--he'd only give me sixpence
+each for them.  But if I were to sell them myself _here_, I could get
+eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them.  But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can't go about selling things.  Uncle Maurice said I had
+the makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn't go into
+business.  It's the family tradition not to.  That's what he said."
+
+"Perhaps he was only rotting," said Erebus hopefully.
+
+"No, he wasn't.  I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition,
+too.  I expect that's why we're all so hard up."
+
+"But the squire sells things," said Erebus quickly.  "And you can't say
+he isn't a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren't so old as the
+Dangerfields."
+
+"Of course, he does.  He sells some of his game," said the Terror, in a
+tone of great relief.  "Game must be all right, and we can easily count
+rabbits as game."
+
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they
+had caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of
+the neighborhood.  The Terror went to the back doors of their
+well-to-do neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the
+gratifying result that in less than an hour he had sold all four of
+them at eightpence each.
+
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them.  They
+had already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three
+shillings.
+
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew
+when to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went
+on.  It was the fault of the rabbit market.  At the fifteenth rabbit,
+when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole,
+the bottom fell out of it.  For the time the desire of Little Deeping
+to eat rabbits was sated.
+
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who,
+after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was to
+bring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different
+thing, Master Dangerfield."
+
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: "And how much
+would you pay for pheasants?"
+
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic
+she had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of
+threepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: "Two and
+threepence each, sir."
+
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer.  He
+saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All right,
+I'll bring you two or three a week.  But you'll have to pay cash."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Of course, sir," said the cook.
+
+"Do you know any one else who'd buy pheasants?" he said.
+
+"Well, there's Mr. Carrington's cook," said the cook slowly.  "She has
+the management of the housekeeping money like I do.  I think she might
+buy pheasants from you.  Mr. Carrington's very partial to game."
+
+"Right," said the Terror.  "And thank you for telling me."
+
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the
+matter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits.  He made a
+direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each.
+After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted it.
+
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught
+rabbits would catch pheasants.  At first he was for catching those
+pheasants by himself.  Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;
+snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl's work.
+Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebus
+and must tell her.
+
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: "But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?"
+
+"Woods," said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture.
+
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled
+fiercely.
+
+"The only thing is, we don't know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants.  And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;
+and that wouldn't do at all," said the Terror.
+
+"But there's nobody else to ask."
+
+"I don't know about that.  There's Wiggins' father.  He knows a lot of
+useful things besides higher mathematics.  The only thing is, we must
+do it in such a way that he doesn't see we're trying to get anything
+out of him."
+
+"Well, I should think we could do that.  He's really quite simple,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"As long as _you_ understand what I'm driving at," said the Terror.
+
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington
+market, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next
+morning.  Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rival
+poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell.  The Twins at
+once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance
+that those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling.  They
+were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; and
+the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of
+coming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the
+third afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly,
+about three miles from Little Deeping.
+
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington.  They had a
+great respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor.
+In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his
+presence.  She did not know what he might say about her next.  He was,
+therefore, somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles and
+joined him.  He wondered what they wanted.
+
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the
+society of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk
+was running on pheasants.  Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants,
+except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the
+devastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:
+villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might live
+undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woods
+to itself.
+
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was
+not aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he
+bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to
+the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained the
+villages of all the intelligent.  The skilful poacher who harried the
+sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the
+poacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words.
+He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher
+with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to
+display in the presence of the young.  The Terror came from that talk
+with a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of
+raisins at the leading grocer's.  They might well have bought them at
+Little Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought
+Rowington safer.  They always took every possible precaution at the
+beginning of an enterprise.  They did not ride straight home.  Three
+miles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill.  At the
+foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping
+wood, acre upon acre.  It had lately passed, along with the rest of the
+Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain.
+He was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less
+modern stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of having
+the finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it,
+he did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them.  His friends came
+wholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins' came to the clump on
+the hill.  The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them
+behind the hedge.  He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle
+basket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down
+the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked
+through it.  One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the
+wood below.  The occurrence pleased him.  He crawled out of the clump
+on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the
+ditch of the hedge to the wood.  He did not lay it right down to the
+wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it.  Then he returned
+with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus.  They rode home well content.
+
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again.
+Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood
+to the clump.  But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the
+clump.  Just above the end of the ditch.  Later he took from that snare
+a plump but sacred bird.  Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs.
+Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence
+to Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself
+serenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+
+"That's all right," said Erebus cheerfully.  "That makes--that makes
+twenty-eight and eleven-pence.  We _are_ getting on."
+
+"Yes; it's twenty-eight and eleven-pence now," said the Terror quickly.
+"But you don't seem to see that when we've got the stole for Mum these
+pheasants will still be going on."
+
+"Of course they will!" cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightly
+indeed at the joyful thought.
+
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after
+breakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the
+clump above Great Deeping wood.  He reached it at the hour when
+gamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thorough
+examination of it.  He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose the
+two likeliest places for his snares.  He did not set them then and
+there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them.  He came again
+in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then.
+Later he sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the
+cook of Mr. Carrington.
+
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens.  They found themselves in the happy position of needing only
+six shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the
+clump of trees above Great Deeping wood.  They had laid a trail of
+raisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it
+on the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and
+since the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over
+Great Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley.
+The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear and
+bright.  But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided that
+instead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as well
+examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey.
+It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads,
+alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of
+his purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of
+his friends' latest exploits) and made his dispositions.  When they
+came to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a
+lookout ahead.  The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins.
+Wiggins held the two bicycles.  The Terror listened.  The wood was very
+still in its winter silence.  He slipped through the hedge into it, and
+presently came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasant
+indeed.  He put it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted.
+
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty
+yards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting
+fashion as he came.  There was neither time nor room to turn.  They
+rode on; and the keeper made for the Terror.  The Terror swerved; and
+the keeper swerved.  Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came to
+the ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as he
+could.
+
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of "Keeper!" set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently,
+when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and
+dismounted.
+
+"The keeper's got him.  This is a mess!" said the Terror, who was
+panting a little from their spurt.
+
+"If only it had been one of us!" cried Erebus.  "Whatever are we to do?"
+
+"If that beastly keeper hadn't seen me with the pheasant, I'd get
+Wiggins away, somehow," said the Terror.  "But, as it is, it's me they
+really want; and I'd get fined to a dead certainty.  Come on, let's go
+back and see what's happened to him.  You scout on ahead.  Nobody knows
+you're in it."
+
+"All right," said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a
+sign of an ambush.  The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty
+yards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the
+alarm.  They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond the
+end of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way up
+the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey.  The keeper held Wiggins
+with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right.
+The Twins dismounted.  Even at that distance they could see the deep
+dejection of their friend.
+
+"There's not really any reason for him to be frightened.  He was never
+in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant," said the Terror.
+
+"What does that matter?  He _will_ be frightened out of his life; he's
+so young," cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after their
+receding friend with very anxious eyes.  "He's not like us; he won't
+cheek the keeper all the way like we should."
+
+"Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck," said the Terror in a reassuring tone.
+
+"But he won't understand he's all right.  He's only ten.  And there's
+no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bully
+him," cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+
+"Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he'll be out of
+it," said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+
+"No, no!  That won't do at all!" cried Erebus fiercely.  "We've got to
+rescue him now--at once.  We got him into the mess; and we've got to
+get him out of it.  You've got to find a way."
+
+"It's all very well," said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took off
+his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: "I can't see what we can
+do."
+
+"Oh, I'm going to get him out of it somehow!" cried Erebus in a furious
+desperation.
+
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty
+yards.  It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher
+of the three, the only one in real danger.  As he leaned on his
+machine, watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth.  For all
+his natural serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant to
+him.
+
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and
+the keeper.  She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that
+the keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door,
+when she saw Wiggins' bicycle standing against one of the pillars of
+the great porch.  In a natural elation at having captured a poacher,
+and eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gone
+straight into the great hall.
+
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then
+she moved Wiggins' bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came
+out, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of
+sight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered
+the knocker firmly, and rang the bell.  The moment the door opened she
+stepped quickly past the footman into the hall.  The keeper sat on a
+chair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking white
+and woebegone.
+
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+"What are you doing with my little brother?"
+
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her
+position.
+
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone,
+but he said triumphantly:
+
+"I caught 'im poachin'--"
+
+"Stand up!  What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?" cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+"'E was poachin'," he said sulkily.
+
+"He was not!  A little boy like that!" cried Erebus scornfully.
+
+"Anyways, 'e was aidin' an' abettin', an' I've brought 'im to Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosynimer an' it's for 'im to say," said the keeper stubbornly.
+
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle
+click by which the Twins called each other to attention.  At the sound
+Wiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself.  Erebus
+measured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there came
+into the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-faced
+young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"Where's the boacher?" he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting in
+his emotion to the ancestral "b."
+
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide.
+
+"Bolt, Wiggins!" she cried.
+
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the
+footman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus.  She slammed the
+door behind the vanished Wiggins.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door.  He caught her by the left arm to
+sling her out of the way.  It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught
+him a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing
+of her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack of
+a whip-lash.  Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender.  He howled
+again, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists.  She caught the
+first blow on an uncommonly acute elbow.  The second never fell, for
+the footman caught him by the collar and swung him round.
+
+"It's not for the likes of you to 'it Henglish young ladies!" he cried
+with patriotic indignation.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+"Ged out of my house!  Now--at once--ged out!"
+
+"And pleased I shall be to go--when I've bin paid my wages.  It's a
+month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow.  I've had enough of
+furriners," said the footman with cold exultation.
+
+"Go--go--ged oud!" roared Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"When I've bin paid my wages," said the footman coldly.
+
+Erebus waited to hear no more.  She turned the latch, slipped through
+the door, and slammed it behind her.  To her dismay she saw a big
+motorcar coming round the corner of the house.  She mounted quickly and
+raced down the drive.  Wiggins was already out of sight.
+
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+
+"I've sent Wiggins on!" he shouted as she passed.
+
+"Come on!  Come on!" she shrieked back.  "The beastly foreigner's got a
+motor-car!"
+
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car
+had been ready to start.  They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down
+the road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew.  They
+were fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles to
+their one on that good road.  The Twins alone would have made a longer
+race of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins.  They had gone
+little more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as it
+came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them.
+
+"Go on, Terror!" cried Erebus.  "You're the one that matters!  You did
+the poaching!  I'll look after Wiggins!  He'll be all right with me."
+
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the
+advice sank in, and he shot ahead.  Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and
+they rode on.  The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly
+as it would have done had not Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the
+courage of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it.  He was howling
+at his straining chauffeur to go slower.
+
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than
+fifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging
+briskly along.
+
+"It's your father!" gasped Erebus.
+
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and
+Erebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all!  It was the Terror!"
+
+"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+
+"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
+incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
+father.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington.
+
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
+single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence.  Mr. Carrington
+seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
+arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
+technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut on
+the point which put him to sleep."  He fell as falls a sack of
+potatoes, and lay like a log.
+
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.
+
+"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his most
+agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
+no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
+between them.
+
+"I can't say as I do, sir," he said civilly; and he backed away.
+
+"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
+young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion," said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+
+"Assaults?--'Im assault?--Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, of
+Great Deeping Court, sir," said the keeper respectfully.
+
+"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
+be summoned for assault.  Good afternoon," said Mr. Carrington, and he
+turned on his heel.
+
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
+employer.  Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head.  He put his
+walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
+with rueful tenderness.  None the less he looked pleased; it was
+gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
+such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
+Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
+proud air.  They felt that they shone with his reflected glory.  It was
+a delightful sensation.
+
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: "Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?"
+
+"No, my child.  I am not a pork-butcher," said Mr. Carrington amiably.
+
+"He _looked_ as if he was dead," said Erebus; and there was a faint
+ring of disappointment in her tone.
+
+"In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope
+that it will be a better and wiser self," said Mr. Carrington.  "But
+what was it all about?  What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?"
+
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;
+then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: "It
+was a pheasant in Great Deeping wood," she said.  "The Terror found it,
+I suppose.  I had gone on, and I didn't see that part.  But it was
+Wiggins the keeper caught.  Of course--"
+
+"I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,"
+broke in Mr. Carrington.  "Had you ridden on too, Rupert?  Or did you
+see what happened?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I was there," said Wiggins readily.  "And the Terror found
+the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket.  And we had
+just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I
+ran into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court.  I wasn't
+really frightened--at least, not much."
+
+"The keeper had no right to touch him," Erebus broke in glibly.
+"Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn't even go into the wood;
+and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and
+the keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then
+that horrid Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold
+of me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once.  I
+should think that the mark is still there "--her speed of speech
+slackened to a slower vengeful gratification and then quickened
+again--"and he began to thump me and the footman interfered, and I came
+away, and they came after us in the car, and you saw what happened--at
+least you did it."
+
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+
+"Lucidity itself," said Mr. Carrington.  "But let us have the matter of
+the pheasant clear.  Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance of
+finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?"
+
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly,
+and said, "Well, there was a snare, you know."
+
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: "I thought so.  I thought we should
+come to that snare in time.  Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?"
+
+"Oh, no, he didn't know anything about it!" Erebus broke in quickly.
+"We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous!  He's so young!"
+
+"I shall be eleven in a fortnight!" said Wiggins with some heat.
+
+"You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker's in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could
+think of getting it," said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+
+"Light!  Light at last!" cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently.
+"Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitely
+Pomeranian!  But it's just as well that they have, or that ingenious
+brother of yours would be in a fine mess.  As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited."  He
+chuckled again.
+
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from
+Erebus the full story of their poaching.  When they reached the village
+he did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr.
+Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and had
+retired to Little Deeping.  At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good
+afternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on the
+notice of any of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer's keepers who might be sent out
+to hunt for the real culprit.  He would better keep quiet.
+
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home.  She found the Terror
+in the cats' home, awaiting her impatiently.
+
+"Well, did Wiggins get away all right?" he cried.  "I passed Mr.
+Carrington; and I thought he'd see that they didn't carry him off
+again."
+
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr.
+Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+
+"By Jove!  That was ripping!  I do wish I'd been there!" said the
+Terror.  "He only hit him once, you say?"
+
+"Only once.  And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer's keepers are out hunting for you," said Erebus.
+
+"I am lying low," said the Terror.  "And I've got rid of that pheasant.
+I sold it to Mr. Carrington's cook as I came through the village.  I
+thought it was better out of the way."
+
+"Then that's all right.  We only want about another half-crown," said
+Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to
+a better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he
+still retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly
+interest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching
+not only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because
+she could so ill afford the expense of the case.  He readily fell in
+with the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take the
+offensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer had
+given them the weapons.
+
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o'clock that
+evening Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R.
+S.; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served
+with a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington.
+
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was in
+a chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been "put to
+sleep by an uppercut on the point."  He made haste to despatch a car
+into Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+
+The lawyer knew his client's unpopularity in the county, and advised
+him earnestly to try to hush these matters up.  He declared that
+however Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench
+of English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by a
+big young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of European
+reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen,
+gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician's little boy from wrongful
+arrest and detention.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his
+devotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy.  But he
+perceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him too
+far, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shoot
+the particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not be
+deeply touched by it.  Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use every
+effort to settle the matter out of court.
+
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over
+to Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington's house.  He found Mr.
+Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to
+placate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude
+which had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford to
+be generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with an
+uppercut on the point.
+
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the
+more prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a
+veritable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms.  The summonses
+should be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about that
+poached pheasant and that Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty
+guineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital.  The lawyer
+accepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection to
+complying with them.
+
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington
+sent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this
+poaching.  He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at
+length on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caught
+and prosecuted.  In the end he gave him the choice of giving his word
+to snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that he
+was poaching.  The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants the
+more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching,
+she would forbid him to set another snare for anything.  Besides, he
+had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before.  Only he
+pointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a
+pheasant, for pheasants went everywhere.  Mr. Carrington admitted this
+fact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting his
+snares on ground sacred to the sacred bird.  If pheasants wandered into
+them on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault.  Thanks therefore
+to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of the
+Terror's narrow escape.
+
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds,
+since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete.  They
+turned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the
+hedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs.  Mrs. Blenkinsop's cook
+paid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time
+making the purchase.  As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of
+more stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush.  Accordingly
+on the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to
+buy it.
+
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing
+hard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker's shop, Erebus
+gazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer,
+the confectioner, and said sadly:
+
+"It's a pity it isn't Saturday and we had our 'overseering' salary.  We
+might have gone to Springer's and had a jolly good blow-out for once."
+
+The Terror gazed at Springer's window thoughtfully, and said: "Yes, it
+is a pity.  We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance."
+
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed
+somewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles.  She was
+very thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had
+chosen the very best of them.  The girl who was serving them made out
+the bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the three
+guineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purse
+of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, and
+counted them slowly.
+
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole
+when a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: "I
+shall want five per cent. discount for cash."
+
+"Oh, we don't do that sort of thing here," said the girl quickly.
+"This is such an old-established establishment."
+
+"I can't help that.  I must have discount for cash," said the Terror
+yet more firmly.
+
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity.  Mr. Barker
+came and she put the matter to him.
+
+"Oh, no, sir; I'm afraid we couldn't think of it.  Barker's is too old
+established a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doing
+business," said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: "All right," he
+said.  "You can put the stole down to me--Master Hyacinth Dangerfield,
+Colet House, Little Deeping."
+
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as
+the coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: "I'm afraid we can't
+do that, sir.  Our terms are cash--strictly cash."
+
+"Oh, no, they're not.  My mother has had an account here for the last
+six years," said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went into
+the bag.
+
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of
+warm geniality he cried: "Oh, that alters the case altogether!  In the
+case of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we're
+delighted to deduct five per cent. discount for cash--delighted.  Make
+out the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins."
+
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away
+the stole tenderly.
+
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave
+three shillings discount in his pocket and said: "Now for Springer's!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AND PRINGLE'S POND
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an
+almost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had
+any.  She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it
+had cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats' home fund,
+since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should be
+diverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to them
+for the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it.  On
+the whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had been
+raised.
+
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas.  It
+was the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude
+and gently rollicked.  There was a dearth of children, young men and
+maidens among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins
+were in request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings.
+Thanks to the Terror, the three of them took this brightening function
+with considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorous
+piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performed
+two charades in a very painstaking fashion.  They had but little
+dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always
+well received.
+
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas.  The weather broke about
+the middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy
+snow-storm.  The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common
+in front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellent
+toboggan on which they rushed down the hill into the village street.
+These were but light pleasures.  They watched the ponds with the most
+careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour's
+skating.  Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr.
+Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the
+vicarage, drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son
+take any risk whatever.
+
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;
+and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear.  They ate
+their breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered
+together his books for his morning's work they made their plans.
+
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two
+pairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: "Then
+that's settled.  I'll meet you at Pringle's pond as soon after half
+past twelve as I can get there; but you'd better not go on it before I
+come."
+
+"Oh, it'll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday," said Erebus
+impatiently.
+
+"Well, Wiggins isn't to go on it before I come.  You'll do as you like
+of course--as usual--and if you fall in, it'll be your own lookout.
+But he's to wait till I come.  If the ice does bear, it won't bear any
+too well; and I'm responsible for Wiggins.  I promised Mr. Carrington
+to look after him," said the Terror in tones of stern gravity.
+
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: "As if I
+couldn't take care of him just as well as you.  I'm as old as you."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But you are a girl; there's no
+getting over it; and it does make a difference."
+
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she
+scowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly
+behind him.  She hated to be reminded that she was a girl.  The
+reminder rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs.
+Dangerfield asked her what was distressing her that she scowled so
+fiercely.
+
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she
+was ready to go skating.  She set out briskly across the common, and
+found Wiggins waiting for her at his father's garden-gate.  He joined
+her in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its
+bearing with the most hopeful confidence.  She displayed an equal
+confidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows.
+More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps and
+bounds.  His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold winter
+sunlight.
+
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle's pond.  The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting.  Also it
+looked quite thick and strong.  Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
+that it bore her, and tested it with some care.  She even jumped up and
+down on it.  It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself
+that ice always cracks, more or less.  She set about putting on her
+skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed,
+followed her example.
+
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
+looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently.  No; she
+would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
+till he came. . . .  She could look after him quite as well as the
+Terror. . . .  She had tested the ice thoroughly. . . .  It was
+perfectly safe.
+
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him.  The
+ice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it
+cracked again.  Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling
+Wiggins not to go far from the edge.  She skated round and across the
+pond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight,
+resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came.
+Wiggins skated about the pond.
+
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
+eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
+a shrill cry from Wiggins.  She turned sharply to see the water welling
+up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
+row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
+the wind.
+
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+
+She screamed and dashed toward it.  She had nearly reached it when his
+head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice.  Two more
+steps and a loud crack gave her pause.  It flashed on her that if she
+went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
+water herself.
+
+"Hold on!  Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
+and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+
+She screamed again and yet again.  Wiggins' face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered.  Then she sank down gently, at
+full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
+so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
+toward the hole.  Half a minute's cautious squirming brought her hands
+to the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists.
+The ice bent under her weight, but it did not break.  The icy water,
+welling out over it, began to drench her arms and chest.
+
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could
+not.  She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+
+Wiggins' little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes.  She
+could not.
+
+"C-c-can't you p-p-pull m-m-me out?" chattered Wiggins.
+
+"No, not yet," she said hoarsely.  "But it's all right.  The Terror
+will be here in a minute."
+
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+
+She listened with all her ears for an answer.  A bird squeaked shrilly
+on the other side of the field; there was no other sound.  Wiggins'
+white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of
+fear.  Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+
+"It's d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold," said Wiggins in a very faint voice; he
+began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+
+"Try to stick it out!  Don't give in!  It's only a minute or two
+longer!  The Terror _must_ come!" she cried fiercely.
+
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling
+ashamed of it.  Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of
+hopeless bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in
+their sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal.
+
+They terrified Erebus beyond words.  She screamed, and then she
+screamed and screamed.  Wiggins' face was a mere white blur through her
+blinding tears of terror.
+
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror
+cried loudly: "Stop that row!"
+
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir
+her and Wiggins.  He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+
+Then he cried: "Squirm round to the left.  I'll help you."
+
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and
+she squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending
+ice.
+
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a
+willow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull
+began to draw them toward the bank.  The ice creaked as Wiggins' chest
+came over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once
+flat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily.
+He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most of
+her weight off the ice.  Then he stepped down on to it and picked up
+Wiggins.  Erebus' stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they did
+not open easily to let them go.
+
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then
+he pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened
+the blade with his teeth for quickness' sake, tossed it to Erebus and
+cried: "Cut off his skates!  Pull off his boots and stockings!"
+
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins' coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began
+to rub his chest violently.  In the spring the Twins had attended a
+course of the St. John's Ambulance Society lectures, and among other
+things had learned how to treat those dying from exposure.  The Terror
+was the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been the
+subject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid.
+
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into
+it.  Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with
+cold and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his
+boots, pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at
+his legs.  The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently
+till the blood reddened that.  Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins' knickerbockers and rubbed his
+thighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled
+them on Wiggins' legs.  The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror's coat and jersey came well down them.  Wiggins was completely
+covered.  But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her
+jacket and tied it round Wiggins' waist by the sleeves.
+
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no
+longer a dead waxen color.  He opened his eyes twice and shut them
+feebly.
+
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: "Come on, old chap!  Make an effort!
+We want to get you home!"
+
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins' cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder,
+bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set
+off toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along.  They
+went slowly for Wiggins' feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly
+along.  Their arms round him helped warm him.  It would have taken them
+a long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soon
+after they came out of Pringle's meadows on to the road, Jakes, the
+Great Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle
+Deeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart.  Wiggins was
+quickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington's
+in about four minutes.
+
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to
+Erebus: "You bolt home as hard as you can go.  You must be awfully wet
+and cold; and if you don't want to be laid up, the sooner you take some
+quinine and get to bed the better."
+
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran
+home as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins
+as a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington's house in an uproar.  The
+Terror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and
+housemaid and Mr. Carrington himself.  Wiggins was carried into the hot
+kitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet.
+The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expert
+Terror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must be
+restored slowly.  As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and water
+with a teaspoon.  In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able to
+talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation.
+
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed
+and warm the blankets.  In another five minute's Mr. Carrington carried
+Wiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine.  Presently
+he fell asleep.
+
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without
+stockings and a jersey.  He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr.
+Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over,
+he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the water
+and Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking.  He
+was careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins
+go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for saving
+him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and
+then further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine.  On
+his way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle's pond and picked
+up the skates and garments that had been left there.  When he reached
+home he found that Erebus was in bed.  She seemed little the worse for
+lying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins
+afloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worse
+and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite.
+
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her
+disregard for his instructions; he only said: "I just told Mr.
+Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the
+pond."
+
+"That was awfully decent of you," said Erebus after a pause in which
+she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the
+spirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected.  She was as
+quick as any one to realize that all's well that ends well; and Wiggins
+escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed.  The adventure, however,
+induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescending
+with him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquired
+something of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonly
+solicitous for his welfare.  To such a point did this solicitude go
+that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing about
+him.
+
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their
+lives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their
+games; then tended the inmates of the cats' home, selling them as they
+grew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to
+lap.
+
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.  The free water runs for rather more than half a mile
+on the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it
+with an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling that
+they left no fish for any one else.  Also the Twins tried to get leave
+to fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream.  But
+Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to
+give them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since Sir
+James was absent, shooting big game in Africa.  They resented the
+refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream.  It
+was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early
+morning on the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.
+
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their
+Aunt Amelia.  Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that
+it was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehampton
+had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much.  On his return he
+was able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt's parrot still
+said "dam" with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan
+had let Muttle Deeping Grange.  In the life of the Deeping villages the
+mere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the
+inhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of
+Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of
+their being when the news came that it had been let to a German
+princess.  The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with the
+liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from their
+fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of
+Cassel-Nassau, was only twelve years and seven months old.
+
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors.
+Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a
+_German_ princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the
+matter, and refused to be interested or impressed.  Erebus was more
+resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high
+patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing
+to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea,
+gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with
+meaning, "And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!"
+
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass
+when it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she
+should model herself on a German.
+
+"I don't suppose it would really make any difference who you modeled
+yourself on," said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank than
+grammatical.
+
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of
+her neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her.  She did
+not, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she
+had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor.  They only saw her on her
+afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against the
+sun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness
+(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come to
+England.
+
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for
+her health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she
+should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the
+excellent Deeping air would strengthen her.  The news abated a little
+the cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attention
+to their young neighbor.
+
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and
+her appetite was poor.  Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and
+in particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit.  It was not the
+best season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were
+coming to an end.  Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas.  The
+Twins were annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carry
+out the doctor's orders; but there seemed no help for it.
+
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor's
+visit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling
+their bicycles out of the cats' home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes
+of the Terror; and he said:
+
+"I've got an idea!"
+
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried
+joyfully; "Thank goodness!  I was beginning to get afraid that nothing
+was ever going to occur to us again.  I thought it was the hot weather.
+What is it?"
+
+"Those Germans," said the Terror darkly.  "Now that they've got the
+Grange, why shouldn't we make a raid on the peach-garden.  They say the
+Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told me
+they ripen uncommon early.  They're probably ripe now."
+
+"That's a splendid idea!  It will just teach those Germans!" cried
+Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot.  Then after a pause she added reluctantly: "But if the
+princess is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches
+herself."
+
+"She couldn't want all of them.  Why we couldn't.  There are hundreds,"
+said the Terror quickly.  "And they're the very thing for Mum.  Bananas
+are all very well in their way; but they're not like real fruit."
+
+"Of course; Mum _must_ have them," said Erebus with decision.  "But how
+are we going to get into the peach-garden?  The door in the wall only
+opens on the inside."
+
+"We're not.  I've worked it out.  Now you just hurry up and get some
+big leaves to put the peaches in.  Mum will like them ever so much
+better with the bloom on, though it doesn't really make any difference
+to the taste."
+
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of
+different kinds.  When she came back she found the Terror tying the
+landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing,
+to the backbone of his bicycle.  She put the leaves into her bicycle
+basket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping.
+
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since
+they had spent several days in careful scouting before they had made
+their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds.  A screen of
+trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; and
+the Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood,
+came down the wall behind that screen of trees.
+
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low
+bough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed
+the garden.  It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound
+that disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed
+the golden burden of the tree beneath him.  The ready Erebus handed the
+landing-net up to him.  He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;
+slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the
+wall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a
+leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket.  The Terror netted
+another and another and another.
+
+The garden was not as empty as he believed.  On a garden chair in the
+little lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from
+him by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat,
+or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von
+Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructions
+that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was
+doing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her as
+little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spot
+on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden.  Her
+eyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully
+crimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the
+sound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+
+The princess was warmly--very warmly--dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;
+the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her
+lap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look of
+intolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the
+end-of the wall of pear tree--a moving object against the garden wall.
+She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a
+peach rose and vanished over the top of the wall.  She stared at the
+part of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds another
+peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that,
+in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the
+wall of pear-tree.  As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the
+wall, a fair-haired boy.  Even as she saw him something rose and
+vanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was a
+landing-net.
+
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably,
+raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: "How do you do?"
+
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to
+make admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke
+pursuit and risk his peaches.
+
+"How do you do?" said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+"What are you doing up there?"
+
+"I'm looking at the garden," said the Terror truthfully, but not quite
+accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown.  She
+thought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and
+his serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the
+lie.  She thought that he looked a nice boy.
+
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval--as much approval as
+one could give to a girl.  The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray
+eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line
+from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that it
+made her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face.  She looked
+fragile; and he felt sorry for her.
+
+"This garden's very hot," he said.  "It's like holding one's face over
+an oven."
+
+"Oh, it is," said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+
+"Yet there's quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of the
+walls," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious
+examining eyes.  Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+
+"I tell you what: come out into the wood.  I know an awfully cool
+place.  You'd find it very refreshing," said the Terror in the tone of
+one who has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at
+the sleeping baroness.  The sight of that richly crimson face made the
+garden feel hotter than ever.
+
+"Do come.  My sister's here, and it will be very jolly in the wood--the
+three of us," said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+
+"Are you well-born?"
+
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:
+"Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in
+the Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns.  And they did very well
+at Cr�cy and Agincourt, too," he added pensively.
+
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+
+"Suppose the baroness were to wake?" she said.
+
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror's face: "Oh, is that the
+baroness snoring?  I thought it was a pig," he said frankly.  "She
+won't wake for another hour.  Nobody snoring like that could."
+
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess.  She
+cast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: "Very goot; I
+will coom."
+
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall.  When she came
+through it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it.  The
+Terror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.  He
+gave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in the
+case of a princess, etiquette demanded it.  Then they moved along the
+screen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood.
+
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess,
+which was uncommonly slow.  She kept looking from one to the other with
+curious, rather timid, pleased eyes.  She saw the landing-net that
+Erebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror's bicycle; but she
+saw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches.
+
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the
+home wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through
+without difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths of
+the wood, and moved down it in single file.
+
+"I expect you never found this path," said the Terror to the princess
+who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+
+"No, I haf not found it.  I haf never been in this wood till now," said
+the princess.
+
+"You haven't been in this wood!  But it's the home wood--the jolliest
+part of the estate," cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise.  "And
+there are two paths straight into it from the gardens."
+
+"But I stay always in the gardens," said the princess sedately.  "The
+Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that I
+go out of sight of her."
+
+"But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"Slack?  What is slack?" said the princess.
+
+"She means feeble," said the Terror.  "But all the same those gardens
+are big enough; there's plenty of room to run about in them."
+
+"But I do not run.  It is not dignified.  The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked," said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+
+"No wonder you're delicate," said Erebus, politely trying to keep a
+touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+
+"One can not help being delicate," said the princess.
+
+"I don't know," said the Terror doubtfully.  "If you're in the open air
+a lot and do run about, you don't _keep_ delicate.  Wiggins used to be
+delicate, but he isn't now."
+
+"Who is Wiggins?" said the princess.
+
+"He's a friend of ours--not so old as we are--quite a little boy," said
+Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, would
+have resented with extreme bitterness.  "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told
+Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing with
+children of your own age, you'd soon get strong."
+
+"That's what I've come to England for," said the princess.
+
+"I don't think there's much chance of your getting strong in that
+peach-garden.  It didn't feel to me like the open air at all," said the
+Terror firmly.
+
+"But it is the open air," said the princess.
+
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader
+one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep
+and pathless bank.  The Twins started up it as if it were neither here
+nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
+
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+
+"Am I to climb this?"
+
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle
+against the trunk of a tree, and said:
+
+"I'll help you up."
+
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round
+the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of
+the bank.  He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it;
+but none the less she reached the top panting a little.
+
+"You certainly aren't in very good training," he said rather sadly.
+
+"Training?  What is training?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being fit," said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+
+"And what is being fit?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being strong--and well--and able to run miles and miles," said
+Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+
+"You needn't shout at her," said the Terror.
+
+"I'm trying to make her understand," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"But I do understand--when it is not the slang you are using.  I know
+English quite well," said the princess.
+
+"You certainly speak it awfully well," said the Terror politely.
+
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle.  They went a little
+deeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in
+the cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+
+"This _is_ different," she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure.
+
+[Illustration: "This is different," she said.]
+
+"Yes; this is the real open air," said the Terror.
+
+"But I do get lots of open air," protested the princess.  "Why, I sleep
+with my window open--at least that much."  She held out her two
+forefingers some six inches apart.  "The baroness did not like it.  She
+said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills.  But Doctor
+Arbuthnot said that it must be open.  I think I sleep better."
+
+"We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they'll go; and then
+they're not wide enough in this hot weather," said Erebus in the tone
+of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+
+"I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you'd be cooler still,"
+said the Terror rather quickly.
+
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat
+and jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure.  She had quite
+lost her air of discomfort and boredom.  Her eyes were shining
+brightly; and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitement
+of her situation.
+
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up
+children, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal
+personages unless they first speak to you.  If they were, they did not
+let that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their
+healthy curiosity.  It may be they felt that in the free green wood the
+etiquette of courts was out of place.  At any rate they did not let it
+trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive,
+interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the
+lessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games
+she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea,
+her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner,
+the hour she went to bed.
+
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it
+was only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her
+importance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunate
+mortals.  She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquette
+in not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question.  Indeed
+she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom that
+any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom,
+indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her
+fellow creatures.  She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had
+never had any really sympathetic playmates.  The children of
+Cassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their minds
+were harassed by the fear lest they should be guilty of some appalling
+breach of etiquette.  The manner of the Twins, therefore, was a
+pleasant change for her.  They were polite, but quite unconstrained;
+and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded had
+never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness,
+they were safely asleep in her presence.
+
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new
+friends she looked for.  As she exposed more and more of the trammeling
+net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was
+enmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have found
+so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said
+with heart-felt conviction:
+
+"Well, thank goodness, I'm not a princess!  It must be perfectly awful!"
+
+"It must be nearly as bad to be a prince," said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with
+parted lips and amazed incredulous eyes.  Their words had given her the
+shock of her short lifetime.  As far as memory carried her back, she
+had been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a
+German princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and
+delightful lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little less
+glorious and delightful than the lot of a German prince.
+
+"B-b-but it's sp-p-plendid to be a princess!  Everybody says so!" she
+stammered.
+
+"They were humbugging you.  You've just made it quite clear that it's
+horrid in every kind of way.  Why, you can't do any single thing you
+want to.  There's always somebody messing about you to see that you
+don't," said Erebus with cold decision.
+
+"B-b-but one is a _p-p-princess_," stammered the princess, with
+something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+
+"You're forgetting the food," he said quickly to Erebus.  "I don't
+suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have all
+the sweets and ices she wants."
+
+"Of course," said the princess; and then she went on quickly: "B-b-but
+it isn't what you have to eat that makes it so--so--so important being
+a princess.  It's--"
+
+"But it's awfully important what you have to eat!" cried the Terror.
+
+"I should jolly well think so!" cried Erebus.
+
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her
+exalted station; but the Twins would not have it.  They kept her firmly
+to the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets.  The
+princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly
+but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
+new part of dispenser of information.  Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
+and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.
+
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
+unheeded by the interested trio.  The crimson baroness had awakened,
+missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
+her.  A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
+was not in them.  As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
+panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
+search of her.
+
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
+the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
+tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
+Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
+distant voice calling out.
+
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen!  There's some one
+calling.  I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be getting
+back."
+
+The princess rose reluctantly.  Then her face clouded; and she said in
+a tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear!  How annoyed the baroness will be!"
+
+"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus.
+
+"But I have to; she's my--my _gouvernante_," said the princess.
+
+"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time," said Erebus coldly.
+
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+
+"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us.  She
+mightn't think we were good for you.  Some people round here don't seem
+to understand us," said the Terror suavely.
+
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
+brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are you
+coming to-morrow?"
+
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully.  They had no plans for the
+morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
+exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.
+
+At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror's heart.
+
+"We should like to come very much," he said.
+
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.
+
+"I don't think I shall be able to come," said Erebus with the important
+air of one burdened with many affairs.
+
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: "But if your
+brother comes?"
+
+"Oh, I'll come, anyhow," said the Terror.
+
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+
+"Oh, it isn't the baroness.  It's Miss Lambart," said the princess in a
+tone of relief.
+
+"You take too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus again firmly.
+"Who is Miss Lambart?"
+
+"She's my English lady-in-waiting.  I always have one when I'm in
+England, of course.  I like her.  She tries to amuse me.  But the
+baroness doesn't like her," said the princess, and she sighed.
+
+"Come along, I'll help you down the bank and take you pretty close to
+Miss Lambart.  It wouldn't do for her to know of this place.  It's our
+secret lair," said the Terror.
+
+"I see," said the princess.
+
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried
+her down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from
+which Miss Lambart had called.  As they went he adjured her to confine
+herself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walking
+in the wood.  His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of the
+drive, were:
+
+"Don't you stand so much nonsense from that baroness."
+
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and
+found her thirty yards away.  The Terror slipped noiselessly away
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess' footsteps, and said:
+"Oh, here you are, Highness.  We've all been hunting for you.  The
+baroness thought you were lost."
+
+"I thought I would walk in the wood," said the princess demurely.
+
+"It certainly seems to have done you good.  You're looking brighter and
+fresher than you've looked since you've been down here."
+
+"The wood is real open air," said the princess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease,
+eating a peach.
+
+"I should have liked one a good deal sooner," he said, as he took one
+from the basket.  "But I didn't like to say anything about them.  She
+mightn't have understood."
+
+"It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't," said Erebus somewhat
+truculently.
+
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had
+so plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+
+"She's not a bad kid," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"She's awfully feeble.  Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a
+bank.  She's not any use to us," said Erebus in a tone of contempt.
+"In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should
+find her a perfect nuisance."
+
+"Perhaps.  Still we may as well amuse her a bit.  She seems to be
+having a rotten time with that old red baroness and all that
+etiquette," said the Terror in a kindly tone.
+
+"She needn't stand it, if she doesn't like it.  I shouldn't," said
+Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: "I tell you
+what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that old
+red baroness."
+
+"Yes," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But I expect she'd take a lot of
+teaching.  I don't think she's the kind of kid to do much jumping on
+people."
+
+"Oh, you never know.  We can always try," said Erebus cheerfully.
+
+"Yes," said the Terror.
+
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood.  It
+was not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered
+by bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved
+as the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but
+little attention to it.  The Twins moved out of it safely and returned
+home with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they had
+been treating a princess with singular firmness.  Nor were they at all
+troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mental
+kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuum
+applied to fruit.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that
+afternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and
+bought them for her there.  When two more were forthcoming for her
+dessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so much
+of their salary for "overseering" on her.  The Twins said nothing.  It
+was only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she
+began to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not of
+trade.  Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little late
+to inquire and protest.  Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twins
+had admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit of
+it.  Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing.
+
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping
+home wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who
+met them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes.
+This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain to
+them of this unheard-of breach of etiquette.  She was doubtful how the
+complaint would be received at any rate by Erebus.
+
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since
+the sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it
+rather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror.  There was
+something very satisfactory in his strength.  Again they settled
+themselves comfortably on the bank of the pool.
+
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another.  Beside the clear
+golden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the
+pale face of the princess looked waxen.  The blue linen blouse, short
+serge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt,
+serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them an
+air not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb.  In
+her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings and
+heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddled
+sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased
+by the Terror's observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all
+when one had such thick hair as she.  But she was some time acting on
+Erebus' suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be
+more comfortable still.
+
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to
+tell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her
+having gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home
+wood.
+
+"I tell you what: you've spoilt that baroness," said the Terror when
+she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+
+"But she's my _gouvernante_.  I have to do as she bids," protested the
+princess.
+
+"That's all rubbish.  You're the princess; and other people ought to do
+what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any silly
+thing you don't want to.  She wouldn't me," said Erebus with even
+greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+
+"I don't think she would," said the princess with a faint sigh; and she
+looked at Erebus with envious eyes.  "But when she starts making a fuss
+and gets so red and excited, she--she--rather frightens me."
+
+"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me," said Erebus with a
+very cold ferocity.
+
+"I rather like people like that.  I think they look so funny when
+they're really red and excited," said the Terror gently.  "But what
+you've got to do is to stand up to her."
+
+"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+
+"Tell her that you don't care what she says," said the Terror.
+
+"Cheek her," said Erebus.
+
+"I couldn't.  It would be too difficult," said the princess, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find how
+soon you'll get used to shutting her up," said the Terror.  "But I
+don't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy.  I believe in
+being quite polite but not giving way."
+
+"She is very noisy," said the princess.
+
+"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her.  It's the only way.  But mind
+you only have rows when you're in the right about something," said the
+Terror.  "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone.  It's no good
+having a row when you're in the wrong."
+
+"I think it's best always to have a row," said Erebus with an air of
+wide experience.
+
+"Well, it isn't--at least it wouldn't be for the princess--she's not
+like you," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"Oh, no: not always--only when one is in the right.  I see that," said
+the princess.  "But what should I have a row about?"
+
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a
+pretext for an honest row.
+
+Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have some
+one to play with?  It's silly being as dull as you are.  What's the
+good of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled.  "It would be nice!  You and Erebus could come to tea with me
+and sooper and loonch often and again!"
+
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay.  It
+was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go
+to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and
+girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+
+"That wouldn't do at all," said the Terror quickly.  "You had better
+not tell them anything at all about us.  They wouldn't let us come to
+the Grange; and they'd stop you coming here.  It's ever so much nicer
+meeting secretly like this."
+
+"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here," said
+the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+
+"It couldn't be done.  They wouldn't have us at the Grange," said
+Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+
+"But why not?" said the princess in surprise.
+
+"The people about here don't understand us," said the Terror somewhat
+sadly.  "They'd think we should be bad for you."
+
+"But it is not so!  You are ever so good to me!" cried the princess
+hotly.
+
+"It's no good.  You couldn't make grown-ups see that--you know what
+they are.  No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet
+us here," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she
+sighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say.  You know more about
+it."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you.
+Suppose we taught you some exercises.  You could practise them at home;
+and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us."
+
+"What things?" said the princess.
+
+"Oh, you'd be able to run--and jump.  Why we might even be able to
+teach you to climb," said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his
+tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner
+vision.
+
+"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess.  Forthwith the Twins set
+about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of
+muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil.  In spite of the
+seeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back
+to the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate
+before she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the
+house or about the gardens.  The Terror therefore conducted her down
+the screen of trees to the door in the wall.  She had left it
+unlatched; and he pushed it open gently.  There was no sound of
+snoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden.
+
+"I expect she is still looking for me in the house," said the princess
+calmly.  "They'd be shouting if she weren't."
+
+"Yes.  I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?" said the Terror,
+looking round the loaded walls.
+
+"Me?  No.  I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch.  But I
+don't care for peaches much.  It's the way the baroness eats them, I
+think--the juice roonning down, you know.  And she eats six or seven
+always."
+
+"That woman's a pig.  I thought she looked like one," said the Terror
+with conviction.  "But if you don't want them all, may I have some for
+my mother?  The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond of
+peaches."
+
+"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus.  Take them
+all," said the princess with quick generosity.
+
+"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps," said the Terror.
+
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large
+cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil.  But when she
+was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.
+Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked
+the Twins how they came by them.  They assured her that they had been
+given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a
+secret.  She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it
+likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom
+took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that
+either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on
+eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body.  They adjured her again and again to thrust off
+the yoke of the baroness.  The last pregnant words of Erebus to her
+were: "You just call her an old red pig, and see."
+
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that
+very evening.  The princess was dining with the Baroness Von
+Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly
+jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk
+with the princess; and she had done it rudely.  The princess, who
+wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed.  They had reached
+dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in
+her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that
+it must be the air of Muttle Deeping.  The baroness uttered a loud and
+contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches.  The princess
+looked at her with an expression of great dislike.  The baroness
+gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human
+being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the
+princess spoke.
+
+"I want some children to play with," she said.
+
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped
+down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are no
+children in zis country, your Royal Highness."
+
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in
+England.
+
+"But I see plenty of children when I drive," said the princess.
+
+"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born," said the
+baroness in rasping tones.
+
+"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with," said the princess.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice.  "Bud eed ees whad
+I know ees goot for you."
+
+"They're good for me," said the princess firmly.  "And you must find
+them."
+
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display
+of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer
+crimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: "Bud eed ees
+eembossible whad your royal highness ask!  Zere are no 'igh an'
+well-born children 'ere.  Zey are een Loondon."
+
+"Well, you must send for some," said the princess, who, having taken
+the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?  I do nod know whad ees 'appen to you, your Royal
+Highness.  I say eed ees eembossible!" shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+
+"But surely her highness' request is a very natural one, Baroness; and
+there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look
+for them.  Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have
+children of her own age to play with," said Miss Lambart who had been
+pitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping
+her to the companionship she needed.
+
+"Do nod indervere, Englanderin!" bellowed the baroness; and her crimson
+was enriched with streaks of purple.  "I am in ze charge of 'er royal
+highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay."
+
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow.
+She was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her
+young mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+
+"Old--red--peeg."
+
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping
+grunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+
+"But whad--but whad--" she said faintly.
+
+"Old--red--peeg," said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effect
+of the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+
+"Bud whad ees eed zat 'appen?" muttered the bewildered baroness.
+
+"If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father
+that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
+everything what the English doctor bids," said the princess in a
+sinister tone.  "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the
+Baroness Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_."
+
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
+happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
+Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
+well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.
+
+"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness," she
+said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+
+The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them.  Is
+it not, Mees Lambart?"
+
+"I shall be charmed to try, Highness," said Miss Lambart readily.
+
+"Do nod indervere!  I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped the
+baroness.
+
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
+glowing with the joy of victory.  At the door she paused to say:
+
+"And I want them soon--at once."
+
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
+night air, she went firmly out into the garden.  The next morning at
+breakfast she again demanded children to play with.
+
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
+baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
+to come to play with the princess.  She only stipulated that they
+should be high and well-born.
+
+"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins--Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl.  They're high and well-born
+enough.  But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl.  They're independent young people.  Besides, I'm not at all sure
+that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess.  It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such--er--er ardent spirits.  You might have her developing a spirit of
+freedom; and you wouldn't like that."
+
+"_Mein Gott_, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction.
+
+"Then there's Wiggins--Rupert Carrington.  He's younger and quieter but
+active enough.  He'd soon teach her to run about."
+
+"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness.
+
+"Well-born?  He's a _Carrington_," said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
+impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily.  When the princess, who had
+hoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him
+with resignation.  Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of
+Wiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on the
+qualifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+
+"Of course, he'll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; he
+always does.  But you mustn't mind that."
+
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate
+be a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their
+fair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend.  Not only was his
+reluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English young
+gentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit as
+sincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a little
+girl far more insulting than they would have done.  They did their best
+to soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing out
+to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, and
+impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+
+"Yes; that's all very well," said Wiggins gloomily.  "But I've been
+seeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now I
+shall see less than ever."
+
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the
+stiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and he
+scalped her with gratifying frequency.  In this way it came about that,
+in the matter of play, the princess led a double life.  She spent the
+early part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from tea
+till the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society of
+Wiggins.  She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wiggins
+was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he could
+tell.  Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air.
+They took that change at but a short distance from their home, since
+the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford.
+They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in
+the dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle of
+Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther.
+
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from
+the knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of
+philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they
+could.  She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going
+to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been
+made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was
+presently weeping.  She was ashamed; but she could not help it.  The
+compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would try
+to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly
+the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was
+magnificently inspired.
+
+"Look here: why shouldn't you come with us into camp?" he said eagerly.
+"A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange.  You
+really do get open air camping out at the knoll."
+
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid
+thought.  Then it fell; and she said: "They'd never let me--never."
+
+"But you'd never ask them," said the Terror.  "You'd just slip away and
+come with us.  We've kept our knowing you so dark that they'd never
+dream you were with us in the knoll caves."
+
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect.  She
+had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the
+afternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them
+would be beyond the delight of dreams.  But to her unadventured soul
+the difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting.  The Twins, however,
+were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began
+surmounting these.
+
+"The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,"
+said the Terror thoughtfully.  "You see, I've got to go down every day
+for milk and things, and they're sure to ask me if I've seen anything
+of you.  Of course, I can't lie about it; and then they'll not only
+take you away, but they'll probably turn us out of the caves."
+
+"That's the drawback," said Erebus.
+
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment.  A deep frown
+furrowed the Terror's brow; and he said: "If only you weren't a
+princess they wouldn't make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I
+might never be asked anything about you."
+
+"I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a
+glorious smile, and he cried:
+
+"By Jove!  Of course you would!  I never thought of that!  Why, you'd
+be some one else and not the princess at all!  We shouldn't know where
+the princess was if we were asked."
+
+"Of course we shouldn't!" said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of this
+ignorance.
+
+"I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: "I
+suppose you have to have a title.  But I think an English one would be
+best here: Lady Rowington now.  No one would ever ask us where Lady
+Rowington is, because there isn't any Lady Rowington."
+
+"Oh, yes: Lady Rowington--I would wish an English title," said the
+princess readily.
+
+"If we could only think of some way of making them think that she'd
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still," said Erebus.
+
+"Gipsies don't steal children nowadays," said the Terror; and he paused
+considering.  Then he added, "I tell you what though: Nihilists
+would--at least they'd steal a princess.  Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?"
+
+"I never heard of any," said the princess.  "There are thousands of
+Socialists."
+
+"Socialists will do," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till
+the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have
+everything in order.  Then they discussed her needs.  She could not
+bring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not
+been stolen.  She must share the wardrobe of Erebus.
+
+"But, no.  I have money," said the princess, thrusting her hand into
+her pocket.  "Will you not buy me clothes?"
+
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and
+handed it to the Terror.  He and Erebus examined it with warm
+admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
+
+"We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow.  There's a pool
+just under the knoll," said the Terror.  "How much shall we want,
+Erebus?"
+
+"You'd better have two pounds and be on the safe side," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to
+his own.  Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of
+the peach-garden at nine o'clock, or thereabouts at night.  He would
+wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
+the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will.  He made several
+suggestions about the manner of her escape.
+
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
+purchasing her outfit.  They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
+shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
+stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress.  They carried the parcels
+home on their bicycles.  When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
+Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
+
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
+throwing the searchers off the scent.  It was:
+
+[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned "We are avenged.  A
+Desparate Socialist"]
+
+
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
+Knoll.  The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so
+that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom
+Cobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
+encamped with them.  This year she had not cared for the effort; and
+she had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuous
+atmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and
+pleasant.  She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to
+encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll.  Not only were they of approved
+readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were
+as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
+isle.  She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take as
+many blankets as she suggested.  In other years he had been disposed to
+grumble at the number she thought necessary.
+
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite.  Then they began
+to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
+brought them up, in their proper caves.  With a break of an hour for a
+bath this occupied them till tea-time.  After tea they bathed again and
+then set about collecting fuel from the wood.  They were too tired to
+spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
+their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs.  They
+were up betimes, bathing.
+
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before.  They spent most
+of it in the pool or on its bank.  In the afternoon Wiggins came and
+did not leave them till seven.  Soon after eight o'clock the Terror set
+out to keep his tryst with the princess.  He took with him the
+Socialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening
+from the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange to
+Deeping Knoll.  Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall
+two or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
+
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess
+on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it.  He shook
+hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told
+him how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone
+to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen,
+down the stairs and out of the house.  He praised her skill; and she
+found his praise very grateful.
+
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the
+princess found them daunting.  They were full of strange noises, many
+of them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes
+seemed to move.  The Terror was not long discovering her fear, and
+forthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the
+path was broad enough to allow it.  When she quivered to some woodland
+sound, he told her what it was and eased her mind.
+
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active
+games with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough
+ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down
+and rested.  The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled
+to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror.
+When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into
+the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests
+of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her.  She was
+almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+
+[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot
+of the knoll.]
+
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey
+the princess found it grateful indeed.  They sat for a while in a row
+before the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the
+princess had visited.  But soon the yawns which she could not repress
+showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that she
+should go to bed.
+
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to
+herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it
+alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the
+cave of Erebus.  After the journey and the excitement she was not long
+falling into a dreamless sleep.
+
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk.
+Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath.  The
+princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but
+under the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went.  She
+came out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she
+came to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her
+life enjoyed.
+
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the
+caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games
+of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to
+an active life.  It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;
+after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of
+which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as
+hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you
+could yell.  After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported
+themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o'clock.
+
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping
+her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required
+speed.  Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full
+half-hour before he and Erebus left it.  After dinner the princess was
+so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terror
+insisted that she should lie down for an hour.  She protested that she
+did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this
+glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
+
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon.  But he could be admitted
+safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had
+become Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to
+profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts.  Also he would be very
+useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the
+excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess.  So far
+its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were
+content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three
+counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for
+some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists and
+a princess.  It was the general belief that she had been chloroformed
+and abducted through her bedroom window.
+
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the
+probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the
+routes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and the
+towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be.  At the
+end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes,
+very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+"You might have told me that she was coming here."
+
+"You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"So I should, if I'd known you knew her at all," said Wiggins.
+
+"That's what nobody knows," said Erebus triumphantly.
+
+"And look here: she's here incognita," said the Terror.  "She's taken
+the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she's not the princess at
+all.  So if you're asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully
+say she isn't."
+
+"Of course--I see.  This is a go!" said Wiggins cheerfully; and he
+spurned the earth.
+
+"The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we're not expecting them and see her," said the Terror.  "So I'm going
+to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will
+shout to us.  But there's no need to do that yet; nobody will think
+about us for a day or two."
+
+"No; of course they won't.  I didn't," said Wiggins.
+
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that
+followed.  It kept the princess always beside the Terror.  Always he
+was using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required
+speed.  Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princess
+been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough
+ground.  On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly
+move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing
+yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had
+died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his
+pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly
+fond of no one.  It is hardly too much to say that she was coming to
+adore the Terror.  Even at their most violent and thrilling moments his
+care for her never relaxed.  He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he
+plastered her scratches.  He saw to it that she came out of the pool
+the moment that she looked chill.  He picked out for her the tidbits at
+their meals.  He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass
+was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly
+refused to play the lady's-maid.  Since the Terror was one of those who
+enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently
+forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in
+handling the silken strands.
+
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her
+hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe
+shock.  Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;
+indeed, she had never had the chance.  But he had just finished his
+task and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a
+sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and
+kissed him.
+
+"Oh, you _are_ nice!" she said.
+
+The Terror's ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds.
+He flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any
+one should have seen it!
+
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: "Don't
+you like for me to kiss you?"
+
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said,
+faintly but gallantly: "Yes--oh, rather."
+
+"Then kiss me," said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her
+gingerly.
+
+"I _am_ fond of you, you know," said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+
+The Terror's scattered wits at last worked.  He rose to his feet, and
+said quickly:
+
+"Yes; let's be getting to the others."
+
+The princess rose obediently.
+
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not
+frequent, were, at any rate, not rare.  The Terror at first endured
+them; then he came rather to like them.  But he strictly enjoined
+discretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that she
+kissed him.  The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one else
+for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no
+natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware
+of the practise.
+
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;
+and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out
+of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+
+"I suppose the Terror's in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that.  I think it's awfully silly."  And he spurned the earth.
+
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: "He never does!"
+
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;
+and her eyes were flashing.  He had seen her angry often enough, but
+never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a
+grievous indiscretion.
+
+"Perhaps she kissed him," he said quickly.
+
+"He'd never let her!" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"Perhaps they didn't," said Wiggins readily.
+
+"You know they did!" cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+
+"I may have made a mistake.  It's quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing," said Wiggins.
+
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from
+his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl.  He had seen the
+princess with an arm round the Terror's neck, and they had kissed.
+
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the
+least resistance, sought the princess.  She found her lying back
+drowsily against a sunny bank.
+
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: "Princess
+or no princess, you shan't kiss the Terror!"
+
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up.  Her gray eyes darkened
+and sparkled.  She had never made a face in her life; it is not
+improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was
+ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous
+face at Erebus, and said:
+
+"I shall!"
+
+"If you do, I'll smack you!" cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth.
+
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by
+a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in
+the matter of a male.  She met Erebus' blazing eyes squarely and said
+confidently:
+
+"He won't let you.  And if you do he'll smack you--much harder!"
+
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then
+and there.  But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules
+only permit you to strike any one standing up.  Erebus forgot them,
+stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a
+really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror.
+
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and
+she cried:
+
+"I know all about your kissing the princess!  I never heard of such
+silly babyishness!"
+
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to
+the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as
+he said:
+
+"Well, what harm is there in it?"
+
+"It's babyish!  It's what mollycoddles do!  It's girlish!  It's--"
+
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+
+"You mind your own business!  It isn't babyish at all!  She's asked me
+to marry her; and when we're grown up I'm going to--so there!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AND THE UNREST CURE
+
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by
+what she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission
+had raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered
+no protest.  She knew that protest would be vain, that against his
+obstinacy she was helpless.  She wrung her hands and turned aside into
+the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiest
+ideals.
+
+Then followed a period of strain.  She assumed an attitude of very
+haughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins,
+and let them coldly alone.  From this attitude Wiggins was the chief
+sufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;
+Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the
+strenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily.  As
+often as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined the
+errant pair.  It is to be feared that the princess found the kisses
+sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on
+Deeping Knoll.  There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the
+Twins had had a hand in her disappearance.  But no one had any reason
+to suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted.  Doctor
+Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but they
+were mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always very
+careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was at
+the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficient
+truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was.  The
+bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down.
+Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice
+Falconer in the matter.  When he first read in his _Morning Post_ of
+the disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from
+Muttle Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: "The Twins
+again!" and to that conviction his mind clung.
+
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the
+Socialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny
+paper.  He told himself that Socialists are an educated, even
+over-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skull
+and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rate
+accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialist
+would spell desperate with two "a's" in an important document without
+being corrected by a confederate.  On the other hand the drawing of the
+skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which the
+immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two "a's" in
+any document.
+
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of
+his relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been
+for the international situation produced by the disappearance of the
+princess.  As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings,
+dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled to
+postpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organ
+and organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudly
+disavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England and
+Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at one
+another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiring
+frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets.  Even then
+Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would
+not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet
+minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty
+thousand pounds' worth of consols.  He disliked the lady so strongly
+that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt
+that the time had come to ease the international situation.
+
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping.  His conviction
+that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess
+became certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were
+encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that
+disappearance.  But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his
+habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
+
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood
+and park to Muttle Deeping Grange.  He gave his card to the butler and
+told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms
+of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three
+minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
+
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:
+"Is this business worrying you?"
+
+"It is rather.  You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible.  Besides, since I'm
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being
+taken explained; and they want the same explanation over and over
+again.  Since the archduke came it has been very trying.  I think that
+he is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that they've been worrying you like this.  If I'd
+known, I'd have come down and stopped it earlier," said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of lively self-reproach.
+
+"Stop it?  Why, what can you do?" cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyes
+wide in her surprise.
+
+"Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess.  But it's only a belief, mind.  So don't be too hopeful."
+
+Miss Lambart's pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+
+"Oh, if you could!" she cried.
+
+"Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can,
+for the easier part; and we'll put my belief to the test," said Sir
+Maurice briskly.
+
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: "I shan't be able to
+get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss.  They're very unpleasant
+people, you know.  Could we take the baroness with us?  She'll _have_
+to be carried in something."
+
+"Is she very fat?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Then she'd never get to the place I have in mind," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Is it very far?  Couldn't we walk to it?"
+
+"It's about three miles," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing--at least not for me.  But you?" said Miss Lambart,
+who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
+weakling.
+
+"I can manage it.  Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
+limbs," said Sir Maurice.  "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and
+pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years."
+
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
+park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
+surface of the distant wood.  Sir Maurice had once walked to it with
+the Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
+inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
+course.  It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
+charming companion through such a charming country.
+
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+"Where are we going to?  Where do you think the princess is?"
+
+"You've been here a month.  Haven't you heard of the Dangerfield
+twins?" said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
+and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them.  But he said that they were not
+the kind of children for her, though they were the only high and
+well-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood.  He
+seemed to think that they would make her rebellious."
+
+"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"I wonder," said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+
+"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her--a
+very nice little boy," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Wiggins!  The Twins' greatest friend!  Well, I'll be shot!" cried Sir
+Maurice; and he laughed.
+
+"But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
+something to do with the princess' disappearance?  How old are they?"
+said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
+mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
+Socialists and foreigners.
+
+"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen.  But I do know
+that nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their
+having a hand in it.  I have the honor to be their uncle," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them.  She's
+a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
+she is delicate to fragility," Miss Lambart protested.
+
+"If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of deep conviction.  "But it would not necessarily be a
+matter of persuasion."
+
+"But what else could it be--children of thirteen or fourteen!" cried
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"I assure you that it might quite easily have been force," said Sir
+Maurice seriously.  "My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll.
+It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part
+communicating with one another.  I can conceive of nothing more likely
+than that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;
+and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom.  They
+might lure her to some distance from the Grange before they had
+recourse to force."
+
+"It sounds incredible--children," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Sir Maurice cheerfully.  Then he added in a
+more doubtful tone; "If only we can take them by surprise, which won't
+be so easy as it sounds."
+
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase.  But it was a
+very pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking
+with him through this pleasant sunny land.  When presently he turned
+the talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still.
+He was very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance at
+having had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome _corv�e_ of
+acting as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to the
+domineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome _corv�e_
+indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been.  He
+sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented by
+that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess.
+
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the
+baroness and the archduke during the last few days.  The baroness had
+tried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; and
+the archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at
+having been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash to
+England, had been very rude indeed.  She was much pleased by the warmth
+of Sir Maurice's indignation; but she protested against his making any
+attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, without
+harming himself.  But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke,
+nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in
+the broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path
+led to the knoll.  Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take
+it.  He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have it
+guarded, if the princess were indeed with them.  He led the way into
+the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for her
+carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her frock
+get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the
+knoll.
+
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir
+Maurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering
+earnestly ahead through the branches.  Now and again a loud yell came
+from the knoll; and once a chorus of yells.  Finding that her coldness
+(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on her
+insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;
+and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in
+an astonished whisper:
+
+"That was awfully like the princess' voice."
+
+"I thought you said she was delicate," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"So she was," said Miss Lambart firmly.
+
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen
+and unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the
+knoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in its
+face.  They waited, watching it.
+
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning
+to wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed
+kin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging
+down her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped
+into a clump of bushes to the right of it.
+
+"The princess!" said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward,
+but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing
+in a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+
+"That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington," said Sir Maurice.
+
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an
+ear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms
+round his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came
+to the ground.
+
+"Delicate to fragility," muttered Sir Maurice.
+
+"Whatever has she been doing to herself?" said Miss Lambart faintly,
+gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+
+"You don't know the Twins," said Sir Maurice.
+
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a
+breakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the
+battling pair.  As far as the spectators could judge she and the
+princess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelled
+their shrillest.  Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from the
+cave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the aching
+welkin rang.
+
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and
+Wiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled.  The princess
+and the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled.  The princess
+wriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an arm
+round his neck.
+
+"It was splendid!" she cried, and kissed him.
+
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very
+good grace.
+
+"Well, I never!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"These delicate children," said Sir Maurice.  "But it's certainly a
+delightful place for lovers.  I'm so glad we've found it."
+
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was
+flushing.
+
+"Come along!" she said quickly.
+
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first.  He did not stir; but a curious,
+short, sharp cry came from his throat.  It seemed to loose a spring in
+the princess.  She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly,
+frowning.  The Terror rose more slowly.
+
+"Good afternoon, Highness.  I've come to take you back to the Grange,"
+said Miss Lambart.
+
+"I'm not going," said the princess firmly.
+
+"I'm afraid you must.  Your father is there; and he wants you," said
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"No," said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewise
+toward the mouth of the cave.
+
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his
+pockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator.
+
+"But if you don't come of yourself, we shall have to carry you," said
+Miss Lambart sternly.
+
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: "I don't see
+how you can.  You can't touch a princess you know.  It would be
+_l�se-majest�_.  She's told me all about it."
+
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir
+Maurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively.  But he said: "Oh, come;
+this won't do, Terror, don't you know!  Her highness will _have_ to
+come."
+
+"I don't see how you're going to get her.  The only person who could
+use force is the prince himself, and I don't think he could be got up
+to the knoll.  He's too heavy.  I've seen him.  And if you did get him
+up, I don't really think he'd ever find her in these caves," said the
+Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirely
+impersonal matter.
+
+"Anyhow, I'm not going," said the princess with even greater firmness.
+
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity.
+
+"You see, there isn't any real reason why she shouldn't stay here,"
+said the Terror.  "She came to England to improve her health; and she's
+improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange.  You
+can _see_ how improved it is.  She eats nearly as much as Erebus."
+
+"She has certainly changed," said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+
+"The Twins have a transforming effect on the young," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of resignation.
+
+"I am much better," said the princess.  "I'm getting quite strong, and
+I can run ever so fast."
+
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"But it's nonsense!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"But what can you _do_?" said the Terror gently.
+
+"I'll chance the _l�se-majest�_!" cried Miss Lambart; and she sprang
+swiftly forward.
+
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it.  Miss Lambart followed
+swiftly.  The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage
+forked into three dimmer passages.  Miss Lambart stopped short and
+tried to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of the
+retiring princess.  It came from none of the three; the floor of the
+eaves was covered with sound-deadening sand.  Miss Lambart walked back
+to the entrance of the cave.
+
+"She has escaped," she said in a tone of resignation.
+
+"Well, I really don't see any reason for you to put yourself about for
+the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange.  You have done more
+than you were called on to do in finding her.  You can leave the
+catching of her to them.  There's nothing to worry about: it's quite
+clear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good," said Sir
+Maurice in a comforting tone.
+
+"Yes; there is that," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Let me introduce my nephew.  Hyacinth Dangerfield--better, much
+better, known as the Terror--to you," Said Sir Maurice.
+
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: "How do you do?  I've been
+wanting to know you: the princess--I mean Lady Rowington--likes you
+ever so much."
+
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+
+"Perhaps you could give us some tea?  We want it badly," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes, I can.  We only drink milk and cocoa, of course.  But we have
+some tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday," said the
+Terror.
+
+"I take it that she saw nothing of the princess," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; she didn't see Lady Rowington.  You must remember that she's
+Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh?  I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess," said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"Yes; that was how," said the Terror blandly.
+
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their
+kettle on the fire for some time.  Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed
+the picnic greatly.  On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed.
+Miss Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess;
+and she came out of hiding and took her tea with them.
+
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical
+change in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was
+a browner, brighter, stronger child.  Plainly, too, she was a more
+determined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved of
+that change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved by
+the princess' kinsfolk and train.  But she was somewhat distressed that
+the legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deep
+scratches.  She had none of the experienced Twins' quickness to see and
+dodge thorns.  She took Miss Lambart's sympathy lightly enough; indeed
+she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorable
+warfare.
+
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was
+assured that this green wood life was the very thing the princess
+needed, she was resolved to give him no help herself.  She was pleased
+to learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess'
+acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance and
+cultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in the
+peach-garden.
+
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of
+their entertainers and set out through the wood.  They had not gone a
+hundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that the
+strenuous life had again begun.
+
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle
+Deeping Grange with the news of their great discovery.  But she found
+that Sir Maurice had formed other plans.  They were both agreed that no
+consideration was owing to the billowy archduke.  His manners deprived
+him of any right to it.  Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping
+post-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and help
+wrote two long telegrams.  The first was to the editor of the Morning
+Post, the second was to the prime minister.  In both he set forth his
+discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in a
+wood, and her reasons for running away to them.  The postmistress
+despatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease
+the international situation at once.  Since both the editor and the
+prime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there was
+no fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect.
+
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of
+Mrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged
+Europe into Armageddon.  Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with
+unruffled calm.  She showed no surprise at all; she only said that she
+had found it very strange that a princess should vanish at Muttle
+Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it.  She perceived at once that
+the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name of
+Lady Rowington.
+
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no
+haste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant
+atmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange.  It was past seven therefore when
+the Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archduke
+with her news.
+
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he
+always fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with
+sufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of her
+news.  He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it.  It
+annoyed him greatly.  He was taking considerable pleasure in standing
+on a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern
+sire.  His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laugh
+consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter.  His second feeling
+was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirring
+things about the Terror's manifesto and the stolen princess, would be
+furiously angry with him.
+
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss
+Lambart was ignorant.  Then when he grew cooler and paler his
+oft-repeated phrase was: "Eet must be 'ushed!"
+
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care
+that the affair should not be hushed up.  She did not wish every blow
+to strike him at once.  Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste
+he rolled off to the dining-room.
+
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke's equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up
+the stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at
+once, as she was.  She took no heed of the command, dressed at her
+ease, and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after his
+struggle with the hors-d'oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his
+first entr�e.
+
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about
+the place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was
+encamped with.  Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as
+clearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible.
+Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercised
+her authority and brought the princess back with her.
+
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that
+if she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and
+that it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through
+miles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns were
+sacrosanct.
+
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and
+summon home his truant child.  Miss Lambart objected that it would mean
+hewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit his
+passage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allow
+it.  Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go.  Miss Lambart with
+infinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must be
+hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there was
+not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves.
+
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity.  Then he
+struck the table and cried:
+
+"Count Zerbst shall do eet!  To-morrow morning!  You shall 'eem lead to
+ze wood.  'E shall breeng 'er."
+
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a
+German count would hardly be proper.
+
+"Brobare?  What ees 'brobare'?" said the archduke.
+
+"_Convenable_," said Miss Lambart.
+
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to
+militate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the
+earliest possible moment.  Miss Lambart said that they must.  In the
+end it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowington
+and that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to the
+entrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to the
+princess her father's command to return to the Grange, and if she
+should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car.
+
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would
+never set eyes, much less hands, on the princess.  Count Zerbst's
+smooth pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little
+mustache, which in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion
+accentuated the extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his small
+eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely something about "sdradegy."  He
+looked at Miss Lambart very unamiably.  He felt that she was not
+impressed by him as were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resented
+it.  He resolved to capture the princess at any cost.
+
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the _Morning
+Post_ the true story of his daughter's disappearance; and he was fuming
+still when the car came from Rowington.  It was a powerful car and a
+weight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been
+careful to demand a weight-carrier.  With immense fuss the archduke
+disposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled with
+billowy curves.  The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang to
+the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she might
+the more easily direct his course.
+
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no
+objection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran
+the path to the knoll.  At the entrance of it the count stepped out of
+the car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the air
+of a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but he
+was to bring her at once.
+
+In a last generous outburst he cried: "Pooll 'er by the ear!  Bud
+breeng 'er."
+
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and
+martial air.  Miss Lambart was not impressed by it.  She thought that
+in his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently
+tighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place
+under the green wood trees.  She remembered how lightly the Twins and
+the princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his getting
+near any of them.  Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods she
+had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which
+to approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent.  Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with
+all the competence of a trumpet.
+
+Her doubt was well-grounded.  The quick ears of Erebus were the first
+to catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred
+yards from the entrance of the path to the knoll.  Ever since the
+departure of Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been making
+ready against invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings to
+the secret caves.
+
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to
+the knoll.  They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well
+lighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge.  But the
+entrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave
+in the heart of the knoll.  On this shaft the Twins had spent their
+best pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they had
+reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches high
+and eighteen inches broad.  The opening into this passage could,
+naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was
+hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave.  It had been a
+somewhat difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so
+narrow a passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite
+sure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car
+was coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed
+their way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind
+them, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between the
+larger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of the
+wall of the cave.  Then she betook herself to a point of vantage among
+the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch the
+entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an
+excellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train
+from Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais.  Miss
+Lambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on the
+efforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll.  She stepped out of the car and
+strolled up and down on the pleasant turf.  Presently she saw a figure
+coming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when it
+came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice.
+
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the
+discoverer of his daughter's hiding-place.  The archduke, mindful of
+the fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance
+to the world, received him ungraciously.  Miss Lambart at once told Sir
+Maurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectation
+that anything would come of it.  Sir Maurice agreed with her; and the
+fuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promising
+soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau.  Then Sir Maurice suggested that
+they should go to the knoll and help the count.  Miss Lambart assented
+readily; and they set out at once.  They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll.  It was quiet and seemed utterly
+deserted.
+
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer.
+Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they
+should find him and help him search them; they plunged into the caves
+and began to hunt for him.  They did not find the count; neither did
+they find the princess nor the Twins.  They shouted to him many times
+as they traversed the caves; but they had no answer.
+
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they
+reached it.  He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the
+princess.  He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to
+the princess.  No answer had come to his calling.  He had kept coming
+out of the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll.  At one of these
+exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl,
+dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told the
+princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the
+knoll.  With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged
+after her into the wood.  Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among
+the bushes, and by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in
+sight.  Once, indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good and
+all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take up
+the chase again.  But he did not catch her.  Indeed he did not lessen
+the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
+For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and
+endurance.  Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the
+going, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance.  It was
+true that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff,
+tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck.  But he was not near
+enough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly
+flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all.  All the while he
+was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course of
+the next hundred yards.
+
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran
+down a field path toward the village of Little Deeping.  By the time
+the count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards.  To
+his joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost
+ground quickly.  When they reached the common, he was a bare forty
+yards behind her.  He was not surprised when in despair she left the
+path and bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it.
+
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious
+air, and knocked firmly on the door.  Sarah opened it; and he demanded
+the instant surrender of the princess.  Sarah heard him with an
+exasperating air of blank bewilderment.  He repeated his demand more
+firmly and loudly.
+
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: "Please, mum: 'ere's a furrin
+gentleman asking for a princess.  I expect as it's that there missing
+one."
+
+"Do nod mock!  She 'ees 'ere!" cried the count fiercely.
+
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been
+arranging flowers, and came to the door.
+
+"The princess is not here," she said gently.
+
+"But I haf zeen 'er!  She haf now ad once coom!  She 'ides!" cried the
+count.
+
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet
+by its strings.  The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+
+"I expect he means me.  At least he's run after me all the way from the
+knoll here," said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+
+The count's eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden
+outburst of fluent German.  He did not think that any of his hearers
+could understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; he
+hoped they could not; he could not help it if they did.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully.  She did not
+suppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the
+count to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day.  She was
+sorry for him.  He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fall
+foul of the Twins.
+
+Erebus caught her mother's thoughtful eye.  At once she cried
+resentfully: "How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made
+him think I was the princess?  He never asked me who I was.  He just
+shouted once and ran after me.  I was hurrying home to get some salad
+oil and get back to the knoll by lunch."
+
+"Yes, you would run all the way," said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+
+"Well, you'd have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!
+Just look at that mustache!  It would frighten anybody!" cried Erebus
+in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+
+"Yes, I see," said her mother with undiminished patience.
+
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed
+his fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda.  He
+explained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistake
+Erebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to
+appear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman.  Erebus left them
+together; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to the
+knoll.  They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been an
+after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it.  That
+would be the safe course.
+
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car,
+looking frequently at his watch.  He had expected the count to return
+with the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  Then he
+had expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count and
+the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  None of them
+returned.  The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highest
+of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of this
+enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair.  The count sat
+drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had
+not really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased
+that he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of
+her acquaintance.  Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and
+talked seriously about everything and certain other things, but chiefly
+about themselves and each other.
+
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay
+between him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter
+remained uncaught.  He chafed and fumed.  His vexation grew even more
+keen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that the
+thoughtless count had borne away the case.  He appealed to the
+chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington and
+ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car,
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!" and sank down again panting with
+the effort.
+
+[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"]
+
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes.  The archduke's
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry.  No
+answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+"P'raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace," said the chauffeur,
+somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+
+"Yes, shout!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: "Zerbst!
+Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: "I shout--you shout--all ad
+vonce!"
+
+"Every little 'elps," said the chauffeur politely.
+
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+"He seems to be growing impatient."
+
+"He isn't calling us.  And it's no use our going back without either
+the princess or the count," said Miss Lambart quickly.
+
+"Not the slightest," said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if that
+were possible, to him and kissed her.
+
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and
+their discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their
+earlier friendship.  They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been
+discussing the matter of being married at an early date.
+
+"I don't think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all.  They
+don't treat you decently, you know--not even for royalties," he went on.
+
+"Oh, it wouldn't do not to go back--at any rate for to-night--though,
+of course, there's no point in my staying longer, since the princess
+isn't there," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"You don't know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is hauling
+her to her circular sire," said Sir Maurice.  "The Twins can not be
+successful all the time."
+
+"We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"That wouldn't be the slightest use," said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete certainty.  "If the princess is in the caves, she is not in an
+accessible one.  But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or
+even likelier, to be at the Grange.  The Twins are quite intelligent
+enough to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to look
+for them.  It's no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we're
+very comfortable here.  Why not stay just as we are?"
+
+They stayed there.
+
+But the archduke's impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the
+minutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away.  At ten
+minutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers
+should be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once
+he despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+
+The chauffeur made no haste about it.  He had heard of the caves on
+Deeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them.  Besides, he
+made it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in
+his mouth since eleven o'clock; and he felt now off duty.  He explored
+half a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir
+Maurice and gave them the archduke's message.  They joined him in his
+search for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to him
+loudly.
+
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near.
+The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late
+for it.  There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from
+his solar plexus.
+
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the
+knoll.
+
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to
+sink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a
+gloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the
+chauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to the
+knoll.
+
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst.  The archduke cursed his equerry
+wheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the
+car and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the
+car went bumping down the turfed aisle.  Once in the road the
+chauffeur, anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducal
+hospitality, let her rip.  But half a mile down the road, they came
+upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer.  It was Count Zerbst.  After a
+long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebus
+had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to
+find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping
+Grange.  In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his
+patent leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he was
+indeed footsore.  He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh of
+relief.
+
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone
+was cheerful.  The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and
+disappointments of the morning.  Count Zerbst had acquired a deep
+respect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; and
+he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter with
+Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princess
+good, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimson
+baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage her
+charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial
+social reasons.  The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to
+recover her lost charge.
+
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the
+baroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily.  He made no secret of
+the fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to
+the woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but it
+might take a week or ten days.  The archduke cried shame upon a
+strategist of his ability that he should be baffled by children for a
+week or ten days.  Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the
+children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were
+using.  At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their
+aid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth
+the risk of the ridicule it might bring upon them.
+
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had
+something more pleasant to give her mind to.  But at last she said with
+some impatience: "Why can't the princess stay where she is?  That
+open-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good.  She is
+eating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as ever
+she took in her life before."
+
+"Eembossible!  Shall I live in a cave?" cried the baroness.
+
+"It doesn't matter at all where you live.  It is the princess we are
+considering," said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+
+"Drue!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+"Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?"
+cried the baroness.
+
+"She isn't," said Miss Lambart shortly.  "In fact she's leading a far
+better and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here.  The
+doctor's orders were never properly carried out."
+
+"Ees zat zo?" said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+
+"Eengleesh doctors!  What zey know?  Modern!" cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders.  The baroness
+defended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be
+dying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water the
+doctors had ordered her.  But the archduke stormed on.  At last he had
+some one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show of
+reason; and he vented it.
+
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart's counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of
+the princess remaining at the knoll.  They found many objections to it,
+and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be
+encamped by themselves in the heart of a wood.
+
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more
+efficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+
+"Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself.  Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind
+at ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better
+health than if she had stayed on here."
+
+"Bud 'ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and--" cried
+the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority.
+
+"Goot!" cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed at
+the thought of escaping forthwith to his home.  "Eet shall be zo!  And
+ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who
+do as ze doctors zay."
+
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting
+provisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the
+path to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewest
+possible number of garments she would need during her stay.
+
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the
+Rowington car to the knoll.  Not far from the park gates she met Sir
+Maurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her.  At the
+entrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisions
+and Miss Lambart's trunk from the car, and dismissed it.  Then they
+went to the knoll.
+
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it.
+But after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in
+peace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves
+above them and heard the news.  She made haste to bear it to the Terror
+and the princess who received it with joy.  They had already been
+cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge once
+more into the strenuous life.  They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; and
+the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her
+position at the knoll secure.
+
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full
+share of the strenuous life.  She played her part in it manfully.  Even
+Erebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to
+admit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her
+engaged in the strenuous life.  Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;
+and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the
+speed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life on
+the lower place.  Both of them found the knoll a delightful place for
+lovers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the
+princess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the
+beginning arranged.  Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss
+Lambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly with
+her.  It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was not
+only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to him
+in the course of the next few weeks.  She grumbled about it to the
+Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in the
+matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads.  Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss
+Lambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriage
+were very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous
+life.  She failed.  Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that
+plain fact, and failed again.  He declared that it was his first duty,
+as an uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were not
+quick about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him.  Erebus
+carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; and
+there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for several
+days.  The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most
+natural and satisfactory thing in the world.  Her only complaint was
+that she and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same
+day as Miss Lambart.
+
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll
+even more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest
+felicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them.  Sir Maurice
+arrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, than
+sunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset.  But the
+pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, since
+the archduke's tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess must
+return to Germany.  She was bitterly grieved at parting with the
+Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the
+next summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again.
+It seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive association
+with the Twins she would have her way about it.  Nevertheless, in spite
+of her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm
+ideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the most
+unaffected fashion.
+
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir
+James Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for
+years been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at
+any rate for a while.  It had always been their keen desire to fish the
+Grange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished all
+the years Sir James had been wandering about the world.  But Mr.
+Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused their
+request.  He believed that their presence would be good neither for the
+stream, the fish, nor the estate.
+
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they
+felt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that
+they might be able to compass their desire.  Also they felt that the
+sooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hear
+unfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freely
+with his neighbors.  Therefore, with the help of their literary
+mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leave
+to fish the Grange water.  Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath
+indeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so
+many years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he
+left their honeyed missive unanswered.
+
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days.  Then it was
+slowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their
+letter at all; and they grew very angry indeed.  Their anger was in
+close proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter.  The name
+of Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carried
+in their retentive minds.
+
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him
+for the affront he had put on them.  Scorching, in his feverish,
+Central African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerful
+motor-car, he looked well beyond their reach.  But Fortune favors the
+industrious who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus came
+bicycling swiftly up to the cats' home, and cried:
+
+"As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook's water!"
+
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his
+hands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+
+"Are you sure?" he said calmly.  "It's a long way from the ridge to the
+stream."
+
+"Not for my eyes!" said Erebus with some measure of impatience in her
+tone.  "I'm quite sure that it was Sir James; and I'm quite sure that
+it was old Glazebrook's meadow.  Lend me your handkerchief."
+
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a
+less pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a
+perfect content.  She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with
+her interesting news.
+
+"I wish I'd seen him too," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"It's quite enough for me to have seen him!" said Erebus with some heat.
+
+"It would be better if we'd both seen him," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"It's such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice of
+our letter!" said Erebus indignantly.
+
+"Yes, it is," said the Terror.
+
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor
+at considerable length.  The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be
+listening to her.  In truth he was considering what advantage might be
+drawn from Sir James' transgression.
+
+At last he said: "The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching."
+
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result
+that two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream,
+stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of
+the wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream
+below.
+
+"He'll soon be at the boundary fence," said the Terror in a hushed
+voice of quiet satisfaction.
+
+"If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!" said Erebus
+who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+
+"It's on the other side of it they're rising," said the Terror in a
+calmly hopeful tone.
+
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast
+after vain cast.  He was a big game hunter; he had given but little
+time and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at which
+his water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket
+still empty of trout.  He looked longingly at his neighbor's water; as
+the Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely.  Then the
+watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+
+"He's not going to poach, after all!" cried Erebus in a tone of acute
+disappointment.
+
+"Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all?
+Long Ridge is a good way off," said the Terror looking across to it.
+
+"I did.  I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook's meadow," said
+Erebus firmly.
+
+"It's very disappointing," said the Terror, frowning at the disobliging
+fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: "Well, it can't be
+helped; we've got to go on watching him every evening till he does.  If
+he's poached once, he'll poach again."
+
+"Look!" said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary
+fence.  He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning
+the little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter's
+eyes.  It is to be feared that he had been too long used to the
+high-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where big
+game dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor's
+fish.  Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of netting
+his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant.
+Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to give
+them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since
+Glazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the
+Morgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty
+years.  Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught
+him poaching.
+
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human
+beings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper
+in the wood.  Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of
+view, regard poaching with abhorrence.  But he would perceive that his
+master was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them
+that chance of making a sportsman-like end.  At any rate the keeper
+would hold his tongue.
+
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a
+tone of triumph: "Well, he's gone and done it now."
+
+"Yes, we've got him all right," said the Terror in a tone of calm
+thankfulness.
+
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir
+James caught three good fish.
+
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a
+figure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+
+"Look!  There's old Glazebrook!  He'll catch him!  Won't it be fun?"
+she cried, wriggling in her joy.
+
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+"Yes: it would be fun.  There'd be no end of a row.  But it wouldn't be
+any use to us.  I'm going to warn him."
+
+With that he sent a clear cry of "Cave!" ringing down the stream.
+
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly
+and noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: "We'll
+teach him not to answer our letters."
+
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road,
+took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and
+lifted them over the gate.  They reached home in time for dinner.
+
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the
+time since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had
+been for a bicycle ride.  She did not press him to be more particular
+in his account of their doings, though from Erebus' air of subdued
+excitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise
+was in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror's
+uncommon power of polite evasion.
+
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o'clock, she went out into
+the garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they
+were not within hearing.  She told herself that she would be lucky if
+she got them to bed by ten.  But she would have been surprised, indeed,
+had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in
+a condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best.
+
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats' home quietly, mounted,
+rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house,
+and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool
+and tidy.  They timed their arrival with such nicety that as they
+dismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the
+content inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himself
+comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not
+only assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it
+would prevail.  A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his
+fish with the usual strictness, _can not_ allow himself to be
+prosecuted for poaching.
+
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at
+the coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business," said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;
+and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted
+Sir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return to
+Cassel-Nassau.  He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during the
+last days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and had
+formed a high opinion of their ability and their manners.  Moreover, of
+a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield
+whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful
+tone: "It's very late, Master Terror.  You can't expect Sir James to
+see people at this hour."
+
+"I know it's late; but the business is important--very important," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+Mawley hesitated.  His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous
+of obliging her children.  Then he said:
+
+"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll tell Sir James that you're here."
+
+"Thank you," said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round
+them at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master
+and Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+
+"Oh?  They're the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to
+fish.  But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little
+devils in the county, so I took no notice of their letter," said Sir
+James.
+
+"Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so.  But it's my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do.  And after all
+they're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behave
+like ordinary children," said Mawley in the tone and manner of a
+persuasive diplomat.
+
+"Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish," said Sir James.
+"There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of
+noisy children won't make those easier to catch.  But I may as well
+tell them so myself; so you may bring them here."
+
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room.  They
+entered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of
+themselves, and greeted Sir James politely.
+
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his
+steward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick,
+red-faced and robustious.  He felt that these pleasant-looking young
+gentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation.
+There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him
+than they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large
+arched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the
+small clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of
+the Terror, pleased them.  He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+
+"Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?"
+he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+
+"We saw you in Glazebrook's meadow this afternoon--poaching," said the
+Terror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone.
+
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort.  He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+
+"Oh?  Then it was one of you who called 'Cave!' from the wood?" said
+Sir James.
+
+"Yes; we didn't want old Glazebrook to catch you," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh--er--thanks," said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+
+"That wouldn't have been any use to us," said the Terror.
+
+"Of use to you?" said Sir James.
+
+"Yes; if he'd caught you, there wouldn't be any reason why we should
+fish your water," said the Terror.
+
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+
+"But is there any reason now?" he said.
+
+"Yes.  You see, you were poaching," said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in something of the manner of
+a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished
+enlightenment:
+
+"Well, I'm--hanged if it isn't blackmail!" he cried.
+
+"Blackmail?" said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation.  "Why,
+that's what the Scotch reavers used to do!  I never knew exactly what
+it was."
+
+"And we're doing it.  That is nice," said Erebus, almost preening
+herself.
+
+"But this is disgraceful!  If you'd been village children--but
+gentlefolk!" cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+
+"Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed," said the
+Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a kind of stealing," said
+Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother's fur stole.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a felony," said Sir James
+loftily.
+
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+"Poaching's worse."
+
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
+very angry eyes.  The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air.  Their
+appearance no longer pleased him.
+
+"It's your own fault entirely," said the Terror coldly.  "If you'd been
+civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't have
+bothered about you.  But you didn't take any notice of it--"
+
+"And it was beastly cheek," said Erebus.
+
+"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing.  So we kept an eye
+on you and caught you poaching," said the Terror.
+
+"Without any excuse for it.  You've plenty of fishing of your own,"
+said Erebus severely.
+
+"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneak
+to the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
+
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't going
+to do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish your
+water at all.  We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll get
+prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook.  That's what we came to say."
+
+"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
+write to you," said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
+find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
+night, and left the room.
+
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
+expressed his feelings without difficulty.  Then he began to laugh.  It
+was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
+been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
+rankled.  He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of
+Africa, by much more ferocious creatures.  But after sleeping on the
+matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased
+it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield
+children were allowed to fish his water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AND AN APOLOGY
+
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
+triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
+fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's
+faint appetite.
+
+She had grown stronger during the summer.  She was not, indeed,
+definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak.  But, a woman of
+spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness
+of her life in the country.  It was sapping her strength and energy; in
+it she would grow old long before her time.  The Twins had been used to
+find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;
+and the change troubled them.  Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for
+her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the
+trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her.  But she
+made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound
+of the Twins on the bank of the stream.  To his pleased surprise he
+neither saw nor heard them.  For the most part they fished in the early
+morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appetite
+at breakfast.  But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other
+acted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of his
+sight.  They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assured
+them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James.  As the
+Terror phrased it:
+
+"He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point in
+rubbing it in."
+
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them.  Erebus was
+playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare
+Sir James' feelings.  Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was
+impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it
+snapped the gut and was gone.
+
+"Evidently you're no so good at fishing as blackmailing," said Sir
+James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+
+"I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!" said Erebus with some heat;
+and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself
+looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep
+brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]
+
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene
+of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his
+eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.
+
+"This is Sir James Morgan, mother," said the Terror quickly.
+
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+"It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish."
+
+"Oh--ah--yes--n-n-not at all," stammered Sir James, blushing faintly.
+
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+
+"Oh, but it was," said Mrs. Dangerfield.  "And I'm seeing that they
+don't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that,
+thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none too
+many fish in the stream."
+
+"It's very good of you.  B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch,"
+said Sir James.
+
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished
+to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence.  Yet he did not
+wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: "You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they'd like to."
+
+"Are they as good fishermen as that?" said Sir James.
+
+"Well, they've been fishing ever since they could handle a rod.  They
+are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring.  So I limit them to three fish a day," said Mrs. Dangerfield;
+and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+
+"It's very good of you," said Sir James.  He hesitated, shuffled his
+feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs.
+Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: "I should like to
+stay and see how they do it.  I might pick up a wrinkle or two."
+
+"Of course.  Why, it's your stream," she said.
+
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to
+the fishing.  Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air
+of fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness.  His
+first discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest
+desire to remain in her presence.  He not only stayed with them till
+the Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to Colet
+House with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of the
+deepest reluctance.  It can hardly be doubted that he had been smitten
+by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we more
+gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not
+received the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth.  If,
+instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them,
+he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate
+condition of meeting her often.  It did not for a moment enter his mind
+that if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily have
+failed to fall in love with her at all.  He cudgeled his brains to find
+some way of meeting her again and meeting her often.  He was to meet
+her quite soon without any effort on his part.
+
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had
+been smitten by that emotional _coup de foudre_, for she was walking
+with a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she
+said in a really cheerful tone:
+
+"I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the
+exciting life he had in Africa."
+
+"Rather!", said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+
+She had not missed Sir James' sentence about the superiority of Erebus'
+blackmailing to her fishing.  But she knew the Twins far too well to
+ask them for an explanation of it before him.  None the less it clung
+to her mind.
+
+At supper therefore she said: "What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?"
+
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the
+explanation; and he said suavely:
+
+"Oh, it was about the fishing."
+
+"How--about the fishing?" said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+
+"Well, he didn't want to give us leave.  In fact he never answered our
+letter asking for it," said the Terror.
+
+"And of course we couldn't stand that; and we had to make him," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"Make him?  How did you make him?" said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+The Terror told her.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised
+and annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that
+her offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger.  She felt chiefly
+annoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to
+blackmail should be Sir James.
+
+"Then you did blackmail him," she said in a tone of dismay.
+
+"He seemed to think that we were--like the Douglases used to," said the
+Terror in an amiable tone.
+
+"But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong--very wrong,
+indeed," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+"Well, he _did_ seem to think so," said the Terror.  "But we thought he
+was prejudiced; and we didn't take much notice of him."
+
+"And we couldn't possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum--it
+was such a polite letter--and not take it out of him," said Erebus.
+
+"And it hasn't done any harm, you know.  We wanted those trout ever so
+much more than he did," said the Terror.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as
+she pondered how to deal with the affair.  She was still chiefly
+annoyed that Sir James should have been the victim.  The Twins gazed at
+her with a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they were
+burdened by a sense of wrong-doing.  They were merely sorry that she
+was annoyed.
+
+"Well, there's nothing for it: you'll have to apologize to Sir
+James--both of you," she said at last.
+
+"Apologize to him!  But he never answered our letter!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it,
+opened it again and said in a soothing tone: "All right, Mum; we'll
+apologize."
+
+"I'll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel
+Sir James to invite them to continue to fish.
+
+There had been some such intention in the Terror's mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real
+apology.  But he said amiably: "All right; just as you like, Mum."
+
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her
+breath.  After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the
+Terror bitterly for not refusing firmly.
+
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path
+across the fields, to the Grange.  Surprise and extreme pleasure were
+mingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into the
+drawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would
+find Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching
+her children fish.  His night's rest had trebled his interest in her
+and his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her.  The appeal to
+him of her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever.
+
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless
+enough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been
+dead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put to
+it to make both ends meet.  His compassion had been deeply stirred; she
+was so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life.  He
+wished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to that
+smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as he
+possibly could.
+
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could
+scarcely believe his joyful ears.  He had to put a constraint on
+himself to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley's
+eyes, and not dash to it at full speed.  He entered the room with his
+eyes shining very brightly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily.  She was
+looking grave and ill at ease.
+
+"I've come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James," she said as
+they shook hands.  "I find that these children have been blackmailing
+you; and I've brought them to apologize.  I--I'm exceedingly distressed
+about it."
+
+"Oh, there's no need to be--no need at all.  It was rather a joke," Sir
+James protested quickly.
+
+"But blackmailing isn't a joke--though of course they didn't realize
+what a serious thing it is--"
+
+"It was the Douglases doing it," broke in the Terror in an explanatory
+tone.
+
+"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+
+"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you.  They had me in a cleft stick,"
+protested Sir James.
+
+"Well then you ought to have come straight to me," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"Oh, but really--a little fishing--what is a little fishing?  I
+couldn't come bothering you about a thing like that," protested Sir
+James.
+
+"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  "Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going to
+apologize."
+
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:
+
+"I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James."
+
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very
+stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+
+"Oh, not at all--not at all--don't mention it.  Besides, I owe you an
+apology for not answering your letter," said Sir James in all the
+discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due.  Then he
+heaved a sigh of relief and added: "Well, that's all right.  And now I
+hope you'll do all the fishing you want to."
+
+"Certainly not; I can't allow them to fish your water any more," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+
+"Oh, but really," said Sir James with a harried air.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+
+"But you'll have some tea--after that hot walk!" cried Sir James.
+
+"No, thank you, I must be getting home," said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly.
+
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out.  As Erebus
+passed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him.  She was
+desirous that he should not overrate her apology.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap
+from the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it.  He came down
+the steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the
+park, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the
+gardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shooting
+about the world.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship.  But she could not drive him from her side on his own
+land.  They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead.  When Sir James and
+Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight.
+Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way with
+her.
+
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James,
+the Terror said:
+
+"Well, he was quite decent about it.  It made him much more
+uncomfortable than we were.  I suppose it was because we're more used
+to Mum."
+
+"What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?" said the
+unappeased Erebus.
+
+"Oh, well; he didn't mean to.  It was an accident, you know," said the
+Terror.
+
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer
+intimacy with Sir James.
+
+"Accident!  People shouldn't have accidents like that!" said Erebus in
+a tone of bitter scorn.
+
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James
+diplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty,
+their grace and their intelligence.  The diplomacy was not natural (he
+was no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject he
+could at the moment think of.  He could not have found a quicker way to
+Mrs. Dangerfield's approval.  She had been disposed to dislike him for
+having been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart.
+Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it was
+only natural that she should invite him to tea.  He accepted with
+alacrity.  At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to
+see more of her.  With a natural simplicity he used his skill in
+woodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covert
+afforded by the common to watch Colet House.  Thanks to this simple
+device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere in
+the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;
+and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he
+had ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in
+his enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right.  He had
+been making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but he
+perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty to
+settle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his duty
+by his estate and his neighbors.
+
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his
+instinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that
+to bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the
+land of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed
+of.  But he had a stout heart, the hunter's pertinacity, and a burning
+resolve to succeed.
+
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be
+useful friends in the matter.  But did they chance on him walking with
+their mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily
+aloof.  He must abate their hostility.
+
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were
+starting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully,
+stopped and said: "I'm awfully sorry I gave you away the other day.
+But I never saw your mother till I'd done it."
+
+"Don't mention it," said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+
+"So you ought to be," said Erebus.
+
+"It's a pity you should lose your fishing.  If I'd known how good you
+both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter,"
+said Sir James hypocritically.  "But I was misinformed about you."
+
+"It's worse that mother should lose the trout.  She does hate butcher's
+meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly," said
+Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+
+"It's like that, is it?" said Sir James quickly; and an expression of
+deep concern filled his face.
+
+"Yes, and she did eat those trout," said Erebus plaintively.
+
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched
+him with little hope in their faces.  Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;
+and he said:
+
+"Look here: you mayn't fish my water; but there's no reason why you
+shouldn't fish Glazebrook's.  _I_ think that a man who nets his water
+loses all rights."
+
+"Yes, he does," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I'll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined.  I
+want to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook--he's not a sportsman."
+
+The Terror's face had brightened; but he said: "But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?"
+
+"You can reckon them presents from me.  They would be--practically--if
+I'm going to pay the fines," said Sir James.
+
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing
+tenderly with exactitude which appealed to them.  The Terror himself
+could not have been more tender with it.
+
+"That's a ripping idea!" said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval.
+
+The peace was thus concluded.
+
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win
+their good will.  He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of
+chocolate.  If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he
+would carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with
+sumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained them
+with stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even
+more than they thrilled them.  But he won their hearts most by his
+sympathy with them in the matter of their mother's appetite, and by
+joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of
+taking the short cut to her heart by praising them.  He laid himself
+out to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for
+himself as large as possible a place in her life.  She was not long
+discovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as a
+very pleasant shock.  None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster,
+who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, had
+attracted her so strongly as did Sir James.  Even as her delicacy made
+the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorous
+robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the
+keener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues.  When
+no less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James
+and Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tongues
+began to wag.
+
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
+London, one morning met the Twins in the village.  They greeted her
+politely and made to escape.  But she was in the mood, her most
+constant mood, to babble.  She stopped them, and with a knowing air,
+and even more offensive smile, said:
+
+"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
+soon in Little Deeping, are we?"
+
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
+them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
+said:
+
+"Are we?"
+
+"I should have thought you would have known all about it," she said
+with a cackling little giggle.  "Mind you tell me as soon as you're
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother."
+
+"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
+and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
+her own.
+
+"Oh, nothing--nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
+sternness.  "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother--But
+there--there's probably nothing in it--the Morgans always were
+rovers--one foot at sea and one on shore--I dare say he'll be in the
+middle of Africa before the week is out.  Good morning--good morning."
+
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
+the grocer's shop.
+
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning.  Then Erebus
+said: "Silly old idiot!"
+
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning.  At last he broke out:
+"This won't do!  We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
+And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
+cheerful for her."
+
+"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said?  It
+would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a
+panic.
+
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+
+"_Do_ you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus.
+
+"I dare say there is.  Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's
+always very civil to us--people aren't generally," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh, but we must stop it!  We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why must we?"
+
+"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried
+Erebus fiercely.
+
+"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum," said the Terror.  "She
+does have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never going
+anywhere.  And, after all, we shouldn't mind Sir James when we got used
+to him."
+
+"But we should!  And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"
+
+"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher--at all," said the Terror.
+
+"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it," said the
+Terror firmly.  "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made up
+their minds.  But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant by
+saying that the Morgans were rovers."
+
+Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
+utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop.  Then she said in a tone of considerable
+relief:
+
+"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marrying
+Mum."
+
+"Yes, that's what she did mean," growled the Terror.  "And she'll go
+about telling everybody that he's only fooling."
+
+"But I don't think he is.  I don't think he would," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"No more do I," said the Terror.
+
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence.  Then the Terror's face
+cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+
+"I know the thing to do!  I'll go and ask him his intentions.  That's
+what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut--you know:
+that fellow from Rowington--was fooling about with Miss Hawley."
+
+"All right, we'll go and ask him," said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.
+
+"No, no, you can't go.  I must go alone," said the Terror quickly.
+"It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do--people said so
+about Miss Hawley--and I'm the only man of the family about.  If Uncle
+Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do
+it."
+
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint.  She alleged that the restrictions
+which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
+to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
+everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
+successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
+which he performed alone.
+
+"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do," said the
+Terror with very cold severity.  "You know what Mrs. Morton said about
+Miss Hawley and the Cut--that the men of the family did it."
+
+"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus.
+
+"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it.  So it's no
+use you're making a fuss," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir
+James would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone,
+early in the afternoon.
+
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him
+straight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over
+his after-lunch coffee.  Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was
+beginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in the
+country, and poured him out a cup of coffee.
+
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple
+matter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his
+usual diplomacy, said with firm directness: "I've come to ask your
+intentions, sir."
+
+"My intentions?" said Sir James, not taking him.
+
+"Yes.  You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you're only fooling," said the Terror.
+
+"The deuce they are!" cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angry
+comprehension.
+
+"Yes.  So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+"Of course--of course," said Sir James.
+
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled.
+Then he added gravely: "My intentions are not only extremely serious
+but they're extremely immediate.  I'd marry your mother to-morrow if
+she'd let me."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief.  "Of
+course I knew you were all right.  Only, it was the thing to do, with
+these silly old idiots talking."
+
+"Quite so--quite so," said Sir James.
+
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly
+drinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been
+suffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the
+Terror's serenity was soothing.
+
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: "Do
+you think your mother would marry me?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; women are so funny," said the Terror
+with a sage air.
+
+Sir James pulled at his mustache.  Then the compulsion to have some
+one's opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy's, came
+on him strongly; and he said:
+
+"I wish I knew what to do.  As it is we're very good friends; and if I
+asked her to marry me, I might spoil that."
+
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: "I
+don't think you would.  Mum's very sensible, though she is so pretty."
+
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: "I'll
+risk it!"
+
+He rang the bell and ordered his car.  He talked to the Terror jerkily
+and somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his
+perturbation with considerable interest.  It seemed to him very curious
+in a hard-bitten hunter of big game.  They started and in the two level
+miles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car's speeds nine times.
+
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air
+of detachment: "I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed."
+
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for
+her.
+
+"If I only could!" said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he
+entered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a
+thrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come.
+
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of
+him; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+
+"Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!"
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+
+"Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!"
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's face was one flush; and she cried: "B-b-but it's out
+of the question.  I--I'm old enough to be your mother!"
+
+"Now how?--I'm three years and seven months older than you," said Sir
+James, taken aback.
+
+"I shall be an old woman while you're still quite young!" she protested.
+
+"You won't ever be old!  You're not the kind!" cried Sir James with
+some heat; and then with sudden understanding: "If that's your only
+reason, why, that settles it!"
+
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+
+When he set her down and held her at arm's length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: "Oh, James, you are--ever
+so much more--impetuous--than I thought.  You gave me--no time."
+
+"Thank goodness, I took the Terror's tip!" said Sir James.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Terrible Twins
+
+Author: Edgar Jepson
+
+Illustrator: Hanson Booth
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2006 [EBook #19043]
+[This file last updated February 8, 2008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+By
+
+EDGAR JEPSON
+
+
+
+Author of
+
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+HANSON BOOTH
+
+
+
+
+INDIANAPOLIS
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT 1913
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+[Updater's note: In the originally posted version of this book (August
+14, 2006), four pages (3, 4, 53, 54) were missing.  In early February
+2008, the missing pages were found, scanned and submitted by a reader
+of the original etext and incorporated into this updated version.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Chapter
+
+    I  AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+   II  GUARDIAN ANGELS
+  III  AND THE CATS' HOME
+   IV  AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+    V  AND THE SACRED BIRD
+   VI  AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+  VII  AND PRINGLE'S POND
+ VIII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+   IX  AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+    X  AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+   XI  AND THE UNREST CURE
+  XII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+ XIII  AND AN APOLOGY
+  XIV  AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said
+  Sir Maurice Falconer. . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"This is different," she said.
+
+We are avenged.
+
+She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.
+
+The Archduke bellowed, "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of
+a very pretty woman.
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really
+discussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with the
+greatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit.  It was indeed
+a nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw
+stones quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size and
+weight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the
+bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated,
+quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand his
+presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him.  Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth
+Wolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the
+same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud
+vehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said
+firmly, "I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of
+times."
+
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty,
+which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+
+"Perhaps we did," said Anastasia amiably.  They went swiftly down the
+road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike.
+No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed,
+dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and
+piquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting a
+serenity.  But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir Maurice
+Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty names.  He had named
+Violet "Erebus" because, he said,
+
+  She walks in beauty like the night
+  Of cloudless climes and starry spheres:
+
+and he had forthwith named Hyacinth the "Terror" because, he said, the
+ill-fated Sir John Franklin had made the Terror the eternal companion
+of Erebus.
+
+Erebus and the Terror they became.  Even their mother never called them
+by their proper pretty names save in moments of the severest
+displeasure.
+
+"They're good apples," said the Terror presently, as he threw away the
+core of his third and took two more from the bag.
+
+"They are," said Erebus in a grateful tone--"worth all the trouble we
+had with that dog."
+
+"We'd have cleared him out of the orchard in half the time, if we'd had
+our catapults and bullets.  It was hard luck being made to promise
+never to use catapults again," said the Terror sadly.
+
+"All that fuss about a little lead from the silly old belfry gutter!"
+said Erebus bitterly.
+
+"As if belfries wanted lead gutters.  They could easily have put slates
+in the place of the sheet of lead we took," said the Terror with equal
+bitterness.
+
+"Why can't they leave us alone?  It quite spoils the country not to
+have catapults," said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich
+autumn scene through which they moved.
+
+The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of
+their catapults was the bitterest.  They had used those weapons to
+enrich the simple diet which was all their mother's slender means
+allowed them; on fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the
+game laws.  Keepers and farmers had made no secret of their suspicions
+that this was the case: but the careful Twins never afforded them the
+pleasure of adducing evidence in support of those suspicions.  Then a
+heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had removed a sheet of
+lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry gutter, to
+cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public
+opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of
+them; and their mother, yielding to the demand, had forbidden them to
+use them any longer.
+
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the
+action of Little Deeping.  It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since
+their exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation
+they loved.  In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves
+to become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and
+since they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness
+of eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition.  There
+may, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow the
+Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter or
+harder than Erebus.
+
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted
+it gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over
+it (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate
+than to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrow
+path through the gorse and bracken.  They had gone some fifty yards,
+when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: "Bang-g-g!
+Bang-g-g!"
+
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the
+gorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on
+his richly freckled face.  He stood over the fallen Twins; and his
+smile of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+
+"Ha!  Ha!  Shot through the heads!" he cried.  "Their bones will bleach
+in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red
+Bear the terror of the Cherokees!"
+
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife.  Then he
+took from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an
+inconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant
+imagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone of
+lively satisfaction: "You're only one game ahead."
+
+"I thought we were three," said Erebus, rising.
+
+"They're down in the book," said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blue
+eyes were very stern.
+
+"Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of
+you again," said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins.  He ambushed and scalped
+them; they ambushed and scalped him.  Seeing that they had already
+passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their
+part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it.  But Wiggins was a
+favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
+
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly
+on across the common.  Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth.
+Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly
+spring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
+
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The game
+isn't really fair; you're two to one."
+
+"You keep very level," said the Terror politely.
+
+"Yes; it's my superior astuteness," said Wiggins sedately.
+
+"Goodness!  What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
+
+"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation," Wiggins explained.
+
+"Yes, everybody says that.  But what is a European reputation?" said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+
+"Everybody in Europe knows him," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.
+
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert.  It seemed to them
+a name both affected and ostentatious.  Besides, crop it as you might,
+his hair _would_ assume the appearance of a mop.
+
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to
+see two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+
+"It's Mum," said Erebus.
+
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of
+booty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+
+"And--and--it's the Cruncher with her!" cried Erebus in a tone in which
+disgust outrang surprise.
+
+"Of all the sickening things!  The Cruncher!" cried the Terror, echoing
+her disgust.  "What's he come down again for?"
+
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the
+approaching pair.
+
+The gentleman whom they called the "Cruncher," and who from their tones
+of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher
+on account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent
+teeth.
+
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of
+superiority: "_I_ know why he's come down."
+
+"Why?" said the Terror quickly.
+
+"He's come down to marry your mother," said Wiggins.
+
+"What?" cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+
+"How dare you say a silly thing like that?" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"_I_ didn't say it," protested Wiggins.  "Mrs. Blenkinsop said it."
+
+"That silly old gossip!" cried Erebus.
+
+"And Mrs. Morton said it, too," said Wiggins.  "They came to tea
+yesterday and talked about it.  I was there: there was a plum cake--one
+of those rich ones from Springer's at Rowington.  And they said it
+would be such a good thing for both of you because he's so awfully
+rich: the Terror would go to Eton; and you'd go to a good school and
+get a proper bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all--"
+
+"I wouldn't go!  I should hate it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Yes; they said you wouldn't like wholesome discipline," said the
+faithful reporter.  "And they didn't seem to think your mother would
+like it either--marrying the Cruncher."
+
+"Like it?  She wouldn't dream of it--a bounder like that!" said the
+Terror.
+
+"I don't know--I don't know--if she thought it would be good for
+us--she'd do anything for us--you know she would!" cried Erebus,
+wringing her hands in anxious fear.
+
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out
+in dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was
+flushed.
+
+"This must be stopped," he said through his set teeth.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus.
+
+"We'll find a way.  It's war!" said the Terror darkly.
+
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: "I'm on your side," he said.  "I'm
+a trusty ally.  He called me Freckles."
+
+"Come on," said the Terror.  "We'd better face him."
+
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy.  As they drew near, the
+Terror's face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty
+voice: "How's Terebus and the Error; and how's Freckles?" he cried, and
+laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins
+shook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain
+Baster.
+
+"I'm always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with her delightful smile.  "I know you keep them out of
+mischief."
+
+"It's generally all over before I come," said Wiggins somewhat glumly;
+and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+
+"I've not had that kiss yet, Terebus.  I'm going to have it this time
+I'm here," said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich laugh.
+
+"Are you?" said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at him
+with the eyes of hate.
+
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, "You'll come to tea with us,
+Wiggins?"
+
+"Thank you very much," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.  As he
+alighted on it once more, he added.  "Tea at other people's houses is
+so much nicer than at home.  Don't you think so, Terror?"
+
+"I always eat more--somehow," said the Terror with a grave smile.
+
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side
+of Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein,
+enlivened the walk with his delightful humor.  The gallant officer was
+the very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed,
+glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose,
+neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny.  The son of the
+famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which great
+wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in a
+crack regiment.  The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative,
+was not enjoying it.  To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, "I'm
+a very pally man."  It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for any
+one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship,
+for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, he
+enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of
+personal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused
+the face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed his
+freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield's white brow in a distressful
+frown.  The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;
+his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which he
+had been so suddenly confronted.  More than once Erebus countered a
+witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce the
+rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer.  Once this unbidden but
+humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied her
+even this relief.  She could only treat him with a steely civility.
+The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he
+was too new for it.  The old, worn, faded, carefully polished
+furniture, for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
+century, seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness.  It seemed
+to demand the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels.  Mrs.
+Dangerfield liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere.  When
+her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feeling
+that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had he escaped
+calling in a bright plaid satin tie.
+
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not
+unconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster.  Indeed, he took
+some credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabby
+furniture.  In a high good humor he went on shining and shining all
+through tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a while
+dimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the inn
+and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shining
+again.  Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into the
+garden.
+
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+
+"He's a pig--and a beast!  We can't let Mum marry him!  We _must_ stop
+it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"It's all very well to say 'must.'  But you know what Mum is: if she
+thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said the Terror
+gloomily.
+
+"And she never consults us--never!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Only when she's a bit doubtful," said the Terror.
+
+"Then she's not doubtful now.  She hasn't said a word to us about it,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"That's what looks so bad.  It looks as if she'd made up her mind
+already; and if she has, it's no use talking to her," said the Terror
+yet more gloomily.
+
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly
+backward and forward from one to the other.  He preserved a decorous
+sympathetic silence.
+
+"No, it's no good talking to Mum," said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+
+"Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves," said the Terror.
+
+"But you can't squash the Cruncher!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why not?  We've squashed other people, haven't we?" said the Terror
+sharply.
+
+"Never any one so thick-skinned as him," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror frowned deeply again: "We can always try," he said coldly.
+"And look here: I've been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don't
+like stepfathers, there's no reason why stepfathers should like
+stepchildren."
+
+"The Cruncher likes us, though it's no fault of ours," said Erebus.
+
+"That's just it; he doesn't really know us.  If he saw the kind of
+stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off," said the Terror.
+
+"But he can't even see we hate him," objected Erebus.
+
+"No, and if he did, he wouldn't mind, he'd think it a joke.  My idea
+isn't to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if we
+give our minds to it," said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning.  Then a dazzling smile
+illumined her charming face; and she cried: "Oh, yes!  Let's give him
+socks!  Let's begin at once!"
+
+"Yes: I'll help!  I'm a trusty ally!" cried Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth joyfully at the thought.
+
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their
+brains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+
+Presently Wiggins said: "You might make him an apple-pie bed.  They're
+very annoying when you're sleepy."
+
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+
+"What's an apple-pie bed?" said Erebus scornfully.
+
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+
+"It's a beginning, anyhow," said the Terror in an approving tone; and
+he added with the air of a philosopher: "Little things, and big things,
+they all count."
+
+"I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can't," said Erebus
+bitterly.
+
+"By Jove!  That cigarette-case!  Come on!" cried the Terror; and he led
+the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+
+"Where are we going?" said Erebus.
+
+"We're going to make him that apple-pie bed.  There's nothing like
+making a beginning.  We shall think of heaps of other things.  If we
+don't worry about them, they'll occur to us.  They always do," said the
+Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping,
+where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the
+front door which stood open.  At the sound of their footsteps in her
+hall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar
+to learn what they wanted.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway," said the Terror politely.  "We've come
+for Captain Baster's cigarette-case.  He's left it somewhere in his
+room."
+
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway
+rubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her
+eyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a
+frown; and she said: "Bother the thing!  It's sure to be stuck
+somewhere out of sight.  And the bar full, too."
+
+"Don't you trouble; I'll get it.  I know the bedroom," said the Terror
+with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir," said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror.  In
+less than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the
+bed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless
+unprotected bedroom.  Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on the
+mantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress.  The Terror locked
+Captain Baster's portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside the
+shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+
+"That'll teach him not to be so careless."
+
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster's inviting dress-boots with water.  Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+
+"Don't stand giggling there!  Why don't you do something?" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: "A clothes-brush in bed is
+very annoying when you stick your foot against it."
+
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him.
+He took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against
+the bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the
+other of Captain Baster's feet was sure to find it.  The Terror did not
+care which foot was successful.
+
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from
+the dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the
+inn.
+
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat
+vengeful triumph: "There! you see things _do_ occur to us."  Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: "But it was Wiggins who set us
+going."
+
+"I'm an ally; and he called me Freckles," said Wiggins vengefully; and
+once more he spurned the earth.
+
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most
+thickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too
+sheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+
+"Mind the mud, Wiggins," said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness in
+the matter.
+
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: "It wouldn't be
+a nice place to fall down in, would it?"
+
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister
+little laugh, and said: "Wiggins, you're a treasure!"
+
+"What is it?  What is it now?" said Erebus quickly.
+
+"A little job of my own.  It wouldn't do for you and Wiggins to have a
+hand in it, he'll swear so," said the Terror.
+
+"Who'll swear?" said Erebus.
+
+"The Cruncher.  And you're a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear such
+language," said the Terror.
+
+"Rubbish!" said Erebus sharply.  "Tell us what it is."
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"It's a beastly shame!  I ought to help--I always do," cried Erebus in
+a bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"All right," said Erebus.  "Who wants to help in a stupid thing like
+that?  But all the same you'll go and make a silly mull of it without
+me--you always do."
+
+"You jolly well wait and see," said the Terror with calm confidence.
+
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached
+the house.
+
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster
+still talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story
+illustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea
+and one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies.  He laid great stress on
+the prices he had paid for them.
+
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her
+offspring with an air of doubtful surprise.
+
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+"Thank you, Error--thank you.  But why didn't you bring it to me,
+Terebus?  Then you'd have earned that kiss I'm going to give you."
+
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+"Oh, I helped to get it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GUARDIAN ANGELS
+
+At seven o'clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn.  Of
+his own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp.  He left
+the house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining
+before Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she
+was four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two
+years younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts.  But he
+chiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to which
+his ardent soul aspired to climb.  She had but to return to the polite
+world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened
+circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a
+host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.
+Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing a
+mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield's brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to
+select to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a
+gown with which she had never been truly pleased.  The troubled air did
+not leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins,
+for they, too, were gloomy.  They were pleased, indeed, with the
+beginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in the
+end.  Where their interests were concerned their mother was of a
+firmness indeed hard to move.
+
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that
+disturbed them, especially at the Terror.  Erebus in a pretty light
+frock of her mother's days of prosperity, which had been cut down and
+fitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one's eyes; but the sleeves
+of the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings,
+bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye.
+
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his
+failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be
+unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by his
+distinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English
+gentleman.  After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the
+harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must
+appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was
+wearing.  It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not
+really feel a conquering hero after eight o'clock at night.
+
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water.  It was a
+good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water
+its lining had not soaked up.  The gallant officer said a good deal
+about its retentive properties to the mute boot.
+
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had
+himself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom.  A flash of
+intuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he begged
+her, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one--any one!!--enter
+his bedroom.  Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied,
+or beds made without human intervention.  He begged her, not perhaps
+unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the
+better for his directness.
+
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
+As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees
+which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a
+clothes-line tight.  It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge
+on the other side of the lane.  There it was fastened to a stout stake;
+and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails.  At its
+tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the
+mud-patch.  It was at its tightest.
+
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain
+Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace.  As he moved through
+the bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night--that
+very night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield's devotion with his avowal
+of an answering passion.  He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror;
+and like a conqueror he whistled.  Then he found the clothes-line,
+suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick,
+but sprawling.  He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the
+welkin shuddered as it rang.
+
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield
+waited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a
+troubled frown.  Her woman's instinct assured her that Captain Baster
+would propose that night; and she dreaded it.  Two or three times she
+rose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark,
+troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they did
+not please her as they usually did.  Those eyes were one of the sources
+from which had sprung Captain Baster's attraction to her.
+
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful
+things for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing
+them.  She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and
+husband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart and
+sterling qualities.  She assured herself that she had the power to draw
+them out; once he was her husband, she would change him.  But still she
+was ill at ease.  Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful of
+her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide.
+
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was
+unfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come next
+morning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a
+relief that it frightened her.  She sat down and wrote out a telegram
+to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, and
+bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed at
+one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning.  She did not wish to
+take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible.
+She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard
+for her interests.  She tried not to hope that he would find marriage
+with Captain Baster incompatible with them.
+
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness.  He thought
+for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability.
+Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet.  In the middle of it he
+missed his shaving-brush.  He hunted for it furiously; he could have
+sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau.  He did swear, but
+not to any definite fact.  There was nothing for it: he must expose his
+tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.
+
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not
+vanished from it.  In one short night it had lost its pristine
+freshness.  This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast
+gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air of
+one who has abandoned hope.  Later he came out of it with his roving
+black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was
+smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches--red patches.  At the door
+the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted him
+with the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brush
+under the mattress of his bed.  He looked round the village of Little
+Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to
+the expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new
+lock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness
+of his soul.  Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged
+chin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of
+his future stepson.  As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was
+awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was
+awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile
+asked him if he had slept well.
+
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of your
+tricks!  You play another on  me, and I'll give you the soundest
+licking you ever had in your life!"
+
+The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: "Whatever's the matter?" he said in a tone of amazement.
+"I thought you loved a joke.  You said you did--yesterday--at tea."
+
+"You try it on again!" said Captain Baster.
+
+"Now, whatever has put your back up?" said the Terror in a tone of even
+greater amazement.  "Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the
+water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?"
+
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness:
+Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth.
+
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the
+bedroom of Erebus.
+
+"Waxy?" he cried joyously.  "He's black in the face!  I told him he
+said he loved a joke."
+
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat.  She was bitterly
+aggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall the
+night before.  The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his
+glorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin.
+
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: "Now, you
+quite understand.  You'll stick to them like a leech.  You won't give
+him any chance of talking to Mum alone.  It's most important."
+
+"I understand.  But what's that?  Anybody could do it," she said in a
+tone of extreme bitterness.  "It's you that's getting all the real fun."
+
+"But you'll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you're
+careful," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course, I shall.  But what's that?  I tell you what it is: I'm
+going to have my proper share of the real fun.  The first chance I get,
+I'm going to stone him--so there!" said Erebus fiercely.
+
+"All right.  But it doesn't seem quite the thing for a girl to do,"
+said the Terror in a judicial tone.
+
+"Rats!" said Erebus.
+
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave
+the purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat
+painfully, time to fade.  When she did come to him, he was further
+annoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent air
+announced her intention of accompanying them.  Mrs. Dangerfield was
+surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation.
+Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to propose
+before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to
+hide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her
+charm: she was the mother of the Terror.  He found, too, that his
+instinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded.  She
+was a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed to
+fascinate her.  Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew once
+more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was no
+getting rid of her.  She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhat
+pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries.  How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances?  He felt that his humor
+was growing strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus' own fault (he could swear
+it) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal
+brambles.  Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her
+ankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear.  The moment he
+offered, furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of a
+limp.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one's children like that--well.  Certainly she was losing her charm;
+she was the mother of Erebus also.
+
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of
+wife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near
+Colet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and
+distinction came through the garden gate to meet them.
+
+With a cry of "Uncle Maurice!" the crippled Erebus dashed to meet him
+with the light bounds of an antelope.  Captain Baster could hardly
+believe his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by
+repute.  It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his
+friend.  With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks.
+
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never
+dreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune.  But why had he not
+learned this splendid fact before?  Why had he been kept in the dark?
+He did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy making
+confidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her that
+he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anything
+about herself.
+
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up
+for lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated
+his right to the name of Pallybaster.  His friendliness was
+overwhelming.  Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to
+dine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, to
+shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimental
+steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean.
+
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew.  He could not
+bear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice.  The Twins
+were intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their
+uncle's attention.  They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their
+stepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned a
+respectful silence in the presence of their elders.
+
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make
+it.  Captain Baster's love was of his life a thing apart, but his
+social aspirations were the chief fact of his existence.  Besides,
+there was no haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his
+avowal with a passionate eagerness; any time would do for that.  But he
+must seize the fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by the
+bond of the warmest friendship.
+
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to
+the interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world,
+humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to.  He tried to make opportunities
+for him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he
+did not seem to see them.  In truth Captain Baster was a little
+disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:
+polite--yes; indeed, politeness could go no further.  But he lacked
+warmth.  After all he had not pinned him down to the definite
+acceptance of a single invitation.
+
+When, at seven o'clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a
+bosom friend.  He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the
+air of one who has paused from exhausting toil: "I feel
+sticky--positively sticky," he said.  "Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy
+friends!  I thought we should never get rid of him.  I thought he'd
+stuck himself to us for the rest of our natural lives."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+"That's what he's up to."
+
+"He's not a friend of mine!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"We call him the Cruncher--because of his teeth," said the Terror.
+
+"Then beware, Erebus--beware!  You are young and possibly savory," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"You children had better go and get ready for dinner," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+The Twins went to the door.  On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+"It's Mum he wants to crunch up--not me."
+
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+
+"Oho!  I see--heroism.  That was what you wanted to consult me about."
+Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: "It
+won't do, Anne--it won't do at all.  I am convinced of it."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+
+"Think?  I'm sure of it," said Sir Maurice in a tone of complete
+conviction.
+
+"But the children; he could do so much for the children," pleaded Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"He could, but he wouldn't.  That kind of bounder never does any one
+any good but himself.  No, no; the children are right in calling him
+the Cruncher.  He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times
+better for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that
+ever came out of pickles."
+
+"Well, you know best.  You do understand these things," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+
+"I do understand Basters," said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a
+weight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus.  Once Sir Maurice asked
+her the cause of it.  She only shook her head.
+
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he
+had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it.  But
+on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before
+him with his stick for clotheslines.  He came out of the dark lane into
+the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a
+strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
+
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he
+walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for
+more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with
+considerable force.  He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise
+with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his
+head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
+
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed
+in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came.  He was just in
+time to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow.  Then he
+found a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed
+unwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly,
+embrace.  As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet
+and realized that there was only one thing to do.  He tore along the
+turf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt.  A stone struck the
+garden gate as he opened it.  He did not pause to ring; he opened the
+front door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room.  The
+Terror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughts
+with his Uncle Maurice.
+
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: "I--I
+made sure it was that young whelp!"
+
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a
+natural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang
+to their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from
+it with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush's
+clinging affection.
+
+"I've been stoned--stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!" he
+cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble brow.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was
+cool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate
+indignation of a bosom friend.
+
+"How many of them were there?" said the Terror.
+
+"From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen," said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+
+"I know--I know what it is!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an
+illuminating flash of womanly intuition.  "You've been humorous with
+some of the villagers!"
+
+"No, no!  I haven't joked with a single one of them!" cried Captain
+Baster.  "But I'll teach the scoundrels a lesson!  I'll put the police
+on them tomorrow morning.  I'll send for a detective from London.  I'll
+prosecute them."
+
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: "I couldn't find your
+handkerchief anywhere, Mum.  It took me ever such a time," she said,
+giving it to her.
+
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror's face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: "Have you been running to find it?  You're quite out of
+breath."
+
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain Baster. . .
+.  But no: it was impossible--a child in whose veins flowed some of the
+bluest blood in England.  Besides, her slender arms could never have
+thrown the stones as straight and hard as that.
+
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth
+slightly open.  He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief,
+and stumbled out of the room.  They heard a door bang up-stairs; then,
+through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound.  It occurred
+to the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the
+gorse prickles out of Captain Baster's clothes.  She had nearly
+finished when Sir Maurice returned.  He carried a handkerchief in his
+hand, and he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed
+somewhat exhausted.
+
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;
+and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he
+would wreak on the scoundrelly villagers.  But after a while he forgot
+his pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he
+plied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o'clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of
+admiration and approval of Erebus' strenuous endeavor to instil into
+Captain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed
+out her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed when
+she was in high favor with him.  As he did it she related gleefully the
+stoning of their enemy.
+
+When she had done, he said warmly: "It was ripping.  But the nuisance
+is: he doesn't know it was you who did it, and so it's rather wasted."
+
+"Don't you worry: I'll let him know sometime to-morrow," said Erebus
+firmly.
+
+"Yes; but he's awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?" said the
+Terror doubtfully.
+
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: "I don't think he'd do
+that; he'd look so silly being stoned by a girl.  Anyhow, I'll chance
+it."
+
+"All right," said the Terror.  "It's worth chancing it to put him off
+marrying mother.  And of course Uncle Maurice is here.  He'll see
+nothing serious happens."
+
+"Of course he will," said Erebus.
+
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster
+had weighed on their uncle's mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him
+from behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard
+him singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+
+It went:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself,
+softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving
+but silent lips of Erebus repeated it.
+
+He was silent; and she said: "Oh, uncle!  It's splendid!"
+
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: "You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I'll pull your long ears," he said amiably.
+
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;
+then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she
+said: "Here he comes."
+
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds,
+paused and cried: "I'm going back to bed!  Tell him I'm in bed!"
+
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
+Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed.  Mrs. Dangerfield,
+informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
+friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus.  He showed
+an inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.
+
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
+Dangerfield was firm.  She did not bring him back till half past
+twelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in
+his bedroom.  Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he
+hinted as much) but he was disappointed.  In the end he returned to The
+Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.
+
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
+on a walk with the Terror.  Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
+overtake them, and set out briskly to do so.  He walked hard enough to
+compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
+better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
+Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
+swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
+friends to meet him and her brother.  Here was his chance to shine, to
+show Sir Maurice his social mettle.
+
+He could have wished that the party had been larger.  They were only a
+dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
+and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
+Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
+the afternoon with Erebus.  Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
+or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
+have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand.  He was soon
+the life and soul of the gathering.  He was humorous with the vicar
+about the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the
+country on the intelligence.  He tried to be humorous with Mr.
+Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from
+some profession or business.  This was so signal a failure that he
+dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town
+and his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he
+told them about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at
+polo and at golf.
+
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except
+Sir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect
+equality, as "Maurice, old boy," or "Maurice, old chap," or plain
+"Maurice."  He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warm
+perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were
+aware that their mother's tea-party was a failure.  As a rule her
+little parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness;
+and her guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another.
+The Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and a
+faint persistent frown troubled his serenity.  Erebus was more dimly
+aware that her enemy was spoiling the party.  Only Sir Maurice and Mr.
+Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice's enjoyment was
+mingled with vexation.
+
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain
+Baster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end
+of his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered
+his grievance.  Forthwith he related at length the affair of the night
+before: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on the
+common.  When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy.
+
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them
+except the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing
+violently.
+
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: "Er--er--yes; most extraordinary.
+But I don't think it could have been the villagers.  They're--er--very
+peaceful people."
+
+"It must have been some rowdies from Rowington," said the squire in the
+loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what
+he said.
+
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an
+incredulous unwinking stare.
+
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some
+care.  The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right
+gable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by
+a couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun
+round as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only.
+
+"That's where I meant to hit it the first time," said Erebus with a
+little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+
+The silence that fell was oppressive.  Captain Baster gazed earnestly
+at Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking
+stare.
+
+"That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions," said the
+higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice.  "I made sure it was
+the Terror."
+
+"So did I," said the vicar.
+
+"I'd have bet on it," said the squire.
+
+The silence fell again.  Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue
+bump on his marble brow.
+
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: "Has any one heard Wiggins' new
+song?"
+
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: "No!  Let's hear it!"
+
+"Come on, Wiggins!" cried the vicar heartily.
+
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew
+it in the depths of his horror-stricken heart.  He ground his teeth
+softly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he
+could have borne the earth's suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with
+his right.  Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had
+chanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear
+shrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished
+everybody was looking at Captain Baster's boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+
+Captain Baster's face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt
+into irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the man he had
+made his bosom friend, for an indignant outburst; Sir Maurice was
+smiling, too.
+
+Captain Baster snorted fiercely; then he swelled with splendid dignity,
+and said loudly, but thickly, "I refuse!  Yes, I refuse to mix in a
+society where children are brought up as hooligans yes: as hooligans!"
+
+He turned on his heel, strode to the gate, and turned and bellowed,
+"Hooligans!"
+
+He flung himself through the gate and strode violently across the
+common.
+
+"Oh, Wiggins!  How could you?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone of
+horror.
+
+"It wasn't Wiggins! It was me!  I taught him.  He didn't understand,"
+said Erebus loyally.
+
+"I did understand--quite.  But why did he call me Freckles?" said
+Wiggins in a vengeful tone.  "Nobody can help having freckles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AND THE CATS' HOME
+
+They watched the retreating figure of Captain Baster till it was lost
+to sight among the gorse, in silence.  They were glad at his going, but
+sorry at the manner of it, since Mrs. Dangerfield looked distressed and
+vexed.
+
+Then the vicar said: "There is a good deal to be said for the point of
+view of Wiggins, Mrs. Dangerfield.  After all, Captain Baster was the
+original aggressor."
+
+"Nevertheless I must apologize for my son's exploding such an
+uncommonly violent bomb at a quiet garden party," said the higher
+mathematician.  "I suspect he underrated its effect."
+
+His tone was apologetic, but there was no excess of contrition in it.
+
+"What I think is that Captain Baster's notion of humor is catching; and
+that it affected Erebus and Wiggins," said Sir Maurice amiably.  "And
+if we start apologizing, there will be no end to it.  I should have to
+come in myself as the maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying
+about."
+
+"It was certainly a happy effort," said the vicar, smiling.  Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: "We're going to London next week;
+perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice."
+
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and
+presently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had
+lifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party.  They
+were talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice
+were seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton,
+were getting their little chances of shining.  The Twins and Wiggins
+slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for their
+going.  In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had so
+nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a
+state of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one
+another.
+
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the
+exploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the
+two onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest.  The Terror was
+also doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he prevented
+Erebus, eager to enjoy her uncle's society, from returning to the house
+till it was time to dress for dinner.  He wished to give his mother
+time to get over the worst of her annoyance.
+
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
+daughter with any great severity.  But even so, Erebus did not receive
+these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit.  Unlike the philosophic
+Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, after
+a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
+make out a case for herself; and she did so now.
+
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
+not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
+descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
+the sphere of the laws of hospitality.
+
+"Besides he never behaved like a guest," she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone.  "He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one--especially to me.  And if he was always trying to score off me,
+I'd a perfect right to score off him.  And anyhow, I wasn't going to
+let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it.  He'd be
+a perfectly beastly stepfather--you know he would."
+
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
+discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
+discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again.  She knew that however
+bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
+sufficiently to heart.  She was sure that she would not stone another
+guest.
+
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
+Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay.  The Twins, though
+they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
+fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, were
+very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
+Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl.  Also he had many
+talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
+of action she frequently urged on him.
+
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness.  It was not acute
+boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
+every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
+English and French with her mother.  Their afternoon leisure,
+therefore, rarely palled on them.
+
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
+suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins.  They went,
+therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile away
+on the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the
+common.  They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patience
+by staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour.
+
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common.  Their eyes began to
+shine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards
+from the common's edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for
+covert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left.
+They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted,
+to cut him off.  They were successful.  They caught him crossing an
+open space, yelled "Bang!" together; and in accordance with the rules
+of the game Wiggins fell to the ground.
+
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the
+immemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves
+hastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns.
+
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily
+said: "That makes you two games ahead."  Then he spurned the earth and
+added: "I'm going to have a bicycle."
+
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint
+frown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror's face.
+
+"There'll be no living with Wiggins now, he'll be so cocky," said
+Erebus bitterly.
+
+"Oh, no; he won't," said the Terror.  "But we ought to have bicycles,
+too.  We want them badly.  We never get really far from the village.
+We always get stopped on the way--rats, or something."  And his
+guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look
+of yearning.
+
+"There are orchards over there where they don't know us," said Erebus
+wistfully.
+
+"We _must_ have bicycles.  I've been thinking so for a long time," said
+the Terror.
+
+"We must have the moon!" said Erebus with cold scorn.
+
+"Bicycles aren't so far away," said the Terror sagely.
+
+They moved swiftly across the common.  Erebus poured forth a long
+monotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made
+this Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat.  With ears impervious to his
+sister's vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful,
+pondering this pressing problem.  Now and again, for obscure but
+profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps and
+bounds.
+
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the
+Terror to say: "I've got a penny.  We'll go and get some bull's-eyes."
+
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing
+the village, when they met three small boys.  One of them carried a
+kitten.
+
+Erebus stopped short.  "What are you going to do with that kitten,
+Billy Beck?" she said.
+
+"We be goin' to drown 'im in the pond," said Billy Beck in the
+important tones of an executioner.
+
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands.  "You're not going to
+do anything of the sort, you little beast!" she said.
+
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and
+disappointment, and he howled:
+
+"Gimme my kitty!  Mother says she won't 'ave 'im about the 'ouse, an' I
+could drown 'im."
+
+"You won't have him," said Erebus.
+
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst
+into blubbering roar of "It's ourn!  It ain't yourn!  It's ourn!"
+
+"It isn't!  A kitten isn't any one's to drown!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice.  Erebus edged away from him ready to
+fly, should human justice intervene actively.  The Terror put his hand
+in his pocket and fumbled.  He drew out a penny, and looked at it
+earnestly.  He was weighing the respective merits of justice and
+bull's-eyes.
+
+"Here's a penny for your kitten.  You can buy bull's-eyes with it," he
+said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck's tearful eyes.  "'E's worth
+more'n a penny--a kitty like 'im!" he blubbered.
+
+"Not to drown.  It's all you'll get," said the Terror curtly.  He
+tossed the penny to Billy's feet, turned on his heel and went back
+across the common away from the village.  Some of the brightness faded
+out of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+
+"I wouldn't have given him a penny.  He was only going to drown the
+kitten," said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+
+"It was his kitten.  We couldn't take it without paying for it," said
+the Terror coldly.
+
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, "There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants--and puppies."
+
+The Terror stopped short, and said: "By Jove!  There's Aunt Amelia!"
+
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia,
+who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, and
+yet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but
+spent it all on horrid cats' homes.
+
+"That's just it," said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation.
+"Come along; I want you to write a letter."
+
+"I'm not going to write any disgusting letter!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"Then you're not going to get any bicycle.  Come on.  I'll look out the
+words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he's got into the way of using grammar.  It'll be
+useful.  Come on!"
+
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of
+being a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year,
+and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head,
+Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified.
+Practise had made the Terror's ears impervious at will to his sister's
+questions, which were frequent and innumerable.  Without a word of
+explanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at the
+dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himself
+on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by his
+side.
+
+Then he said coldly: "Now don't make any blots, or you'll have to do it
+all over again."
+
+"I never make blots!  It's you that makes blots!" cried Erebus,
+ruffled.  "Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do.
+Ever so much better."
+
+"That's why you're writing the letter and not me," said the Terror
+coldly.  "Fire away: 'My dear Aunt Amelia'--I say, Wiggins, what's the
+proper words for 'awfully keen'?"
+
+"'Keen' is 'interested'--I don't know how many 'r's' there are in
+'interested'--and 'awfully' is an awfully difficult word," said
+Wiggins, pondering.
+
+The Terror looked up "interested" in the dictionary with a laborious
+painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single "r"
+in it; then he said, "What's the right word for 'awfully,' Wiggins?
+Buck up!"
+
+"'Tremendously,'" said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus.
+
+"That's it," said the Terror.  "'My dear Aunt Amelia: I have often
+heard that you are tremendously interested in cats' homes'"--
+
+"I should think you had!" said Erebus.
+
+"Now don't jabber, please; just stick to the writing," said the Terror.
+"I've got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if you
+jabber?"
+
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+
+"'Little Deeping wants a cats' home awfully'--no: 'tremendously.'  I
+like that word 'tremendously'; it means something," said the Terror.
+
+"You're jabbering yourself now," said Erebus unpleasantly.
+
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror
+continued: "'The quantity of kittens that are drowned is
+horrible'--that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than
+cats--'and I have been thinking'--Oughtn't you to put in some stops?"
+
+"I'm putting in stops--lots," said Erebus contemptuously.
+
+"'I have been thinking--that if you wanted to have a cats' home
+here'--What's the right word for 'running a thing,' Wiggins?"
+
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+
+"There is a word 'overseer'--slaves have them," he said cautiously.
+
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it
+out, and continued: "'I could overseer it for you.  I have got my eye
+on a building which would suit us tremendously well.  But these things
+cost money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty
+pounds'--
+
+"Thirty pounds!  My goodness!" cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide.
+
+"We may as well go the whole hog," said the Terror philosophically.
+"Go on: 'Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a
+real home--'  What's the word for 'bust up,' Wiggins?"
+
+"Burst up," said Wiggins without hesitation.
+
+"No, no; not the grammar--the right word!  Oh, I know; 'go
+bankrupt'--'it might go bankrupt.  So it you would like to have a cats'
+home here and send me some money, I will start it at once.  Your
+affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.'  There!" said the
+Terror with a sigh of relief.
+
+"But you've left me out altogether," said Erebus in a suddenly
+aggrieved tone.
+
+"I should jolly well think I had!  You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say 'Dam,' she won't have
+anything to do with you," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"There's no pleasing some people," said Erebus mournfully.  "When I
+went there the silly old parrot couldn't say a thing; and when I came
+away, he could say 'Dam!  Dam!  Dam!' from morning till night without
+making a mistake."
+
+"It's a word people don't like," said the Terror.
+
+"Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river.  I told Aunt Amelia
+so," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"She might not believe you; she doesn't know how truthfully we've been
+brought up," said the Terror.  "Go on; sign my name to the letter."
+
+"That's forgery.  You ought to sign your name yourself," said Erebus.
+
+"No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter.  Sign away," said the Terror firmly.
+
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: "But what good's the money going
+to be to us, if we've got to spend it on a silly old cats' home?  It
+only means a lot of trouble."
+
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror's face.  "Well,
+you see, there aren't many cats in Little Deeping--not enough to fill a
+cats' home decently," he said slowly.  "We should have to have bicycles
+to collect them--from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and farther
+off."
+
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming
+face, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:
+"Well, you do think of things!"
+
+"I have to," said the Terror.  "If I didn't we should never have a
+single thing."
+
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield.  He did not tell her
+of the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had
+thought he would write to Aunt Amelia.  Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased
+with him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with his
+great-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own.
+She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her,
+though she suspected that it contained some artless request.  She
+thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt to
+make requests rather than not write at all.
+
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their
+lives.  Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their
+lives those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the very
+middle of some important enterprise to discuss the rides they would
+take on them, the orchards that those machines would bring within their
+reach.  But the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mind
+forbade him to discuss his chickens before they were hatched.
+
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not
+remarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief
+characteristic of Lady Ryehampton.  As the purport of her
+great-nephew's letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beaming
+smile of gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and as
+she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried in
+unctuous tones: "The dear boy!  So young, but already enthusiastic
+about great things!"
+
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she
+was going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more
+victimized.  She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady
+Ryehampton to a noble phrase.  Her eyes brightened with humorous
+appreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to the
+end of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was one
+of the last places in England to need a cats' home.  Then she bethought
+herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, and
+her face went blank.
+
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and
+said warmly: "It's really wonderful.  You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself."
+
+"I suppose I must," said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction.
+"And I must be careful not to discourage him."
+
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror's face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers.  It was only right that some of
+Lady Ryehampton's money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school.  It was monstrous that the great bulk
+of it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings
+came first.  And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+
+"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm," she said
+gravely.
+
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats' home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not
+better send fifty.  Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite
+comfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty was
+enough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton could
+give it later.  Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion.
+
+Having set her employer's hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back.  Lady Ryehampton would spend money on
+cats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it.  But Miss
+Hendersyde kept referring to the Terror's enterprise all that day and
+the next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon Lady
+Ryehampton signed the check for thirty pounds.  At Miss Hendersyde's
+suggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it
+into postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping.
+
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House.  The
+excited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from
+him, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the
+precious packet to the Terror in the orchard.
+
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly.
+
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;
+and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: "Thirty pounds--well!"
+
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the
+spur of that marvelous moment.
+
+"It's splendid--splendid!" she cried.  "It's the best thing you ever
+thought of!"
+
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the
+envelope into the breast pocket of his coat.  A frown of the most
+thoughtful consideration furrowed his brow.  Then he said firmly: "The
+first thing, to do is to get the bicycles.  If once we've got them, no
+one will take them away from us."
+
+"Of course they won't," said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea.
+
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning
+the earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a
+casual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: "May we have
+the cow-house for our very own, Mum?"
+
+"Oh, Terror!  Surely you don't want to keep ferrets!" cried Mrs.
+Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror's developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+
+"Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think
+we could make a little pocket-money out of it."
+
+"I am afraid you're growing terribly mercenary," said his mother; then
+she added with a sigh: "But I don't wonder at it, seeing how hard up
+you always are.  You can have the cow-house.  It's right at the end of
+the paddock--well away from the house--so that I don't see that you can
+do any harm with it whatever you do.  But how are you going to make
+pocket-money out of it?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't got it all worked out yet," said the Terror quickly.
+"But we'll tell you all about it when we have.  Thanks ever so much for
+the cow-house."
+
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a
+boy of his years.  He changed but one of the six postal orders at
+Little Deeping--that would make talk enough--and then, having begged a
+holiday from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their market
+town, ten miles away, taking Erebus with him.  There he changed three
+more postal orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycle
+shop, with hearts that beat high.
+
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way
+which, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus
+to the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she
+had long ago learned the futility of exasperation.  He began by an
+exhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and he
+made it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, one
+of those smart young men who pamper a chin's passion for receding by
+letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all on
+edge.  Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of his
+pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young
+man perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of
+buying two.  He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to
+develop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in price
+to the buyer of two bicycles.  Then he made his offer: he would give
+fourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles.  His serenity was
+quite unruffled by the seller's furious protests.  Then the real
+struggle began.  The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, two
+lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the seller
+came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeled
+their machines out of the shop.
+
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street.
+Then he said: "We've saved the cats' home quite two pounds."
+
+"Yes," said Erebus.
+
+"And it's made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it," said the Terror.
+
+"It must have--arguing like that," said Erebus quickly; and her eyes
+brightened as she caught his drift.
+
+"Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment.  It's a long ride
+home," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course it ought," said Erebus with decision.
+
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner's shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: "Of course overseers
+have a salary."
+
+"Of course they do," said Erebus.
+
+"That settles the matter of pocket-money," said the Terror.  "We'll
+have sixpence a week each."
+
+"Only sixpence?" said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+
+"Well, you see, there are the bicycles.  I don't think we can make it
+more than sixpence.  And I tell you what: we shall have to keep
+accounts.  I'll buy an account-book.  You're very good at
+arithmetic--you'll like keeping accounts," said the Terror suavely.
+
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that
+it would be delicate at that moment to protest.  Therefore on leaving
+the shop the Terror bought an account-book.  His distrust of literature
+prevented him from paying more than a penny for it.  From the
+stationer's he went to an ironmonger's and bought a saw, a brace, a
+gimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws--his tool-box had long
+needed refilling.  Then they mounted their machines proudly (they had
+learned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home.  After
+their visit to the confectioner's they rode rather sluggishly.
+
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the
+Terror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a
+quiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on
+Erebus' bicycle with excellent apples.  The tools had been packed into
+the Terror's basket.  They did not disturb the farmer's wife at the
+busy dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to
+Erebus.
+
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: "I shouldn't wonder if
+these bicycles didn't pay for themselves in time."
+
+"I said there were orchards out here where they didn't know us," said
+Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in
+the cow-house.  At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the
+morning.
+
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements.  It had
+long been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning.  It was quite
+suitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a
+size to hold two cows.  The measurements made, they went, with an
+important moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timber
+merchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him.  There was
+some discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that of
+the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, with
+some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns.  Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he
+forthwith put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet
+House.  The Twins, eager to be at work, helped him.
+
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable
+constructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches.  That evening
+Erebus wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus
+proposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally
+forth on a splendid foray.  The Terror would not hear of it.
+
+"No," he said firmly.  "We're going to get the cats' home finished
+before we use those bicycles at all.  Then nobody can complain."
+
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to
+go down to the vicarage for his morning's lessons with the vicar.  He
+set to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;
+and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too.
+
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came.  He had spent a fruitless
+hour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied
+forth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept them
+within their borders.  He was deeply impressed by the sight of the
+bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers of
+his friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise him
+greatly.  But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtained
+their bicycles before he had obtained his.  None the less he helped
+them construct the cats' home with enthusiasm.
+
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort.  So
+much sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces
+were chipped out of them.  But their spirits never flagged; and by
+sunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirty
+cats.  It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all of
+the same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness:
+and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them.
+
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the
+transformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said
+firmly: "What we want now is cats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were
+willing to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their
+owners no longer needed.  They had, indeed, one offer of a cat
+suffering from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly to
+its owner that theirs was a home, not a hospital.
+
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she
+pointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: "Look
+here: I'm going to begin with kittens."
+
+"How will you get kittens, if you can't get cats?  Everybody likes
+kittens.  It's only when they grow up and stop playing that they don't
+want them," said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+
+"I'm going to buy them," said the Terror firmly.  "I'm going to give
+threepence each for kittens that can just lap.  We don't want kittens
+that can't lap.  They'd be too much trouble."
+
+"That's a good idea," said Erebus, brightening.
+
+"It'll stop them drowning kittens all right.  The only thing I'm not
+sure about is the accounts."
+
+"You're always bothering about those silly old accounts!" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of
+their expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+
+"Well, I don't think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts.
+Aunt Amelia is so used to cats' homes that are given their cats.  She's
+told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be
+taken in."
+
+"_I_ don't want them to go down.  It makes all the less accounts to
+keep," said Erebus readily.
+
+"Well, that's settled," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the
+tidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who
+could just lap.
+
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the
+impatient Erebus grew louder and louder.  There was no doubt that she
+loved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of that
+grievance to those about her.  Since she could only discuss this
+grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it.
+Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patient
+brother's resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to a
+council.
+
+He opened the discussion by saying: "We've got to have kittens, or
+cats.  We can't have any pocket-money for 'overseering' till there's
+something to overseer."
+
+"And that splendid cats' home we've made stopping empty all the time,"
+said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+"I don't mind that.  I'm sick of hearing about it," said the Terror
+coldly.  "But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia will
+soon be wanting to know what's happening to the home; and she'll make a
+fuss if there aren't any cats in it.  So we must have cats."
+
+"Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats.  There are cats all
+over the country; and when we're out bicycling, a good way from home,
+we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with
+us.  We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in
+eight days the home would be full and two over."
+
+"And we should be prosecuted for stealing them," said the Terror coldly.
+
+"But they'd be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed," protested Erebus.
+
+"That wouldn't make any difference.  No; it's no good trying to get
+them that way," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+"Well, they won't come of themselves," said Erebus.
+
+"They would with valerian," said Wiggins.
+
+"Who's Valerian?" said Erebus.
+
+"It isn't a who.  It's a drug at the chemist's," said Wiggins.  "I've
+been talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says if
+you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats will
+follow it for miles."
+
+"Your father seems to know everything--such a lot of useful things as
+well as higher mathematics," said the Terror.
+
+"That's why he has a European reputation," said Wiggins; and he spurned
+the earth.
+
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of
+the enchanting drug.  Just before they reached the village, on their
+way home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it,
+poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the
+village to his garden gate.
+
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the
+father of Wiggins.  All that evening and far into the night twelve cats
+fought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+
+The next day the Terror turned the cats' home into a cat-trap.  He cut
+a hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted
+it with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the
+outside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside.  He was
+late finishing it, and went from it to his dinner.
+
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring
+at the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had
+come from the village with some kittens.  The Twins excused themselves
+politely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly
+had brought no less than five small kittens in a basket.
+
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping
+test.  Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they
+lapped.  The fifth would not lap.  It only mewed.  Therefore the Terror
+took only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them.  The
+fifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+
+They took the four kittens down to the cats' home; and since they were
+so small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk
+to satisfy their hunger during the night.
+
+"Now we've got these kittens, we needn't bother about getting cats,"
+said the Terror as they returned to the house.  "And I'm glad it is
+kittens and not cats.  Kittens eat less."
+
+"Then you've had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing," said Erebus.
+
+"It's an emergency exit--like the theaters have--only it's an
+entrance," said the Terror.  "But thank goodness, we've begun at last;
+now we can have salaries for 'overseering'."
+
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens
+to their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady
+Ryehampton that the home was already constructed and in process of
+occupation.  Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid of
+enthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, "saved
+from the awful death of drowning."  Lady Ryehampton replied promptly in
+a spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it.
+
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found
+themselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and the
+account-book.
+
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations.  Till they were
+six years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in
+Monmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar.  Then their father
+had fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had
+along with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leaving
+Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed.  All the while since
+his death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and the
+Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires of
+their hearts.
+
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;
+and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as
+the bulk of the children of the well-to-do.  But it did not come in the
+way of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;
+and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliest
+interest in financial matters.  He was resolved that the cats' home and
+the wages of "overseering" should last as long as possible.
+
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a
+quart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with
+him that milk spelled ruin.  But they could see no way of reducing the
+price of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food for
+growing kittens.
+
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a
+heavy silence had fallen on them.  Then of a sudden the face of the
+Terror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:
+"I've got it; we'll feed them on skim-milk."
+
+"They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens," said Erebus scornfully.
+
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping.  Butter-making was its
+chief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+
+"If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"But how can we get it?  They don't sell it about here," said Erebus.
+"And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn't sell skim-milk,
+nobody's going to sell skim-milk to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it," said the Terror confidently.
+
+"Old Stubbs!  But he hates us worse than any one!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Oh, yes; he doesn't like us.  But he's awfully keen on money; every
+one says so.  And he won't care whose money he gets so long as he gets
+it.  Come on; we'll go and talk to him about it," said the Terror.
+
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs
+and knocked resolutely.  The maid, who was well aware that her master
+and the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some
+hesitation.  The Twins had never entered the farmer's house before,
+though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightly
+uncomfortable.  They found the parlor into which they were shown
+uncommonly musty.
+
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate
+fringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion
+in his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes.  Even when he learned that they
+had come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terror
+incidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cash
+payments.  Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, that
+he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to the
+discussion of prices.  Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts;
+the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of
+view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice.  But the
+Terror's suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck
+a bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at
+threepence halfpenny the pailful.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens
+to the home; and the Terror had yet another idea.  Milk alone seemed an
+insufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the
+matter of stale bread.  There were more negotiations; and in the end
+the Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearly
+his own price.  Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throve
+on it; and it went further than plain milk.
+
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure.  They had been busy filling
+certain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with
+the best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the
+countryside afforded.  But what spare time he had the Terror devoted to
+a great feat of painting.  He painted in white letters on a black
+board:--
+
+LADY RYEHAMPTON'S CATS' HOME
+
+
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that
+could be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins
+agreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their
+aunt saw it she would be deeply gratified.
+
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be
+fixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their mother
+formally into their confidence.  She had learned of the formation of
+the cats' home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked
+to her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give them
+details about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited the
+interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussion
+for fully a week.  She had explained to them that she never interfered
+with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, and
+that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats' home.  Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had
+been brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order.
+Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of its
+construction.  Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackle
+affair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops.
+
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for
+they were judicious in their use.  They were careful to sally forth
+when she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the common
+and came back across the common and their neighbors saw them riding
+very little.
+
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she
+accepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection
+of the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise.  She
+expressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and the
+extensive scale on which it was being run.  She agreed with the Terror
+that to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning was
+a great work.  But she asked no questions, not even how it was that the
+cats' home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples.  She knew that
+an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to be
+given her.
+
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: "The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course."
+
+"What?  Are those your bicycles?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield.  "But
+wherever did you get the money from to buy them?"
+
+"Aunt Amelia found the money," said the Terror.  "You know she's very
+keen--tremendously interested in cats' homes.  She thinks we are doing
+a great work, as well as you."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: "You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats'
+home in Little Deeping?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Terror carelessly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she
+_must_ not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins.  She bit her
+tongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears.  It was
+painful; but it enabled her to complete her inspection with the
+required gravity.
+
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke
+a fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise.  Several of
+them, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to
+it; and Wiggins brought his father.  All of them expressed an
+admiration of the institution and of the methods on which it was
+conducted.  To one another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of the
+intelligence of Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience
+the Twins drew their salary for "overseering."  It provided them with
+many of the less expensive desires of their hearts.  Now and again
+Erebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than ten
+pounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raised
+to a shilling a week.  But the Terror would not consent: he said their
+salaries for "overseeing" would naturally be much higher, and that they
+would have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it had
+not been for the bicycles.  As it was, they were bound to work off the
+price of the bicycles.  Besides, he added with a philosophical air,
+six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week for
+six months.
+
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained
+twenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle
+(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were
+informed that for the time being the home was full.  Erebus clamored to
+have its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terror
+maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quite
+enough.  Everything was working smoothly.  Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed
+for the door; and Erebus opened it.  On the steps stood their Uncle
+Maurice; and he wore a harried air.
+
+"Why, it's Uncle Maurice!" cried Erebus springing upon him and
+embracing him warmly.
+
+"It's Uncle Maurice, mother!" cried the Terror.
+
+"It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he's by no means sure
+of it himself!  Is it my head or my heels I'm standing on?" said Sir
+Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping
+station, laden with wicker baskets.  From the baskets came the sound of
+mewing.
+
+"Whatever is it?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a
+neat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and
+shut the door after him with an air of exhaustion.  He leaned back
+against it and said:
+
+"I had a sudden message--Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visit
+to this inf--this cats' home these little friends are pretending to run
+for her.  I saw that there was no time to lose--there must be a cats'
+home with cats in it--or she'd cut them both out of her will.  I bought
+cats--all over London--they've been with me ever since--yowling--they
+yowled in the taxi--all over London--they traveled down as far as
+Rowington with me and an old gentleman--a high-spirited old
+gentleman--yowling--not only the cats but the old gentleman, too---and
+they traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maiden
+ladies--timid maiden ladies!--yowling!  But come on: we've got to make
+a cats' home at once!"  And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets
+with the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant or
+perish.
+
+"But we've got a cats' home--only it's full of kittens," said Erebus
+gently.
+
+"Good heavens!  Do you mean to say I've gone through this nightmare for
+nothing?" cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+
+"Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!" said the Terror with swift
+politeness.  "The cats will come in awfully useful."
+
+"They'll make the home look so much more natural.  All kittens isn't
+natural," said Erebus.
+
+"And they'll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia.  She was only
+expecting kittens," said the Terror.
+
+"What?" howled Sir Maurice.  "Do you mean to say I've parleyed for
+hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two--two--timid maiden ladies,
+just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?"
+
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly.  "I ought to
+have had more confidence in you," he said faintly.  "I ought to know
+your powers by now.  And I did.  I know well that any people who have
+dealings with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt
+Amelia was going to get it; and I've got it myself."
+
+"But you didn't think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?" said the
+Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+
+"Gracious, no!" cried Sir Maurice.  "I only thought that you might
+possibly induce her to humbug herself."
+
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his
+words than met the ear.
+
+"You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+"And I'm afraid there's very little for you.  But I'll make you an
+omelette."
+
+"I can not dine amid this yowling," said Sir Maurice firmly, waving his
+hand over the vocal baskets.  "These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan't be able to eat a morsel."
+
+"We'll put them in the cats' home," said the Terror quickly.  "I'll
+just put on a pair of thick gloves.  Wiggins' father--he's a higher
+mathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing--says
+that hydrophobia is very rare among cats.  But it's just as well to be
+careful with these London ones."
+
+"Oh, lord, I never thought of that," said Sir Maurice with a shudder.
+"I've been risking my life as well!"
+
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern.  He and Erebus
+helped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches.
+Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession--a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable.  At dinner he reduced his appreciative
+kinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his
+parleying with his excited fellow travelers.  He could now view it with
+an impartial mind.  After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats'
+home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps.  The rest of the
+evening passed peacefully and pleasantly.
+
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed
+that the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:
+"We ought to have more cats."
+
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:
+"By Jove, yes.  This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge.
+And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the
+good of the home.  The more we can say that we've used them for it, the
+less any one can grumble about them."
+
+"Most cats are shut up now," said Erebus.
+
+"Yes; we must catch the morning cats.  They get out quite early--when
+people start out to work," said the Terror.
+
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an
+alarm.  The Terror set it for half past five.  At that hour it awoke
+him with extreme difficulty.  He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty.
+Five minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchen
+to stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning;
+then they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle of
+valerian.
+
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping.  There the Terror poured valerian on
+one of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus.  Forthwith she
+started to trail it to the cats' home.  He rode on to Great Deeping and
+trailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats' home.
+When he reached it he found Erebus' bicycle in its corner; and when,
+after strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with a
+rag freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he found
+that she was already in bed again.  He made haste back to bed himself.
+
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and
+put the cats they had attracted to it into hutches.  But they slept on
+till breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon
+lured them straight into the dining-room.  After all, as Erebus told
+the hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the new
+cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleven
+o'clock.  They could not escape from the home.  The Twins therefore
+devoted their most careful attention to their breakfast with their
+minds quite at ease.
+
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at
+ease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor.
+Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said "Please, ma'am, it's
+Lady Ryehampton"; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold.  Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking
+very anxious.
+
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton's stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness.  To
+Erebus, the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: "I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats' home.  I always do.  It's the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment."  The
+frown on her face grew rhadamanthine.  "And last night I saw your Uncle
+Maurice at the station--he did not see me--with cats, London cats, in
+baskets.  On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of
+well-known London cat-dealers.  I do not support a cats' home at Little
+Deeping for London cats bought at London dealers.  Why have they been
+brought here?"
+
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+
+"It was Uncle Maurice's idea," he said.  "He didn't think that there
+ought only to be kittens in a cats' home.  We didn't mind ourselves;
+and of course, if he puts cats in it, he'll have to subscribe to the
+home.  What we have started it for was kittens--to save them from the
+awful death of drowning.  We wrote and told you.  And we've saved quite
+a lot."
+
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats
+to bring them all the way from London to a cats' home at Deeping?  He
+hates cats, and always has!" she said fiercely.
+
+"Of course, I hate cats," said Sir Maurice with cold severity.  "But I
+hate children's being brought up to be careless a great deal more.  A
+cats' home is not a cats' home unless it has cats in it; and you've
+been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling a
+kittens' home a cats' home.  If you will interfere in their
+up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into
+careless ways."
+
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady
+Ryehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: "That's all very well,"
+she said in a less severe tone.  "But is there a kittens' home at
+all--a kittens' home with kittens in it?  That's what I want to know."
+
+"But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats' home.
+You don't think we'd deceive you, Aunt Amelia?" said the Terror in a
+deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+
+"There!  I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be," said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+
+"Of course there's a cats' home with kittens in it!" said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with some heat.  "The Terror wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+"Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!" cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very
+good best.
+
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: "Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there's a c-c-cats' home--but Sir Maurice's senseless
+interference--"
+
+"Senseless interference!  Do you call saving children from careless
+habits senseless interference?" cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+
+"You had no business to interfere without consulting me," said Lady
+Ryehampton.  Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: "But I want to
+see this cats' home--now!"
+
+"I'll take you at once," said the Terror quickly, and politely he
+opened the door.
+
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice
+his hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it.  When
+they came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distant
+high-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and more
+horrible grew the din.
+
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of
+suspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were wide
+open in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a
+defiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  Only the Terror was serene.
+
+"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats," said the Terror calmly.
+
+"Visiting cats?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+
+"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come," said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+
+"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed.  "I must tell the
+managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it,
+too.  But what are these cats doing?"
+
+"It sounds as if they were quarreling," said the Terror calmly.
+
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the
+din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish.  It was as if the voices
+of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door--wide.  Cats did not come out. . . .  A large ball of cats came
+out, gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur.  Ten yards from the door
+it dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore,
+yelling, to the four quarters of the heavens.
+
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: "I
+sometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens."
+
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion.  He
+walked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human
+ken.  There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned
+against the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive
+bricks feebly.
+
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with
+an air of modest pride.  A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of
+perfect, if highly-scented, peace.  Twenty-three kittens and eight cats
+sat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead
+stillness.  Their eyes were very bright.  By a kindly provision of
+nature they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes of
+that vociferous fray.
+
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song.  She
+was charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and
+healthiness of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness.
+She gushed enthusiastic approbation.  "To think," she cried, "that you
+have done this yourself!  A boy of thirteen!"
+
+"Erebus did quite as much as I did," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"And Wiggins helped a lot.  He's a friend of ours," said Erebus no less
+quickly.
+
+Lady Ryehampton's face softened to Erebus--to Erebus, the instructor of
+parrots.
+
+Sir Maurice joined them.  His eyes were red and moist, as if they had
+but now been full of tears.
+
+"It's a very creditable piece of work," he said in a tone of warm
+approval.
+
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell.
+She said uneasily: "But you must be heavily in debt."
+
+"In debt?" said the Terror.  "Oh, no; we couldn't be.  Mother would
+hate us to be in debt."
+
+"I thought--a cats' home--oh, but I _am_ glad I brought my check-book
+with me!" cried Lady Ryehampton.
+
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl.
+She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus
+kicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously
+realized that the future of the home, the wages of "overseering," were
+secure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AND THE SACRED BIRD
+
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the
+Terror did all he could to foster her interest in it.  The crowning
+effect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty
+sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many
+pauses to gambol and play.  The only thing about the home which was not
+quite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door.
+She liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did not
+like its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all of
+them of the same size.  At the same time she did not like to hurt the
+feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork.
+
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: "By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform--the same as the boards over
+the entrances of my other cats' homes.  The lettering of them is always
+in gold."
+
+"All right.  I'll get some gold paint, and paint them over," said the
+Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+
+"No, no, I can't give you the trouble of doing it all over again," said
+Lady Ryehampton quickly.  "I'll have a board made, and painted in
+London--exactly like the board of my cats' home at Tysleworth--and sent
+down to you to fix up."
+
+"Thanks very much," said the Terror.  "It will save me a great deal of
+trouble.  Painting isn't nearly so easy as it looks."
+
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction.  She invited them all
+to lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs.
+Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simple
+establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver.  As she told her
+neighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in the
+house.  The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebus
+was very quiet for two hours after it.
+
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating
+visit to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the
+Terror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to
+London.
+
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to
+travel with Lady Ryehampton.  Besides, the question what was to be done
+with the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled.
+He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep,
+since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats' home.
+At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them any
+more.
+
+They discussed the matter.  Erebus was inclined to keep the cats,
+declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens.  The
+Terror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view,
+wished to be relieved of them.  In the end it was decided that Sir
+Maurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he had
+bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer.
+
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this
+unexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home.
+Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings a
+week.  The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each.
+Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put
+fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank.  He thought it a wise
+thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum on
+some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove.
+The cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board
+came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror's
+handiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along
+with Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the
+important matter of their mother's Christmas present.
+
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their
+breakfasts and discussing it gravely.  The kittens were indulging in
+engaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion which
+always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling
+eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds.  They could see
+their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; and
+so large a sum must be expended with judgment.  It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and
+attractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the
+hair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: "I know what she really
+wants though."
+
+"What's that?" said the Terror sharply.
+
+"It's one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker's at Rowington,"
+said Erebus.  "I heard her sigh when she looked at it.  She used to
+have beautiful furs once--when father was alive.  But she sold them--to
+get things for us, I suppose.  Uncle Maurice told me so--at least I got
+it out of him."
+
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of
+decision: "How much is that stole?"
+
+"Oh, it's no good thinking about it--it's three guineas," said Erebus
+quickly.
+
+"That's a mort o' money, as old Stubbs says," said the Terror; and the
+frown deepened on his brow.
+
+"I wonder if we could get it?" said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face.  "I should like
+to.  It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things--much harder than
+for us, because we've never had them--at least, we had them when we
+were small, but we never got used to them.  So we've forgotten."
+
+"No, we're all right as long as we have useful things," said the
+Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown.  "But you're right about
+Mum--she must be different.  I've got to think this out."
+
+"Three guineas is such a lot to think out," said Erebus despondently.
+
+"I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago," said the Terror
+firmly.  "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats' home, though not so useful."
+
+"But it's different--we _had_ to have bicycles--you said so," said
+Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Well, we've got to have this stole," said the Terror in a tone of
+finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Things will occur to us.  They always do," said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches.  Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+
+"I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens?  Does any one ever buy
+kittens?"
+
+"We did; we gave threepence each for these," said Erebus.
+
+"Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home.  We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that.  We shouldn't have
+dreamt of doing such a thing."
+
+"I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn't got any," said Erebus
+in a tone of decision.
+
+"You would, would you?  That's just what I wanted to know: girls will
+buy kittens," said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction.  "Well, we'll
+sell these."
+
+"But we can't empty the home," said Erebus.
+
+"We wouldn't.  We'd buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepence
+each, and sell these at a shilling.  We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way."
+
+"So we should--a whole sovereign!" cried Erebus; then she added in a
+somewhat envious tone: "You do think of things."
+
+"I have to.  Where should we be, if I didn't?" said the Terror.
+
+"But who are we going to sell them to?  Everybody round here has cats."
+
+"Yes, they have," said the Terror, frowning again.  "Well, we shall
+have to sell them somewhere else."
+
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to
+the house, pondering.  The Terror collected the books for his morning's
+work slowly, still thoughtful.
+
+As he was leaving the house he said: "Look here; the place for us to
+sell them is Rowington.  The people round here sell most of their
+things at Rowington--butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits."
+
+"And Ellen would sell them for us--in the market," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"Of course she would!  You see, you think of things, too!" cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter
+of selling their kittens.  She had been their nurse for the first four
+years of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a
+small farmer.  She had an affection for them, especially for the
+Terror; and she had not lost touch with them.  She welcomed them
+warmly, ushered them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter of
+elderberry wine and a cake.  When she had helped them to cake and
+poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had brought
+them to her house.
+
+Ellen's mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her
+pony-cart.  She laughed consumedly at the Terror's belief that any one
+would want to buy kittens.  But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was
+very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell
+their kittens at her stall in Rowington market.  Ellen consented to
+make the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist the
+Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to oblige
+him; but she held out no hopes of success.
+
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not
+share her despondency.  Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen's
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+"I tell you what: even if we don't sell those kittens, we can always
+buy the stole.  There's all that cats' home money in the bank.  We can
+take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees."
+
+"No, we can't," said the Terror firmly.  "We're not going to use that
+money for anything but the cats' home.  I promised Mum I wouldn't.
+Besides, she'd like the stole ever so much better if we'd really earned
+it ourselves."
+
+"But we shan't," said Erebus gloomily.  "If we sold all the kittens, it
+will only make twenty-three shillings."
+
+"Then we must find something else to sell," said the Terror with
+decision.
+
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little
+Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field
+of mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability.
+
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very
+good friends.  Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an
+honest day's work in his life.  Yet he was the smartest man in the
+village, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his
+constitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the English pheasants from all
+dangers save the small shot of those who have them fed.  Tom Cobb waged
+war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird.  Sometimes for
+a whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with
+never a check to his ardor.  In another season some prying gamekeeper
+would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and an
+infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him.  The fine was always
+paid.  Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against
+a rainy day.
+
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted
+one another with smiles of mutual respect.  They rode on a few yards;
+and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped, slipped off his bicycle,
+and wheeled it back to the gate.  Erebus followed him more slowly.
+
+"I've been wondering if you'd do me a favor, Tom," said the Terror.
+"I've always wanted to know how to make a snare.  I'll give you
+half-a-crown if you'll teach me."
+
+Tom Cobb's clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated.  He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little
+knowledge was a dangerous thing--for others.  He foresaw trouble for
+the sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the
+gamekeepers.  He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them.
+And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+
+He grinned and said slowly, "Yes, Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy to
+teach you 'ow to make a snare."
+
+"Thank you.  I'll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two," said the
+Terror gratefully.
+
+"It _will_ be nice to know how to make snares!" cried Erebus happily as
+they rode on.  "I wonder we never thought of it before."
+
+"We didn't want a fur stole before," said the Terror.
+
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to
+Tom Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares.
+But the Terror would not.  Often he was indulgent; often he was firm.
+To-day he was firm.
+
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather
+sadly: "I've still a lot to learn.  But come on: I've got to buy
+something in Rowington."
+
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and
+they had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell.  At Rowington the
+Terror bought copper wire at an ironmonger's; and he was very careful
+to buy it of a certain thickness.
+
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the
+experiment.  Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they
+washed them thoroughly in the kitchen.  They dried them, and decided to
+keep them in its warmth till the next morning.
+
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making
+of snares.  Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares
+at once.  The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while
+before he got one at all to his liking.
+
+Remembering Tom Cobb's instructions, he washed it, and then put on
+gloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the
+rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the
+cabbages.  He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare,
+and thrilled with joy.  The fur stole had come within the range of
+possibility.
+
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens,
+brushing them with the Terror's hair-brush till their fur was of a
+sleekness it had never known before.  Then Erebus adorned the neck of
+each with a bow of blue ribbon.  Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed
+on the bows, and sewed them on firmly.  It could not be doubted that
+they looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens.  Directly after
+breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of their
+bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen.
+
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but
+they had to return to their lessons.  After lunch they made three more
+snares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if
+anything, more deft at snare-making than his own.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and
+when they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their joy that the
+basket which had held the six kittens was empty.
+
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and
+said: "Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong.  I've sold
+them kitties--every one--and I've had two more ordered.  It was when
+the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went."
+
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the
+Terror.
+
+"Five," said the Terror.  "I must pay you a shilling for selling them.
+It's what they call commission."
+
+"No, sir; I don't want any commission," said Ellen firmly.  "As long as
+those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than
+any one else in the market.  I haven't had such a good day not ever
+before.  And I'll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me."
+
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm.
+The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden
+about the common.  He caught three rabbits.
+
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed
+the kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+
+At last he said rather sadly: "It's sometimes rather awkward being a
+Dangerfield."
+
+"Why?" said Erebus surprised.
+
+"Those rabbits," said the Terror.  "I want to sell them.  But it's no
+good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer.  Even
+if he wanted rabbits--which he mightn't--he'd only give me sixpence
+each for them.  But if I were to sell them myself _here_, I could get
+eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them.  But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can't go about selling things.  Uncle Maurice said I had
+the makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn't go into
+business.  It's the family tradition not to.  That's what he said."
+
+"Perhaps he was only rotting," said Erebus hopefully.
+
+"No, he wasn't.  I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition,
+too.  I expect that's why we're all so hard up."
+
+"But the squire sells things," said Erebus quickly.  "And you can't say
+he isn't a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren't so old as the
+Dangerfields."
+
+"Of course, he does.  He sells some of his game," said the Terror, in a
+tone of great relief.  "Game must be all right, and we can easily count
+rabbits as game."
+
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they
+had caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of
+the neighborhood.  The Terror went to the back doors of their
+well-to-do neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the
+gratifying result that in less than an hour he had sold all four of
+them at eightpence each.
+
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them.  They
+had already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three
+shillings.
+
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew
+when to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went
+on.  It was the fault of the rabbit market.  At the fifteenth rabbit,
+when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole,
+the bottom fell out of it.  For the time the desire of Little Deeping
+to eat rabbits was sated.
+
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who,
+after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was to
+bring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different
+thing, Master Dangerfield."
+
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: "And how much
+would you pay for pheasants?"
+
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic
+she had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of
+threepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: "Two and
+threepence each, sir."
+
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer.  He
+saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All right,
+I'll bring you two or three a week.  But you'll have to pay cash."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Of course, sir," said the cook.
+
+"Do you know any one else who'd buy pheasants?" he said.
+
+"Well, there's Mr. Carrington's cook," said the cook slowly.  "She has
+the management of the housekeeping money like I do.  I think she might
+buy pheasants from you.  Mr. Carrington's very partial to game."
+
+"Right," said the Terror.  "And thank you for telling me."
+
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the
+matter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits.  He made a
+direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each.
+After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted it.
+
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught
+rabbits would catch pheasants.  At first he was for catching those
+pheasants by himself.  Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;
+snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl's work.
+Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebus
+and must tell her.
+
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: "But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?"
+
+"Woods," said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture.
+
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled
+fiercely.
+
+"The only thing is, we don't know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants.  And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;
+and that wouldn't do at all," said the Terror.
+
+"But there's nobody else to ask."
+
+"I don't know about that.  There's Wiggins' father.  He knows a lot of
+useful things besides higher mathematics.  The only thing is, we must
+do it in such a way that he doesn't see we're trying to get anything
+out of him."
+
+"Well, I should think we could do that.  He's really quite simple,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"As long as _you_ understand what I'm driving at," said the Terror.
+
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington
+market, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next
+morning.  Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rival
+poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell.  The Twins at
+once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance
+that those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling.  They
+were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; and
+the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of
+coming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the
+third afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly,
+about three miles from Little Deeping.
+
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington.  They had a
+great respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor.
+In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his
+presence.  She did not know what he might say about her next.  He was,
+therefore, somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles and
+joined him.  He wondered what they wanted.
+
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the
+society of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk
+was running on pheasants.  Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants,
+except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the
+devastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:
+villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might live
+undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woods
+to itself.
+
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was
+not aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he
+bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to
+the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained the
+villages of all the intelligent.  The skilful poacher who harried the
+sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the
+poacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words.
+He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher
+with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to
+display in the presence of the young.  The Terror came from that talk
+with a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of
+raisins at the leading grocer's.  They might well have bought them at
+Little Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought
+Rowington safer.  They always took every possible precaution at the
+beginning of an enterprise.  They did not ride straight home.  Three
+miles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill.  At the
+foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping
+wood, acre upon acre.  It had lately passed, along with the rest of the
+Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain.
+He was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less
+modern stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of having
+the finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it,
+he did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them.  His friends came
+wholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins' came to the clump on
+the hill.  The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them
+behind the hedge.  He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle
+basket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down
+the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked
+through it.  One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the
+wood below.  The occurrence pleased him.  He crawled out of the clump
+on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the
+ditch of the hedge to the wood.  He did not lay it right down to the
+wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it.  Then he returned
+with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus.  They rode home well content.
+
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again.
+Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood
+to the clump.  But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the
+clump.  Just above the end of the ditch.  Later he took from that snare
+a plump but sacred bird.  Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs.
+Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence
+to Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself
+serenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+
+"That's all right," said Erebus cheerfully.  "That makes--that makes
+twenty-eight and eleven-pence.  We _are_ getting on."
+
+"Yes; it's twenty-eight and eleven-pence now," said the Terror quickly.
+"But you don't seem to see that when we've got the stole for Mum these
+pheasants will still be going on."
+
+"Of course they will!" cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightly
+indeed at the joyful thought.
+
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after
+breakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the
+clump above Great Deeping wood.  He reached it at the hour when
+gamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thorough
+examination of it.  He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose the
+two likeliest places for his snares.  He did not set them then and
+there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them.  He came again
+in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then.
+Later he sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the
+cook of Mr. Carrington.
+
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens.  They found themselves in the happy position of needing only
+six shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the
+clump of trees above Great Deeping wood.  They had laid a trail of
+raisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it
+on the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and
+since the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over
+Great Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley.
+The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear and
+bright.  But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided that
+instead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as well
+examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey.
+It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads,
+alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of
+his purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of
+his friends' latest exploits) and made his dispositions.  When they
+came to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a
+lookout ahead.  The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins.
+Wiggins held the two bicycles.  The Terror listened.  The wood was very
+still in its winter silence.  He slipped through the hedge into it, and
+presently came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasant
+indeed.  He put it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted.
+
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty
+yards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting
+fashion as he came.  There was neither time nor room to turn.  They
+rode on; and the keeper made for the Terror.  The Terror swerved; and
+the keeper swerved.  Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came to
+the ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as he
+could.
+
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of "Keeper!" set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently,
+when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and
+dismounted.
+
+"The keeper's got him.  This is a mess!" said the Terror, who was
+panting a little from their spurt.
+
+"If only it had been one of us!" cried Erebus.  "Whatever are we to do?"
+
+"If that beastly keeper hadn't seen me with the pheasant, I'd get
+Wiggins away, somehow," said the Terror.  "But, as it is, it's me they
+really want; and I'd get fined to a dead certainty.  Come on, let's go
+back and see what's happened to him.  You scout on ahead.  Nobody knows
+you're in it."
+
+"All right," said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a
+sign of an ambush.  The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty
+yards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the
+alarm.  They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond the
+end of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way up
+the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey.  The keeper held Wiggins
+with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right.
+The Twins dismounted.  Even at that distance they could see the deep
+dejection of their friend.
+
+"There's not really any reason for him to be frightened.  He was never
+in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant," said the Terror.
+
+"What does that matter?  He _will_ be frightened out of his life; he's
+so young," cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after their
+receding friend with very anxious eyes.  "He's not like us; he won't
+cheek the keeper all the way like we should."
+
+"Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck," said the Terror in a reassuring tone.
+
+"But he won't understand he's all right.  He's only ten.  And there's
+no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bully
+him," cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+
+"Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he'll be out of
+it," said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+
+"No, no!  That won't do at all!" cried Erebus fiercely.  "We've got to
+rescue him now--at once.  We got him into the mess; and we've got to
+get him out of it.  You've got to find a way."
+
+"It's all very well," said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took off
+his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: "I can't see what we can
+do."
+
+"Oh, I'm going to get him out of it somehow!" cried Erebus in a furious
+desperation.
+
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty
+yards.  It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher
+of the three, the only one in real danger.  As he leaned on his
+machine, watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth.  For all
+his natural serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant to
+him.
+
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and
+the keeper.  She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that
+the keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door,
+when she saw Wiggins' bicycle standing against one of the pillars of
+the great porch.  In a natural elation at having captured a poacher,
+and eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gone
+straight into the great hall.
+
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then
+she moved Wiggins' bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came
+out, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of
+sight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered
+the knocker firmly, and rang the bell.  The moment the door opened she
+stepped quickly past the footman into the hall.  The keeper sat on a
+chair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking white
+and woebegone.
+
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+"What are you doing with my little brother?"
+
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her
+position.
+
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone,
+but he said triumphantly:
+
+"I caught 'im poachin'--"
+
+"Stand up!  What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?" cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+"'E was poachin'," he said sulkily.
+
+"He was not!  A little boy like that!" cried Erebus scornfully.
+
+"Anyways, 'e was aidin' an' abettin', an' I've brought 'im to Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosynimer an' it's for 'im to say," said the keeper stubbornly.
+
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle
+click by which the Twins called each other to attention.  At the sound
+Wiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself.  Erebus
+measured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there came
+into the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-faced
+young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"Where's the boacher?" he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting in
+his emotion to the ancestral "b."
+
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide.
+
+"Bolt, Wiggins!" she cried.
+
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the
+footman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus.  She slammed the
+door behind the vanished Wiggins.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door.  He caught her by the left arm to
+sling her out of the way.  It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught
+him a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing
+of her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack of
+a whip-lash.  Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender.  He howled
+again, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists.  She caught the
+first blow on an uncommonly acute elbow.  The second never fell, for
+the footman caught him by the collar and swung him round.
+
+"It's not for the likes of you to 'it Henglish young ladies!" he cried
+with patriotic indignation.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+"Ged out of my house!  Now--at once--ged out!"
+
+"And pleased I shall be to go--when I've bin paid my wages.  It's a
+month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow.  I've had enough of
+furriners," said the footman with cold exultation.
+
+"Go--go--ged oud!" roared Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"When I've bin paid my wages," said the footman coldly.
+
+Erebus waited to hear no more.  She turned the latch, slipped through
+the door, and slammed it behind her.  To her dismay she saw a big
+motorcar coming round the corner of the house.  She mounted quickly and
+raced down the drive.  Wiggins was already out of sight.
+
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+
+"I've sent Wiggins on!" he shouted as she passed.
+
+"Come on!  Come on!" she shrieked back.  "The beastly foreigner's got a
+motor-car!"
+
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car
+had been ready to start.  They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down
+the road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew.  They
+were fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles to
+their one on that good road.  The Twins alone would have made a longer
+race of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins.  They had gone
+little more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as it
+came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them.
+
+"Go on, Terror!" cried Erebus.  "You're the one that matters!  You did
+the poaching!  I'll look after Wiggins!  He'll be all right with me."
+
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the
+advice sank in, and he shot ahead.  Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and
+they rode on.  The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly
+as it would have done had not Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the
+courage of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it.  He was howling
+at his straining chauffeur to go slower.
+
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than
+fifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging
+briskly along.
+
+"It's your father!" gasped Erebus.
+
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and
+Erebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all!  It was the Terror!"
+
+"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+
+"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
+incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
+father.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington.
+
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
+single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence.  Mr. Carrington
+seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
+arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
+technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut on
+the point which put him to sleep."  He fell as falls a sack of
+potatoes, and lay like a log.
+
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.
+
+"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his most
+agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
+no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
+between them.
+
+"I can't say as I do, sir," he said civilly; and he backed away.
+
+"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
+young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion," said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+
+"Assaults?--'Im assault?--Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, of
+Great Deeping Court, sir," said the keeper respectfully.
+
+"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
+be summoned for assault.  Good afternoon," said Mr. Carrington, and he
+turned on his heel.
+
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
+employer.  Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head.  He put his
+walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
+with rueful tenderness.  None the less he looked pleased; it was
+gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
+such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
+Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
+proud air.  They felt that they shone with his reflected glory.  It was
+a delightful sensation.
+
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: "Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?"
+
+"No, my child.  I am not a pork-butcher," said Mr. Carrington amiably.
+
+"He _looked_ as if he was dead," said Erebus; and there was a faint
+ring of disappointment in her tone.
+
+"In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope
+that it will be a better and wiser self," said Mr. Carrington.  "But
+what was it all about?  What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?"
+
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;
+then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: "It
+was a pheasant in Great Deeping wood," she said.  "The Terror found it,
+I suppose.  I had gone on, and I didn't see that part.  But it was
+Wiggins the keeper caught.  Of course--"
+
+"I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,"
+broke in Mr. Carrington.  "Had you ridden on too, Rupert?  Or did you
+see what happened?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I was there," said Wiggins readily.  "And the Terror found
+the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket.  And we had
+just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I
+ran into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court.  I wasn't
+really frightened--at least, not much."
+
+"The keeper had no right to touch him," Erebus broke in glibly.
+"Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn't even go into the wood;
+and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and
+the keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then
+that horrid Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold
+of me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once.  I
+should think that the mark is still there "--her speed of speech
+slackened to a slower vengeful gratification and then quickened
+again--"and he began to thump me and the footman interfered, and I came
+away, and they came after us in the car, and you saw what happened--at
+least you did it."
+
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+
+"Lucidity itself," said Mr. Carrington.  "But let us have the matter of
+the pheasant clear.  Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance of
+finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?"
+
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly,
+and said, "Well, there was a snare, you know."
+
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: "I thought so.  I thought we should
+come to that snare in time.  Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?"
+
+"Oh, no, he didn't know anything about it!" Erebus broke in quickly.
+"We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous!  He's so young!"
+
+"I shall be eleven in a fortnight!" said Wiggins with some heat.
+
+"You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker's in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could
+think of getting it," said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+
+"Light!  Light at last!" cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently.
+"Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitely
+Pomeranian!  But it's just as well that they have, or that ingenious
+brother of yours would be in a fine mess.  As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited."  He
+chuckled again.
+
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from
+Erebus the full story of their poaching.  When they reached the village
+he did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr.
+Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and had
+retired to Little Deeping.  At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good
+afternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on the
+notice of any of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer's keepers who might be sent out
+to hunt for the real culprit.  He would better keep quiet.
+
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home.  She found the Terror
+in the cats' home, awaiting her impatiently.
+
+"Well, did Wiggins get away all right?" he cried.  "I passed Mr.
+Carrington; and I thought he'd see that they didn't carry him off
+again."
+
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr.
+Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+
+"By Jove!  That was ripping!  I do wish I'd been there!" said the
+Terror.  "He only hit him once, you say?"
+
+"Only once.  And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer's keepers are out hunting for you," said Erebus.
+
+"I am lying low," said the Terror.  "And I've got rid of that pheasant.
+I sold it to Mr. Carrington's cook as I came through the village.  I
+thought it was better out of the way."
+
+"Then that's all right.  We only want about another half-crown," said
+Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to
+a better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he
+still retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly
+interest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching
+not only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because
+she could so ill afford the expense of the case.  He readily fell in
+with the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take the
+offensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer had
+given them the weapons.
+
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o'clock that
+evening Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R.
+S.; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served
+with a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington.
+
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was in
+a chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been "put to
+sleep by an uppercut on the point."  He made haste to despatch a car
+into Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+
+The lawyer knew his client's unpopularity in the county, and advised
+him earnestly to try to hush these matters up.  He declared that
+however Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench
+of English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by a
+big young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of European
+reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen,
+gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician's little boy from wrongful
+arrest and detention.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his
+devotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy.  But he
+perceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him too
+far, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shoot
+the particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not be
+deeply touched by it.  Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use every
+effort to settle the matter out of court.
+
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over
+to Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington's house.  He found Mr.
+Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to
+placate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude
+which had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford to
+be generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with an
+uppercut on the point.
+
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the
+more prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a
+veritable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms.  The summonses
+should be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about that
+poached pheasant and that Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty
+guineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital.  The lawyer
+accepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection to
+complying with them.
+
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington
+sent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this
+poaching.  He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at
+length on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caught
+and prosecuted.  In the end he gave him the choice of giving his word
+to snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that he
+was poaching.  The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants the
+more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching,
+she would forbid him to set another snare for anything.  Besides, he
+had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before.  Only he
+pointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a
+pheasant, for pheasants went everywhere.  Mr. Carrington admitted this
+fact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting his
+snares on ground sacred to the sacred bird.  If pheasants wandered into
+them on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault.  Thanks therefore
+to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of the
+Terror's narrow escape.
+
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds,
+since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete.  They
+turned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the
+hedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs.  Mrs. Blenkinsop's cook
+paid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time
+making the purchase.  As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of
+more stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush.  Accordingly
+on the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to
+buy it.
+
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing
+hard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker's shop, Erebus
+gazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer,
+the confectioner, and said sadly:
+
+"It's a pity it isn't Saturday and we had our 'overseering' salary.  We
+might have gone to Springer's and had a jolly good blow-out for once."
+
+The Terror gazed at Springer's window thoughtfully, and said: "Yes, it
+is a pity.  We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance."
+
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed
+somewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles.  She was
+very thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had
+chosen the very best of them.  The girl who was serving them made out
+the bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the three
+guineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purse
+of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, and
+counted them slowly.
+
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole
+when a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: "I
+shall want five per cent. discount for cash."
+
+"Oh, we don't do that sort of thing here," said the girl quickly.
+"This is such an old-established establishment."
+
+"I can't help that.  I must have discount for cash," said the Terror
+yet more firmly.
+
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity.  Mr. Barker
+came and she put the matter to him.
+
+"Oh, no, sir; I'm afraid we couldn't think of it.  Barker's is too old
+established a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doing
+business," said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: "All right," he
+said.  "You can put the stole down to me--Master Hyacinth Dangerfield,
+Colet House, Little Deeping."
+
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as
+the coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: "I'm afraid we can't
+do that, sir.  Our terms are cash--strictly cash."
+
+"Oh, no, they're not.  My mother has had an account here for the last
+six years," said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went into
+the bag.
+
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of
+warm geniality he cried: "Oh, that alters the case altogether!  In the
+case of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we're
+delighted to deduct five per cent. discount for cash--delighted.  Make
+out the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins."
+
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away
+the stole tenderly.
+
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave
+three shillings discount in his pocket and said: "Now for Springer's!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AND PRINGLE'S POND
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an
+almost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had
+any.  She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it
+had cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats' home fund,
+since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should be
+diverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to them
+for the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it.  On
+the whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had been
+raised.
+
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas.  It
+was the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude
+and gently rollicked.  There was a dearth of children, young men and
+maidens among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins
+were in request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings.
+Thanks to the Terror, the three of them took this brightening function
+with considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorous
+piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performed
+two charades in a very painstaking fashion.  They had but little
+dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always
+well received.
+
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas.  The weather broke about
+the middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy
+snow-storm.  The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common
+in front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellent
+toboggan on which they rushed down the hill into the village street.
+These were but light pleasures.  They watched the ponds with the most
+careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour's
+skating.  Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr.
+Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the
+vicarage, drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son
+take any risk whatever.
+
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;
+and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear.  They ate
+their breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered
+together his books for his morning's work they made their plans.
+
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two
+pairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: "Then
+that's settled.  I'll meet you at Pringle's pond as soon after half
+past twelve as I can get there; but you'd better not go on it before I
+come."
+
+"Oh, it'll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday," said Erebus
+impatiently.
+
+"Well, Wiggins isn't to go on it before I come.  You'll do as you like
+of course--as usual--and if you fall in, it'll be your own lookout.
+But he's to wait till I come.  If the ice does bear, it won't bear any
+too well; and I'm responsible for Wiggins.  I promised Mr. Carrington
+to look after him," said the Terror in tones of stern gravity.
+
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: "As if I
+couldn't take care of him just as well as you.  I'm as old as you."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But you are a girl; there's no
+getting over it; and it does make a difference."
+
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she
+scowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly
+behind him.  She hated to be reminded that she was a girl.  The
+reminder rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs.
+Dangerfield asked her what was distressing her that she scowled so
+fiercely.
+
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she
+was ready to go skating.  She set out briskly across the common, and
+found Wiggins waiting for her at his father's garden-gate.  He joined
+her in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its
+bearing with the most hopeful confidence.  She displayed an equal
+confidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows.
+More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps and
+bounds.  His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold winter
+sunlight.
+
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle's pond.  The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting.  Also it
+looked quite thick and strong.  Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
+that it bore her, and tested it with some care.  She even jumped up and
+down on it.  It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself
+that ice always cracks, more or less.  She set about putting on her
+skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed,
+followed her example.
+
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
+looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently.  No; she
+would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
+till he came. . . .  She could look after him quite as well as the
+Terror. . . .  She had tested the ice thoroughly. . . .  It was
+perfectly safe.
+
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him.  The
+ice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it
+cracked again.  Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling
+Wiggins not to go far from the edge.  She skated round and across the
+pond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight,
+resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came.
+Wiggins skated about the pond.
+
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
+eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
+a shrill cry from Wiggins.  She turned sharply to see the water welling
+up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
+row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
+the wind.
+
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+
+She screamed and dashed toward it.  She had nearly reached it when his
+head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice.  Two more
+steps and a loud crack gave her pause.  It flashed on her that if she
+went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
+water herself.
+
+"Hold on!  Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
+and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+
+She screamed again and yet again.  Wiggins' face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered.  Then she sank down gently, at
+full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
+so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
+toward the hole.  Half a minute's cautious squirming brought her hands
+to the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists.
+The ice bent under her weight, but it did not break.  The icy water,
+welling out over it, began to drench her arms and chest.
+
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could
+not.  She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+
+Wiggins' little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes.  She
+could not.
+
+"C-c-can't you p-p-pull m-m-me out?" chattered Wiggins.
+
+"No, not yet," she said hoarsely.  "But it's all right.  The Terror
+will be here in a minute."
+
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+
+She listened with all her ears for an answer.  A bird squeaked shrilly
+on the other side of the field; there was no other sound.  Wiggins'
+white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of
+fear.  Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+
+"It's d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold," said Wiggins in a very faint voice; he
+began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+
+"Try to stick it out!  Don't give in!  It's only a minute or two
+longer!  The Terror _must_ come!" she cried fiercely.
+
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling
+ashamed of it.  Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of
+hopeless bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in
+their sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal.
+
+They terrified Erebus beyond words.  She screamed, and then she
+screamed and screamed.  Wiggins' face was a mere white blur through her
+blinding tears of terror.
+
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror
+cried loudly: "Stop that row!"
+
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir
+her and Wiggins.  He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+
+Then he cried: "Squirm round to the left.  I'll help you."
+
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and
+she squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending
+ice.
+
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a
+willow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull
+began to draw them toward the bank.  The ice creaked as Wiggins' chest
+came over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once
+flat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily.
+He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most of
+her weight off the ice.  Then he stepped down on to it and picked up
+Wiggins.  Erebus' stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they did
+not open easily to let them go.
+
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then
+he pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened
+the blade with his teeth for quickness' sake, tossed it to Erebus and
+cried: "Cut off his skates!  Pull off his boots and stockings!"
+
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins' coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began
+to rub his chest violently.  In the spring the Twins had attended a
+course of the St. John's Ambulance Society lectures, and among other
+things had learned how to treat those dying from exposure.  The Terror
+was the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been the
+subject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid.
+
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into
+it.  Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with
+cold and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his
+boots, pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at
+his legs.  The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently
+till the blood reddened that.  Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins' knickerbockers and rubbed his
+thighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled
+them on Wiggins' legs.  The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror's coat and jersey came well down them.  Wiggins was completely
+covered.  But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her
+jacket and tied it round Wiggins' waist by the sleeves.
+
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no
+longer a dead waxen color.  He opened his eyes twice and shut them
+feebly.
+
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: "Come on, old chap!  Make an effort!
+We want to get you home!"
+
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins' cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder,
+bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set
+off toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along.  They
+went slowly for Wiggins' feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly
+along.  Their arms round him helped warm him.  It would have taken them
+a long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soon
+after they came out of Pringle's meadows on to the road, Jakes, the
+Great Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle
+Deeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart.  Wiggins was
+quickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington's
+in about four minutes.
+
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to
+Erebus: "You bolt home as hard as you can go.  You must be awfully wet
+and cold; and if you don't want to be laid up, the sooner you take some
+quinine and get to bed the better."
+
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran
+home as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins
+as a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington's house in an uproar.  The
+Terror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and
+housemaid and Mr. Carrington himself.  Wiggins was carried into the hot
+kitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet.
+The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expert
+Terror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must be
+restored slowly.  As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and water
+with a teaspoon.  In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able to
+talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation.
+
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed
+and warm the blankets.  In another five minute's Mr. Carrington carried
+Wiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine.  Presently
+he fell asleep.
+
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without
+stockings and a jersey.  He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr.
+Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over,
+he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the water
+and Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking.  He
+was careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins
+go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for saving
+him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and
+then further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine.  On
+his way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle's pond and picked
+up the skates and garments that had been left there.  When he reached
+home he found that Erebus was in bed.  She seemed little the worse for
+lying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins
+afloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worse
+and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite.
+
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her
+disregard for his instructions; he only said: "I just told Mr.
+Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the
+pond."
+
+"That was awfully decent of you," said Erebus after a pause in which
+she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the
+spirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected.  She was as
+quick as any one to realize that all's well that ends well; and Wiggins
+escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed.  The adventure, however,
+induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescending
+with him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquired
+something of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonly
+solicitous for his welfare.  To such a point did this solicitude go
+that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing about
+him.
+
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their
+lives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their
+games; then tended the inmates of the cats' home, selling them as they
+grew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to
+lap.
+
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.  The free water runs for rather more than half a mile
+on the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it
+with an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling that
+they left no fish for any one else.  Also the Twins tried to get leave
+to fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream.  But
+Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to
+give them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since Sir
+James was absent, shooting big game in Africa.  They resented the
+refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream.  It
+was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early
+morning on the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.
+
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their
+Aunt Amelia.  Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that
+it was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehampton
+had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much.  On his return he
+was able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt's parrot still
+said "dam" with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan
+had let Muttle Deeping Grange.  In the life of the Deeping villages the
+mere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the
+inhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of
+Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of
+their being when the news came that it had been let to a German
+princess.  The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with the
+liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from their
+fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of
+Cassel-Nassau, was only twelve years and seven months old.
+
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors.
+Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a
+_German_ princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the
+matter, and refused to be interested or impressed.  Erebus was more
+resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high
+patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing
+to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea,
+gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with
+meaning, "And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!"
+
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass
+when it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she
+should model herself on a German.
+
+"I don't suppose it would really make any difference who you modeled
+yourself on," said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank than
+grammatical.
+
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of
+her neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her.  She did
+not, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she
+had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor.  They only saw her on her
+afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against the
+sun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness
+(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come to
+England.
+
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for
+her health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she
+should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the
+excellent Deeping air would strengthen her.  The news abated a little
+the cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attention
+to their young neighbor.
+
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and
+her appetite was poor.  Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and
+in particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit.  It was not the
+best season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were
+coming to an end.  Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas.  The
+Twins were annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carry
+out the doctor's orders; but there seemed no help for it.
+
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor's
+visit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling
+their bicycles out of the cats' home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes
+of the Terror; and he said:
+
+"I've got an idea!"
+
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried
+joyfully; "Thank goodness!  I was beginning to get afraid that nothing
+was ever going to occur to us again.  I thought it was the hot weather.
+What is it?"
+
+"Those Germans," said the Terror darkly.  "Now that they've got the
+Grange, why shouldn't we make a raid on the peach-garden.  They say the
+Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told me
+they ripen uncommon early.  They're probably ripe now."
+
+"That's a splendid idea!  It will just teach those Germans!" cried
+Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot.  Then after a pause she added reluctantly: "But if the
+princess is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches
+herself."
+
+"She couldn't want all of them.  Why we couldn't.  There are hundreds,"
+said the Terror quickly.  "And they're the very thing for Mum.  Bananas
+are all very well in their way; but they're not like real fruit."
+
+"Of course; Mum _must_ have them," said Erebus with decision.  "But how
+are we going to get into the peach-garden?  The door in the wall only
+opens on the inside."
+
+"We're not.  I've worked it out.  Now you just hurry up and get some
+big leaves to put the peaches in.  Mum will like them ever so much
+better with the bloom on, though it doesn't really make any difference
+to the taste."
+
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of
+different kinds.  When she came back she found the Terror tying the
+landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing,
+to the backbone of his bicycle.  She put the leaves into her bicycle
+basket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping.
+
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since
+they had spent several days in careful scouting before they had made
+their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds.  A screen of
+trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; and
+the Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood,
+came down the wall behind that screen of trees.
+
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low
+bough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed
+the garden.  It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound
+that disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed
+the golden burden of the tree beneath him.  The ready Erebus handed the
+landing-net up to him.  He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;
+slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the
+wall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a
+leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket.  The Terror netted
+another and another and another.
+
+The garden was not as empty as he believed.  On a garden chair in the
+little lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from
+him by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat,
+or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von
+Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructions
+that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was
+doing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her as
+little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spot
+on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden.  Her
+eyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully
+crimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the
+sound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+
+The princess was warmly--very warmly--dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;
+the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her
+lap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look of
+intolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the
+end-of the wall of pear tree--a moving object against the garden wall.
+She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a
+peach rose and vanished over the top of the wall.  She stared at the
+part of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds another
+peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that,
+in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the
+wall of pear-tree.  As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the
+wall, a fair-haired boy.  Even as she saw him something rose and
+vanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was a
+landing-net.
+
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably,
+raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: "How do you do?"
+
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to
+make admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke
+pursuit and risk his peaches.
+
+"How do you do?" said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+"What are you doing up there?"
+
+"I'm looking at the garden," said the Terror truthfully, but not quite
+accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown.  She
+thought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and
+his serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the
+lie.  She thought that he looked a nice boy.
+
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval--as much approval as
+one could give to a girl.  The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray
+eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line
+from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that it
+made her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face.  She looked
+fragile; and he felt sorry for her.
+
+"This garden's very hot," he said.  "It's like holding one's face over
+an oven."
+
+"Oh, it is," said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+
+"Yet there's quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of the
+walls," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious
+examining eyes.  Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+
+"I tell you what: come out into the wood.  I know an awfully cool
+place.  You'd find it very refreshing," said the Terror in the tone of
+one who has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at
+the sleeping baroness.  The sight of that richly crimson face made the
+garden feel hotter than ever.
+
+"Do come.  My sister's here, and it will be very jolly in the wood--the
+three of us," said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+
+"Are you well-born?"
+
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:
+"Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in
+the Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns.  And they did very well
+at Crecy and Agincourt, too," he added pensively.
+
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+
+"Suppose the baroness were to wake?" she said.
+
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror's face: "Oh, is that the
+baroness snoring?  I thought it was a pig," he said frankly.  "She
+won't wake for another hour.  Nobody snoring like that could."
+
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess.  She
+cast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: "Very goot; I
+will coom."
+
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall.  When she came
+through it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it.  The
+Terror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.  He
+gave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in the
+case of a princess, etiquette demanded it.  Then they moved along the
+screen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood.
+
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess,
+which was uncommonly slow.  She kept looking from one to the other with
+curious, rather timid, pleased eyes.  She saw the landing-net that
+Erebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror's bicycle; but she
+saw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches.
+
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the
+home wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through
+without difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths of
+the wood, and moved down it in single file.
+
+"I expect you never found this path," said the Terror to the princess
+who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+
+"No, I haf not found it.  I haf never been in this wood till now," said
+the princess.
+
+"You haven't been in this wood!  But it's the home wood--the jolliest
+part of the estate," cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise.  "And
+there are two paths straight into it from the gardens."
+
+"But I stay always in the gardens," said the princess sedately.  "The
+Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that I
+go out of sight of her."
+
+"But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"Slack?  What is slack?" said the princess.
+
+"She means feeble," said the Terror.  "But all the same those gardens
+are big enough; there's plenty of room to run about in them."
+
+"But I do not run.  It is not dignified.  The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked," said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+
+"No wonder you're delicate," said Erebus, politely trying to keep a
+touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+
+"One can not help being delicate," said the princess.
+
+"I don't know," said the Terror doubtfully.  "If you're in the open air
+a lot and do run about, you don't _keep_ delicate.  Wiggins used to be
+delicate, but he isn't now."
+
+"Who is Wiggins?" said the princess.
+
+"He's a friend of ours--not so old as we are--quite a little boy," said
+Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, would
+have resented with extreme bitterness.  "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told
+Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing with
+children of your own age, you'd soon get strong."
+
+"That's what I've come to England for," said the princess.
+
+"I don't think there's much chance of your getting strong in that
+peach-garden.  It didn't feel to me like the open air at all," said the
+Terror firmly.
+
+"But it is the open air," said the princess.
+
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader
+one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep
+and pathless bank.  The Twins started up it as if it were neither here
+nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
+
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+
+"Am I to climb this?"
+
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle
+against the trunk of a tree, and said:
+
+"I'll help you up."
+
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round
+the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of
+the bank.  He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it;
+but none the less she reached the top panting a little.
+
+"You certainly aren't in very good training," he said rather sadly.
+
+"Training?  What is training?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being fit," said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+
+"And what is being fit?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being strong--and well--and able to run miles and miles," said
+Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+
+"You needn't shout at her," said the Terror.
+
+"I'm trying to make her understand," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"But I do understand--when it is not the slang you are using.  I know
+English quite well," said the princess.
+
+"You certainly speak it awfully well," said the Terror politely.
+
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle.  They went a little
+deeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in
+the cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+
+"This _is_ different," she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure.
+
+[Illustration: "This is different," she said.]
+
+"Yes; this is the real open air," said the Terror.
+
+"But I do get lots of open air," protested the princess.  "Why, I sleep
+with my window open--at least that much."  She held out her two
+forefingers some six inches apart.  "The baroness did not like it.  She
+said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills.  But Doctor
+Arbuthnot said that it must be open.  I think I sleep better."
+
+"We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they'll go; and then
+they're not wide enough in this hot weather," said Erebus in the tone
+of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+
+"I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you'd be cooler still,"
+said the Terror rather quickly.
+
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat
+and jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure.  She had quite
+lost her air of discomfort and boredom.  Her eyes were shining
+brightly; and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitement
+of her situation.
+
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up
+children, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal
+personages unless they first speak to you.  If they were, they did not
+let that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their
+healthy curiosity.  It may be they felt that in the free green wood the
+etiquette of courts was out of place.  At any rate they did not let it
+trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive,
+interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the
+lessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games
+she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea,
+her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner,
+the hour she went to bed.
+
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it
+was only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her
+importance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunate
+mortals.  She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquette
+in not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question.  Indeed
+she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom that
+any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom,
+indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her
+fellow creatures.  She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had
+never had any really sympathetic playmates.  The children of
+Cassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their minds
+were harassed by the fear lest they should be guilty of some appalling
+breach of etiquette.  The manner of the Twins, therefore, was a
+pleasant change for her.  They were polite, but quite unconstrained;
+and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded had
+never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness,
+they were safely asleep in her presence.
+
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new
+friends she looked for.  As she exposed more and more of the trammeling
+net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was
+enmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have found
+so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said
+with heart-felt conviction:
+
+"Well, thank goodness, I'm not a princess!  It must be perfectly awful!"
+
+"It must be nearly as bad to be a prince," said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with
+parted lips and amazed incredulous eyes.  Their words had given her the
+shock of her short lifetime.  As far as memory carried her back, she
+had been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a
+German princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and
+delightful lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little less
+glorious and delightful than the lot of a German prince.
+
+"B-b-but it's sp-p-plendid to be a princess!  Everybody says so!" she
+stammered.
+
+"They were humbugging you.  You've just made it quite clear that it's
+horrid in every kind of way.  Why, you can't do any single thing you
+want to.  There's always somebody messing about you to see that you
+don't," said Erebus with cold decision.
+
+"B-b-but one is a _p-p-princess_," stammered the princess, with
+something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+
+"You're forgetting the food," he said quickly to Erebus.  "I don't
+suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have all
+the sweets and ices she wants."
+
+"Of course," said the princess; and then she went on quickly: "B-b-but
+it isn't what you have to eat that makes it so--so--so important being
+a princess.  It's--"
+
+"But it's awfully important what you have to eat!" cried the Terror.
+
+"I should jolly well think so!" cried Erebus.
+
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her
+exalted station; but the Twins would not have it.  They kept her firmly
+to the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets.  The
+princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly
+but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
+new part of dispenser of information.  Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
+and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.
+
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
+unheeded by the interested trio.  The crimson baroness had awakened,
+missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
+her.  A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
+was not in them.  As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
+panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
+search of her.
+
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
+the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
+tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
+Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
+distant voice calling out.
+
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen!  There's some one
+calling.  I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be getting
+back."
+
+The princess rose reluctantly.  Then her face clouded; and she said in
+a tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear!  How annoyed the baroness will be!"
+
+"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus.
+
+"But I have to; she's my--my _gouvernante_," said the princess.
+
+"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time," said Erebus coldly.
+
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+
+"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us.  She
+mightn't think we were good for you.  Some people round here don't seem
+to understand us," said the Terror suavely.
+
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
+brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are you
+coming to-morrow?"
+
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully.  They had no plans for the
+morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
+exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.
+
+At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror's heart.
+
+"We should like to come very much," he said.
+
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.
+
+"I don't think I shall be able to come," said Erebus with the important
+air of one burdened with many affairs.
+
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: "But if your
+brother comes?"
+
+"Oh, I'll come, anyhow," said the Terror.
+
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+
+"Oh, it isn't the baroness.  It's Miss Lambart," said the princess in a
+tone of relief.
+
+"You take too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus again firmly.
+"Who is Miss Lambart?"
+
+"She's my English lady-in-waiting.  I always have one when I'm in
+England, of course.  I like her.  She tries to amuse me.  But the
+baroness doesn't like her," said the princess, and she sighed.
+
+"Come along, I'll help you down the bank and take you pretty close to
+Miss Lambart.  It wouldn't do for her to know of this place.  It's our
+secret lair," said the Terror.
+
+"I see," said the princess.
+
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried
+her down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from
+which Miss Lambart had called.  As they went he adjured her to confine
+herself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walking
+in the wood.  His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of the
+drive, were:
+
+"Don't you stand so much nonsense from that baroness."
+
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and
+found her thirty yards away.  The Terror slipped noiselessly away
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess' footsteps, and said:
+"Oh, here you are, Highness.  We've all been hunting for you.  The
+baroness thought you were lost."
+
+"I thought I would walk in the wood," said the princess demurely.
+
+"It certainly seems to have done you good.  You're looking brighter and
+fresher than you've looked since you've been down here."
+
+"The wood is real open air," said the princess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease,
+eating a peach.
+
+"I should have liked one a good deal sooner," he said, as he took one
+from the basket.  "But I didn't like to say anything about them.  She
+mightn't have understood."
+
+"It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't," said Erebus somewhat
+truculently.
+
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had
+so plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+
+"She's not a bad kid," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"She's awfully feeble.  Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a
+bank.  She's not any use to us," said Erebus in a tone of contempt.
+"In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should
+find her a perfect nuisance."
+
+"Perhaps.  Still we may as well amuse her a bit.  She seems to be
+having a rotten time with that old red baroness and all that
+etiquette," said the Terror in a kindly tone.
+
+"She needn't stand it, if she doesn't like it.  I shouldn't," said
+Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: "I tell you
+what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that old
+red baroness."
+
+"Yes," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But I expect she'd take a lot of
+teaching.  I don't think she's the kind of kid to do much jumping on
+people."
+
+"Oh, you never know.  We can always try," said Erebus cheerfully.
+
+"Yes," said the Terror.
+
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood.  It
+was not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered
+by bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved
+as the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but
+little attention to it.  The Twins moved out of it safely and returned
+home with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they had
+been treating a princess with singular firmness.  Nor were they at all
+troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mental
+kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuum
+applied to fruit.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that
+afternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and
+bought them for her there.  When two more were forthcoming for her
+dessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so much
+of their salary for "overseering" on her.  The Twins said nothing.  It
+was only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she
+began to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not of
+trade.  Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little late
+to inquire and protest.  Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twins
+had admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit of
+it.  Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing.
+
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping
+home wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who
+met them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes.
+This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain to
+them of this unheard-of breach of etiquette.  She was doubtful how the
+complaint would be received at any rate by Erebus.
+
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since
+the sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it
+rather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror.  There was
+something very satisfactory in his strength.  Again they settled
+themselves comfortably on the bank of the pool.
+
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another.  Beside the clear
+golden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the
+pale face of the princess looked waxen.  The blue linen blouse, short
+serge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt,
+serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them an
+air not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb.  In
+her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings and
+heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddled
+sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased
+by the Terror's observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all
+when one had such thick hair as she.  But she was some time acting on
+Erebus' suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be
+more comfortable still.
+
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to
+tell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her
+having gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home
+wood.
+
+"I tell you what: you've spoilt that baroness," said the Terror when
+she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+
+"But she's my _gouvernante_.  I have to do as she bids," protested the
+princess.
+
+"That's all rubbish.  You're the princess; and other people ought to do
+what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any silly
+thing you don't want to.  She wouldn't me," said Erebus with even
+greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+
+"I don't think she would," said the princess with a faint sigh; and she
+looked at Erebus with envious eyes.  "But when she starts making a fuss
+and gets so red and excited, she--she--rather frightens me."
+
+"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me," said Erebus with a
+very cold ferocity.
+
+"I rather like people like that.  I think they look so funny when
+they're really red and excited," said the Terror gently.  "But what
+you've got to do is to stand up to her."
+
+"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+
+"Tell her that you don't care what she says," said the Terror.
+
+"Cheek her," said Erebus.
+
+"I couldn't.  It would be too difficult," said the princess, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find how
+soon you'll get used to shutting her up," said the Terror.  "But I
+don't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy.  I believe in
+being quite polite but not giving way."
+
+"She is very noisy," said the princess.
+
+"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her.  It's the only way.  But mind
+you only have rows when you're in the right about something," said the
+Terror.  "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone.  It's no good
+having a row when you're in the wrong."
+
+"I think it's best always to have a row," said Erebus with an air of
+wide experience.
+
+"Well, it isn't--at least it wouldn't be for the princess--she's not
+like you," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"Oh, no: not always--only when one is in the right.  I see that," said
+the princess.  "But what should I have a row about?"
+
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a
+pretext for an honest row.
+
+Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have some
+one to play with?  It's silly being as dull as you are.  What's the
+good of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled.  "It would be nice!  You and Erebus could come to tea with me
+and sooper and loonch often and again!"
+
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay.  It
+was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go
+to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and
+girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+
+"That wouldn't do at all," said the Terror quickly.  "You had better
+not tell them anything at all about us.  They wouldn't let us come to
+the Grange; and they'd stop you coming here.  It's ever so much nicer
+meeting secretly like this."
+
+"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here," said
+the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+
+"It couldn't be done.  They wouldn't have us at the Grange," said
+Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+
+"But why not?" said the princess in surprise.
+
+"The people about here don't understand us," said the Terror somewhat
+sadly.  "They'd think we should be bad for you."
+
+"But it is not so!  You are ever so good to me!" cried the princess
+hotly.
+
+"It's no good.  You couldn't make grown-ups see that--you know what
+they are.  No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet
+us here," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she
+sighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say.  You know more about
+it."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you.
+Suppose we taught you some exercises.  You could practise them at home;
+and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us."
+
+"What things?" said the princess.
+
+"Oh, you'd be able to run--and jump.  Why we might even be able to
+teach you to climb," said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his
+tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner
+vision.
+
+"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess.  Forthwith the Twins set
+about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of
+muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil.  In spite of the
+seeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back
+to the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate
+before she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the
+house or about the gardens.  The Terror therefore conducted her down
+the screen of trees to the door in the wall.  She had left it
+unlatched; and he pushed it open gently.  There was no sound of
+snoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden.
+
+"I expect she is still looking for me in the house," said the princess
+calmly.  "They'd be shouting if she weren't."
+
+"Yes.  I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?" said the Terror,
+looking round the loaded walls.
+
+"Me?  No.  I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch.  But I
+don't care for peaches much.  It's the way the baroness eats them, I
+think--the juice roonning down, you know.  And she eats six or seven
+always."
+
+"That woman's a pig.  I thought she looked like one," said the Terror
+with conviction.  "But if you don't want them all, may I have some for
+my mother?  The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond of
+peaches."
+
+"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus.  Take them
+all," said the princess with quick generosity.
+
+"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps," said the Terror.
+
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large
+cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil.  But when she
+was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.
+Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked
+the Twins how they came by them.  They assured her that they had been
+given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a
+secret.  She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it
+likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom
+took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that
+either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on
+eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body.  They adjured her again and again to thrust off
+the yoke of the baroness.  The last pregnant words of Erebus to her
+were: "You just call her an old red pig, and see."
+
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that
+very evening.  The princess was dining with the Baroness Von
+Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly
+jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk
+with the princess; and she had done it rudely.  The princess, who
+wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed.  They had reached
+dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in
+her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that
+it must be the air of Muttle Deeping.  The baroness uttered a loud and
+contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches.  The princess
+looked at her with an expression of great dislike.  The baroness
+gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human
+being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the
+princess spoke.
+
+"I want some children to play with," she said.
+
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped
+down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are no
+children in zis country, your Royal Highness."
+
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in
+England.
+
+"But I see plenty of children when I drive," said the princess.
+
+"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born," said the
+baroness in rasping tones.
+
+"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with," said the princess.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice.  "Bud eed ees whad
+I know ees goot for you."
+
+"They're good for me," said the princess firmly.  "And you must find
+them."
+
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display
+of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer
+crimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: "Bud eed ees
+eembossible whad your royal highness ask!  Zere are no 'igh an'
+well-born children 'ere.  Zey are een Loondon."
+
+"Well, you must send for some," said the princess, who, having taken
+the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?  I do nod know whad ees 'appen to you, your Royal
+Highness.  I say eed ees eembossible!" shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+
+"But surely her highness' request is a very natural one, Baroness; and
+there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look
+for them.  Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have
+children of her own age to play with," said Miss Lambart who had been
+pitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping
+her to the companionship she needed.
+
+"Do nod indervere, Englanderin!" bellowed the baroness; and her crimson
+was enriched with streaks of purple.  "I am in ze charge of 'er royal
+highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay."
+
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow.
+She was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her
+young mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+
+"Old--red--peeg."
+
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping
+grunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+
+"But whad--but whad--" she said faintly.
+
+"Old--red--peeg," said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effect
+of the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+
+"Bud whad ees eed zat 'appen?" muttered the bewildered baroness.
+
+"If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father
+that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
+everything what the English doctor bids," said the princess in a
+sinister tone.  "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the
+Baroness Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_."
+
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
+happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
+Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
+well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.
+
+"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness," she
+said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+
+The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them.  Is
+it not, Mees Lambart?"
+
+"I shall be charmed to try, Highness," said Miss Lambart readily.
+
+"Do nod indervere!  I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped the
+baroness.
+
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
+glowing with the joy of victory.  At the door she paused to say:
+
+"And I want them soon--at once."
+
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
+night air, she went firmly out into the garden.  The next morning at
+breakfast she again demanded children to play with.
+
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
+baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
+to come to play with the princess.  She only stipulated that they
+should be high and well-born.
+
+"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins--Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl.  They're high and well-born
+enough.  But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl.  They're independent young people.  Besides, I'm not at all sure
+that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess.  It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such--er--er ardent spirits.  You might have her developing a spirit of
+freedom; and you wouldn't like that."
+
+"_Mein Gott_, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction.
+
+"Then there's Wiggins--Rupert Carrington.  He's younger and quieter but
+active enough.  He'd soon teach her to run about."
+
+"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness.
+
+"Well-born?  He's a _Carrington_," said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
+impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily.  When the princess, who had
+hoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him
+with resignation.  Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of
+Wiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on the
+qualifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+
+"Of course, he'll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; he
+always does.  But you mustn't mind that."
+
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate
+be a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their
+fair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend.  Not only was his
+reluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English young
+gentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit as
+sincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a little
+girl far more insulting than they would have done.  They did their best
+to soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing out
+to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, and
+impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+
+"Yes; that's all very well," said Wiggins gloomily.  "But I've been
+seeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now I
+shall see less than ever."
+
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the
+stiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and he
+scalped her with gratifying frequency.  In this way it came about that,
+in the matter of play, the princess led a double life.  She spent the
+early part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from tea
+till the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society of
+Wiggins.  She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wiggins
+was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he could
+tell.  Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air.
+They took that change at but a short distance from their home, since
+the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford.
+They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in
+the dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle of
+Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther.
+
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from
+the knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of
+philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they
+could.  She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going
+to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been
+made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was
+presently weeping.  She was ashamed; but she could not help it.  The
+compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would try
+to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly
+the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was
+magnificently inspired.
+
+"Look here: why shouldn't you come with us into camp?" he said eagerly.
+"A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange.  You
+really do get open air camping out at the knoll."
+
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid
+thought.  Then it fell; and she said: "They'd never let me--never."
+
+"But you'd never ask them," said the Terror.  "You'd just slip away and
+come with us.  We've kept our knowing you so dark that they'd never
+dream you were with us in the knoll caves."
+
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect.  She
+had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the
+afternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them
+would be beyond the delight of dreams.  But to her unadventured soul
+the difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting.  The Twins, however,
+were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began
+surmounting these.
+
+"The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,"
+said the Terror thoughtfully.  "You see, I've got to go down every day
+for milk and things, and they're sure to ask me if I've seen anything
+of you.  Of course, I can't lie about it; and then they'll not only
+take you away, but they'll probably turn us out of the caves."
+
+"That's the drawback," said Erebus.
+
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment.  A deep frown
+furrowed the Terror's brow; and he said: "If only you weren't a
+princess they wouldn't make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I
+might never be asked anything about you."
+
+"I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a
+glorious smile, and he cried:
+
+"By Jove!  Of course you would!  I never thought of that!  Why, you'd
+be some one else and not the princess at all!  We shouldn't know where
+the princess was if we were asked."
+
+"Of course we shouldn't!" said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of this
+ignorance.
+
+"I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: "I
+suppose you have to have a title.  But I think an English one would be
+best here: Lady Rowington now.  No one would ever ask us where Lady
+Rowington is, because there isn't any Lady Rowington."
+
+"Oh, yes: Lady Rowington--I would wish an English title," said the
+princess readily.
+
+"If we could only think of some way of making them think that she'd
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still," said Erebus.
+
+"Gipsies don't steal children nowadays," said the Terror; and he paused
+considering.  Then he added, "I tell you what though: Nihilists
+would--at least they'd steal a princess.  Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?"
+
+"I never heard of any," said the princess.  "There are thousands of
+Socialists."
+
+"Socialists will do," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till
+the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have
+everything in order.  Then they discussed her needs.  She could not
+bring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not
+been stolen.  She must share the wardrobe of Erebus.
+
+"But, no.  I have money," said the princess, thrusting her hand into
+her pocket.  "Will you not buy me clothes?"
+
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and
+handed it to the Terror.  He and Erebus examined it with warm
+admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
+
+"We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow.  There's a pool
+just under the knoll," said the Terror.  "How much shall we want,
+Erebus?"
+
+"You'd better have two pounds and be on the safe side," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to
+his own.  Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of
+the peach-garden at nine o'clock, or thereabouts at night.  He would
+wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
+the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will.  He made several
+suggestions about the manner of her escape.
+
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
+purchasing her outfit.  They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
+shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
+stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress.  They carried the parcels
+home on their bicycles.  When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
+Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
+
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
+throwing the searchers off the scent.  It was:
+
+[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned "We are avenged.  A
+Desparate Socialist"]
+
+
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
+Knoll.  The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so
+that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom
+Cobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
+encamped with them.  This year she had not cared for the effort; and
+she had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuous
+atmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and
+pleasant.  She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to
+encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll.  Not only were they of approved
+readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were
+as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
+isle.  She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take as
+many blankets as she suggested.  In other years he had been disposed to
+grumble at the number she thought necessary.
+
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite.  Then they began
+to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
+brought them up, in their proper caves.  With a break of an hour for a
+bath this occupied them till tea-time.  After tea they bathed again and
+then set about collecting fuel from the wood.  They were too tired to
+spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
+their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs.  They
+were up betimes, bathing.
+
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before.  They spent most
+of it in the pool or on its bank.  In the afternoon Wiggins came and
+did not leave them till seven.  Soon after eight o'clock the Terror set
+out to keep his tryst with the princess.  He took with him the
+Socialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening
+from the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange to
+Deeping Knoll.  Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall
+two or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
+
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess
+on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it.  He shook
+hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told
+him how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone
+to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen,
+down the stairs and out of the house.  He praised her skill; and she
+found his praise very grateful.
+
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the
+princess found them daunting.  They were full of strange noises, many
+of them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes
+seemed to move.  The Terror was not long discovering her fear, and
+forthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the
+path was broad enough to allow it.  When she quivered to some woodland
+sound, he told her what it was and eased her mind.
+
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active
+games with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough
+ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down
+and rested.  The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled
+to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror.
+When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into
+the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests
+of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her.  She was
+almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+
+[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot
+of the knoll.]
+
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey
+the princess found it grateful indeed.  They sat for a while in a row
+before the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the
+princess had visited.  But soon the yawns which she could not repress
+showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that she
+should go to bed.
+
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to
+herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it
+alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the
+cave of Erebus.  After the journey and the excitement she was not long
+falling into a dreamless sleep.
+
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk.
+Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath.  The
+princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but
+under the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went.  She
+came out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she
+came to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her
+life enjoyed.
+
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the
+caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games
+of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to
+an active life.  It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;
+after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of
+which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as
+hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you
+could yell.  After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported
+themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o'clock.
+
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping
+her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required
+speed.  Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full
+half-hour before he and Erebus left it.  After dinner the princess was
+so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terror
+insisted that she should lie down for an hour.  She protested that she
+did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this
+glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
+
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon.  But he could be admitted
+safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had
+become Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to
+profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts.  Also he would be very
+useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the
+excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess.  So far
+its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were
+content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three
+counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for
+some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists and
+a princess.  It was the general belief that she had been chloroformed
+and abducted through her bedroom window.
+
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the
+probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the
+routes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and the
+towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be.  At the
+end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes,
+very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+"You might have told me that she was coming here."
+
+"You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"So I should, if I'd known you knew her at all," said Wiggins.
+
+"That's what nobody knows," said Erebus triumphantly.
+
+"And look here: she's here incognita," said the Terror.  "She's taken
+the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she's not the princess at
+all.  So if you're asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully
+say she isn't."
+
+"Of course--I see.  This is a go!" said Wiggins cheerfully; and he
+spurned the earth.
+
+"The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we're not expecting them and see her," said the Terror.  "So I'm going
+to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will
+shout to us.  But there's no need to do that yet; nobody will think
+about us for a day or two."
+
+"No; of course they won't.  I didn't," said Wiggins.
+
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that
+followed.  It kept the princess always beside the Terror.  Always he
+was using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required
+speed.  Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princess
+been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough
+ground.  On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly
+move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing
+yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had
+died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his
+pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly
+fond of no one.  It is hardly too much to say that she was coming to
+adore the Terror.  Even at their most violent and thrilling moments his
+care for her never relaxed.  He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he
+plastered her scratches.  He saw to it that she came out of the pool
+the moment that she looked chill.  He picked out for her the tidbits at
+their meals.  He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass
+was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly
+refused to play the lady's-maid.  Since the Terror was one of those who
+enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently
+forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in
+handling the silken strands.
+
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her
+hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe
+shock.  Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;
+indeed, she had never had the chance.  But he had just finished his
+task and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a
+sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and
+kissed him.
+
+"Oh, you _are_ nice!" she said.
+
+The Terror's ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds.
+He flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any
+one should have seen it!
+
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: "Don't
+you like for me to kiss you?"
+
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said,
+faintly but gallantly: "Yes--oh, rather."
+
+"Then kiss me," said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her
+gingerly.
+
+"I _am_ fond of you, you know," said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+
+The Terror's scattered wits at last worked.  He rose to his feet, and
+said quickly:
+
+"Yes; let's be getting to the others."
+
+The princess rose obediently.
+
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not
+frequent, were, at any rate, not rare.  The Terror at first endured
+them; then he came rather to like them.  But he strictly enjoined
+discretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that she
+kissed him.  The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one else
+for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no
+natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware
+of the practise.
+
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;
+and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out
+of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+
+"I suppose the Terror's in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that.  I think it's awfully silly."  And he spurned the earth.
+
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: "He never does!"
+
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;
+and her eyes were flashing.  He had seen her angry often enough, but
+never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a
+grievous indiscretion.
+
+"Perhaps she kissed him," he said quickly.
+
+"He'd never let her!" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"Perhaps they didn't," said Wiggins readily.
+
+"You know they did!" cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+
+"I may have made a mistake.  It's quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing," said Wiggins.
+
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from
+his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl.  He had seen the
+princess with an arm round the Terror's neck, and they had kissed.
+
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the
+least resistance, sought the princess.  She found her lying back
+drowsily against a sunny bank.
+
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: "Princess
+or no princess, you shan't kiss the Terror!"
+
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up.  Her gray eyes darkened
+and sparkled.  She had never made a face in her life; it is not
+improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was
+ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous
+face at Erebus, and said:
+
+"I shall!"
+
+"If you do, I'll smack you!" cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth.
+
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by
+a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in
+the matter of a male.  She met Erebus' blazing eyes squarely and said
+confidently:
+
+"He won't let you.  And if you do he'll smack you--much harder!"
+
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then
+and there.  But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules
+only permit you to strike any one standing up.  Erebus forgot them,
+stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a
+really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror.
+
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and
+she cried:
+
+"I know all about your kissing the princess!  I never heard of such
+silly babyishness!"
+
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to
+the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as
+he said:
+
+"Well, what harm is there in it?"
+
+"It's babyish!  It's what mollycoddles do!  It's girlish!  It's--"
+
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+
+"You mind your own business!  It isn't babyish at all!  She's asked me
+to marry her; and when we're grown up I'm going to--so there!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AND THE UNREST CURE
+
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by
+what she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission
+had raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered
+no protest.  She knew that protest would be vain, that against his
+obstinacy she was helpless.  She wrung her hands and turned aside into
+the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiest
+ideals.
+
+Then followed a period of strain.  She assumed an attitude of very
+haughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins,
+and let them coldly alone.  From this attitude Wiggins was the chief
+sufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;
+Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the
+strenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily.  As
+often as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined the
+errant pair.  It is to be feared that the princess found the kisses
+sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on
+Deeping Knoll.  There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the
+Twins had had a hand in her disappearance.  But no one had any reason
+to suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted.  Doctor
+Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but they
+were mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always very
+careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was at
+the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficient
+truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was.  The
+bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down.
+Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice
+Falconer in the matter.  When he first read in his _Morning Post_ of
+the disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from
+Muttle Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: "The Twins
+again!" and to that conviction his mind clung.
+
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the
+Socialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny
+paper.  He told himself that Socialists are an educated, even
+over-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skull
+and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rate
+accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialist
+would spell desperate with two "a's" in an important document without
+being corrected by a confederate.  On the other hand the drawing of the
+skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which the
+immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two "a's" in
+any document.
+
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of
+his relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been
+for the international situation produced by the disappearance of the
+princess.  As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings,
+dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled to
+postpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organ
+and organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudly
+disavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England and
+Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at one
+another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiring
+frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets.  Even then
+Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would
+not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet
+minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty
+thousand pounds' worth of consols.  He disliked the lady so strongly
+that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt
+that the time had come to ease the international situation.
+
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping.  His conviction
+that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess
+became certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were
+encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that
+disappearance.  But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his
+habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
+
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood
+and park to Muttle Deeping Grange.  He gave his card to the butler and
+told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms
+of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three
+minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
+
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:
+"Is this business worrying you?"
+
+"It is rather.  You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible.  Besides, since I'm
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being
+taken explained; and they want the same explanation over and over
+again.  Since the archduke came it has been very trying.  I think that
+he is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that they've been worrying you like this.  If I'd
+known, I'd have come down and stopped it earlier," said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of lively self-reproach.
+
+"Stop it?  Why, what can you do?" cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyes
+wide in her surprise.
+
+"Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess.  But it's only a belief, mind.  So don't be too hopeful."
+
+Miss Lambart's pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+
+"Oh, if you could!" she cried.
+
+"Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can,
+for the easier part; and we'll put my belief to the test," said Sir
+Maurice briskly.
+
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: "I shan't be able to
+get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss.  They're very unpleasant
+people, you know.  Could we take the baroness with us?  She'll _have_
+to be carried in something."
+
+"Is she very fat?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Then she'd never get to the place I have in mind," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Is it very far?  Couldn't we walk to it?"
+
+"It's about three miles," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing--at least not for me.  But you?" said Miss Lambart,
+who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
+weakling.
+
+"I can manage it.  Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
+limbs," said Sir Maurice.  "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and
+pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years."
+
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
+park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
+surface of the distant wood.  Sir Maurice had once walked to it with
+the Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
+inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
+course.  It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
+charming companion through such a charming country.
+
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+"Where are we going to?  Where do you think the princess is?"
+
+"You've been here a month.  Haven't you heard of the Dangerfield
+twins?" said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
+and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them.  But he said that they were not
+the kind of children for her, though they were the only high and
+well-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood.  He
+seemed to think that they would make her rebellious."
+
+"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"I wonder," said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+
+"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her--a
+very nice little boy," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Wiggins!  The Twins' greatest friend!  Well, I'll be shot!" cried Sir
+Maurice; and he laughed.
+
+"But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
+something to do with the princess' disappearance?  How old are they?"
+said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
+mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
+Socialists and foreigners.
+
+"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen.  But I do know
+that nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their
+having a hand in it.  I have the honor to be their uncle," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them.  She's
+a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
+she is delicate to fragility," Miss Lambart protested.
+
+"If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of deep conviction.  "But it would not necessarily be a
+matter of persuasion."
+
+"But what else could it be--children of thirteen or fourteen!" cried
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"I assure you that it might quite easily have been force," said Sir
+Maurice seriously.  "My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll.
+It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part
+communicating with one another.  I can conceive of nothing more likely
+than that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;
+and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom.  They
+might lure her to some distance from the Grange before they had
+recourse to force."
+
+"It sounds incredible--children," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Sir Maurice cheerfully.  Then he added in a
+more doubtful tone; "If only we can take them by surprise, which won't
+be so easy as it sounds."
+
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase.  But it was a
+very pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking
+with him through this pleasant sunny land.  When presently he turned
+the talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still.
+He was very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance at
+having had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome _corvee_ of
+acting as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to the
+domineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome _corvee_
+indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been.  He
+sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented by
+that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess.
+
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the
+baroness and the archduke during the last few days.  The baroness had
+tried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; and
+the archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at
+having been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash to
+England, had been very rude indeed.  She was much pleased by the warmth
+of Sir Maurice's indignation; but she protested against his making any
+attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, without
+harming himself.  But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke,
+nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in
+the broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path
+led to the knoll.  Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take
+it.  He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have it
+guarded, if the princess were indeed with them.  He led the way into
+the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for her
+carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her frock
+get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the
+knoll.
+
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir
+Maurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering
+earnestly ahead through the branches.  Now and again a loud yell came
+from the knoll; and once a chorus of yells.  Finding that her coldness
+(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on her
+insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;
+and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in
+an astonished whisper:
+
+"That was awfully like the princess' voice."
+
+"I thought you said she was delicate," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"So she was," said Miss Lambart firmly.
+
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen
+and unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the
+knoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in its
+face.  They waited, watching it.
+
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning
+to wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed
+kin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging
+down her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped
+into a clump of bushes to the right of it.
+
+"The princess!" said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward,
+but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing
+in a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+
+"That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington," said Sir Maurice.
+
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an
+ear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms
+round his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came
+to the ground.
+
+"Delicate to fragility," muttered Sir Maurice.
+
+"Whatever has she been doing to herself?" said Miss Lambart faintly,
+gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+
+"You don't know the Twins," said Sir Maurice.
+
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a
+breakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the
+battling pair.  As far as the spectators could judge she and the
+princess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelled
+their shrillest.  Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from the
+cave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the aching
+welkin rang.
+
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and
+Wiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled.  The princess
+and the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled.  The princess
+wriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an arm
+round his neck.
+
+"It was splendid!" she cried, and kissed him.
+
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very
+good grace.
+
+"Well, I never!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"These delicate children," said Sir Maurice.  "But it's certainly a
+delightful place for lovers.  I'm so glad we've found it."
+
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was
+flushing.
+
+"Come along!" she said quickly.
+
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first.  He did not stir; but a curious,
+short, sharp cry came from his throat.  It seemed to loose a spring in
+the princess.  She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly,
+frowning.  The Terror rose more slowly.
+
+"Good afternoon, Highness.  I've come to take you back to the Grange,"
+said Miss Lambart.
+
+"I'm not going," said the princess firmly.
+
+"I'm afraid you must.  Your father is there; and he wants you," said
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"No," said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewise
+toward the mouth of the cave.
+
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his
+pockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator.
+
+"But if you don't come of yourself, we shall have to carry you," said
+Miss Lambart sternly.
+
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: "I don't see
+how you can.  You can't touch a princess you know.  It would be
+_lese-majeste_.  She's told me all about it."
+
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir
+Maurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively.  But he said: "Oh, come;
+this won't do, Terror, don't you know!  Her highness will _have_ to
+come."
+
+"I don't see how you're going to get her.  The only person who could
+use force is the prince himself, and I don't think he could be got up
+to the knoll.  He's too heavy.  I've seen him.  And if you did get him
+up, I don't really think he'd ever find her in these caves," said the
+Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirely
+impersonal matter.
+
+"Anyhow, I'm not going," said the princess with even greater firmness.
+
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity.
+
+"You see, there isn't any real reason why she shouldn't stay here,"
+said the Terror.  "She came to England to improve her health; and she's
+improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange.  You
+can _see_ how improved it is.  She eats nearly as much as Erebus."
+
+"She has certainly changed," said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+
+"The Twins have a transforming effect on the young," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of resignation.
+
+"I am much better," said the princess.  "I'm getting quite strong, and
+I can run ever so fast."
+
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"But it's nonsense!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"But what can you _do_?" said the Terror gently.
+
+"I'll chance the _lese-majeste_!" cried Miss Lambart; and she sprang
+swiftly forward.
+
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it.  Miss Lambart followed
+swiftly.  The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage
+forked into three dimmer passages.  Miss Lambart stopped short and
+tried to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of the
+retiring princess.  It came from none of the three; the floor of the
+eaves was covered with sound-deadening sand.  Miss Lambart walked back
+to the entrance of the cave.
+
+"She has escaped," she said in a tone of resignation.
+
+"Well, I really don't see any reason for you to put yourself about for
+the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange.  You have done more
+than you were called on to do in finding her.  You can leave the
+catching of her to them.  There's nothing to worry about: it's quite
+clear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good," said Sir
+Maurice in a comforting tone.
+
+"Yes; there is that," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Let me introduce my nephew.  Hyacinth Dangerfield--better, much
+better, known as the Terror--to you," Said Sir Maurice.
+
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: "How do you do?  I've been
+wanting to know you: the princess--I mean Lady Rowington--likes you
+ever so much."
+
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+
+"Perhaps you could give us some tea?  We want it badly," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes, I can.  We only drink milk and cocoa, of course.  But we have
+some tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday," said the
+Terror.
+
+"I take it that she saw nothing of the princess," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; she didn't see Lady Rowington.  You must remember that she's
+Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh?  I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess," said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"Yes; that was how," said the Terror blandly.
+
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their
+kettle on the fire for some time.  Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed
+the picnic greatly.  On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed.
+Miss Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess;
+and she came out of hiding and took her tea with them.
+
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical
+change in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was
+a browner, brighter, stronger child.  Plainly, too, she was a more
+determined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved of
+that change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved by
+the princess' kinsfolk and train.  But she was somewhat distressed that
+the legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deep
+scratches.  She had none of the experienced Twins' quickness to see and
+dodge thorns.  She took Miss Lambart's sympathy lightly enough; indeed
+she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorable
+warfare.
+
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was
+assured that this green wood life was the very thing the princess
+needed, she was resolved to give him no help herself.  She was pleased
+to learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess'
+acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance and
+cultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in the
+peach-garden.
+
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of
+their entertainers and set out through the wood.  They had not gone a
+hundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that the
+strenuous life had again begun.
+
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle
+Deeping Grange with the news of their great discovery.  But she found
+that Sir Maurice had formed other plans.  They were both agreed that no
+consideration was owing to the billowy archduke.  His manners deprived
+him of any right to it.  Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping
+post-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and help
+wrote two long telegrams.  The first was to the editor of the Morning
+Post, the second was to the prime minister.  In both he set forth his
+discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in a
+wood, and her reasons for running away to them.  The postmistress
+despatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease
+the international situation at once.  Since both the editor and the
+prime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there was
+no fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect.
+
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of
+Mrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged
+Europe into Armageddon.  Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with
+unruffled calm.  She showed no surprise at all; she only said that she
+had found it very strange that a princess should vanish at Muttle
+Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it.  She perceived at once that
+the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name of
+Lady Rowington.
+
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no
+haste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant
+atmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange.  It was past seven therefore when
+the Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archduke
+with her news.
+
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he
+always fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with
+sufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of her
+news.  He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it.  It
+annoyed him greatly.  He was taking considerable pleasure in standing
+on a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern
+sire.  His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laugh
+consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter.  His second feeling
+was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirring
+things about the Terror's manifesto and the stolen princess, would be
+furiously angry with him.
+
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss
+Lambart was ignorant.  Then when he grew cooler and paler his
+oft-repeated phrase was: "Eet must be 'ushed!"
+
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care
+that the affair should not be hushed up.  She did not wish every blow
+to strike him at once.  Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste
+he rolled off to the dining-room.
+
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke's equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up
+the stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at
+once, as she was.  She took no heed of the command, dressed at her
+ease, and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after his
+struggle with the hors-d'oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his
+first entree.
+
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about
+the place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was
+encamped with.  Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as
+clearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible.
+Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercised
+her authority and brought the princess back with her.
+
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that
+if she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and
+that it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through
+miles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns were
+sacrosanct.
+
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and
+summon home his truant child.  Miss Lambart objected that it would mean
+hewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit his
+passage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allow
+it.  Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go.  Miss Lambart with
+infinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must be
+hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there was
+not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves.
+
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity.  Then he
+struck the table and cried:
+
+"Count Zerbst shall do eet!  To-morrow morning!  You shall 'eem lead to
+ze wood.  'E shall breeng 'er."
+
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a
+German count would hardly be proper.
+
+"Brobare?  What ees 'brobare'?" said the archduke.
+
+"_Convenable_," said Miss Lambart.
+
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to
+militate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the
+earliest possible moment.  Miss Lambart said that they must.  In the
+end it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowington
+and that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to the
+entrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to the
+princess her father's command to return to the Grange, and if she
+should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car.
+
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would
+never set eyes, much less hands, on the princess.  Count Zerbst's
+smooth pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little
+mustache, which in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion
+accentuated the extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his small
+eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely something about "sdradegy."  He
+looked at Miss Lambart very unamiably.  He felt that she was not
+impressed by him as were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resented
+it.  He resolved to capture the princess at any cost.
+
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the _Morning
+Post_ the true story of his daughter's disappearance; and he was fuming
+still when the car came from Rowington.  It was a powerful car and a
+weight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been
+careful to demand a weight-carrier.  With immense fuss the archduke
+disposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled with
+billowy curves.  The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang to
+the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she might
+the more easily direct his course.
+
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no
+objection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran
+the path to the knoll.  At the entrance of it the count stepped out of
+the car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the air
+of a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but he
+was to bring her at once.
+
+In a last generous outburst he cried: "Pooll 'er by the ear!  Bud
+breeng 'er."
+
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and
+martial air.  Miss Lambart was not impressed by it.  She thought that
+in his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently
+tighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place
+under the green wood trees.  She remembered how lightly the Twins and
+the princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his getting
+near any of them.  Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods she
+had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which
+to approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent.  Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with
+all the competence of a trumpet.
+
+Her doubt was well-grounded.  The quick ears of Erebus were the first
+to catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred
+yards from the entrance of the path to the knoll.  Ever since the
+departure of Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been making
+ready against invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings to
+the secret caves.
+
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to
+the knoll.  They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well
+lighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge.  But the
+entrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave
+in the heart of the knoll.  On this shaft the Twins had spent their
+best pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they had
+reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches high
+and eighteen inches broad.  The opening into this passage could,
+naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was
+hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave.  It had been a
+somewhat difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so
+narrow a passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite
+sure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car
+was coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed
+their way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind
+them, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between the
+larger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of the
+wall of the cave.  Then she betook herself to a point of vantage among
+the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch the
+entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an
+excellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train
+from Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais.  Miss
+Lambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on the
+efforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll.  She stepped out of the car and
+strolled up and down on the pleasant turf.  Presently she saw a figure
+coming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when it
+came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice.
+
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the
+discoverer of his daughter's hiding-place.  The archduke, mindful of
+the fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance
+to the world, received him ungraciously.  Miss Lambart at once told Sir
+Maurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectation
+that anything would come of it.  Sir Maurice agreed with her; and the
+fuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promising
+soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau.  Then Sir Maurice suggested that
+they should go to the knoll and help the count.  Miss Lambart assented
+readily; and they set out at once.  They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll.  It was quiet and seemed utterly
+deserted.
+
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer.
+Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they
+should find him and help him search them; they plunged into the caves
+and began to hunt for him.  They did not find the count; neither did
+they find the princess nor the Twins.  They shouted to him many times
+as they traversed the caves; but they had no answer.
+
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they
+reached it.  He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the
+princess.  He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to
+the princess.  No answer had come to his calling.  He had kept coming
+out of the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll.  At one of these
+exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl,
+dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told the
+princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the
+knoll.  With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged
+after her into the wood.  Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among
+the bushes, and by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in
+sight.  Once, indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good and
+all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take up
+the chase again.  But he did not catch her.  Indeed he did not lessen
+the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
+For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and
+endurance.  Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the
+going, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance.  It was
+true that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff,
+tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck.  But he was not near
+enough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly
+flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all.  All the while he
+was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course of
+the next hundred yards.
+
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran
+down a field path toward the village of Little Deeping.  By the time
+the count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards.  To
+his joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost
+ground quickly.  When they reached the common, he was a bare forty
+yards behind her.  He was not surprised when in despair she left the
+path and bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it.
+
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious
+air, and knocked firmly on the door.  Sarah opened it; and he demanded
+the instant surrender of the princess.  Sarah heard him with an
+exasperating air of blank bewilderment.  He repeated his demand more
+firmly and loudly.
+
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: "Please, mum: 'ere's a furrin
+gentleman asking for a princess.  I expect as it's that there missing
+one."
+
+"Do nod mock!  She 'ees 'ere!" cried the count fiercely.
+
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been
+arranging flowers, and came to the door.
+
+"The princess is not here," she said gently.
+
+"But I haf zeen 'er!  She haf now ad once coom!  She 'ides!" cried the
+count.
+
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet
+by its strings.  The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+
+"I expect he means me.  At least he's run after me all the way from the
+knoll here," said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+
+The count's eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden
+outburst of fluent German.  He did not think that any of his hearers
+could understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; he
+hoped they could not; he could not help it if they did.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully.  She did not
+suppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the
+count to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day.  She was
+sorry for him.  He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fall
+foul of the Twins.
+
+Erebus caught her mother's thoughtful eye.  At once she cried
+resentfully: "How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made
+him think I was the princess?  He never asked me who I was.  He just
+shouted once and ran after me.  I was hurrying home to get some salad
+oil and get back to the knoll by lunch."
+
+"Yes, you would run all the way," said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+
+"Well, you'd have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!
+Just look at that mustache!  It would frighten anybody!" cried Erebus
+in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+
+"Yes, I see," said her mother with undiminished patience.
+
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed
+his fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda.  He
+explained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistake
+Erebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to
+appear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman.  Erebus left them
+together; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to the
+knoll.  They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been an
+after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it.  That
+would be the safe course.
+
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car,
+looking frequently at his watch.  He had expected the count to return
+with the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  Then he
+had expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count and
+the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  None of them
+returned.  The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highest
+of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of this
+enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair.  The count sat
+drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had
+not really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased
+that he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of
+her acquaintance.  Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and
+talked seriously about everything and certain other things, but chiefly
+about themselves and each other.
+
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay
+between him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter
+remained uncaught.  He chafed and fumed.  His vexation grew even more
+keen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that the
+thoughtless count had borne away the case.  He appealed to the
+chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington and
+ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car,
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!" and sank down again panting with
+the effort.
+
+[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"]
+
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes.  The archduke's
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry.  No
+answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+"P'raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace," said the chauffeur,
+somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+
+"Yes, shout!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: "Zerbst!
+Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: "I shout--you shout--all ad
+vonce!"
+
+"Every little 'elps," said the chauffeur politely.
+
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+"He seems to be growing impatient."
+
+"He isn't calling us.  And it's no use our going back without either
+the princess or the count," said Miss Lambart quickly.
+
+"Not the slightest," said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if that
+were possible, to him and kissed her.
+
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and
+their discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their
+earlier friendship.  They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been
+discussing the matter of being married at an early date.
+
+"I don't think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all.  They
+don't treat you decently, you know--not even for royalties," he went on.
+
+"Oh, it wouldn't do not to go back--at any rate for to-night--though,
+of course, there's no point in my staying longer, since the princess
+isn't there," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"You don't know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is hauling
+her to her circular sire," said Sir Maurice.  "The Twins can not be
+successful all the time."
+
+"We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"That wouldn't be the slightest use," said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete certainty.  "If the princess is in the caves, she is not in an
+accessible one.  But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or
+even likelier, to be at the Grange.  The Twins are quite intelligent
+enough to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to look
+for them.  It's no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we're
+very comfortable here.  Why not stay just as we are?"
+
+They stayed there.
+
+But the archduke's impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the
+minutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away.  At ten
+minutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers
+should be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once
+he despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+
+The chauffeur made no haste about it.  He had heard of the caves on
+Deeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them.  Besides, he
+made it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in
+his mouth since eleven o'clock; and he felt now off duty.  He explored
+half a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir
+Maurice and gave them the archduke's message.  They joined him in his
+search for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to him
+loudly.
+
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near.
+The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late
+for it.  There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from
+his solar plexus.
+
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the
+knoll.
+
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to
+sink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a
+gloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the
+chauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to the
+knoll.
+
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst.  The archduke cursed his equerry
+wheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the
+car and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the
+car went bumping down the turfed aisle.  Once in the road the
+chauffeur, anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducal
+hospitality, let her rip.  But half a mile down the road, they came
+upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer.  It was Count Zerbst.  After a
+long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebus
+had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to
+find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping
+Grange.  In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his
+patent leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he was
+indeed footsore.  He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh of
+relief.
+
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone
+was cheerful.  The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and
+disappointments of the morning.  Count Zerbst had acquired a deep
+respect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; and
+he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter with
+Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princess
+good, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimson
+baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage her
+charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial
+social reasons.  The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to
+recover her lost charge.
+
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the
+baroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily.  He made no secret of
+the fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to
+the woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but it
+might take a week or ten days.  The archduke cried shame upon a
+strategist of his ability that he should be baffled by children for a
+week or ten days.  Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the
+children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were
+using.  At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their
+aid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth
+the risk of the ridicule it might bring upon them.
+
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had
+something more pleasant to give her mind to.  But at last she said with
+some impatience: "Why can't the princess stay where she is?  That
+open-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good.  She is
+eating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as ever
+she took in her life before."
+
+"Eembossible!  Shall I live in a cave?" cried the baroness.
+
+"It doesn't matter at all where you live.  It is the princess we are
+considering," said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+
+"Drue!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+"Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?"
+cried the baroness.
+
+"She isn't," said Miss Lambart shortly.  "In fact she's leading a far
+better and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here.  The
+doctor's orders were never properly carried out."
+
+"Ees zat zo?" said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+
+"Eengleesh doctors!  What zey know?  Modern!" cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders.  The baroness
+defended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be
+dying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water the
+doctors had ordered her.  But the archduke stormed on.  At last he had
+some one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show of
+reason; and he vented it.
+
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart's counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of
+the princess remaining at the knoll.  They found many objections to it,
+and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be
+encamped by themselves in the heart of a wood.
+
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more
+efficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+
+"Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself.  Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind
+at ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better
+health than if she had stayed on here."
+
+"Bud 'ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and--" cried
+the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority.
+
+"Goot!" cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed at
+the thought of escaping forthwith to his home.  "Eet shall be zo!  And
+ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who
+do as ze doctors zay."
+
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting
+provisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the
+path to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewest
+possible number of garments she would need during her stay.
+
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the
+Rowington car to the knoll.  Not far from the park gates she met Sir
+Maurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her.  At the
+entrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisions
+and Miss Lambart's trunk from the car, and dismissed it.  Then they
+went to the knoll.
+
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it.
+But after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in
+peace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves
+above them and heard the news.  She made haste to bear it to the Terror
+and the princess who received it with joy.  They had already been
+cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge once
+more into the strenuous life.  They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; and
+the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her
+position at the knoll secure.
+
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full
+share of the strenuous life.  She played her part in it manfully.  Even
+Erebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to
+admit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her
+engaged in the strenuous life.  Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;
+and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the
+speed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life on
+the lower place.  Both of them found the knoll a delightful place for
+lovers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the
+princess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the
+beginning arranged.  Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss
+Lambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly with
+her.  It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was not
+only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to him
+in the course of the next few weeks.  She grumbled about it to the
+Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in the
+matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads.  Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss
+Lambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriage
+were very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous
+life.  She failed.  Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that
+plain fact, and failed again.  He declared that it was his first duty,
+as an uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were not
+quick about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him.  Erebus
+carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; and
+there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for several
+days.  The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most
+natural and satisfactory thing in the world.  Her only complaint was
+that she and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same
+day as Miss Lambart.
+
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll
+even more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest
+felicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them.  Sir Maurice
+arrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, than
+sunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset.  But the
+pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, since
+the archduke's tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess must
+return to Germany.  She was bitterly grieved at parting with the
+Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the
+next summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again.
+It seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive association
+with the Twins she would have her way about it.  Nevertheless, in spite
+of her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm
+ideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the most
+unaffected fashion.
+
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir
+James Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for
+years been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at
+any rate for a while.  It had always been their keen desire to fish the
+Grange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished all
+the years Sir James had been wandering about the world.  But Mr.
+Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused their
+request.  He believed that their presence would be good neither for the
+stream, the fish, nor the estate.
+
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they
+felt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that
+they might be able to compass their desire.  Also they felt that the
+sooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hear
+unfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freely
+with his neighbors.  Therefore, with the help of their literary
+mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leave
+to fish the Grange water.  Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath
+indeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so
+many years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he
+left their honeyed missive unanswered.
+
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days.  Then it was
+slowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their
+letter at all; and they grew very angry indeed.  Their anger was in
+close proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter.  The name
+of Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carried
+in their retentive minds.
+
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him
+for the affront he had put on them.  Scorching, in his feverish,
+Central African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerful
+motor-car, he looked well beyond their reach.  But Fortune favors the
+industrious who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus came
+bicycling swiftly up to the cats' home, and cried:
+
+"As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook's water!"
+
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his
+hands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+
+"Are you sure?" he said calmly.  "It's a long way from the ridge to the
+stream."
+
+"Not for my eyes!" said Erebus with some measure of impatience in her
+tone.  "I'm quite sure that it was Sir James; and I'm quite sure that
+it was old Glazebrook's meadow.  Lend me your handkerchief."
+
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a
+less pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a
+perfect content.  She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with
+her interesting news.
+
+"I wish I'd seen him too," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"It's quite enough for me to have seen him!" said Erebus with some heat.
+
+"It would be better if we'd both seen him," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"It's such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice of
+our letter!" said Erebus indignantly.
+
+"Yes, it is," said the Terror.
+
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor
+at considerable length.  The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be
+listening to her.  In truth he was considering what advantage might be
+drawn from Sir James' transgression.
+
+At last he said: "The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching."
+
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result
+that two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream,
+stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of
+the wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream
+below.
+
+"He'll soon be at the boundary fence," said the Terror in a hushed
+voice of quiet satisfaction.
+
+"If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!" said Erebus
+who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+
+"It's on the other side of it they're rising," said the Terror in a
+calmly hopeful tone.
+
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast
+after vain cast.  He was a big game hunter; he had given but little
+time and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at which
+his water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket
+still empty of trout.  He looked longingly at his neighbor's water; as
+the Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely.  Then the
+watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+
+"He's not going to poach, after all!" cried Erebus in a tone of acute
+disappointment.
+
+"Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all?
+Long Ridge is a good way off," said the Terror looking across to it.
+
+"I did.  I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook's meadow," said
+Erebus firmly.
+
+"It's very disappointing," said the Terror, frowning at the disobliging
+fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: "Well, it can't be
+helped; we've got to go on watching him every evening till he does.  If
+he's poached once, he'll poach again."
+
+"Look!" said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary
+fence.  He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning
+the little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter's
+eyes.  It is to be feared that he had been too long used to the
+high-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where big
+game dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor's
+fish.  Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of netting
+his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant.
+Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to give
+them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since
+Glazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the
+Morgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty
+years.  Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught
+him poaching.
+
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human
+beings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper
+in the wood.  Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of
+view, regard poaching with abhorrence.  But he would perceive that his
+master was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them
+that chance of making a sportsman-like end.  At any rate the keeper
+would hold his tongue.
+
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a
+tone of triumph: "Well, he's gone and done it now."
+
+"Yes, we've got him all right," said the Terror in a tone of calm
+thankfulness.
+
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir
+James caught three good fish.
+
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a
+figure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+
+"Look!  There's old Glazebrook!  He'll catch him!  Won't it be fun?"
+she cried, wriggling in her joy.
+
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+"Yes: it would be fun.  There'd be no end of a row.  But it wouldn't be
+any use to us.  I'm going to warn him."
+
+With that he sent a clear cry of "Cave!" ringing down the stream.
+
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly
+and noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: "We'll
+teach him not to answer our letters."
+
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road,
+took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and
+lifted them over the gate.  They reached home in time for dinner.
+
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the
+time since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had
+been for a bicycle ride.  She did not press him to be more particular
+in his account of their doings, though from Erebus' air of subdued
+excitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise
+was in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror's
+uncommon power of polite evasion.
+
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o'clock, she went out into
+the garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they
+were not within hearing.  She told herself that she would be lucky if
+she got them to bed by ten.  But she would have been surprised, indeed,
+had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in
+a condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best.
+
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats' home quietly, mounted,
+rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house,
+and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool
+and tidy.  They timed their arrival with such nicety that as they
+dismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the
+content inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himself
+comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not
+only assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it
+would prevail.  A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his
+fish with the usual strictness, _can not_ allow himself to be
+prosecuted for poaching.
+
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at
+the coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business," said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;
+and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted
+Sir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return to
+Cassel-Nassau.  He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during the
+last days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and had
+formed a high opinion of their ability and their manners.  Moreover, of
+a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield
+whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful
+tone: "It's very late, Master Terror.  You can't expect Sir James to
+see people at this hour."
+
+"I know it's late; but the business is important--very important," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+Mawley hesitated.  His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous
+of obliging her children.  Then he said:
+
+"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll tell Sir James that you're here."
+
+"Thank you," said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round
+them at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master
+and Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+
+"Oh?  They're the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to
+fish.  But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little
+devils in the county, so I took no notice of their letter," said Sir
+James.
+
+"Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so.  But it's my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do.  And after all
+they're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behave
+like ordinary children," said Mawley in the tone and manner of a
+persuasive diplomat.
+
+"Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish," said Sir James.
+"There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of
+noisy children won't make those easier to catch.  But I may as well
+tell them so myself; so you may bring them here."
+
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room.  They
+entered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of
+themselves, and greeted Sir James politely.
+
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his
+steward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick,
+red-faced and robustious.  He felt that these pleasant-looking young
+gentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation.
+There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him
+than they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large
+arched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the
+small clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of
+the Terror, pleased them.  He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+
+"Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?"
+he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+
+"We saw you in Glazebrook's meadow this afternoon--poaching," said the
+Terror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone.
+
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort.  He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+
+"Oh?  Then it was one of you who called 'Cave!' from the wood?" said
+Sir James.
+
+"Yes; we didn't want old Glazebrook to catch you," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh--er--thanks," said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+
+"That wouldn't have been any use to us," said the Terror.
+
+"Of use to you?" said Sir James.
+
+"Yes; if he'd caught you, there wouldn't be any reason why we should
+fish your water," said the Terror.
+
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+
+"But is there any reason now?" he said.
+
+"Yes.  You see, you were poaching," said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in something of the manner of
+a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished
+enlightenment:
+
+"Well, I'm--hanged if it isn't blackmail!" he cried.
+
+"Blackmail?" said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation.  "Why,
+that's what the Scotch reavers used to do!  I never knew exactly what
+it was."
+
+"And we're doing it.  That is nice," said Erebus, almost preening
+herself.
+
+"But this is disgraceful!  If you'd been village children--but
+gentlefolk!" cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+
+"Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed," said the
+Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a kind of stealing," said
+Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother's fur stole.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a felony," said Sir James
+loftily.
+
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+"Poaching's worse."
+
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
+very angry eyes.  The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air.  Their
+appearance no longer pleased him.
+
+"It's your own fault entirely," said the Terror coldly.  "If you'd been
+civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't have
+bothered about you.  But you didn't take any notice of it--"
+
+"And it was beastly cheek," said Erebus.
+
+"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing.  So we kept an eye
+on you and caught you poaching," said the Terror.
+
+"Without any excuse for it.  You've plenty of fishing of your own,"
+said Erebus severely.
+
+"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneak
+to the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
+
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't going
+to do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish your
+water at all.  We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll get
+prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook.  That's what we came to say."
+
+"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
+write to you," said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
+find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
+night, and left the room.
+
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
+expressed his feelings without difficulty.  Then he began to laugh.  It
+was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
+been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
+rankled.  He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of
+Africa, by much more ferocious creatures.  But after sleeping on the
+matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased
+it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield
+children were allowed to fish his water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AND AN APOLOGY
+
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
+triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
+fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's
+faint appetite.
+
+She had grown stronger during the summer.  She was not, indeed,
+definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak.  But, a woman of
+spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness
+of her life in the country.  It was sapping her strength and energy; in
+it she would grow old long before her time.  The Twins had been used to
+find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;
+and the change troubled them.  Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for
+her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the
+trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her.  But she
+made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound
+of the Twins on the bank of the stream.  To his pleased surprise he
+neither saw nor heard them.  For the most part they fished in the early
+morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appetite
+at breakfast.  But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other
+acted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of his
+sight.  They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assured
+them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James.  As the
+Terror phrased it:
+
+"He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point in
+rubbing it in."
+
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them.  Erebus was
+playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare
+Sir James' feelings.  Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was
+impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it
+snapped the gut and was gone.
+
+"Evidently you're no so good at fishing as blackmailing," said Sir
+James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+
+"I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!" said Erebus with some heat;
+and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself
+looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep
+brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]
+
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene
+of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his
+eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.
+
+"This is Sir James Morgan, mother," said the Terror quickly.
+
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+"It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish."
+
+"Oh--ah--yes--n-n-not at all," stammered Sir James, blushing faintly.
+
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+
+"Oh, but it was," said Mrs. Dangerfield.  "And I'm seeing that they
+don't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that,
+thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none too
+many fish in the stream."
+
+"It's very good of you.  B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch,"
+said Sir James.
+
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished
+to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence.  Yet he did not
+wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: "You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they'd like to."
+
+"Are they as good fishermen as that?" said Sir James.
+
+"Well, they've been fishing ever since they could handle a rod.  They
+are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring.  So I limit them to three fish a day," said Mrs. Dangerfield;
+and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+
+"It's very good of you," said Sir James.  He hesitated, shuffled his
+feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs.
+Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: "I should like to
+stay and see how they do it.  I might pick up a wrinkle or two."
+
+"Of course.  Why, it's your stream," she said.
+
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to
+the fishing.  Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air
+of fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness.  His
+first discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest
+desire to remain in her presence.  He not only stayed with them till
+the Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to Colet
+House with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of the
+deepest reluctance.  It can hardly be doubted that he had been smitten
+by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we more
+gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not
+received the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth.  If,
+instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them,
+he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate
+condition of meeting her often.  It did not for a moment enter his mind
+that if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily have
+failed to fall in love with her at all.  He cudgeled his brains to find
+some way of meeting her again and meeting her often.  He was to meet
+her quite soon without any effort on his part.
+
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had
+been smitten by that emotional _coup de foudre_, for she was walking
+with a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she
+said in a really cheerful tone:
+
+"I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the
+exciting life he had in Africa."
+
+"Rather!", said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+
+She had not missed Sir James' sentence about the superiority of Erebus'
+blackmailing to her fishing.  But she knew the Twins far too well to
+ask them for an explanation of it before him.  None the less it clung
+to her mind.
+
+At supper therefore she said: "What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?"
+
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the
+explanation; and he said suavely:
+
+"Oh, it was about the fishing."
+
+"How--about the fishing?" said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+
+"Well, he didn't want to give us leave.  In fact he never answered our
+letter asking for it," said the Terror.
+
+"And of course we couldn't stand that; and we had to make him," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"Make him?  How did you make him?" said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+The Terror told her.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised
+and annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that
+her offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger.  She felt chiefly
+annoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to
+blackmail should be Sir James.
+
+"Then you did blackmail him," she said in a tone of dismay.
+
+"He seemed to think that we were--like the Douglases used to," said the
+Terror in an amiable tone.
+
+"But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong--very wrong,
+indeed," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+"Well, he _did_ seem to think so," said the Terror.  "But we thought he
+was prejudiced; and we didn't take much notice of him."
+
+"And we couldn't possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum--it
+was such a polite letter--and not take it out of him," said Erebus.
+
+"And it hasn't done any harm, you know.  We wanted those trout ever so
+much more than he did," said the Terror.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as
+she pondered how to deal with the affair.  She was still chiefly
+annoyed that Sir James should have been the victim.  The Twins gazed at
+her with a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they were
+burdened by a sense of wrong-doing.  They were merely sorry that she
+was annoyed.
+
+"Well, there's nothing for it: you'll have to apologize to Sir
+James--both of you," she said at last.
+
+"Apologize to him!  But he never answered our letter!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it,
+opened it again and said in a soothing tone: "All right, Mum; we'll
+apologize."
+
+"I'll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel
+Sir James to invite them to continue to fish.
+
+There had been some such intention in the Terror's mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real
+apology.  But he said amiably: "All right; just as you like, Mum."
+
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her
+breath.  After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the
+Terror bitterly for not refusing firmly.
+
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path
+across the fields, to the Grange.  Surprise and extreme pleasure were
+mingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into the
+drawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would
+find Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching
+her children fish.  His night's rest had trebled his interest in her
+and his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her.  The appeal to
+him of her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever.
+
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless
+enough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been
+dead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put to
+it to make both ends meet.  His compassion had been deeply stirred; she
+was so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life.  He
+wished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to that
+smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as he
+possibly could.
+
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could
+scarcely believe his joyful ears.  He had to put a constraint on
+himself to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley's
+eyes, and not dash to it at full speed.  He entered the room with his
+eyes shining very brightly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily.  She was
+looking grave and ill at ease.
+
+"I've come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James," she said as
+they shook hands.  "I find that these children have been blackmailing
+you; and I've brought them to apologize.  I--I'm exceedingly distressed
+about it."
+
+"Oh, there's no need to be--no need at all.  It was rather a joke," Sir
+James protested quickly.
+
+"But blackmailing isn't a joke--though of course they didn't realize
+what a serious thing it is--"
+
+"It was the Douglases doing it," broke in the Terror in an explanatory
+tone.
+
+"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+
+"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you.  They had me in a cleft stick,"
+protested Sir James.
+
+"Well then you ought to have come straight to me," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"Oh, but really--a little fishing--what is a little fishing?  I
+couldn't come bothering you about a thing like that," protested Sir
+James.
+
+"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  "Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going to
+apologize."
+
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:
+
+"I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James."
+
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very
+stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+
+"Oh, not at all--not at all--don't mention it.  Besides, I owe you an
+apology for not answering your letter," said Sir James in all the
+discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due.  Then he
+heaved a sigh of relief and added: "Well, that's all right.  And now I
+hope you'll do all the fishing you want to."
+
+"Certainly not; I can't allow them to fish your water any more," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+
+"Oh, but really," said Sir James with a harried air.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+
+"But you'll have some tea--after that hot walk!" cried Sir James.
+
+"No, thank you, I must be getting home," said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly.
+
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out.  As Erebus
+passed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him.  She was
+desirous that he should not overrate her apology.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap
+from the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it.  He came down
+the steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the
+park, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the
+gardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shooting
+about the world.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship.  But she could not drive him from her side on his own
+land.  They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead.  When Sir James and
+Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight.
+Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way with
+her.
+
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James,
+the Terror said:
+
+"Well, he was quite decent about it.  It made him much more
+uncomfortable than we were.  I suppose it was because we're more used
+to Mum."
+
+"What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?" said the
+unappeased Erebus.
+
+"Oh, well; he didn't mean to.  It was an accident, you know," said the
+Terror.
+
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer
+intimacy with Sir James.
+
+"Accident!  People shouldn't have accidents like that!" said Erebus in
+a tone of bitter scorn.
+
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James
+diplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty,
+their grace and their intelligence.  The diplomacy was not natural (he
+was no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject he
+could at the moment think of.  He could not have found a quicker way to
+Mrs. Dangerfield's approval.  She had been disposed to dislike him for
+having been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart.
+Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it was
+only natural that she should invite him to tea.  He accepted with
+alacrity.  At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to
+see more of her.  With a natural simplicity he used his skill in
+woodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covert
+afforded by the common to watch Colet House.  Thanks to this simple
+device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere in
+the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;
+and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he
+had ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in
+his enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right.  He had
+been making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but he
+perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty to
+settle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his duty
+by his estate and his neighbors.
+
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his
+instinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that
+to bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the
+land of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed
+of.  But he had a stout heart, the hunter's pertinacity, and a burning
+resolve to succeed.
+
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be
+useful friends in the matter.  But did they chance on him walking with
+their mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily
+aloof.  He must abate their hostility.
+
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were
+starting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully,
+stopped and said: "I'm awfully sorry I gave you away the other day.
+But I never saw your mother till I'd done it."
+
+"Don't mention it," said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+
+"So you ought to be," said Erebus.
+
+"It's a pity you should lose your fishing.  If I'd known how good you
+both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter,"
+said Sir James hypocritically.  "But I was misinformed about you."
+
+"It's worse that mother should lose the trout.  She does hate butcher's
+meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly," said
+Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+
+"It's like that, is it?" said Sir James quickly; and an expression of
+deep concern filled his face.
+
+"Yes, and she did eat those trout," said Erebus plaintively.
+
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched
+him with little hope in their faces.  Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;
+and he said:
+
+"Look here: you mayn't fish my water; but there's no reason why you
+shouldn't fish Glazebrook's.  _I_ think that a man who nets his water
+loses all rights."
+
+"Yes, he does," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I'll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined.  I
+want to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook--he's not a sportsman."
+
+The Terror's face had brightened; but he said: "But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?"
+
+"You can reckon them presents from me.  They would be--practically--if
+I'm going to pay the fines," said Sir James.
+
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing
+tenderly with exactitude which appealed to them.  The Terror himself
+could not have been more tender with it.
+
+"That's a ripping idea!" said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval.
+
+The peace was thus concluded.
+
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win
+their good will.  He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of
+chocolate.  If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he
+would carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with
+sumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained them
+with stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even
+more than they thrilled them.  But he won their hearts most by his
+sympathy with them in the matter of their mother's appetite, and by
+joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of
+taking the short cut to her heart by praising them.  He laid himself
+out to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for
+himself as large as possible a place in her life.  She was not long
+discovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as a
+very pleasant shock.  None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster,
+who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, had
+attracted her so strongly as did Sir James.  Even as her delicacy made
+the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorous
+robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the
+keener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues.  When
+no less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James
+and Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tongues
+began to wag.
+
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
+London, one morning met the Twins in the village.  They greeted her
+politely and made to escape.  But she was in the mood, her most
+constant mood, to babble.  She stopped them, and with a knowing air,
+and even more offensive smile, said:
+
+"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
+soon in Little Deeping, are we?"
+
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
+them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
+said:
+
+"Are we?"
+
+"I should have thought you would have known all about it," she said
+with a cackling little giggle.  "Mind you tell me as soon as you're
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother."
+
+"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
+and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
+her own.
+
+"Oh, nothing--nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
+sternness.  "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother--But
+there--there's probably nothing in it--the Morgans always were
+rovers--one foot at sea and one on shore--I dare say he'll be in the
+middle of Africa before the week is out.  Good morning--good morning."
+
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
+the grocer's shop.
+
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning.  Then Erebus
+said: "Silly old idiot!"
+
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning.  At last he broke out:
+"This won't do!  We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
+And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
+cheerful for her."
+
+"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said?  It
+would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a
+panic.
+
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+
+"_Do_ you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus.
+
+"I dare say there is.  Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's
+always very civil to us--people aren't generally," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh, but we must stop it!  We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why must we?"
+
+"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried
+Erebus fiercely.
+
+"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum," said the Terror.  "She
+does have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never going
+anywhere.  And, after all, we shouldn't mind Sir James when we got used
+to him."
+
+"But we should!  And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"
+
+"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher--at all," said the Terror.
+
+"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it," said the
+Terror firmly.  "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made up
+their minds.  But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant by
+saying that the Morgans were rovers."
+
+Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
+utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop.  Then she said in a tone of considerable
+relief:
+
+"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marrying
+Mum."
+
+"Yes, that's what she did mean," growled the Terror.  "And she'll go
+about telling everybody that he's only fooling."
+
+"But I don't think he is.  I don't think he would," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"No more do I," said the Terror.
+
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence.  Then the Terror's face
+cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+
+"I know the thing to do!  I'll go and ask him his intentions.  That's
+what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut--you know:
+that fellow from Rowington--was fooling about with Miss Hawley."
+
+"All right, we'll go and ask him," said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.
+
+"No, no, you can't go.  I must go alone," said the Terror quickly.
+"It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do--people said so
+about Miss Hawley--and I'm the only man of the family about.  If Uncle
+Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do
+it."
+
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint.  She alleged that the restrictions
+which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
+to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
+everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
+successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
+which he performed alone.
+
+"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do," said the
+Terror with very cold severity.  "You know what Mrs. Morton said about
+Miss Hawley and the Cut--that the men of the family did it."
+
+"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus.
+
+"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it.  So it's no
+use you're making a fuss," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir
+James would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone,
+early in the afternoon.
+
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him
+straight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over
+his after-lunch coffee.  Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was
+beginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in the
+country, and poured him out a cup of coffee.
+
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple
+matter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his
+usual diplomacy, said with firm directness: "I've come to ask your
+intentions, sir."
+
+"My intentions?" said Sir James, not taking him.
+
+"Yes.  You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you're only fooling," said the Terror.
+
+"The deuce they are!" cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angry
+comprehension.
+
+"Yes.  So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+"Of course--of course," said Sir James.
+
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled.
+Then he added gravely: "My intentions are not only extremely serious
+but they're extremely immediate.  I'd marry your mother to-morrow if
+she'd let me."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief.  "Of
+course I knew you were all right.  Only, it was the thing to do, with
+these silly old idiots talking."
+
+"Quite so--quite so," said Sir James.
+
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly
+drinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been
+suffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the
+Terror's serenity was soothing.
+
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: "Do
+you think your mother would marry me?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; women are so funny," said the Terror
+with a sage air.
+
+Sir James pulled at his mustache.  Then the compulsion to have some
+one's opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy's, came
+on him strongly; and he said:
+
+"I wish I knew what to do.  As it is we're very good friends; and if I
+asked her to marry me, I might spoil that."
+
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: "I
+don't think you would.  Mum's very sensible, though she is so pretty."
+
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: "I'll
+risk it!"
+
+He rang the bell and ordered his car.  He talked to the Terror jerkily
+and somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his
+perturbation with considerable interest.  It seemed to him very curious
+in a hard-bitten hunter of big game.  They started and in the two level
+miles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car's speeds nine times.
+
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air
+of detachment: "I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed."
+
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for
+her.
+
+"If I only could!" said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he
+entered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a
+thrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come.
+
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of
+him; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+
+"Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!"
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+
+"Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!"
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's face was one flush; and she cried: "B-b-but it's out
+of the question.  I--I'm old enough to be your mother!"
+
+"Now how?--I'm three years and seven months older than you," said Sir
+James, taken aback.
+
+"I shall be an old woman while you're still quite young!" she protested.
+
+"You won't ever be old!  You're not the kind!" cried Sir James with
+some heat; and then with sudden understanding: "If that's your only
+reason, why, that settles it!"
+
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+
+When he set her down and held her at arm's length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: "Oh, James, you are--ever
+so much more--impetuous--than I thought.  You gave me--no time."
+
+"Thank goodness, I took the Terror's tip!" said Sir James.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Terrible Twins
+
+Author: Edgar Jepson
+
+Illustrator: Hanson Booth
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2006 [EBook #19043]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+By
+
+EDGAR JEPSON
+
+
+
+Author of
+
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+HANSON BOOTH
+
+
+
+
+INDIANAPOLIS
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT 1913
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: The original book was missing pages 3, 4, 53, and
+54.  There are transcriber's notes at those locations in this e-book.
+Page 53 is the last page of chapter 2, and page 54 is the first page of
+chapter 3.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Chapter
+
+    I  AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+   II  GUARDIAN ANGELS
+  III  AND THE CATS' HOME
+   IV  AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+    V  AND THE SACRED BIRD
+   VI  AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+  VII  AND PRINGLE'S POND
+ VIII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+   IX  AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+    X  AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+   XI  AND THE UNREST CURE
+  XII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+ XIII  AND AN APOLOGY
+  XIV  AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said
+  Sir Maurice Falconer. . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"This is different," she said.
+
+We are avenged.
+
+She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.
+
+The Archduke bellowed, "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of
+a very pretty woman.
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really
+discussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with the
+greatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit.  It was indeed
+a nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw
+stones quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size and
+weight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the
+bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated,
+quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand his
+presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him.  Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth
+Wolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the
+same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud
+vehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said
+firmly, "I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of
+times."
+
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty,
+which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+
+"Perhaps we did," said Anastasia amiably.  They went swiftly down the
+road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike.
+No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed,
+dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and
+piquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting a
+serenity.  But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir Maurice
+Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 3 missing]
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 4 missing]
+
+
+
+demand, had forbidden them to use them any longer.
+
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the
+action of Little Deeping.  It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since
+their exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation
+they loved.  In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves
+to become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and
+since they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness
+of eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition.  There
+may, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow the
+Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter or
+harder than Erebus.
+
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted
+it gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over
+it (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate
+than to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrow
+path through the gorse and bracken.  They had gone some fifty yards,
+when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: "Bang-g-g!
+Bang-g-g!"
+
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the
+gorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on
+his richly freckled face.  He stood over the fallen Twins; and his
+smile of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+
+"Ha!  Ha!  Shot through the heads!" he cried.  "Their bones will bleach
+in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red
+Bear the terror of the Cherokees!"
+
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife.  Then he
+took from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an
+inconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant
+imagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone of
+lively satisfaction: "You're only one game ahead."
+
+"I thought we were three," said Erebus, rising.
+
+"They're down in the book," said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blue
+eyes were very stern.
+
+"Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of
+you again," said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins.  He ambushed and scalped
+them; they ambushed and scalped him.  Seeing that they had already
+passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their
+part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it.  But Wiggins was a
+favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
+
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly
+on across the common.  Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth.
+Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly
+spring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
+
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The game
+isn't really fair; you're two to one."
+
+"You keep very level," said the Terror politely.
+
+"Yes; it's my superior astuteness," said Wiggins sedately.
+
+"Goodness!  What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
+
+"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation," Wiggins explained.
+
+"Yes, everybody says that.  But what is a European reputation?" said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+
+"Everybody in Europe knows him," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.
+
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert.  It seemed to them
+a name both affected and ostentatious.  Besides, crop it as you might,
+his hair _would_ assume the appearance of a mop.
+
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to
+see two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+
+"It's Mum," said Erebus.
+
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of
+booty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+
+"And--and--it's the Cruncher with her!" cried Erebus in a tone in which
+disgust outrang surprise.
+
+"Of all the sickening things!  The Cruncher!" cried the Terror, echoing
+her disgust.  "What's he come down again for?"
+
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the
+approaching pair.
+
+The gentleman whom they called the "Cruncher," and who from their tones
+of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher
+on account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent
+teeth.
+
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of
+superiority: "_I_ know why he's come down."
+
+"Why?" said the Terror quickly.
+
+"He's come down to marry your mother," said Wiggins.
+
+"What?" cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+
+"How dare you say a silly thing like that?" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"_I_ didn't say it," protested Wiggins.  "Mrs. Blenkinsop said it."
+
+"That silly old gossip!" cried Erebus.
+
+"And Mrs. Morton said it, too," said Wiggins.  "They came to tea
+yesterday and talked about it.  I was there: there was a plum cake--one
+of those rich ones from Springer's at Rowington.  And they said it
+would be such a good thing for both of you because he's so awfully
+rich: the Terror would go to Eton; and you'd go to a good school and
+get a proper bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all--"
+
+"I wouldn't go!  I should hate it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Yes; they said you wouldn't like wholesome discipline," said the
+faithful reporter.  "And they didn't seem to think your mother would
+like it either--marrying the Cruncher."
+
+"Like it?  She wouldn't dream of it--a bounder like that!" said the
+Terror.
+
+"I don't know--I don't know--if she thought it would be good for
+us--she'd do anything for us--you know she would!" cried Erebus,
+wringing her hands in anxious fear.
+
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out
+in dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was
+flushed.
+
+"This must be stopped," he said through his set teeth.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus.
+
+"We'll find a way.  It's war!" said the Terror darkly.
+
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: "I'm on your side," he said.  "I'm
+a trusty ally.  He called me Freckles."
+
+"Come on," said the Terror.  "We'd better face him."
+
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy.  As they drew near, the
+Terror's face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty
+voice: "How's Terebus and the Error; and how's Freckles?" he cried, and
+laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins
+shook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain
+Baster.
+
+"I'm always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with her delightful smile.  "I know you keep them out of
+mischief."
+
+"It's generally all over before I come," said Wiggins somewhat glumly;
+and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+
+"I've not had that kiss yet, Terebus.  I'm going to have it this time
+I'm here," said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich laugh.
+
+"Are you?" said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at him
+with the eyes of hate.
+
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, "You'll come to tea with us,
+Wiggins?"
+
+"Thank you very much," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.  As he
+alighted on it once more, he added.  "Tea at other people's houses is
+so much nicer than at home.  Don't you think so, Terror?"
+
+"I always eat more--somehow," said the Terror with a grave smile.
+
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side
+of Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein,
+enlivened the walk with his delightful humor.  The gallant officer was
+the very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed,
+glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose,
+neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny.  The son of the
+famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which great
+wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in a
+crack regiment.  The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative,
+was not enjoying it.  To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, "I'm
+a very pally man."  It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for any
+one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship,
+for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, he
+enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of
+personal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused
+the face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed his
+freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield's white brow in a distressful
+frown.  The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;
+his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which he
+had been so suddenly confronted.  More than once Erebus countered a
+witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce the
+rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer.  Once this unbidden but
+humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied her
+even this relief.  She could only treat him with a steely civility.
+The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he
+was too new for it.  The old, worn, faded, carefully polished
+furniture, for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
+century, seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness.  It seemed
+to demand the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels.  Mrs.
+Dangerfield liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere.  When
+her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feeling
+that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had he escaped
+calling in a bright plaid satin tie.
+
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not
+unconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster.  Indeed, he took
+some credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabby
+furniture.  In a high good humor he went on shining and shining all
+through tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a while
+dimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the inn
+and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shining
+again.  Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into the
+garden.
+
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+
+"He's a pig--and a beast!  We can't let Mum marry him!  We _must_ stop
+it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"It's all very well to say 'must.'  But you know what Mum is: if she
+thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said the Terror
+gloomily.
+
+"And she never consults us--never!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Only when she's a bit doubtful," said the Terror.
+
+"Then she's not doubtful now.  She hasn't said a word to us about it,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"That's what looks so bad.  It looks as if she'd made up her mind
+already; and if she has, it's no use talking to her," said the Terror
+yet more gloomily.
+
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly
+backward and forward from one to the other.  He preserved a decorous
+sympathetic silence.
+
+"No, it's no good talking to Mum," said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+
+"Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves," said the Terror.
+
+"But you can't squash the Cruncher!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why not?  We've squashed other people, haven't we?" said the Terror
+sharply.
+
+"Never any one so thick-skinned as him," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror frowned deeply again: "We can always try," he said coldly.
+"And look here: I've been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don't
+like stepfathers, there's no reason why stepfathers should like
+stepchildren."
+
+"The Cruncher likes us, though it's no fault of ours," said Erebus.
+
+"That's just it; he doesn't really know us.  If he saw the kind of
+stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off," said the Terror.
+
+"But he can't even see we hate him," objected Erebus.
+
+"No, and if he did, he wouldn't mind, he'd think it a joke.  My idea
+isn't to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if we
+give our minds to it," said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning.  Then a dazzling smile
+illumined her charming face; and she cried: "Oh, yes!  Let's give him
+socks!  Let's begin at once!"
+
+"Yes: I'll help!  I'm a trusty ally!" cried Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth joyfully at the thought.
+
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their
+brains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+
+Presently Wiggins said: "You might make him an apple-pie bed.  They're
+very annoying when you're sleepy."
+
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+
+"What's an apple-pie bed?" said Erebus scornfully.
+
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+
+"It's a beginning, anyhow," said the Terror in an approving tone; and
+he added with the air of a philosopher: "Little things, and big things,
+they all count."
+
+"I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can't," said Erebus
+bitterly.
+
+"By Jove!  That cigarette-case!  Come on!" cried the Terror; and he led
+the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+
+"Where are we going?" said Erebus.
+
+"We're going to make him that apple-pie bed.  There's nothing like
+making a beginning.  We shall think of heaps of other things.  If we
+don't worry about them, they'll occur to us.  They always do," said the
+Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping,
+where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the
+front door which stood open.  At the sound of their footsteps in her
+hall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar
+to learn what they wanted.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway," said the Terror politely.  "We've come
+for Captain Baster's cigarette-case.  He's left it somewhere in his
+room."
+
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway
+rubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her
+eyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a
+frown; and she said: "Bother the thing!  It's sure to be stuck
+somewhere out of sight.  And the bar full, too."
+
+"Don't you trouble; I'll get it.  I know the bedroom," said the Terror
+with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir," said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror.  In
+less than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the
+bed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless
+unprotected bedroom.  Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on the
+mantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress.  The Terror locked
+Captain Baster's portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside the
+shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+
+"That'll teach him not to be so careless."
+
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster's inviting dress-boots with water.  Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+
+"Don't stand giggling there!  Why don't you do something?" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: "A clothes-brush in bed is
+very annoying when you stick your foot against it."
+
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him.
+He took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against
+the bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the
+other of Captain Baster's feet was sure to find it.  The Terror did not
+care which foot was successful.
+
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from
+the dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the
+inn.
+
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat
+vengeful triumph: "There! you see things _do_ occur to us."  Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: "But it was Wiggins who set us
+going."
+
+"I'm an ally; and he called me Freckles," said Wiggins vengefully; and
+once more he spurned the earth.
+
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most
+thickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too
+sheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+
+"Mind the mud, Wiggins," said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness in
+the matter.
+
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: "It wouldn't be
+a nice place to fall down in, would it?"
+
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister
+little laugh, and said: "Wiggins, you're a treasure!"
+
+"What is it?  What is it now?" said Erebus quickly.
+
+"A little job of my own.  It wouldn't do for you and Wiggins to have a
+hand in it, he'll swear so," said the Terror.
+
+"Who'll swear?" said Erebus.
+
+"The Cruncher.  And you're a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear such
+language," said the Terror.
+
+"Rubbish!" said Erebus sharply.  "Tell us what it is."
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"It's a beastly shame!  I ought to help--I always do," cried Erebus in
+a bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"All right," said Erebus.  "Who wants to help in a stupid thing like
+that?  But all the same you'll go and make a silly mull of it without
+me--you always do."
+
+"You jolly well wait and see," said the Terror with calm confidence.
+
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached
+the house.
+
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster
+still talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story
+illustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea
+and one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies.  He laid great stress on
+the prices he had paid for them.
+
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her
+offspring with an air of doubtful surprise.
+
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+"Thank you, Error--thank you.  But why didn't you bring it to me,
+Terebus?  Then you'd have earned that kiss I'm going to give you."
+
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+"Oh, I helped to get it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GUARDIAN ANGELS
+
+At seven o'clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn.  Of
+his own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp.  He left
+the house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining
+before Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she
+was four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two
+years younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts.  But he
+chiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to which
+his ardent soul aspired to climb.  She had but to return to the polite
+world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened
+circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a
+host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.
+Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing a
+mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield's brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to
+select to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a
+gown with which she had never been truly pleased.  The troubled air did
+not leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins,
+for they, too, were gloomy.  They were pleased, indeed, with the
+beginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in the
+end.  Where their interests were concerned their mother was of a
+firmness indeed hard to move.
+
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that
+disturbed them, especially at the Terror.  Erebus in a pretty light
+frock of her mother's days of prosperity, which had been cut down and
+fitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one's eyes; but the sleeves
+of the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings,
+bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye.
+
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his
+failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be
+unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by his
+distinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English
+gentleman.  After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the
+harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must
+appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was
+wearing.  It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not
+really feel a conquering hero after eight o'clock at night.
+
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water.  It was a
+good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water
+its lining had not soaked up.  The gallant officer said a good deal
+about its retentive properties to the mute boot.
+
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had
+himself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom.  A flash of
+intuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he begged
+her, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one--any one!!--enter
+his bedroom.  Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied,
+or beds made without human intervention.  He begged her, not perhaps
+unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the
+better for his directness.
+
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
+As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees
+which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a
+clothes-line tight.  It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge
+on the other side of the lane.  There it was fastened to a stout stake;
+and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails.  At its
+tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the
+mud-patch.  It was at its tightest.
+
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain
+Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace.  As he moved through
+the bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night--that
+very night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield's devotion with his avowal
+of an answering passion.  He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror;
+and like a conqueror he whistled.  Then he found the clothes-line,
+suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick,
+but sprawling.  He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the
+welkin shuddered as it rang.
+
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield
+waited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a
+troubled frown.  Her woman's instinct assured her that Captain Baster
+would propose that night; and she dreaded it.  Two or three times she
+rose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark,
+troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they did
+not please her as they usually did.  Those eyes were one of the sources
+from which had sprung Captain Baster's attraction to her.
+
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful
+things for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing
+them.  She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and
+husband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart and
+sterling qualities.  She assured herself that she had the power to draw
+them out; once he was her husband, she would change him.  But still she
+was ill at ease.  Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful of
+her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide.
+
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was
+unfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come next
+morning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a
+relief that it frightened her.  She sat down and wrote out a telegram
+to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, and
+bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed at
+one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning.  She did not wish to
+take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible.
+She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard
+for her interests.  She tried not to hope that he would find marriage
+with Captain Baster incompatible with them.
+
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness.  He thought
+for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability.
+Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet.  In the middle of it he
+missed his shaving-brush.  He hunted for it furiously; he could have
+sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau.  He did swear, but
+not to any definite fact.  There was nothing for it: he must expose his
+tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.
+
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not
+vanished from it.  In one short night it had lost its pristine
+freshness.  This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast
+gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air of
+one who has abandoned hope.  Later he came out of it with his roving
+black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was
+smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches--red patches.  At the door
+the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted him
+with the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brush
+under the mattress of his bed.  He looked round the village of Little
+Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to
+the expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new
+lock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness
+of his soul.  Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged
+chin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of
+his future stepson.  As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was
+awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was
+awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile
+asked him if he had slept well.
+
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of your
+tricks!  You play another on  me, and I'll give you the soundest
+licking you ever had in your life!"
+
+The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: "Whatever's the matter?" he said in a tone of amazement.
+"I thought you loved a joke.  You said you did--yesterday--at tea."
+
+"You try it on again!" said Captain Baster.
+
+"Now, whatever has put your back up?" said the Terror in a tone of even
+greater amazement.  "Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the
+water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?"
+
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness:
+Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth.
+
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the
+bedroom of Erebus.
+
+"Waxy?" he cried joyously.  "He's black in the face!  I told him he
+said he loved a joke."
+
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat.  She was bitterly
+aggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall the
+night before.  The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his
+glorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin.
+
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: "Now, you
+quite understand.  You'll stick to them like a leech.  You won't give
+him any chance of talking to Mum alone.  It's most important."
+
+"I understand.  But what's that?  Anybody could do it," she said in a
+tone of extreme bitterness.  "It's you that's getting all the real fun."
+
+"But you'll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you're
+careful," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course, I shall.  But what's that?  I tell you what it is: I'm
+going to have my proper share of the real fun.  The first chance I get,
+I'm going to stone him--so there!" said Erebus fiercely.
+
+"All right.  But it doesn't seem quite the thing for a girl to do,"
+said the Terror in a judicial tone.
+
+"Rats!" said Erebus.
+
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave
+the purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat
+painfully, time to fade.  When she did come to him, he was further
+annoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent air
+announced her intention of accompanying them.  Mrs. Dangerfield was
+surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation.
+Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to propose
+before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to
+hide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her
+charm: she was the mother of the Terror.  He found, too, that his
+instinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded.  She
+was a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed to
+fascinate her.  Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew once
+more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was no
+getting rid of her.  She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhat
+pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries.  How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances?  He felt that his humor
+was growing strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus' own fault (he could swear
+it) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal
+brambles.  Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her
+ankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear.  The moment he
+offered, furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of a
+limp.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one's children like that--well.  Certainly she was losing her charm;
+she was the mother of Erebus also.
+
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of
+wife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near
+Colet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and
+distinction came through the garden gate to meet them.
+
+With a cry of "Uncle Maurice!" the crippled Erebus dashed to meet him
+with the light bounds of an antelope.  Captain Baster could hardly
+believe his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by
+repute.  It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his
+friend.  With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks.
+
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never
+dreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune.  But why had he not
+learned this splendid fact before?  Why had he been kept in the dark?
+He did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy making
+confidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her that
+he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anything
+about herself.
+
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up
+for lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated
+his right to the name of Pallybaster.  His friendliness was
+overwhelming.  Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to
+dine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, to
+shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimental
+steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean.
+
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew.  He could not
+bear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice.  The Twins
+were intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their
+uncle's attention.  They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their
+stepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned a
+respectful silence in the presence of their elders.
+
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make
+it.  Captain Baster's love was of his life a thing apart, but his
+social aspirations were the chief fact of his existence.  Besides,
+there was no haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his
+avowal with a passionate eagerness; any time would do for that.  But he
+must seize the fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by the
+bond of the warmest friendship.
+
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to
+the interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world,
+humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to.  He tried to make opportunities
+for him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he
+did not seem to see them.  In truth Captain Baster was a little
+disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:
+polite--yes; indeed, politeness could go no further.  But he lacked
+warmth.  After all he had not pinned him down to the definite
+acceptance of a single invitation.
+
+When, at seven o'clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a
+bosom friend.  He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the
+air of one who has paused from exhausting toil: "I feel
+sticky--positively sticky," he said.  "Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy
+friends!  I thought we should never get rid of him.  I thought he'd
+stuck himself to us for the rest of our natural lives."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+"That's what he's up to."
+
+"He's not a friend of mine!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"We call him the Cruncher--because of his teeth," said the Terror.
+
+"Then beware, Erebus--beware!  You are young and possibly savory," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"You children had better go and get ready for dinner," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+The Twins went to the door.  On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+"It's Mum he wants to crunch up--not me."
+
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+
+"Oho!  I see--heroism.  That was what you wanted to consult me about."
+Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: "It
+won't do, Anne--it won't do at all.  I am convinced of it."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+
+"Think?  I'm sure of it," said Sir Maurice in a tone of complete
+conviction.
+
+"But the children; he could do so much for the children," pleaded Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"He could, but he wouldn't.  That kind of bounder never does any one
+any good but himself.  No, no; the children are right in calling him
+the Cruncher.  He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times
+better for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that
+ever came out of pickles."
+
+"Well, you know best.  You do understand these things," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+
+"I do understand Basters," said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a
+weight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus.  Once Sir Maurice asked
+her the cause of it.  She only shook her head.
+
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he
+had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it.  But
+on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before
+him with his stick for clotheslines.  He came out of the dark lane into
+the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a
+strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
+
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he
+walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for
+more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with
+considerable force.  He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise
+with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his
+head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
+
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed
+in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came.  He was just in
+time to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow.  Then he
+found a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed
+unwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly,
+embrace.  As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet
+and realized that there was only one thing to do.  He tore along the
+turf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt.  A stone struck the
+garden gate as he opened it.  He did not pause to ring; he opened the
+front door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room.  The
+Terror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughts
+with his Uncle Maurice.
+
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: "I--I
+made sure it was that young whelp!"
+
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a
+natural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang
+to their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from
+it with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush's
+clinging affection.
+
+"I've been stoned--stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!" he
+cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble brow.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was
+cool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate
+indignation of a bosom friend.
+
+"How many of them were there?" said the Terror.
+
+"From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen," said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+
+"I know--I know what it is!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an
+illuminating flash of womanly intuition.  "You've been humorous with
+some of the villagers!"
+
+"No, no!  I haven't joked with a single one of them!" cried Captain
+Baster.  "But I'll teach the scoundrels a lesson!  I'll put the police
+on them tomorrow morning.  I'll send for a detective from London.  I'll
+prosecute them."
+
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: "I couldn't find your
+handkerchief anywhere, Mum.  It took me ever such a time," she said,
+giving it to her.
+
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror's face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: "Have you been running to find it?  You're quite out of
+breath."
+
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain
+Baster. . . .  But no: it was impossible--a child in whose veins flowed
+some of the bluest blood in England.  Besides, her slender arms could
+never have thrown the stones as straight and hard as that.
+
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth
+slightly open.  He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief,
+and stumbled out of the room.  They heard a door bang up-stairs; then,
+through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound.  It occurred
+to the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the
+gorse prickles out of Captain Baster's clothes.  She had nearly
+finished when Sir Maurice returned.  He carried a handkerchief in his
+hand, and he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed
+somewhat exhausted.
+
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;
+and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he
+would wreak on the scoundrelly villagers.  But after a while he forgot
+his pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he
+plied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o'clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of
+admiration and approval of Erebus' strenuous endeavor to instil into
+Captain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed
+out her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed when
+she was in high favor with him.  As he did it she related gleefully the
+stoning of their enemy.
+
+When she had done, he said warmly: "It was ripping.  But the nuisance
+is: he doesn't know it was you who did it, and so it's rather wasted."
+
+"Don't you worry: I'll let him know sometime to-morrow," said Erebus
+firmly.
+
+"Yes; but he's awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?" said the
+Terror doubtfully.
+
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: "I don't think he'd do
+that; he'd look so silly being stoned by a girl.  Anyhow, I'll chance
+it."
+
+"All right," said the Terror.  "It's worth chancing it to put him off
+marrying mother.  And of course Uncle Maurice is here.  He'll see
+nothing serious happens."
+
+"Of course he will," said Erebus.
+
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster
+had weighed on their uncle's mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him
+from behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard
+him singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+
+It went:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself,
+softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving
+but silent lips of Erebus repeated it.
+
+He was silent; and she said: "Oh, uncle!  It's splendid!"
+
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: "You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I'll pull your long ears," he said amiably.
+
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;
+then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she
+said: "Here he comes."
+
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds,
+paused and cried: "I'm going back to bed!  Tell him I'm in bed!"
+
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
+Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed.  Mrs. Dangerfield,
+informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
+friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus.  He showed
+an inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.
+
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
+Dangerfield was firm.  She did not bring him back till half past
+twelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in
+his bedroom.  Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he
+hinted as much) but he was disappointed.  In the end he returned to The
+Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.
+
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
+on a walk with the Terror.  Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
+overtake them, and set out briskly to do so.  He walked hard enough to
+compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
+better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
+Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
+swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
+friends to meet him and her brother.  Here was his chance to shine, to
+show Sir Maurice his social mettle.
+
+He could have wished that the party had been larger.  They were only a
+dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
+and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
+Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
+the afternoon with Erebus.  Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
+or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
+have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand.  He was soon
+the life and soul of the gathering.  He was humorous with the vicar
+about the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the
+country on the intelligence.  He tried to be humorous with Mr.
+Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from
+some profession or business.  This was so signal a failure that he
+dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town
+and his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he
+told them about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at
+polo and at golf.
+
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except
+Sir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect
+equality, as "Maurice, old boy," or "Maurice, old chap," or plain
+"Maurice."  He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warm
+perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were
+aware that their mother's tea-party was a failure.  As a rule her
+little parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness;
+and her guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another.
+The Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and a
+faint persistent frown troubled his serenity.  Erebus was more dimly
+aware that her enemy was spoiling the party.  Only Sir Maurice and Mr.
+Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice's enjoyment was
+mingled with vexation.
+
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain
+Baster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end
+of his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered
+his grievance.  Forthwith he related at length the affair of the night
+before: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on the
+common.  When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy.
+
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them
+except the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing
+violently.
+
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: "Er--er--yes; most extraordinary.
+But I don't think it could have been the villagers.  They're--er--very
+peaceful people."
+
+"It must have been some rowdies from Rowington," said the squire in the
+loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what
+he said.
+
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an
+incredulous unwinking stare.
+
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some
+care.  The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right
+gable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by
+a couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun
+round as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only.
+
+"That's where I meant to hit it the first time," said Erebus with a
+little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+
+The silence that fell was oppressive.  Captain Baster gazed earnestly
+at Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking
+stare.
+
+"That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions," said the
+higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice.  "I made sure it was
+the Terror."
+
+"So did I," said the vicar.
+
+"I'd have bet on it," said the squire.
+
+The silence fell again.  Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue
+bump on his marble brow.
+
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: "Has any one heard Wiggins' new
+song?"
+
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: "No!  Let's hear it!"
+
+"Come on, Wiggins!" cried the vicar heartily.
+
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew
+it in the depths of his horror-stricken heart.  He ground his teeth
+softly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he
+could have borne the earth's suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with
+his right.  Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had
+chanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear
+shrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished
+everybody was looking at Captain Baster's boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+
+Captain Baster's face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt
+into irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 53 missing from book.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AND THE CATS' HOME
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 54 missing from book]
+
+
+Wiggins," said Sir Maurice amiably.  "And if we start apologizing,
+there will be no end to it.  I should have to come in myself as the
+maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying about."
+
+"It was certainly a happy effort," said the vicar, smiling.  Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: "We're going to London next week;
+perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice."
+
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and
+presently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had
+lifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party.  They
+were talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice
+were seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton,
+were getting their little chances of shining.  The Twins and Wiggins
+slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for their
+going.  In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had so
+nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a
+state of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one
+another.
+
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the
+exploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the
+two onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest.  The Terror was
+also doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he prevented
+Erebus, eager to enjoy her uncle's society, from returning to the house
+till it was time to dress for dinner.  He wished to give his mother
+time to get over the worst of her annoyance.
+
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
+daughter with any great severity.  But even so, Erebus did not receive
+these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit.  Unlike the philosophic
+Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, after
+a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
+make out a case for herself; and she did so now.
+
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
+not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
+descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
+the sphere of the laws of hospitality.
+
+"Besides he never behaved like a guest," she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone.  "He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one--especially to me.  And if he was always trying to score off me,
+I'd a perfect right to score off him.  And anyhow, I wasn't going to
+let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it.  He'd be
+a perfectly beastly stepfather--you know he would."
+
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
+discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
+discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again.  She knew that however
+bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
+sufficiently to heart.  She was sure that she would not stone another
+guest.
+
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
+Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay.  The Twins, though
+they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
+fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, were
+very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
+Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl.  Also he had many
+talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
+of action she frequently urged on him.
+
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness.  It was not acute
+boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
+every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
+English and French with her mother.  Their afternoon leisure,
+therefore, rarely palled on them.
+
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
+suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins.  They went,
+therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile away
+on the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the
+common.  They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patience
+by staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour.
+
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common.  Their eyes began to
+shine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards
+from the common's edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for
+covert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left.
+They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted,
+to cut him off.  They were successful.  They caught him crossing an
+open space, yelled "Bang!" together; and in accordance with the rules
+of the game Wiggins fell to the ground.
+
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the
+immemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves
+hastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns.
+
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily
+said: "That makes you two games ahead."  Then he spurned the earth and
+added: "I'm going to have a bicycle."
+
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint
+frown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror's face.
+
+"There'll be no living with Wiggins now, he'll be so cocky," said
+Erebus bitterly.
+
+"Oh, no; he won't," said the Terror.  "But we ought to have bicycles,
+too.  We want them badly.  We never get really far from the village.
+We always get stopped on the way--rats, or something."  And his
+guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look
+of yearning.
+
+"There are orchards over there where they don't know us," said Erebus
+wistfully.
+
+"We _must_ have bicycles.  I've been thinking so for a long time," said
+the Terror.
+
+"We must have the moon!" said Erebus with cold scorn.
+
+"Bicycles aren't so far away," said the Terror sagely.
+
+They moved swiftly across the common.  Erebus poured forth a long
+monotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made
+this Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat.  With ears impervious to his
+sister's vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful,
+pondering this pressing problem.  Now and again, for obscure but
+profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps and
+bounds.
+
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the
+Terror to say: "I've got a penny.  We'll go and get some bull's-eyes."
+
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing
+the village, when they met three small boys.  One of them carried a
+kitten.
+
+Erebus stopped short.  "What are you going to do with that kitten,
+Billy Beck?" she said.
+
+"We be goin' to drown 'im in the pond," said Billy Beck in the
+important tones of an executioner.
+
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands.  "You're not going to
+do anything of the sort, you little beast!" she said.
+
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and
+disappointment, and he howled:
+
+"Gimme my kitty!  Mother says she won't 'ave 'im about the 'ouse, an' I
+could drown 'im."
+
+"You won't have him," said Erebus.
+
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst
+into blubbering roar of "It's ourn!  It ain't yourn!  It's ourn!"
+
+"It isn't!  A kitten isn't any one's to drown!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice.  Erebus edged away from him ready to
+fly, should human justice intervene actively.  The Terror put his hand
+in his pocket and fumbled.  He drew out a penny, and looked at it
+earnestly.  He was weighing the respective merits of justice and
+bull's-eyes.
+
+"Here's a penny for your kitten.  You can buy bull's-eyes with it," he
+said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck's tearful eyes.  "'E's worth
+more'n a penny--a kitty like 'im!" he blubbered.
+
+"Not to drown.  It's all you'll get," said the Terror curtly.  He
+tossed the penny to Billy's feet, turned on his heel and went back
+across the common away from the village.  Some of the brightness faded
+out of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+
+"I wouldn't have given him a penny.  He was only going to drown the
+kitten," said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+
+"It was his kitten.  We couldn't take it without paying for it," said
+the Terror coldly.
+
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, "There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants--and puppies."
+
+The Terror stopped short, and said: "By Jove!  There's Aunt Amelia!"
+
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia,
+who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, and
+yet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but
+spent it all on horrid cats' homes.
+
+"That's just it," said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation.
+"Come along; I want you to write a letter."
+
+"I'm not going to write any disgusting letter!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"Then you're not going to get any bicycle.  Come on.  I'll look out the
+words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he's got into the way of using grammar.  It'll be
+useful.  Come on!"
+
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of
+being a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year,
+and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head,
+Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified.
+Practise had made the Terror's ears impervious at will to his sister's
+questions, which were frequent and innumerable.  Without a word of
+explanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at the
+dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himself
+on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by his
+side.
+
+Then he said coldly: "Now don't make any blots, or you'll have to do it
+all over again."
+
+"I never make blots!  It's you that makes blots!" cried Erebus,
+ruffled.  "Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do.
+Ever so much better."
+
+"That's why you're writing the letter and not me," said the Terror
+coldly.  "Fire away: 'My dear Aunt Amelia'--I say, Wiggins, what's the
+proper words for 'awfully keen'?"
+
+"'Keen' is 'interested'--I don't know how many 'r's' there are in
+'interested'--and 'awfully' is an awfully difficult word," said
+Wiggins, pondering.
+
+The Terror looked up "interested" in the dictionary with a laborious
+painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single "r"
+in it; then he said, "What's the right word for 'awfully,' Wiggins?
+Buck up!"
+
+"'Tremendously,'" said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus.
+
+"That's it," said the Terror.  "'My dear Aunt Amelia: I have often
+heard that you are tremendously interested in cats' homes'"--
+
+"I should think you had!" said Erebus.
+
+"Now don't jabber, please; just stick to the writing," said the Terror.
+"I've got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if you
+jabber?"
+
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+
+"'Little Deeping wants a cats' home awfully'--no: 'tremendously.'  I
+like that word 'tremendously'; it means something," said the Terror.
+
+"You're jabbering yourself now," said Erebus unpleasantly.
+
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror
+continued: "'The quantity of kittens that are drowned is
+horrible'--that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than
+cats--'and I have been thinking'--Oughtn't you to put in some stops?"
+
+"I'm putting in stops--lots," said Erebus contemptuously.
+
+"'I have been thinking--that if you wanted to have a cats' home
+here'--What's the right word for 'running a thing,' Wiggins?"
+
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+
+"There is a word 'overseer'--slaves have them," he said cautiously.
+
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it
+out, and continued: "'I could overseer it for you.  I have got my eye
+on a building which would suit us tremendously well.  But these things
+cost money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty
+pounds'--
+
+"Thirty pounds!  My goodness!" cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide.
+
+"We may as well go the whole hog," said the Terror philosophically.
+"Go on: 'Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a
+real home--'  What's the word for 'bust up,' Wiggins?"
+
+"Burst up," said Wiggins without hesitation.
+
+"No, no; not the grammar--the right word!  Oh, I know; 'go
+bankrupt'--'it might go bankrupt.  So it you would like to have a cats'
+home here and send me some money, I will start it at once.  Your
+affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.'  There!" said the
+Terror with a sigh of relief.
+
+"But you've left me out altogether," said Erebus in a suddenly
+aggrieved tone.
+
+"I should jolly well think I had!  You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say 'Dam,' she won't have
+anything to do with you," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"There's no pleasing some people," said Erebus mournfully.  "When I
+went there the silly old parrot couldn't say a thing; and when I came
+away, he could say 'Dam!  Dam!  Dam!' from morning till night without
+making a mistake."
+
+"It's a word people don't like," said the Terror.
+
+"Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river.  I told Aunt Amelia
+so," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"She might not believe you; she doesn't know how truthfully we've been
+brought up," said the Terror.  "Go on; sign my name to the letter."
+
+"That's forgery.  You ought to sign your name yourself," said Erebus.
+
+"No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter.  Sign away," said the Terror firmly.
+
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: "But what good's the money going
+to be to us, if we've got to spend it on a silly old cats' home?  It
+only means a lot of trouble."
+
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror's face.  "Well,
+you see, there aren't many cats in Little Deeping--not enough to fill a
+cats' home decently," he said slowly.  "We should have to have bicycles
+to collect them--from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and farther
+off."
+
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming
+face, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:
+"Well, you do think of things!"
+
+"I have to," said the Terror.  "If I didn't we should never have a
+single thing."
+
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield.  He did not tell her
+of the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had
+thought he would write to Aunt Amelia.  Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased
+with him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with his
+great-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own.
+She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her,
+though she suspected that it contained some artless request.  She
+thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt to
+make requests rather than not write at all.
+
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their
+lives.  Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their
+lives those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the very
+middle of some important enterprise to discuss the rides they would
+take on them, the orchards that those machines would bring within their
+reach.  But the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mind
+forbade him to discuss his chickens before they were hatched.
+
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not
+remarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief
+characteristic of Lady Ryehampton.  As the purport of her
+great-nephew's letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beaming
+smile of gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and as
+she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried in
+unctuous tones: "The dear boy!  So young, but already enthusiastic
+about great things!"
+
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she
+was going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more
+victimized.  She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady
+Ryehampton to a noble phrase.  Her eyes brightened with humorous
+appreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to the
+end of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was one
+of the last places in England to need a cats' home.  Then she bethought
+herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, and
+her face went blank.
+
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and
+said warmly: "It's really wonderful.  You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself."
+
+"I suppose I must," said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction.
+"And I must be careful not to discourage him."
+
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror's face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers.  It was only right that some of
+Lady Ryehampton's money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school.  It was monstrous that the great bulk
+of it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings
+came first.  And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+
+"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm," she said
+gravely.
+
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats' home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not
+better send fifty.  Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite
+comfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty was
+enough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton could
+give it later.  Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion.
+
+Having set her employer's hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back.  Lady Ryehampton would spend money on
+cats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it.  But Miss
+Hendersyde kept referring to the Terror's enterprise all that day and
+the next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon Lady
+Ryehampton signed the check for thirty pounds.  At Miss Hendersyde's
+suggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it
+into postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping.
+
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House.  The
+excited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from
+him, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the
+precious packet to the Terror in the orchard.
+
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly.
+
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;
+and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: "Thirty pounds--well!"
+
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the
+spur of that marvelous moment.
+
+"It's splendid--splendid!" she cried.  "It's the best thing you ever
+thought of!"
+
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the
+envelope into the breast pocket of his coat.  A frown of the most
+thoughtful consideration furrowed his brow.  Then he said firmly: "The
+first thing, to do is to get the bicycles.  If once we've got them, no
+one will take them away from us."
+
+"Of course they won't," said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea.
+
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning
+the earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a
+casual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: "May we have
+the cow-house for our very own, Mum?"
+
+"Oh, Terror!  Surely you don't want to keep ferrets!" cried Mrs.
+Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror's developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+
+"Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think
+we could make a little pocket-money out of it."
+
+"I am afraid you're growing terribly mercenary," said his mother; then
+she added with a sigh: "But I don't wonder at it, seeing how hard up
+you always are.  You can have the cow-house.  It's right at the end of
+the paddock--well away from the house--so that I don't see that you can
+do any harm with it whatever you do.  But how are you going to make
+pocket-money out of it?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't got it all worked out yet," said the Terror quickly.
+"But we'll tell you all about it when we have.  Thanks ever so much for
+the cow-house."
+
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a
+boy of his years.  He changed but one of the six postal orders at
+Little Deeping--that would make talk enough--and then, having begged a
+holiday from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their market
+town, ten miles away, taking Erebus with him.  There he changed three
+more postal orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycle
+shop, with hearts that beat high.
+
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way
+which, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus
+to the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she
+had long ago learned the futility of exasperation.  He began by an
+exhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and he
+made it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, one
+of those smart young men who pamper a chin's passion for receding by
+letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all on
+edge.  Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of his
+pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young
+man perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of
+buying two.  He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to
+develop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in price
+to the buyer of two bicycles.  Then he made his offer: he would give
+fourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles.  His serenity was
+quite unruffled by the seller's furious protests.  Then the real
+struggle began.  The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, two
+lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the seller
+came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeled
+their machines out of the shop.
+
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street.
+Then he said: "We've saved the cats' home quite two pounds."
+
+"Yes," said Erebus.
+
+"And it's made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it," said the Terror.
+
+"It must have--arguing like that," said Erebus quickly; and her eyes
+brightened as she caught his drift.
+
+"Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment.  It's a long ride
+home," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course it ought," said Erebus with decision.
+
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner's shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: "Of course overseers
+have a salary."
+
+"Of course they do," said Erebus.
+
+"That settles the matter of pocket-money," said the Terror.  "We'll
+have sixpence a week each."
+
+"Only sixpence?" said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+
+"Well, you see, there are the bicycles.  I don't think we can make it
+more than sixpence.  And I tell you what: we shall have to keep
+accounts.  I'll buy an account-book.  You're very good at
+arithmetic--you'll like keeping accounts," said the Terror suavely.
+
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that
+it would be delicate at that moment to protest.  Therefore on leaving
+the shop the Terror bought an account-book.  His distrust of literature
+prevented him from paying more than a penny for it.  From the
+stationer's he went to an ironmonger's and bought a saw, a brace, a
+gimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws--his tool-box had long
+needed refilling.  Then they mounted their machines proudly (they had
+learned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home.  After
+their visit to the confectioner's they rode rather sluggishly.
+
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the
+Terror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a
+quiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on
+Erebus' bicycle with excellent apples.  The tools had been packed into
+the Terror's basket.  They did not disturb the farmer's wife at the
+busy dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to
+Erebus.
+
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: "I shouldn't wonder if
+these bicycles didn't pay for themselves in time."
+
+"I said there were orchards out here where they didn't know us," said
+Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in
+the cow-house.  At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the
+morning.
+
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements.  It had
+long been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning.  It was quite
+suitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a
+size to hold two cows.  The measurements made, they went, with an
+important moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timber
+merchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him.  There was
+some discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that of
+the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, with
+some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns.  Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he
+forthwith put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet
+House.  The Twins, eager to be at work, helped him.
+
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable
+constructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches.  That evening
+Erebus wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus
+proposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally
+forth on a splendid foray.  The Terror would not hear of it.
+
+"No," he said firmly.  "We're going to get the cats' home finished
+before we use those bicycles at all.  Then nobody can complain."
+
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to
+go down to the vicarage for his morning's lessons with the vicar.  He
+set to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;
+and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too.
+
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came.  He had spent a fruitless
+hour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied
+forth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept them
+within their borders.  He was deeply impressed by the sight of the
+bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers of
+his friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise him
+greatly.  But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtained
+their bicycles before he had obtained his.  None the less he helped
+them construct the cats' home with enthusiasm.
+
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort.  So
+much sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces
+were chipped out of them.  But their spirits never flagged; and by
+sunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirty
+cats.  It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all of
+the same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness:
+and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them.
+
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the
+transformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said
+firmly: "What we want now is cats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were
+willing to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their
+owners no longer needed.  They had, indeed, one offer of a cat
+suffering from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly to
+its owner that theirs was a home, not a hospital.
+
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she
+pointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: "Look
+here: I'm going to begin with kittens."
+
+"How will you get kittens, if you can't get cats?  Everybody likes
+kittens.  It's only when they grow up and stop playing that they don't
+want them," said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+
+"I'm going to buy them," said the Terror firmly.  "I'm going to give
+threepence each for kittens that can just lap.  We don't want kittens
+that can't lap.  They'd be too much trouble."
+
+"That's a good idea," said Erebus, brightening.
+
+"It'll stop them drowning kittens all right.  The only thing I'm not
+sure about is the accounts."
+
+"You're always bothering about those silly old accounts!" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of
+their expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+
+"Well, I don't think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts.
+Aunt Amelia is so used to cats' homes that are given their cats.  She's
+told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be
+taken in."
+
+"_I_ don't want them to go down.  It makes all the less accounts to
+keep," said Erebus readily.
+
+"Well, that's settled," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the
+tidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who
+could just lap.
+
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the
+impatient Erebus grew louder and louder.  There was no doubt that she
+loved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of that
+grievance to those about her.  Since she could only discuss this
+grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it.
+Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patient
+brother's resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to a
+council.
+
+He opened the discussion by saying: "We've got to have kittens, or
+cats.  We can't have any pocket-money for 'overseering' till there's
+something to overseer."
+
+"And that splendid cats' home we've made stopping empty all the time,"
+said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+"I don't mind that.  I'm sick of hearing about it," said the Terror
+coldly.  "But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia will
+soon be wanting to know what's happening to the home; and she'll make a
+fuss if there aren't any cats in it.  So we must have cats."
+
+"Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats.  There are cats all
+over the country; and when we're out bicycling, a good way from home,
+we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with
+us.  We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in
+eight days the home would be full and two over."
+
+"And we should be prosecuted for stealing them," said the Terror coldly.
+
+"But they'd be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed," protested Erebus.
+
+"That wouldn't make any difference.  No; it's no good trying to get
+them that way," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+"Well, they won't come of themselves," said Erebus.
+
+"They would with valerian," said Wiggins.
+
+"Who's Valerian?" said Erebus.
+
+"It isn't a who.  It's a drug at the chemist's," said Wiggins.  "I've
+been talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says if
+you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats will
+follow it for miles."
+
+"Your father seems to know everything--such a lot of useful things as
+well as higher mathematics," said the Terror.
+
+"That's why he has a European reputation," said Wiggins; and he spurned
+the earth.
+
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of
+the enchanting drug.  Just before they reached the village, on their
+way home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it,
+poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the
+village to his garden gate.
+
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the
+father of Wiggins.  All that evening and far into the night twelve cats
+fought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+
+The next day the Terror turned the cats' home into a cat-trap.  He cut
+a hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted
+it with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the
+outside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside.  He was
+late finishing it, and went from it to his dinner.
+
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring
+at the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had
+come from the village with some kittens.  The Twins excused themselves
+politely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly
+had brought no less than five small kittens in a basket.
+
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping
+test.  Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they
+lapped.  The fifth would not lap.  It only mewed.  Therefore the Terror
+took only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them.  The
+fifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+
+They took the four kittens down to the cats' home; and since they were
+so small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk
+to satisfy their hunger during the night.
+
+"Now we've got these kittens, we needn't bother about getting cats,"
+said the Terror as they returned to the house.  "And I'm glad it is
+kittens and not cats.  Kittens eat less."
+
+"Then you've had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing," said Erebus.
+
+"It's an emergency exit--like the theaters have--only it's an
+entrance," said the Terror.  "But thank goodness, we've begun at last;
+now we can have salaries for 'overseering'."
+
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens
+to their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady
+Ryehampton that the home was already constructed and in process of
+occupation.  Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid of
+enthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, "saved
+from the awful death of drowning."  Lady Ryehampton replied promptly in
+a spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it.
+
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found
+themselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and the
+account-book.
+
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations.  Till they were
+six years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in
+Monmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar.  Then their father
+had fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had
+along with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leaving
+Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed.  All the while since
+his death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and the
+Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires of
+their hearts.
+
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;
+and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as
+the bulk of the children of the well-to-do.  But it did not come in the
+way of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;
+and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliest
+interest in financial matters.  He was resolved that the cats' home and
+the wages of "overseering" should last as long as possible.
+
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a
+quart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with
+him that milk spelled ruin.  But they could see no way of reducing the
+price of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food for
+growing kittens.
+
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a
+heavy silence had fallen on them.  Then of a sudden the face of the
+Terror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:
+"I've got it; we'll feed them on skim-milk."
+
+"They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens," said Erebus scornfully.
+
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping.  Butter-making was its
+chief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+
+"If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"But how can we get it?  They don't sell it about here," said Erebus.
+"And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn't sell skim-milk,
+nobody's going to sell skim-milk to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it," said the Terror confidently.
+
+"Old Stubbs!  But he hates us worse than any one!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Oh, yes; he doesn't like us.  But he's awfully keen on money; every
+one says so.  And he won't care whose money he gets so long as he gets
+it.  Come on; we'll go and talk to him about it," said the Terror.
+
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs
+and knocked resolutely.  The maid, who was well aware that her master
+and the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some
+hesitation.  The Twins had never entered the farmer's house before,
+though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightly
+uncomfortable.  They found the parlor into which they were shown
+uncommonly musty.
+
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate
+fringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion
+in his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes.  Even when he learned that they
+had come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terror
+incidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cash
+payments.  Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, that
+he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to the
+discussion of prices.  Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts;
+the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of
+view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice.  But the
+Terror's suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck
+a bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at
+threepence halfpenny the pailful.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens
+to the home; and the Terror had yet another idea.  Milk alone seemed an
+insufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the
+matter of stale bread.  There were more negotiations; and in the end
+the Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearly
+his own price.  Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throve
+on it; and it went further than plain milk.
+
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure.  They had been busy filling
+certain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with
+the best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the
+countryside afforded.  But what spare time he had the Terror devoted to
+a great feat of painting.  He painted in white letters on a black
+board:--
+
+LADY RYEHAMPTON'S CATS' HOME
+
+
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that
+could be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins
+agreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their
+aunt saw it she would be deeply gratified.
+
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be
+fixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their mother
+formally into their confidence.  She had learned of the formation of
+the cats' home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked
+to her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give them
+details about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited the
+interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussion
+for fully a week.  She had explained to them that she never interfered
+with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, and
+that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats' home.  Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had
+been brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order.
+Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of its
+construction.  Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackle
+affair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops.
+
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for
+they were judicious in their use.  They were careful to sally forth
+when she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the common
+and came back across the common and their neighbors saw them riding
+very little.
+
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she
+accepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection
+of the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise.  She
+expressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and the
+extensive scale on which it was being run.  She agreed with the Terror
+that to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning was
+a great work.  But she asked no questions, not even how it was that the
+cats' home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples.  She knew that
+an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to be
+given her.
+
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: "The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course."
+
+"What?  Are those your bicycles?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield.  "But
+wherever did you get the money from to buy them?"
+
+"Aunt Amelia found the money," said the Terror.  "You know she's very
+keen--tremendously interested in cats' homes.  She thinks we are doing
+a great work, as well as you."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: "You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats'
+home in Little Deeping?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Terror carelessly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she
+_must_ not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins.  She bit her
+tongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears.  It was
+painful; but it enabled her to complete her inspection with the
+required gravity.
+
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke
+a fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise.  Several of
+them, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to
+it; and Wiggins brought his father.  All of them expressed an
+admiration of the institution and of the methods on which it was
+conducted.  To one another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of the
+intelligence of Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience
+the Twins drew their salary for "overseering."  It provided them with
+many of the less expensive desires of their hearts.  Now and again
+Erebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than ten
+pounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raised
+to a shilling a week.  But the Terror would not consent: he said their
+salaries for "overseeing" would naturally be much higher, and that they
+would have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it had
+not been for the bicycles.  As it was, they were bound to work off the
+price of the bicycles.  Besides, he added with a philosophical air,
+six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week for
+six months.
+
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained
+twenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle
+(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were
+informed that for the time being the home was full.  Erebus clamored to
+have its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terror
+maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quite
+enough.  Everything was working smoothly.  Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed
+for the door; and Erebus opened it.  On the steps stood their Uncle
+Maurice; and he wore a harried air.
+
+"Why, it's Uncle Maurice!" cried Erebus springing upon him and
+embracing him warmly.
+
+"It's Uncle Maurice, mother!" cried the Terror.
+
+"It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he's by no means sure
+of it himself!  Is it my head or my heels I'm standing on?" said Sir
+Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping
+station, laden with wicker baskets.  From the baskets came the sound of
+mewing.
+
+"Whatever is it?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a
+neat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and
+shut the door after him with an air of exhaustion.  He leaned back
+against it and said:
+
+"I had a sudden message--Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visit
+to this inf--this cats' home these little friends are pretending to run
+for her.  I saw that there was no time to lose--there must be a cats'
+home with cats in it--or she'd cut them both out of her will.  I bought
+cats--all over London--they've been with me ever since--yowling--they
+yowled in the taxi--all over London--they traveled down as far as
+Rowington with me and an old gentleman--a high-spirited old
+gentleman--yowling--not only the cats but the old gentleman, too---and
+they traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maiden
+ladies--timid maiden ladies!--yowling!  But come on: we've got to make
+a cats' home at once!"  And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets
+with the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant or
+perish.
+
+"But we've got a cats' home--only it's full of kittens," said Erebus
+gently.
+
+"Good heavens!  Do you mean to say I've gone through this nightmare for
+nothing?" cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+
+"Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!" said the Terror with swift
+politeness.  "The cats will come in awfully useful."
+
+"They'll make the home look so much more natural.  All kittens isn't
+natural," said Erebus.
+
+"And they'll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia.  She was only
+expecting kittens," said the Terror.
+
+"What?" howled Sir Maurice.  "Do you mean to say I've parleyed for
+hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two--two--timid maiden ladies,
+just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?"
+
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly.  "I ought to
+have had more confidence in you," he said faintly.  "I ought to know
+your powers by now.  And I did.  I know well that any people who have
+dealings with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt
+Amelia was going to get it; and I've got it myself."
+
+"But you didn't think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?" said the
+Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+
+"Gracious, no!" cried Sir Maurice.  "I only thought that you might
+possibly induce her to humbug herself."
+
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his
+words than met the ear.
+
+"You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+"And I'm afraid there's very little for you.  But I'll make you an
+omelette."
+
+"I can not dine amid this yowling," said Sir Maurice firmly, waving his
+hand over the vocal baskets.  "These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan't be able to eat a morsel."
+
+"We'll put them in the cats' home," said the Terror quickly.  "I'll
+just put on a pair of thick gloves.  Wiggins' father--he's a higher
+mathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing--says
+that hydrophobia is very rare among cats.  But it's just as well to be
+careful with these London ones."
+
+"Oh, lord, I never thought of that," said Sir Maurice with a shudder.
+"I've been risking my life as well!"
+
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern.  He and Erebus
+helped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches.
+Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession--a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable.  At dinner he reduced his appreciative
+kinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his
+parleying with his excited fellow travelers.  He could now view it with
+an impartial mind.  After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats'
+home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps.  The rest of the
+evening passed peacefully and pleasantly.
+
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed
+that the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:
+"We ought to have more cats."
+
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:
+"By Jove, yes.  This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge.
+And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the
+good of the home.  The more we can say that we've used them for it, the
+less any one can grumble about them."
+
+"Most cats are shut up now," said Erebus.
+
+"Yes; we must catch the morning cats.  They get out quite early--when
+people start out to work," said the Terror.
+
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an
+alarm.  The Terror set it for half past five.  At that hour it awoke
+him with extreme difficulty.  He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty.
+Five minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchen
+to stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning;
+then they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle of
+valerian.
+
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping.  There the Terror poured valerian on
+one of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus.  Forthwith she
+started to trail it to the cats' home.  He rode on to Great Deeping and
+trailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats' home.
+When he reached it he found Erebus' bicycle in its corner; and when,
+after strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with a
+rag freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he found
+that she was already in bed again.  He made haste back to bed himself.
+
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and
+put the cats they had attracted to it into hutches.  But they slept on
+till breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon
+lured them straight into the dining-room.  After all, as Erebus told
+the hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the new
+cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleven
+o'clock.  They could not escape from the home.  The Twins therefore
+devoted their most careful attention to their breakfast with their
+minds quite at ease.
+
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at
+ease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor.
+Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said "Please, ma'am, it's
+Lady Ryehampton"; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold.  Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking
+very anxious.
+
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton's stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness.  To
+Erebus, the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: "I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats' home.  I always do.  It's the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment."  The
+frown on her face grew rhadamanthine.  "And last night I saw your Uncle
+Maurice at the station--he did not see me--with cats, London cats, in
+baskets.  On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of
+well-known London cat-dealers.  I do not support a cats' home at Little
+Deeping for London cats bought at London dealers.  Why have they been
+brought here?"
+
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+
+"It was Uncle Maurice's idea," he said.  "He didn't think that there
+ought only to be kittens in a cats' home.  We didn't mind ourselves;
+and of course, if he puts cats in it, he'll have to subscribe to the
+home.  What we have started it for was kittens--to save them from the
+awful death of drowning.  We wrote and told you.  And we've saved quite
+a lot."
+
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats
+to bring them all the way from London to a cats' home at Deeping?  He
+hates cats, and always has!" she said fiercely.
+
+"Of course, I hate cats," said Sir Maurice with cold severity.  "But I
+hate children's being brought up to be careless a great deal more.  A
+cats' home is not a cats' home unless it has cats in it; and you've
+been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling a
+kittens' home a cats' home.  If you will interfere in their
+up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into
+careless ways."
+
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady
+Ryehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: "That's all very well,"
+she said in a less severe tone.  "But is there a kittens' home at
+all--a kittens' home with kittens in it?  That's what I want to know."
+
+"But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats' home.
+You don't think we'd deceive you, Aunt Amelia?" said the Terror in a
+deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+
+"There!  I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be," said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+
+"Of course there's a cats' home with kittens in it!" said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with some heat.  "The Terror wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+"Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!" cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very
+good best.
+
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: "Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there's a c-c-cats' home--but Sir Maurice's senseless
+interference--"
+
+"Senseless interference!  Do you call saving children from careless
+habits senseless interference?" cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+
+"You had no business to interfere without consulting me," said Lady
+Ryehampton.  Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: "But I want to
+see this cats' home--now!"
+
+"I'll take you at once," said the Terror quickly, and politely he
+opened the door.
+
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice
+his hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it.  When
+they came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distant
+high-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and more
+horrible grew the din.
+
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of
+suspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were wide
+open in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a
+defiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  Only the Terror was serene.
+
+"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats," said the Terror calmly.
+
+"Visiting cats?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+
+"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come," said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+
+"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed.  "I must tell the
+managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it,
+too.  But what are these cats doing?"
+
+"It sounds as if they were quarreling," said the Terror calmly.
+
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the
+din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish.  It was as if the voices
+of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door--wide.  Cats did not come out. . . .  A large ball of cats came
+out, gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur.  Ten yards from the door
+it dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore,
+yelling, to the four quarters of the heavens.
+
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: "I
+sometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens."
+
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion.  He
+walked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human
+ken.  There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned
+against the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive
+bricks feebly.
+
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with
+an air of modest pride.  A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of
+perfect, if highly-scented, peace.  Twenty-three kittens and eight cats
+sat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead
+stillness.  Their eyes were very bright.  By a kindly provision of
+nature they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes of
+that vociferous fray.
+
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song.  She
+was charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and
+healthiness of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness.
+She gushed enthusiastic approbation.  "To think," she cried, "that you
+have done this yourself!  A boy of thirteen!"
+
+"Erebus did quite as much as I did," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"And Wiggins helped a lot.  He's a friend of ours," said Erebus no less
+quickly.
+
+Lady Ryehampton's face softened to Erebus--to Erebus, the instructor of
+parrots.
+
+Sir Maurice joined them.  His eyes were red and moist, as if they had
+but now been full of tears.
+
+"It's a very creditable piece of work," he said in a tone of warm
+approval.
+
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell.
+She said uneasily: "But you must be heavily in debt."
+
+"In debt?" said the Terror.  "Oh, no; we couldn't be.  Mother would
+hate us to be in debt."
+
+"I thought--a cats' home--oh, but I _am_ glad I brought my check-book
+with me!" cried Lady Ryehampton.
+
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl.
+She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus
+kicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously
+realized that the future of the home, the wages of "overseering," were
+secure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AND THE SACRED BIRD
+
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the
+Terror did all he could to foster her interest in it.  The crowning
+effect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty
+sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many
+pauses to gambol and play.  The only thing about the home which was not
+quite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door.
+She liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did not
+like its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all of
+them of the same size.  At the same time she did not like to hurt the
+feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork.
+
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: "By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform--the same as the boards over
+the entrances of my other cats' homes.  The lettering of them is always
+in gold."
+
+"All right.  I'll get some gold paint, and paint them over," said the
+Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+
+"No, no, I can't give you the trouble of doing it all over again," said
+Lady Ryehampton quickly.  "I'll have a board made, and painted in
+London--exactly like the board of my cats' home at Tysleworth--and sent
+down to you to fix up."
+
+"Thanks very much," said the Terror.  "It will save me a great deal of
+trouble.  Painting isn't nearly so easy as it looks."
+
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction.  She invited them all
+to lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs.
+Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simple
+establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver.  As she told her
+neighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in the
+house.  The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebus
+was very quiet for two hours after it.
+
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating
+visit to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the
+Terror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to
+London.
+
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to
+travel with Lady Ryehampton.  Besides, the question what was to be done
+with the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled.
+He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep,
+since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats' home.
+At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them any
+more.
+
+They discussed the matter.  Erebus was inclined to keep the cats,
+declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens.  The
+Terror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view,
+wished to be relieved of them.  In the end it was decided that Sir
+Maurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he had
+bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer.
+
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this
+unexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home.
+Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings a
+week.  The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each.
+Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put
+fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank.  He thought it a wise
+thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum on
+some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove.
+The cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board
+came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror's
+handiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along
+with Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the
+important matter of their mother's Christmas present.
+
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their
+breakfasts and discussing it gravely.  The kittens were indulging in
+engaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion which
+always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling
+eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds.  They could see
+their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; and
+so large a sum must be expended with judgment.  It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and
+attractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the
+hair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: "I know what she really
+wants though."
+
+"What's that?" said the Terror sharply.
+
+"It's one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker's at Rowington,"
+said Erebus.  "I heard her sigh when she looked at it.  She used to
+have beautiful furs once--when father was alive.  But she sold them--to
+get things for us, I suppose.  Uncle Maurice told me so--at least I got
+it out of him."
+
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of
+decision: "How much is that stole?"
+
+"Oh, it's no good thinking about it--it's three guineas," said Erebus
+quickly.
+
+"That's a mort o' money, as old Stubbs says," said the Terror; and the
+frown deepened on his brow.
+
+"I wonder if we could get it?" said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face.  "I should like
+to.  It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things--much harder than
+for us, because we've never had them--at least, we had them when we
+were small, but we never got used to them.  So we've forgotten."
+
+"No, we're all right as long as we have useful things," said the
+Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown.  "But you're right about
+Mum--she must be different.  I've got to think this out."
+
+"Three guineas is such a lot to think out," said Erebus despondently.
+
+"I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago," said the Terror
+firmly.  "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats' home, though not so useful."
+
+"But it's different--we _had_ to have bicycles--you said so," said
+Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Well, we've got to have this stole," said the Terror in a tone of
+finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Things will occur to us.  They always do," said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches.  Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+
+"I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens?  Does any one ever buy
+kittens?"
+
+"We did; we gave threepence each for these," said Erebus.
+
+"Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home.  We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that.  We shouldn't have
+dreamt of doing such a thing."
+
+"I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn't got any," said Erebus
+in a tone of decision.
+
+"You would, would you?  That's just what I wanted to know: girls will
+buy kittens," said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction.  "Well, we'll
+sell these."
+
+"But we can't empty the home," said Erebus.
+
+"We wouldn't.  We'd buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepence
+each, and sell these at a shilling.  We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way."
+
+"So we should--a whole sovereign!" cried Erebus; then she added in a
+somewhat envious tone: "You do think of things."
+
+"I have to.  Where should we be, if I didn't?" said the Terror.
+
+"But who are we going to sell them to?  Everybody round here has cats."
+
+"Yes, they have," said the Terror, frowning again.  "Well, we shall
+have to sell them somewhere else."
+
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to
+the house, pondering.  The Terror collected the books for his morning's
+work slowly, still thoughtful.
+
+As he was leaving the house he said: "Look here; the place for us to
+sell them is Rowington.  The people round here sell most of their
+things at Rowington--butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits."
+
+"And Ellen would sell them for us--in the market," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"Of course she would!  You see, you think of things, too!" cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter
+of selling their kittens.  She had been their nurse for the first four
+years of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a
+small farmer.  She had an affection for them, especially for the
+Terror; and she had not lost touch with them.  She welcomed them
+warmly, ushered them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter of
+elderberry wine and a cake.  When she had helped them to cake and
+poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had brought
+them to her house.
+
+Ellen's mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her
+pony-cart.  She laughed consumedly at the Terror's belief that any one
+would want to buy kittens.  But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was
+very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell
+their kittens at her stall in Rowington market.  Ellen consented to
+make the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist the
+Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to oblige
+him; but she held out no hopes of success.
+
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not
+share her despondency.  Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen's
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+"I tell you what: even if we don't sell those kittens, we can always
+buy the stole.  There's all that cats' home money in the bank.  We can
+take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees."
+
+"No, we can't," said the Terror firmly.  "We're not going to use that
+money for anything but the cats' home.  I promised Mum I wouldn't.
+Besides, she'd like the stole ever so much better if we'd really earned
+it ourselves."
+
+"But we shan't," said Erebus gloomily.  "If we sold all the kittens, it
+will only make twenty-three shillings."
+
+"Then we must find something else to sell," said the Terror with
+decision.
+
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little
+Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field
+of mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability.
+
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very
+good friends.  Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an
+honest day's work in his life.  Yet he was the smartest man in the
+village, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his
+constitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the English pheasants from all
+dangers save the small shot of those who have them fed.  Tom Cobb waged
+war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird.  Sometimes for
+a whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with
+never a check to his ardor.  In another season some prying gamekeeper
+would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and an
+infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him.  The fine was always
+paid.  Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against
+a rainy day.
+
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted
+one another with smiles of mutual respect.  They rode on a few yards;
+and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped, slipped off his bicycle,
+and wheeled it back to the gate.  Erebus followed him more slowly.
+
+"I've been wondering if you'd do me a favor, Tom," said the Terror.
+"I've always wanted to know how to make a snare.  I'll give you
+half-a-crown if you'll teach me."
+
+Tom Cobb's clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated.  He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little
+knowledge was a dangerous thing--for others.  He foresaw trouble for
+the sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the
+gamekeepers.  He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them.
+And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+
+He grinned and said slowly, "Yes, Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy to
+teach you 'ow to make a snare."
+
+"Thank you.  I'll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two," said the
+Terror gratefully.
+
+"It _will_ be nice to know how to make snares!" cried Erebus happily as
+they rode on.  "I wonder we never thought of it before."
+
+"We didn't want a fur stole before," said the Terror.
+
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to
+Tom Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares.
+But the Terror would not.  Often he was indulgent; often he was firm.
+To-day he was firm.
+
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather
+sadly: "I've still a lot to learn.  But come on: I've got to buy
+something in Rowington."
+
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and
+they had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell.  At Rowington the
+Terror bought copper wire at an ironmonger's; and he was very careful
+to buy it of a certain thickness.
+
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the
+experiment.  Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they
+washed them thoroughly in the kitchen.  They dried them, and decided to
+keep them in its warmth till the next morning.
+
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making
+of snares.  Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares
+at once.  The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while
+before he got one at all to his liking.
+
+Remembering Tom Cobb's instructions, he washed it, and then put on
+gloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the
+rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the
+cabbages.  He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare,
+and thrilled with joy.  The fur stole had come within the range of
+possibility.
+
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens,
+brushing them with the Terror's hair-brush till their fur was of a
+sleekness it had never known before.  Then Erebus adorned the neck of
+each with a bow of blue ribbon.  Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed
+on the bows, and sewed them on firmly.  It could not be doubted that
+they looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens.  Directly after
+breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of their
+bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen.
+
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but
+they had to return to their lessons.  After lunch they made three more
+snares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if
+anything, more deft at snare-making than his own.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and
+when they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their joy that the
+basket which had held the six kittens was empty.
+
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and
+said: "Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong.  I've sold
+them kitties--every one--and I've had two more ordered.  It was when
+the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went."
+
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the
+Terror.
+
+"Five," said the Terror.  "I must pay you a shilling for selling them.
+It's what they call commission."
+
+"No, sir; I don't want any commission," said Ellen firmly.  "As long as
+those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than
+any one else in the market.  I haven't had such a good day not ever
+before.  And I'll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me."
+
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm.
+The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden
+about the common.  He caught three rabbits.
+
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed
+the kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+
+At last he said rather sadly: "It's sometimes rather awkward being a
+Dangerfield."
+
+"Why?" said Erebus surprised.
+
+"Those rabbits," said the Terror.  "I want to sell them.  But it's no
+good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer.  Even
+if he wanted rabbits--which he mightn't--he'd only give me sixpence
+each for them.  But if I were to sell them myself _here_, I could get
+eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them.  But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can't go about selling things.  Uncle Maurice said I had
+the makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn't go into
+business.  It's the family tradition not to.  That's what he said."
+
+"Perhaps he was only rotting," said Erebus hopefully.
+
+"No, he wasn't.  I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition,
+too.  I expect that's why we're all so hard up."
+
+"But the squire sells things," said Erebus quickly.  "And you can't say
+he isn't a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren't so old as the
+Dangerfields."
+
+"Of course, he does.  He sells some of his game," said the Terror, in a
+tone of great relief.  "Game must be all right, and we can easily count
+rabbits as game."
+
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they
+had caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of
+the neighborhood.  The Terror went to the back doors of their
+well-to-do neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the
+gratifying result that in less than an hour he had sold all four of
+them at eightpence each.
+
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them.  They
+had already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three
+shillings.
+
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew
+when to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went
+on.  It was the fault of the rabbit market.  At the fifteenth rabbit,
+when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole,
+the bottom fell out of it.  For the time the desire of Little Deeping
+to eat rabbits was sated.
+
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who,
+after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was to
+bring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different
+thing, Master Dangerfield."
+
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: "And how much
+would you pay for pheasants?"
+
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic
+she had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of
+threepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: "Two and
+threepence each, sir."
+
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer.  He
+saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All right,
+I'll bring you two or three a week.  But you'll have to pay cash."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Of course, sir," said the cook.
+
+"Do you know any one else who'd buy pheasants?" he said.
+
+"Well, there's Mr. Carrington's cook," said the cook slowly.  "She has
+the management of the housekeeping money like I do.  I think she might
+buy pheasants from you.  Mr. Carrington's very partial to game."
+
+"Right," said the Terror.  "And thank you for telling me."
+
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the
+matter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits.  He made a
+direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each.
+After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted it.
+
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught
+rabbits would catch pheasants.  At first he was for catching those
+pheasants by himself.  Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;
+snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl's work.
+Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebus
+and must tell her.
+
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: "But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?"
+
+"Woods," said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture.
+
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled
+fiercely.
+
+"The only thing is, we don't know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants.  And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;
+and that wouldn't do at all," said the Terror.
+
+"But there's nobody else to ask."
+
+"I don't know about that.  There's Wiggins' father.  He knows a lot of
+useful things besides higher mathematics.  The only thing is, we must
+do it in such a way that he doesn't see we're trying to get anything
+out of him."
+
+"Well, I should think we could do that.  He's really quite simple,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"As long as _you_ understand what I'm driving at," said the Terror.
+
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington
+market, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next
+morning.  Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rival
+poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell.  The Twins at
+once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance
+that those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling.  They
+were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; and
+the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of
+coming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the
+third afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly,
+about three miles from Little Deeping.
+
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington.  They had a
+great respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor.
+In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his
+presence.  She did not know what he might say about her next.  He was,
+therefore, somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles and
+joined him.  He wondered what they wanted.
+
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the
+society of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk
+was running on pheasants.  Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants,
+except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the
+devastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:
+villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might live
+undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woods
+to itself.
+
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was
+not aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he
+bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to
+the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained the
+villages of all the intelligent.  The skilful poacher who harried the
+sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the
+poacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words.
+He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher
+with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to
+display in the presence of the young.  The Terror came from that talk
+with a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of
+raisins at the leading grocer's.  They might well have bought them at
+Little Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought
+Rowington safer.  They always took every possible precaution at the
+beginning of an enterprise.  They did not ride straight home.  Three
+miles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill.  At the
+foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping
+wood, acre upon acre.  It had lately passed, along with the rest of the
+Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain.
+He was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less
+modern stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of having
+the finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it,
+he did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them.  His friends came
+wholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins' came to the clump on
+the hill.  The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them
+behind the hedge.  He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle
+basket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down
+the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked
+through it.  One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the
+wood below.  The occurrence pleased him.  He crawled out of the clump
+on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the
+ditch of the hedge to the wood.  He did not lay it right down to the
+wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it.  Then he returned
+with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus.  They rode home well content.
+
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again.
+Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood
+to the clump.  But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the
+clump.  Just above the end of the ditch.  Later he took from that snare
+a plump but sacred bird.  Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs.
+Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence
+to Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself
+serenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+
+"That's all right," said Erebus cheerfully.  "That makes--that makes
+twenty-eight and eleven-pence.  We _are_ getting on."
+
+"Yes; it's twenty-eight and eleven-pence now," said the Terror quickly.
+"But you don't seem to see that when we've got the stole for Mum these
+pheasants will still be going on."
+
+"Of course they will!" cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightly
+indeed at the joyful thought.
+
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after
+breakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the
+clump above Great Deeping wood.  He reached it at the hour when
+gamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thorough
+examination of it.  He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose the
+two likeliest places for his snares.  He did not set them then and
+there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them.  He came again
+in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then.
+Later he sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the
+cook of Mr. Carrington.
+
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens.  They found themselves in the happy position of needing only
+six shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the
+clump of trees above Great Deeping wood.  They had laid a trail of
+raisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it
+on the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and
+since the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over
+Great Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley.
+The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear and
+bright.  But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided that
+instead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as well
+examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey.
+It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads,
+alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of
+his purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of
+his friends' latest exploits) and made his dispositions.  When they
+came to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a
+lookout ahead.  The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins.
+Wiggins held the two bicycles.  The Terror listened.  The wood was very
+still in its winter silence.  He slipped through the hedge into it, and
+presently came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasant
+indeed.  He put it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted.
+
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty
+yards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting
+fashion as he came.  There was neither time nor room to turn.  They
+rode on; and the keeper made for the Terror.  The Terror swerved; and
+the keeper swerved.  Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came to
+the ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as he
+could.
+
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of "Keeper!" set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently,
+when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and
+dismounted.
+
+"The keeper's got him.  This is a mess!" said the Terror, who was
+panting a little from their spurt.
+
+"If only it had been one of us!" cried Erebus.  "Whatever are we to do?"
+
+"If that beastly keeper hadn't seen me with the pheasant, I'd get
+Wiggins away, somehow," said the Terror.  "But, as it is, it's me they
+really want; and I'd get fined to a dead certainty.  Come on, let's go
+back and see what's happened to him.  You scout on ahead.  Nobody knows
+you're in it."
+
+"All right," said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a
+sign of an ambush.  The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty
+yards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the
+alarm.  They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond the
+end of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way up
+the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey.  The keeper held Wiggins
+with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right.
+The Twins dismounted.  Even at that distance they could see the deep
+dejection of their friend.
+
+"There's not really any reason for him to be frightened.  He was never
+in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant," said the Terror.
+
+"What does that matter?  He _will_ be frightened out of his life; he's
+so young," cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after their
+receding friend with very anxious eyes.  "He's not like us; he won't
+cheek the keeper all the way like we should."
+
+"Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck," said the Terror in a reassuring tone.
+
+"But he won't understand he's all right.  He's only ten.  And there's
+no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bully
+him," cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+
+"Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he'll be out of
+it," said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+
+"No, no!  That won't do at all!" cried Erebus fiercely.  "We've got to
+rescue him now--at once.  We got him into the mess; and we've got to
+get him out of it.  You've got to find a way."
+
+"It's all very well," said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took off
+his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: "I can't see what we can
+do."
+
+"Oh, I'm going to get him out of it somehow!" cried Erebus in a furious
+desperation.
+
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty
+yards.  It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher
+of the three, the only one in real danger.  As he leaned on his
+machine, watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth.  For all
+his natural serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant to
+him.
+
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and
+the keeper.  She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that
+the keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door,
+when she saw Wiggins' bicycle standing against one of the pillars of
+the great porch.  In a natural elation at having captured a poacher,
+and eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gone
+straight into the great hall.
+
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then
+she moved Wiggins' bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came
+out, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of
+sight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered
+the knocker firmly, and rang the bell.  The moment the door opened she
+stepped quickly past the footman into the hall.  The keeper sat on a
+chair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking white
+and woebegone.
+
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+"What are you doing with my little brother?"
+
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her
+position.
+
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone,
+but he said triumphantly:
+
+"I caught 'im poachin'--"
+
+"Stand up!  What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?" cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+"'E was poachin'," he said sulkily.
+
+"He was not!  A little boy like that!" cried Erebus scornfully.
+
+"Anyways, 'e was aidin' an' abettin', an' I've brought 'im to Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosynimer an' it's for 'im to say," said the keeper stubbornly.
+
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle
+click by which the Twins called each other to attention.  At the sound
+Wiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself.  Erebus
+measured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there came
+into the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-faced
+young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"Where's the boacher?" he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting in
+his emotion to the ancestral "b."
+
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide.
+
+"Bolt, Wiggins!" she cried.
+
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the
+footman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus.  She slammed the
+door behind the vanished Wiggins.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door.  He caught her by the left arm to
+sling her out of the way.  It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught
+him a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing
+of her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack of
+a whip-lash.  Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender.  He howled
+again, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists.  She caught the
+first blow on an uncommonly acute elbow.  The second never fell, for
+the footman caught him by the collar and swung him round.
+
+"It's not for the likes of you to 'it Henglish young ladies!" he cried
+with patriotic indignation.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+"Ged out of my house!  Now--at once--ged out!"
+
+"And pleased I shall be to go--when I've bin paid my wages.  It's a
+month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow.  I've had enough of
+furriners," said the footman with cold exultation.
+
+"Go--go--ged oud!" roared Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"When I've bin paid my wages," said the footman coldly.
+
+Erebus waited to hear no more.  She turned the latch, slipped through
+the door, and slammed it behind her.  To her dismay she saw a big
+motorcar coming round the corner of the house.  She mounted quickly and
+raced down the drive.  Wiggins was already out of sight.
+
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+
+"I've sent Wiggins on!" he shouted as she passed.
+
+"Come on!  Come on!" she shrieked back.  "The beastly foreigner's got a
+motor-car!"
+
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car
+had been ready to start.  They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down
+the road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew.  They
+were fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles to
+their one on that good road.  The Twins alone would have made a longer
+race of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins.  They had gone
+little more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as it
+came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them.
+
+"Go on, Terror!" cried Erebus.  "You're the one that matters!  You did
+the poaching!  I'll look after Wiggins!  He'll be all right with me."
+
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the
+advice sank in, and he shot ahead.  Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and
+they rode on.  The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly
+as it would have done had not Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the
+courage of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it.  He was howling
+at his straining chauffeur to go slower.
+
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than
+fifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging
+briskly along.
+
+"It's your father!" gasped Erebus.
+
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and
+Erebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all!  It was the Terror!"
+
+"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+
+"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
+incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
+father.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington.
+
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
+single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence.  Mr. Carrington
+seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
+arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
+technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut on
+the point which put him to sleep."  He fell as falls a sack of
+potatoes, and lay like a log.
+
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.
+
+"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his most
+agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
+no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
+between them.
+
+"I can't say as I do, sir," he said civilly; and he backed away.
+
+"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
+young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion," said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+
+"Assaults?--'Im assault?--Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, of
+Great Deeping Court, sir," said the keeper respectfully.
+
+"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
+be summoned for assault.  Good afternoon," said Mr. Carrington, and he
+turned on his heel.
+
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
+employer.  Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head.  He put his
+walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
+with rueful tenderness.  None the less he looked pleased; it was
+gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
+such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
+Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
+proud air.  They felt that they shone with his reflected glory.  It was
+a delightful sensation.
+
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: "Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?"
+
+"No, my child.  I am not a pork-butcher," said Mr. Carrington amiably.
+
+"He _looked_ as if he was dead," said Erebus; and there was a faint
+ring of disappointment in her tone.
+
+"In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope
+that it will be a better and wiser self," said Mr. Carrington.  "But
+what was it all about?  What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?"
+
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;
+then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: "It
+was a pheasant in Great Deeping wood," she said.  "The Terror found it,
+I suppose.  I had gone on, and I didn't see that part.  But it was
+Wiggins the keeper caught.  Of course--"
+
+"I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,"
+broke in Mr. Carrington.  "Had you ridden on too, Rupert?  Or did you
+see what happened?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I was there," said Wiggins readily.  "And the Terror found
+the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket.  And we had
+just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I
+ran into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court.  I wasn't
+really frightened--at least, not much."
+
+"The keeper had no right to touch him," Erebus broke in glibly.
+"Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn't even go into the wood;
+and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and
+the keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then
+that horrid Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold
+of me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once.  I
+should think that the mark is still there "--her speed of speech
+slackened to a slower vengeful gratification and then quickened
+again--"and he began to thump me and the footman interfered, and I came
+away, and they came after us in the car, and you saw what happened--at
+least you did it."
+
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+
+"Lucidity itself," said Mr. Carrington.  "But let us have the matter of
+the pheasant clear.  Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance of
+finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?"
+
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly,
+and said, "Well, there was a snare, you know."
+
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: "I thought so.  I thought we should
+come to that snare in time.  Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?"
+
+"Oh, no, he didn't know anything about it!" Erebus broke in quickly.
+"We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous!  He's so young!"
+
+"I shall be eleven in a fortnight!" said Wiggins with some heat.
+
+"You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker's in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could
+think of getting it," said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+
+"Light!  Light at last!" cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently.
+"Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitely
+Pomeranian!  But it's just as well that they have, or that ingenious
+brother of yours would be in a fine mess.  As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited."  He
+chuckled again.
+
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from
+Erebus the full story of their poaching.  When they reached the village
+he did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr.
+Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and had
+retired to Little Deeping.  At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good
+afternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on the
+notice of any of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer's keepers who might be sent out
+to hunt for the real culprit.  He would better keep quiet.
+
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home.  She found the Terror
+in the cats' home, awaiting her impatiently.
+
+"Well, did Wiggins get away all right?" he cried.  "I passed Mr.
+Carrington; and I thought he'd see that they didn't carry him off
+again."
+
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr.
+Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+
+"By Jove!  That was ripping!  I do wish I'd been there!" said the
+Terror.  "He only hit him once, you say?"
+
+"Only once.  And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer's keepers are out hunting for you," said Erebus.
+
+"I am lying low," said the Terror.  "And I've got rid of that pheasant.
+I sold it to Mr. Carrington's cook as I came through the village.  I
+thought it was better out of the way."
+
+"Then that's all right.  We only want about another half-crown," said
+Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to
+a better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he
+still retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly
+interest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching
+not only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because
+she could so ill afford the expense of the case.  He readily fell in
+with the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take the
+offensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer had
+given them the weapons.
+
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o'clock that
+evening Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R.
+S.; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served
+with a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington.
+
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was in
+a chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been "put to
+sleep by an uppercut on the point."  He made haste to despatch a car
+into Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+
+The lawyer knew his client's unpopularity in the county, and advised
+him earnestly to try to hush these matters up.  He declared that
+however Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench
+of English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by a
+big young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of European
+reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen,
+gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician's little boy from wrongful
+arrest and detention.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his
+devotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy.  But he
+perceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him too
+far, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shoot
+the particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not be
+deeply touched by it.  Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use every
+effort to settle the matter out of court.
+
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over
+to Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington's house.  He found Mr.
+Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to
+placate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude
+which had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford to
+be generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with an
+uppercut on the point.
+
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the
+more prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a
+veritable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms.  The summonses
+should be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about that
+poached pheasant and that Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty
+guineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital.  The lawyer
+accepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection to
+complying with them.
+
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington
+sent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this
+poaching.  He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at
+length on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caught
+and prosecuted.  In the end he gave him the choice of giving his word
+to snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that he
+was poaching.  The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants the
+more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching,
+she would forbid him to set another snare for anything.  Besides, he
+had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before.  Only he
+pointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a
+pheasant, for pheasants went everywhere.  Mr. Carrington admitted this
+fact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting his
+snares on ground sacred to the sacred bird.  If pheasants wandered into
+them on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault.  Thanks therefore
+to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of the
+Terror's narrow escape.
+
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds,
+since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete.  They
+turned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the
+hedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs.  Mrs. Blenkinsop's cook
+paid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time
+making the purchase.  As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of
+more stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush.  Accordingly
+on the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to
+buy it.
+
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing
+hard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker's shop, Erebus
+gazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer,
+the confectioner, and said sadly:
+
+"It's a pity it isn't Saturday and we had our 'overseering' salary.  We
+might have gone to Springer's and had a jolly good blow-out for once."
+
+The Terror gazed at Springer's window thoughtfully, and said: "Yes, it
+is a pity.  We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance."
+
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed
+somewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles.  She was
+very thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had
+chosen the very best of them.  The girl who was serving them made out
+the bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the three
+guineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purse
+of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, and
+counted them slowly.
+
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole
+when a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: "I
+shall want five per cent. discount for cash."
+
+"Oh, we don't do that sort of thing here," said the girl quickly.
+"This is such an old-established establishment."
+
+"I can't help that.  I must have discount for cash," said the Terror
+yet more firmly.
+
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity.  Mr. Barker
+came and she put the matter to him.
+
+"Oh, no, sir; I'm afraid we couldn't think of it.  Barker's is too old
+established a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doing
+business," said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: "All right," he
+said.  "You can put the stole down to me--Master Hyacinth Dangerfield,
+Colet House, Little Deeping."
+
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as
+the coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: "I'm afraid we can't
+do that, sir.  Our terms are cash--strictly cash."
+
+"Oh, no, they're not.  My mother has had an account here for the last
+six years," said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went into
+the bag.
+
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of
+warm geniality he cried: "Oh, that alters the case altogether!  In the
+case of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we're
+delighted to deduct five per cent. discount for cash--delighted.  Make
+out the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins."
+
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away
+the stole tenderly.
+
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave
+three shillings discount in his pocket and said: "Now for Springer's!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AND PRINGLE'S POND
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an
+almost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had
+any.  She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it
+had cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats' home fund,
+since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should be
+diverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to them
+for the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it.  On
+the whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had been
+raised.
+
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas.  It
+was the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude
+and gently rollicked.  There was a dearth of children, young men and
+maidens among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins
+were in request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings.
+Thanks to the Terror, the three of them took this brightening function
+with considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorous
+piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performed
+two charades in a very painstaking fashion.  They had but little
+dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always
+well received.
+
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas.  The weather broke about
+the middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy
+snow-storm.  The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common
+in front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellent
+toboggan on which they rushed down the hill into the village street.
+These were but light pleasures.  They watched the ponds with the most
+careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour's
+skating.  Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr.
+Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the
+vicarage, drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son
+take any risk whatever.
+
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;
+and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear.  They ate
+their breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered
+together his books for his morning's work they made their plans.
+
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two
+pairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: "Then
+that's settled.  I'll meet you at Pringle's pond as soon after half
+past twelve as I can get there; but you'd better not go on it before I
+come."
+
+"Oh, it'll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday," said Erebus
+impatiently.
+
+"Well, Wiggins isn't to go on it before I come.  You'll do as you like
+of course--as usual--and if you fall in, it'll be your own lookout.
+But he's to wait till I come.  If the ice does bear, it won't bear any
+too well; and I'm responsible for Wiggins.  I promised Mr. Carrington
+to look after him," said the Terror in tones of stern gravity.
+
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: "As if I
+couldn't take care of him just as well as you.  I'm as old as you."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But you are a girl; there's no
+getting over it; and it does make a difference."
+
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she
+scowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly
+behind him.  She hated to be reminded that she was a girl.  The
+reminder rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs.
+Dangerfield asked her what was distressing her that she scowled so
+fiercely.
+
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she
+was ready to go skating.  She set out briskly across the common, and
+found Wiggins waiting for her at his father's garden-gate.  He joined
+her in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its
+bearing with the most hopeful confidence.  She displayed an equal
+confidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows.
+More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps and
+bounds.  His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold winter
+sunlight.
+
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle's pond.  The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting.  Also it
+looked quite thick and strong.  Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
+that it bore her, and tested it with some care.  She even jumped up and
+down on it.  It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself
+that ice always cracks, more or less.  She set about putting on her
+skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed,
+followed her example.
+
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
+looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently.  No; she
+would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
+till he came. . . .  She could look after him quite as well as the
+Terror. . . .  She had tested the ice thoroughly. . . .  It was
+perfectly safe.
+
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him.  The
+ice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it
+cracked again.  Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling
+Wiggins not to go far from the edge.  She skated round and across the
+pond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight,
+resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came.
+Wiggins skated about the pond.
+
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
+eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
+a shrill cry from Wiggins.  She turned sharply to see the water welling
+up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
+row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
+the wind.
+
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+
+She screamed and dashed toward it.  She had nearly reached it when his
+head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice.  Two more
+steps and a loud crack gave her pause.  It flashed on her that if she
+went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
+water herself.
+
+"Hold on!  Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
+and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+
+She screamed again and yet again.  Wiggins' face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered.  Then she sank down gently, at
+full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
+so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
+toward the hole.  Half a minute's cautious squirming brought her hands
+to the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists.
+The ice bent under her weight, but it did not break.  The icy water,
+welling out over it, began to drench her arms and chest.
+
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could
+not.  She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+
+Wiggins' little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes.  She
+could not.
+
+"C-c-can't you p-p-pull m-m-me out?" chattered Wiggins.
+
+"No, not yet," she said hoarsely.  "But it's all right.  The Terror
+will be here in a minute."
+
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+
+She listened with all her ears for an answer.  A bird squeaked shrilly
+on the other side of the field; there was no other sound.  Wiggins'
+white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of
+fear.  Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+
+"It's d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold," said Wiggins in a very faint voice; he
+began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+
+"Try to stick it out!  Don't give in!  It's only a minute or two
+longer!  The Terror _must_ come!" she cried fiercely.
+
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling
+ashamed of it.  Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of
+hopeless bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in
+their sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal.
+
+They terrified Erebus beyond words.  She screamed, and then she
+screamed and screamed.  Wiggins' face was a mere white blur through her
+blinding tears of terror.
+
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror
+cried loudly: "Stop that row!"
+
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir
+her and Wiggins.  He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+
+Then he cried: "Squirm round to the left.  I'll help you."
+
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and
+she squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending
+ice.
+
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a
+willow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull
+began to draw them toward the bank.  The ice creaked as Wiggins' chest
+came over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once
+flat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily.
+He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most of
+her weight off the ice.  Then he stepped down on to it and picked up
+Wiggins.  Erebus' stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they did
+not open easily to let them go.
+
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then
+he pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened
+the blade with his teeth for quickness' sake, tossed it to Erebus and
+cried: "Cut off his skates!  Pull off his boots and stockings!"
+
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins' coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began
+to rub his chest violently.  In the spring the Twins had attended a
+course of the St. John's Ambulance Society lectures, and among other
+things had learned how to treat those dying from exposure.  The Terror
+was the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been the
+subject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid.
+
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into
+it.  Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with
+cold and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his
+boots, pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at
+his legs.  The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently
+till the blood reddened that.  Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins' knickerbockers and rubbed his
+thighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled
+them on Wiggins' legs.  The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror's coat and jersey came well down them.  Wiggins was completely
+covered.  But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her
+jacket and tied it round Wiggins' waist by the sleeves.
+
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no
+longer a dead waxen color.  He opened his eyes twice and shut them
+feebly.
+
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: "Come on, old chap!  Make an effort!
+We want to get you home!"
+
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins' cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder,
+bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set
+off toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along.  They
+went slowly for Wiggins' feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly
+along.  Their arms round him helped warm him.  It would have taken them
+a long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soon
+after they came out of Pringle's meadows on to the road, Jakes, the
+Great Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle
+Deeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart.  Wiggins was
+quickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington's
+in about four minutes.
+
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to
+Erebus: "You bolt home as hard as you can go.  You must be awfully wet
+and cold; and if you don't want to be laid up, the sooner you take some
+quinine and get to bed the better."
+
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran
+home as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins
+as a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington's house in an uproar.  The
+Terror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and
+housemaid and Mr. Carrington himself.  Wiggins was carried into the hot
+kitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet.
+The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expert
+Terror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must be
+restored slowly.  As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and water
+with a teaspoon.  In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able to
+talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation.
+
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed
+and warm the blankets.  In another five minute's Mr. Carrington carried
+Wiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine.  Presently
+he fell asleep.
+
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without
+stockings and a jersey.  He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr.
+Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over,
+he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the water
+and Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking.  He
+was careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins
+go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for saving
+him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and
+then further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine.  On
+his way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle's pond and picked
+up the skates and garments that had been left there.  When he reached
+home he found that Erebus was in bed.  She seemed little the worse for
+lying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins
+afloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worse
+and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite.
+
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her
+disregard for his instructions; he only said: "I just told Mr.
+Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the
+pond."
+
+"That was awfully decent of you," said Erebus after a pause in which
+she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the
+spirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected.  She was as
+quick as any one to realize that all's well that ends well; and Wiggins
+escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed.  The adventure, however,
+induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescending
+with him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquired
+something of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonly
+solicitous for his welfare.  To such a point did this solicitude go
+that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing about
+him.
+
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their
+lives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their
+games; then tended the inmates of the cats' home, selling them as they
+grew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to
+lap.
+
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.  The free water runs for rather more than half a mile
+on the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it
+with an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling that
+they left no fish for any one else.  Also the Twins tried to get leave
+to fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream.  But
+Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to
+give them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since Sir
+James was absent, shooting big game in Africa.  They resented the
+refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream.  It
+was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early
+morning on the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.
+
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their
+Aunt Amelia.  Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that
+it was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehampton
+had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much.  On his return he
+was able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt's parrot still
+said "dam" with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan
+had let Muttle Deeping Grange.  In the life of the Deeping villages the
+mere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the
+inhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of
+Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of
+their being when the news came that it had been let to a German
+princess.  The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with the
+liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from their
+fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of
+Cassel-Nassau, was only twelve years and seven months old.
+
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors.
+Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a
+_German_ princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the
+matter, and refused to be interested or impressed.  Erebus was more
+resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high
+patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing
+to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea,
+gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with
+meaning, "And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!"
+
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass
+when it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she
+should model herself on a German.
+
+"I don't suppose it would really make any difference who you modeled
+yourself on," said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank than
+grammatical.
+
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of
+her neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her.  She did
+not, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she
+had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor.  They only saw her on her
+afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against the
+sun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness
+(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come to
+England.
+
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for
+her health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she
+should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the
+excellent Deeping air would strengthen her.  The news abated a little
+the cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attention
+to their young neighbor.
+
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and
+her appetite was poor.  Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and
+in particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit.  It was not the
+best season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were
+coming to an end.  Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas.  The
+Twins were annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carry
+out the doctor's orders; but there seemed no help for it.
+
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor's
+visit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling
+their bicycles out of the cats' home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes
+of the Terror; and he said:
+
+"I've got an idea!"
+
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried
+joyfully; "Thank goodness!  I was beginning to get afraid that nothing
+was ever going to occur to us again.  I thought it was the hot weather.
+What is it?"
+
+"Those Germans," said the Terror darkly.  "Now that they've got the
+Grange, why shouldn't we make a raid on the peach-garden.  They say the
+Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told me
+they ripen uncommon early.  They're probably ripe now."
+
+"That's a splendid idea!  It will just teach those Germans!" cried
+Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot.  Then after a pause she added reluctantly: "But if the
+princess is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches
+herself."
+
+"She couldn't want all of them.  Why we couldn't.  There are hundreds,"
+said the Terror quickly.  "And they're the very thing for Mum.  Bananas
+are all very well in their way; but they're not like real fruit."
+
+"Of course; Mum _must_ have them," said Erebus with decision.  "But how
+are we going to get into the peach-garden?  The door in the wall only
+opens on the inside."
+
+"We're not.  I've worked it out.  Now you just hurry up and get some
+big leaves to put the peaches in.  Mum will like them ever so much
+better with the bloom on, though it doesn't really make any difference
+to the taste."
+
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of
+different kinds.  When she came back she found the Terror tying the
+landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing,
+to the backbone of his bicycle.  She put the leaves into her bicycle
+basket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping.
+
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since
+they had spent several days in careful scouting before they had made
+their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds.  A screen of
+trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; and
+the Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood,
+came down the wall behind that screen of trees.
+
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low
+bough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed
+the garden.  It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound
+that disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed
+the golden burden of the tree beneath him.  The ready Erebus handed the
+landing-net up to him.  He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;
+slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the
+wall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a
+leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket.  The Terror netted
+another and another and another.
+
+The garden was not as empty as he believed.  On a garden chair in the
+little lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from
+him by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat,
+or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von
+Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructions
+that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was
+doing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her as
+little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spot
+on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden.  Her
+eyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully
+crimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the
+sound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+
+The princess was warmly--very warmly--dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;
+the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her
+lap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look of
+intolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the
+end-of the wall of pear tree--a moving object against the garden wall.
+She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a
+peach rose and vanished over the top of the wall.  She stared at the
+part of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds another
+peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that,
+in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the
+wall of pear-tree.  As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the
+wall, a fair-haired boy.  Even as she saw him something rose and
+vanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was a
+landing-net.
+
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably,
+raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: "How do you do?"
+
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to
+make admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke
+pursuit and risk his peaches.
+
+"How do you do?" said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+"What are you doing up there?"
+
+"I'm looking at the garden," said the Terror truthfully, but not quite
+accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown.  She
+thought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and
+his serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the
+lie.  She thought that he looked a nice boy.
+
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval--as much approval as
+one could give to a girl.  The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray
+eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line
+from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that it
+made her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face.  She looked
+fragile; and he felt sorry for her.
+
+"This garden's very hot," he said.  "It's like holding one's face over
+an oven."
+
+"Oh, it is," said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+
+"Yet there's quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of the
+walls," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious
+examining eyes.  Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+
+"I tell you what: come out into the wood.  I know an awfully cool
+place.  You'd find it very refreshing," said the Terror in the tone of
+one who has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at
+the sleeping baroness.  The sight of that richly crimson face made the
+garden feel hotter than ever.
+
+"Do come.  My sister's here, and it will be very jolly in the wood--the
+three of us," said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+
+"Are you well-born?"
+
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:
+"Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in
+the Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns.  And they did very well
+at Cr�cy and Agincourt, too," he added pensively.
+
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+
+"Suppose the baroness were to wake?" she said.
+
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror's face: "Oh, is that the
+baroness snoring?  I thought it was a pig," he said frankly.  "She
+won't wake for another hour.  Nobody snoring like that could."
+
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess.  She
+cast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: "Very goot; I
+will coom."
+
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall.  When she came
+through it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it.  The
+Terror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.  He
+gave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in the
+case of a princess, etiquette demanded it.  Then they moved along the
+screen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood.
+
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess,
+which was uncommonly slow.  She kept looking from one to the other with
+curious, rather timid, pleased eyes.  She saw the landing-net that
+Erebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror's bicycle; but she
+saw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches.
+
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the
+home wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through
+without difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths of
+the wood, and moved down it in single file.
+
+"I expect you never found this path," said the Terror to the princess
+who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+
+"No, I haf not found it.  I haf never been in this wood till now," said
+the princess.
+
+"You haven't been in this wood!  But it's the home wood--the jolliest
+part of the estate," cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise.  "And
+there are two paths straight into it from the gardens."
+
+"But I stay always in the gardens," said the princess sedately.  "The
+Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that I
+go out of sight of her."
+
+"But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"Slack?  What is slack?" said the princess.
+
+"She means feeble," said the Terror.  "But all the same those gardens
+are big enough; there's plenty of room to run about in them."
+
+"But I do not run.  It is not dignified.  The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked," said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+
+"No wonder you're delicate," said Erebus, politely trying to keep a
+touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+
+"One can not help being delicate," said the princess.
+
+"I don't know," said the Terror doubtfully.  "If you're in the open air
+a lot and do run about, you don't _keep_ delicate.  Wiggins used to be
+delicate, but he isn't now."
+
+"Who is Wiggins?" said the princess.
+
+"He's a friend of ours--not so old as we are--quite a little boy," said
+Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, would
+have resented with extreme bitterness.  "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told
+Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing with
+children of your own age, you'd soon get strong."
+
+"That's what I've come to England for," said the princess.
+
+"I don't think there's much chance of your getting strong in that
+peach-garden.  It didn't feel to me like the open air at all," said the
+Terror firmly.
+
+"But it is the open air," said the princess.
+
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader
+one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep
+and pathless bank.  The Twins started up it as if it were neither here
+nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
+
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+
+"Am I to climb this?"
+
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle
+against the trunk of a tree, and said:
+
+"I'll help you up."
+
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round
+the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of
+the bank.  He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it;
+but none the less she reached the top panting a little.
+
+"You certainly aren't in very good training," he said rather sadly.
+
+"Training?  What is training?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being fit," said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+
+"And what is being fit?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being strong--and well--and able to run miles and miles," said
+Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+
+"You needn't shout at her," said the Terror.
+
+"I'm trying to make her understand," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"But I do understand--when it is not the slang you are using.  I know
+English quite well," said the princess.
+
+"You certainly speak it awfully well," said the Terror politely.
+
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle.  They went a little
+deeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in
+the cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+
+"This _is_ different," she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure.
+
+[Illustration: "This is different," she said.]
+
+"Yes; this is the real open air," said the Terror.
+
+"But I do get lots of open air," protested the princess.  "Why, I sleep
+with my window open--at least that much."  She held out her two
+forefingers some six inches apart.  "The baroness did not like it.  She
+said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills.  But Doctor
+Arbuthnot said that it must be open.  I think I sleep better."
+
+"We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they'll go; and then
+they're not wide enough in this hot weather," said Erebus in the tone
+of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+
+"I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you'd be cooler still,"
+said the Terror rather quickly.
+
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat
+and jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure.  She had quite
+lost her air of discomfort and boredom.  Her eyes were shining
+brightly; and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitement
+of her situation.
+
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up
+children, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal
+personages unless they first speak to you.  If they were, they did not
+let that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their
+healthy curiosity.  It may be they felt that in the free green wood the
+etiquette of courts was out of place.  At any rate they did not let it
+trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive,
+interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the
+lessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games
+she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea,
+her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner,
+the hour she went to bed.
+
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it
+was only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her
+importance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunate
+mortals.  She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquette
+in not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question.  Indeed
+she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom that
+any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom,
+indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her
+fellow creatures.  She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had
+never had any really sympathetic playmates.  The children of
+Cassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their minds
+were harassed by the fear lest they should be guilty of some appalling
+breach of etiquette.  The manner of the Twins, therefore, was a
+pleasant change for her.  They were polite, but quite unconstrained;
+and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded had
+never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness,
+they were safely asleep in her presence.
+
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new
+friends she looked for.  As she exposed more and more of the trammeling
+net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was
+enmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have found
+so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said
+with heart-felt conviction:
+
+"Well, thank goodness, I'm not a princess!  It must be perfectly awful!"
+
+"It must be nearly as bad to be a prince," said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with
+parted lips and amazed incredulous eyes.  Their words had given her the
+shock of her short lifetime.  As far as memory carried her back, she
+had been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a
+German princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and
+delightful lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little less
+glorious and delightful than the lot of a German prince.
+
+"B-b-but it's sp-p-plendid to be a princess!  Everybody says so!" she
+stammered.
+
+"They were humbugging you.  You've just made it quite clear that it's
+horrid in every kind of way.  Why, you can't do any single thing you
+want to.  There's always somebody messing about you to see that you
+don't," said Erebus with cold decision.
+
+"B-b-but one is a _p-p-princess_," stammered the princess, with
+something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+
+"You're forgetting the food," he said quickly to Erebus.  "I don't
+suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have all
+the sweets and ices she wants."
+
+"Of course," said the princess; and then she went on quickly: "B-b-but
+it isn't what you have to eat that makes it so--so--so important being
+a princess.  It's--"
+
+"But it's awfully important what you have to eat!" cried the Terror.
+
+"I should jolly well think so!" cried Erebus.
+
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her
+exalted station; but the Twins would not have it.  They kept her firmly
+to the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets.  The
+princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly
+but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
+new part of dispenser of information.  Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
+and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.
+
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
+unheeded by the interested trio.  The crimson baroness had awakened,
+missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
+her.  A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
+was not in them.  As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
+panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
+search of her.
+
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
+the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
+tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
+Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
+distant voice calling out.
+
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen!  There's some one
+calling.  I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be getting
+back."
+
+The princess rose reluctantly.  Then her face clouded; and she said in
+a tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear!  How annoyed the baroness will be!"
+
+"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus.
+
+"But I have to; she's my--my _gouvernante_," said the princess.
+
+"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time," said Erebus coldly.
+
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+
+"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us.  She
+mightn't think we were good for you.  Some people round here don't seem
+to understand us," said the Terror suavely.
+
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
+brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are you
+coming to-morrow?"
+
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully.  They had no plans for the
+morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
+exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.
+
+At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror's heart.
+
+"We should like to come very much," he said.
+
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.
+
+"I don't think I shall be able to come," said Erebus with the important
+air of one burdened with many affairs.
+
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: "But if your
+brother comes?"
+
+"Oh, I'll come, anyhow," said the Terror.
+
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+
+"Oh, it isn't the baroness.  It's Miss Lambart," said the princess in a
+tone of relief.
+
+"You take too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus again firmly.
+"Who is Miss Lambart?"
+
+"She's my English lady-in-waiting.  I always have one when I'm in
+England, of course.  I like her.  She tries to amuse me.  But the
+baroness doesn't like her," said the princess, and she sighed.
+
+"Come along, I'll help you down the bank and take you pretty close to
+Miss Lambart.  It wouldn't do for her to know of this place.  It's our
+secret lair," said the Terror.
+
+"I see," said the princess.
+
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried
+her down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from
+which Miss Lambart had called.  As they went he adjured her to confine
+herself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walking
+in the wood.  His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of the
+drive, were:
+
+"Don't you stand so much nonsense from that baroness."
+
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and
+found her thirty yards away.  The Terror slipped noiselessly away
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess' footsteps, and said:
+"Oh, here you are, Highness.  We've all been hunting for you.  The
+baroness thought you were lost."
+
+"I thought I would walk in the wood," said the princess demurely.
+
+"It certainly seems to have done you good.  You're looking brighter and
+fresher than you've looked since you've been down here."
+
+"The wood is real open air," said the princess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease,
+eating a peach.
+
+"I should have liked one a good deal sooner," he said, as he took one
+from the basket.  "But I didn't like to say anything about them.  She
+mightn't have understood."
+
+"It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't," said Erebus somewhat
+truculently.
+
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had
+so plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+
+"She's not a bad kid," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"She's awfully feeble.  Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a
+bank.  She's not any use to us," said Erebus in a tone of contempt.
+"In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should
+find her a perfect nuisance."
+
+"Perhaps.  Still we may as well amuse her a bit.  She seems to be
+having a rotten time with that old red baroness and all that
+etiquette," said the Terror in a kindly tone.
+
+"She needn't stand it, if she doesn't like it.  I shouldn't," said
+Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: "I tell you
+what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that old
+red baroness."
+
+"Yes," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But I expect she'd take a lot of
+teaching.  I don't think she's the kind of kid to do much jumping on
+people."
+
+"Oh, you never know.  We can always try," said Erebus cheerfully.
+
+"Yes," said the Terror.
+
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood.  It
+was not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered
+by bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved
+as the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but
+little attention to it.  The Twins moved out of it safely and returned
+home with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they had
+been treating a princess with singular firmness.  Nor were they at all
+troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mental
+kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuum
+applied to fruit.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that
+afternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and
+bought them for her there.  When two more were forthcoming for her
+dessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so much
+of their salary for "overseering" on her.  The Twins said nothing.  It
+was only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she
+began to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not of
+trade.  Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little late
+to inquire and protest.  Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twins
+had admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit of
+it.  Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing.
+
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping
+home wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who
+met them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes.
+This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain to
+them of this unheard-of breach of etiquette.  She was doubtful how the
+complaint would be received at any rate by Erebus.
+
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since
+the sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it
+rather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror.  There was
+something very satisfactory in his strength.  Again they settled
+themselves comfortably on the bank of the pool.
+
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another.  Beside the clear
+golden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the
+pale face of the princess looked waxen.  The blue linen blouse, short
+serge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt,
+serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them an
+air not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb.  In
+her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings and
+heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddled
+sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased
+by the Terror's observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all
+when one had such thick hair as she.  But she was some time acting on
+Erebus' suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be
+more comfortable still.
+
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to
+tell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her
+having gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home
+wood.
+
+"I tell you what: you've spoilt that baroness," said the Terror when
+she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+
+"But she's my _gouvernante_.  I have to do as she bids," protested the
+princess.
+
+"That's all rubbish.  You're the princess; and other people ought to do
+what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any silly
+thing you don't want to.  She wouldn't me," said Erebus with even
+greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+
+"I don't think she would," said the princess with a faint sigh; and she
+looked at Erebus with envious eyes.  "But when she starts making a fuss
+and gets so red and excited, she--she--rather frightens me."
+
+"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me," said Erebus with a
+very cold ferocity.
+
+"I rather like people like that.  I think they look so funny when
+they're really red and excited," said the Terror gently.  "But what
+you've got to do is to stand up to her."
+
+"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+
+"Tell her that you don't care what she says," said the Terror.
+
+"Cheek her," said Erebus.
+
+"I couldn't.  It would be too difficult," said the princess, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find how
+soon you'll get used to shutting her up," said the Terror.  "But I
+don't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy.  I believe in
+being quite polite but not giving way."
+
+"She is very noisy," said the princess.
+
+"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her.  It's the only way.  But mind
+you only have rows when you're in the right about something," said the
+Terror.  "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone.  It's no good
+having a row when you're in the wrong."
+
+"I think it's best always to have a row," said Erebus with an air of
+wide experience.
+
+"Well, it isn't--at least it wouldn't be for the princess--she's not
+like you," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"Oh, no: not always--only when one is in the right.  I see that," said
+the princess.  "But what should I have a row about?"
+
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a
+pretext for an honest row.
+
+Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have some
+one to play with?  It's silly being as dull as you are.  What's the
+good of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled.  "It would be nice!  You and Erebus could come to tea with me
+and sooper and loonch often and again!"
+
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay.  It
+was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go
+to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and
+girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+
+"That wouldn't do at all," said the Terror quickly.  "You had better
+not tell them anything at all about us.  They wouldn't let us come to
+the Grange; and they'd stop you coming here.  It's ever so much nicer
+meeting secretly like this."
+
+"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here," said
+the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+
+"It couldn't be done.  They wouldn't have us at the Grange," said
+Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+
+"But why not?" said the princess in surprise.
+
+"The people about here don't understand us," said the Terror somewhat
+sadly.  "They'd think we should be bad for you."
+
+"But it is not so!  You are ever so good to me!" cried the princess
+hotly.
+
+"It's no good.  You couldn't make grown-ups see that--you know what
+they are.  No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet
+us here," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she
+sighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say.  You know more about
+it."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you.
+Suppose we taught you some exercises.  You could practise them at home;
+and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us."
+
+"What things?" said the princess.
+
+"Oh, you'd be able to run--and jump.  Why we might even be able to
+teach you to climb," said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his
+tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner
+vision.
+
+"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess.  Forthwith the Twins set
+about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of
+muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil.  In spite of the
+seeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back
+to the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate
+before she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the
+house or about the gardens.  The Terror therefore conducted her down
+the screen of trees to the door in the wall.  She had left it
+unlatched; and he pushed it open gently.  There was no sound of
+snoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden.
+
+"I expect she is still looking for me in the house," said the princess
+calmly.  "They'd be shouting if she weren't."
+
+"Yes.  I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?" said the Terror,
+looking round the loaded walls.
+
+"Me?  No.  I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch.  But I
+don't care for peaches much.  It's the way the baroness eats them, I
+think--the juice roonning down, you know.  And she eats six or seven
+always."
+
+"That woman's a pig.  I thought she looked like one," said the Terror
+with conviction.  "But if you don't want them all, may I have some for
+my mother?  The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond of
+peaches."
+
+"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus.  Take them
+all," said the princess with quick generosity.
+
+"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps," said the Terror.
+
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large
+cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil.  But when she
+was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.
+Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked
+the Twins how they came by them.  They assured her that they had been
+given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a
+secret.  She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it
+likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom
+took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that
+either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on
+eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body.  They adjured her again and again to thrust off
+the yoke of the baroness.  The last pregnant words of Erebus to her
+were: "You just call her an old red pig, and see."
+
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that
+very evening.  The princess was dining with the Baroness Von
+Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly
+jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk
+with the princess; and she had done it rudely.  The princess, who
+wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed.  They had reached
+dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in
+her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that
+it must be the air of Muttle Deeping.  The baroness uttered a loud and
+contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches.  The princess
+looked at her with an expression of great dislike.  The baroness
+gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human
+being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the
+princess spoke.
+
+"I want some children to play with," she said.
+
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped
+down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are no
+children in zis country, your Royal Highness."
+
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in
+England.
+
+"But I see plenty of children when I drive," said the princess.
+
+"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born," said the
+baroness in rasping tones.
+
+"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with," said the princess.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice.  "Bud eed ees whad
+I know ees goot for you."
+
+"They're good for me," said the princess firmly.  "And you must find
+them."
+
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display
+of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer
+crimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: "Bud eed ees
+eembossible whad your royal highness ask!  Zere are no 'igh an'
+well-born children 'ere.  Zey are een Loondon."
+
+"Well, you must send for some," said the princess, who, having taken
+the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?  I do nod know whad ees 'appen to you, your Royal
+Highness.  I say eed ees eembossible!" shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+
+"But surely her highness' request is a very natural one, Baroness; and
+there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look
+for them.  Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have
+children of her own age to play with," said Miss Lambart who had been
+pitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping
+her to the companionship she needed.
+
+"Do nod indervere, Englanderin!" bellowed the baroness; and her crimson
+was enriched with streaks of purple.  "I am in ze charge of 'er royal
+highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay."
+
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow.
+She was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her
+young mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+
+"Old--red--peeg."
+
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping
+grunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+
+"But whad--but whad--" she said faintly.
+
+"Old--red--peeg," said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effect
+of the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+
+"Bud whad ees eed zat 'appen?" muttered the bewildered baroness.
+
+"If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father
+that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
+everything what the English doctor bids," said the princess in a
+sinister tone.  "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the
+Baroness Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_."
+
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
+happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
+Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
+well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.
+
+"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness," she
+said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+
+The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them.  Is
+it not, Mees Lambart?"
+
+"I shall be charmed to try, Highness," said Miss Lambart readily.
+
+"Do nod indervere!  I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped the
+baroness.
+
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
+glowing with the joy of victory.  At the door she paused to say:
+
+"And I want them soon--at once."
+
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
+night air, she went firmly out into the garden.  The next morning at
+breakfast she again demanded children to play with.
+
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
+baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
+to come to play with the princess.  She only stipulated that they
+should be high and well-born.
+
+"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins--Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl.  They're high and well-born
+enough.  But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl.  They're independent young people.  Besides, I'm not at all sure
+that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess.  It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such--er--er ardent spirits.  You might have her developing a spirit of
+freedom; and you wouldn't like that."
+
+"_Mein Gott_, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction.
+
+"Then there's Wiggins--Rupert Carrington.  He's younger and quieter but
+active enough.  He'd soon teach her to run about."
+
+"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness.
+
+"Well-born?  He's a _Carrington_," said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
+impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily.  When the princess, who had
+hoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him
+with resignation.  Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of
+Wiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on the
+qualifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+
+"Of course, he'll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; he
+always does.  But you mustn't mind that."
+
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate
+be a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their
+fair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend.  Not only was his
+reluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English young
+gentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit as
+sincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a little
+girl far more insulting than they would have done.  They did their best
+to soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing out
+to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, and
+impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+
+"Yes; that's all very well," said Wiggins gloomily.  "But I've been
+seeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now I
+shall see less than ever."
+
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the
+stiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and he
+scalped her with gratifying frequency.  In this way it came about that,
+in the matter of play, the princess led a double life.  She spent the
+early part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from tea
+till the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society of
+Wiggins.  She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wiggins
+was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he could
+tell.  Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air.
+They took that change at but a short distance from their home, since
+the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford.
+They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in
+the dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle of
+Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther.
+
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from
+the knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of
+philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they
+could.  She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going
+to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been
+made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was
+presently weeping.  She was ashamed; but she could not help it.  The
+compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would try
+to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly
+the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was
+magnificently inspired.
+
+"Look here: why shouldn't you come with us into camp?" he said eagerly.
+"A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange.  You
+really do get open air camping out at the knoll."
+
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid
+thought.  Then it fell; and she said: "They'd never let me--never."
+
+"But you'd never ask them," said the Terror.  "You'd just slip away and
+come with us.  We've kept our knowing you so dark that they'd never
+dream you were with us in the knoll caves."
+
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect.  She
+had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the
+afternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them
+would be beyond the delight of dreams.  But to her unadventured soul
+the difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting.  The Twins, however,
+were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began
+surmounting these.
+
+"The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,"
+said the Terror thoughtfully.  "You see, I've got to go down every day
+for milk and things, and they're sure to ask me if I've seen anything
+of you.  Of course, I can't lie about it; and then they'll not only
+take you away, but they'll probably turn us out of the caves."
+
+"That's the drawback," said Erebus.
+
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment.  A deep frown
+furrowed the Terror's brow; and he said: "If only you weren't a
+princess they wouldn't make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I
+might never be asked anything about you."
+
+"I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a
+glorious smile, and he cried:
+
+"By Jove!  Of course you would!  I never thought of that!  Why, you'd
+be some one else and not the princess at all!  We shouldn't know where
+the princess was if we were asked."
+
+"Of course we shouldn't!" said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of this
+ignorance.
+
+"I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: "I
+suppose you have to have a title.  But I think an English one would be
+best here: Lady Rowington now.  No one would ever ask us where Lady
+Rowington is, because there isn't any Lady Rowington."
+
+"Oh, yes: Lady Rowington--I would wish an English title," said the
+princess readily.
+
+"If we could only think of some way of making them think that she'd
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still," said Erebus.
+
+"Gipsies don't steal children nowadays," said the Terror; and he paused
+considering.  Then he added, "I tell you what though: Nihilists
+would--at least they'd steal a princess.  Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?"
+
+"I never heard of any," said the princess.  "There are thousands of
+Socialists."
+
+"Socialists will do," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till
+the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have
+everything in order.  Then they discussed her needs.  She could not
+bring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not
+been stolen.  She must share the wardrobe of Erebus.
+
+"But, no.  I have money," said the princess, thrusting her hand into
+her pocket.  "Will you not buy me clothes?"
+
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and
+handed it to the Terror.  He and Erebus examined it with warm
+admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
+
+"We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow.  There's a pool
+just under the knoll," said the Terror.  "How much shall we want,
+Erebus?"
+
+"You'd better have two pounds and be on the safe side," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to
+his own.  Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of
+the peach-garden at nine o'clock, or thereabouts at night.  He would
+wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
+the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will.  He made several
+suggestions about the manner of her escape.
+
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
+purchasing her outfit.  They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
+shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
+stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress.  They carried the parcels
+home on their bicycles.  When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
+Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
+
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
+throwing the searchers off the scent.  It was:
+
+[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned "We are avenged.  A
+Desparate Socialist"]
+
+
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
+Knoll.  The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so
+that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom
+Cobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
+encamped with them.  This year she had not cared for the effort; and
+she had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuous
+atmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and
+pleasant.  She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to
+encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll.  Not only were they of approved
+readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were
+as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
+isle.  She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take as
+many blankets as she suggested.  In other years he had been disposed to
+grumble at the number she thought necessary.
+
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite.  Then they began
+to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
+brought them up, in their proper caves.  With a break of an hour for a
+bath this occupied them till tea-time.  After tea they bathed again and
+then set about collecting fuel from the wood.  They were too tired to
+spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
+their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs.  They
+were up betimes, bathing.
+
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before.  They spent most
+of it in the pool or on its bank.  In the afternoon Wiggins came and
+did not leave them till seven.  Soon after eight o'clock the Terror set
+out to keep his tryst with the princess.  He took with him the
+Socialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening
+from the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange to
+Deeping Knoll.  Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall
+two or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
+
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess
+on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it.  He shook
+hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told
+him how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone
+to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen,
+down the stairs and out of the house.  He praised her skill; and she
+found his praise very grateful.
+
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the
+princess found them daunting.  They were full of strange noises, many
+of them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes
+seemed to move.  The Terror was not long discovering her fear, and
+forthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the
+path was broad enough to allow it.  When she quivered to some woodland
+sound, he told her what it was and eased her mind.
+
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active
+games with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough
+ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down
+and rested.  The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled
+to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror.
+When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into
+the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests
+of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her.  She was
+almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+
+[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot
+of the knoll.]
+
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey
+the princess found it grateful indeed.  They sat for a while in a row
+before the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the
+princess had visited.  But soon the yawns which she could not repress
+showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that she
+should go to bed.
+
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to
+herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it
+alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the
+cave of Erebus.  After the journey and the excitement she was not long
+falling into a dreamless sleep.
+
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk.
+Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath.  The
+princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but
+under the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went.  She
+came out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she
+came to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her
+life enjoyed.
+
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the
+caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games
+of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to
+an active life.  It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;
+after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of
+which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as
+hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you
+could yell.  After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported
+themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o'clock.
+
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping
+her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required
+speed.  Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full
+half-hour before he and Erebus left it.  After dinner the princess was
+so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terror
+insisted that she should lie down for an hour.  She protested that she
+did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this
+glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
+
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon.  But he could be admitted
+safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had
+become Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to
+profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts.  Also he would be very
+useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the
+excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess.  So far
+its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were
+content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three
+counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for
+some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists and
+a princess.  It was the general belief that she had been chloroformed
+and abducted through her bedroom window.
+
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the
+probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the
+routes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and the
+towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be.  At the
+end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes,
+very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+"You might have told me that she was coming here."
+
+"You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"So I should, if I'd known you knew her at all," said Wiggins.
+
+"That's what nobody knows," said Erebus triumphantly.
+
+"And look here: she's here incognita," said the Terror.  "She's taken
+the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she's not the princess at
+all.  So if you're asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully
+say she isn't."
+
+"Of course--I see.  This is a go!" said Wiggins cheerfully; and he
+spurned the earth.
+
+"The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we're not expecting them and see her," said the Terror.  "So I'm going
+to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will
+shout to us.  But there's no need to do that yet; nobody will think
+about us for a day or two."
+
+"No; of course they won't.  I didn't," said Wiggins.
+
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that
+followed.  It kept the princess always beside the Terror.  Always he
+was using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required
+speed.  Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princess
+been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough
+ground.  On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly
+move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing
+yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had
+died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his
+pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly
+fond of no one.  It is hardly too much to say that she was coming to
+adore the Terror.  Even at their most violent and thrilling moments his
+care for her never relaxed.  He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he
+plastered her scratches.  He saw to it that she came out of the pool
+the moment that she looked chill.  He picked out for her the tidbits at
+their meals.  He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass
+was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly
+refused to play the lady's-maid.  Since the Terror was one of those who
+enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently
+forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in
+handling the silken strands.
+
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her
+hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe
+shock.  Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;
+indeed, she had never had the chance.  But he had just finished his
+task and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a
+sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and
+kissed him.
+
+"Oh, you _are_ nice!" she said.
+
+The Terror's ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds.
+He flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any
+one should have seen it!
+
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: "Don't
+you like for me to kiss you?"
+
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said,
+faintly but gallantly: "Yes--oh, rather."
+
+"Then kiss me," said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her
+gingerly.
+
+"I _am_ fond of you, you know," said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+
+The Terror's scattered wits at last worked.  He rose to his feet, and
+said quickly:
+
+"Yes; let's be getting to the others."
+
+The princess rose obediently.
+
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not
+frequent, were, at any rate, not rare.  The Terror at first endured
+them; then he came rather to like them.  But he strictly enjoined
+discretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that she
+kissed him.  The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one else
+for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no
+natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware
+of the practise.
+
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;
+and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out
+of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+
+"I suppose the Terror's in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that.  I think it's awfully silly."  And he spurned the earth.
+
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: "He never does!"
+
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;
+and her eyes were flashing.  He had seen her angry often enough, but
+never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a
+grievous indiscretion.
+
+"Perhaps she kissed him," he said quickly.
+
+"He'd never let her!" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"Perhaps they didn't," said Wiggins readily.
+
+"You know they did!" cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+
+"I may have made a mistake.  It's quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing," said Wiggins.
+
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from
+his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl.  He had seen the
+princess with an arm round the Terror's neck, and they had kissed.
+
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the
+least resistance, sought the princess.  She found her lying back
+drowsily against a sunny bank.
+
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: "Princess
+or no princess, you shan't kiss the Terror!"
+
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up.  Her gray eyes darkened
+and sparkled.  She had never made a face in her life; it is not
+improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was
+ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous
+face at Erebus, and said:
+
+"I shall!"
+
+"If you do, I'll smack you!" cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth.
+
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by
+a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in
+the matter of a male.  She met Erebus' blazing eyes squarely and said
+confidently:
+
+"He won't let you.  And if you do he'll smack you--much harder!"
+
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then
+and there.  But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules
+only permit you to strike any one standing up.  Erebus forgot them,
+stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a
+really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror.
+
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and
+she cried:
+
+"I know all about your kissing the princess!  I never heard of such
+silly babyishness!"
+
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to
+the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as
+he said:
+
+"Well, what harm is there in it?"
+
+"It's babyish!  It's what mollycoddles do!  It's girlish!  It's--"
+
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+
+"You mind your own business!  It isn't babyish at all!  She's asked me
+to marry her; and when we're grown up I'm going to--so there!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AND THE UNREST CURE
+
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by
+what she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission
+had raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered
+no protest.  She knew that protest would be vain, that against his
+obstinacy she was helpless.  She wrung her hands and turned aside into
+the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiest
+ideals.
+
+Then followed a period of strain.  She assumed an attitude of very
+haughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins,
+and let them coldly alone.  From this attitude Wiggins was the chief
+sufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;
+Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the
+strenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily.  As
+often as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined the
+errant pair.  It is to be feared that the princess found the kisses
+sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on
+Deeping Knoll.  There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the
+Twins had had a hand in her disappearance.  But no one had any reason
+to suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted.  Doctor
+Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but they
+were mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always very
+careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was at
+the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficient
+truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was.  The
+bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down.
+Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice
+Falconer in the matter.  When he first read in his _Morning Post_ of
+the disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from
+Muttle Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: "The Twins
+again!" and to that conviction his mind clung.
+
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the
+Socialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny
+paper.  He told himself that Socialists are an educated, even
+over-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skull
+and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rate
+accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialist
+would spell desperate with two "a's" in an important document without
+being corrected by a confederate.  On the other hand the drawing of the
+skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which the
+immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two "a's" in
+any document.
+
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of
+his relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been
+for the international situation produced by the disappearance of the
+princess.  As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings,
+dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled to
+postpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organ
+and organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudly
+disavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England and
+Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at one
+another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiring
+frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets.  Even then
+Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would
+not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet
+minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty
+thousand pounds' worth of consols.  He disliked the lady so strongly
+that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt
+that the time had come to ease the international situation.
+
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping.  His conviction
+that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess
+became certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were
+encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that
+disappearance.  But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his
+habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
+
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood
+and park to Muttle Deeping Grange.  He gave his card to the butler and
+told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms
+of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three
+minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
+
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:
+"Is this business worrying you?"
+
+"It is rather.  You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible.  Besides, since I'm
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being
+taken explained; and they want the same explanation over and over
+again.  Since the archduke came it has been very trying.  I think that
+he is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that they've been worrying you like this.  If I'd
+known, I'd have come down and stopped it earlier," said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of lively self-reproach.
+
+"Stop it?  Why, what can you do?" cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyes
+wide in her surprise.
+
+"Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess.  But it's only a belief, mind.  So don't be too hopeful."
+
+Miss Lambart's pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+
+"Oh, if you could!" she cried.
+
+"Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can,
+for the easier part; and we'll put my belief to the test," said Sir
+Maurice briskly.
+
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: "I shan't be able to
+get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss.  They're very unpleasant
+people, you know.  Could we take the baroness with us?  She'll _have_
+to be carried in something."
+
+"Is she very fat?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Then she'd never get to the place I have in mind," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Is it very far?  Couldn't we walk to it?"
+
+"It's about three miles," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing--at least not for me.  But you?" said Miss Lambart,
+who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
+weakling.
+
+"I can manage it.  Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
+limbs," said Sir Maurice.  "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and
+pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years."
+
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
+park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
+surface of the distant wood.  Sir Maurice had once walked to it with
+the Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
+inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
+course.  It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
+charming companion through such a charming country.
+
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+"Where are we going to?  Where do you think the princess is?"
+
+"You've been here a month.  Haven't you heard of the Dangerfield
+twins?" said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
+and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them.  But he said that they were not
+the kind of children for her, though they were the only high and
+well-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood.  He
+seemed to think that they would make her rebellious."
+
+"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"I wonder," said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+
+"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her--a
+very nice little boy," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Wiggins!  The Twins' greatest friend!  Well, I'll be shot!" cried Sir
+Maurice; and he laughed.
+
+"But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
+something to do with the princess' disappearance?  How old are they?"
+said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
+mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
+Socialists and foreigners.
+
+"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen.  But I do know
+that nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their
+having a hand in it.  I have the honor to be their uncle," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them.  She's
+a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
+she is delicate to fragility," Miss Lambart protested.
+
+"If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of deep conviction.  "But it would not necessarily be a
+matter of persuasion."
+
+"But what else could it be--children of thirteen or fourteen!" cried
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"I assure you that it might quite easily have been force," said Sir
+Maurice seriously.  "My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll.
+It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part
+communicating with one another.  I can conceive of nothing more likely
+than that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;
+and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom.  They
+might lure her to some distance from the Grange before they had
+recourse to force."
+
+"It sounds incredible--children," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Sir Maurice cheerfully.  Then he added in a
+more doubtful tone; "If only we can take them by surprise, which won't
+be so easy as it sounds."
+
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase.  But it was a
+very pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking
+with him through this pleasant sunny land.  When presently he turned
+the talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still.
+He was very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance at
+having had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome _corv�e_ of
+acting as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to the
+domineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome _corv�e_
+indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been.  He
+sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented by
+that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess.
+
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the
+baroness and the archduke during the last few days.  The baroness had
+tried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; and
+the archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at
+having been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash to
+England, had been very rude indeed.  She was much pleased by the warmth
+of Sir Maurice's indignation; but she protested against his making any
+attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, without
+harming himself.  But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke,
+nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in
+the broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path
+led to the knoll.  Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take
+it.  He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have it
+guarded, if the princess were indeed with them.  He led the way into
+the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for her
+carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her frock
+get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the
+knoll.
+
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir
+Maurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering
+earnestly ahead through the branches.  Now and again a loud yell came
+from the knoll; and once a chorus of yells.  Finding that her coldness
+(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on her
+insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;
+and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in
+an astonished whisper:
+
+"That was awfully like the princess' voice."
+
+"I thought you said she was delicate," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"So she was," said Miss Lambart firmly.
+
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen
+and unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the
+knoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in its
+face.  They waited, watching it.
+
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning
+to wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed
+kin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging
+down her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped
+into a clump of bushes to the right of it.
+
+"The princess!" said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward,
+but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing
+in a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+
+"That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington," said Sir Maurice.
+
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an
+ear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms
+round his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came
+to the ground.
+
+"Delicate to fragility," muttered Sir Maurice.
+
+"Whatever has she been doing to herself?" said Miss Lambart faintly,
+gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+
+"You don't know the Twins," said Sir Maurice.
+
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a
+breakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the
+battling pair.  As far as the spectators could judge she and the
+princess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelled
+their shrillest.  Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from the
+cave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the aching
+welkin rang.
+
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and
+Wiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled.  The princess
+and the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled.  The princess
+wriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an arm
+round his neck.
+
+"It was splendid!" she cried, and kissed him.
+
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very
+good grace.
+
+"Well, I never!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"These delicate children," said Sir Maurice.  "But it's certainly a
+delightful place for lovers.  I'm so glad we've found it."
+
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was
+flushing.
+
+"Come along!" she said quickly.
+
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first.  He did not stir; but a curious,
+short, sharp cry came from his throat.  It seemed to loose a spring in
+the princess.  She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly,
+frowning.  The Terror rose more slowly.
+
+"Good afternoon, Highness.  I've come to take you back to the Grange,"
+said Miss Lambart.
+
+"I'm not going," said the princess firmly.
+
+"I'm afraid you must.  Your father is there; and he wants you," said
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"No," said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewise
+toward the mouth of the cave.
+
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his
+pockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator.
+
+"But if you don't come of yourself, we shall have to carry you," said
+Miss Lambart sternly.
+
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: "I don't see
+how you can.  You can't touch a princess you know.  It would be
+_l�se-majest�_.  She's told me all about it."
+
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir
+Maurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively.  But he said: "Oh, come;
+this won't do, Terror, don't you know!  Her highness will _have_ to
+come."
+
+"I don't see how you're going to get her.  The only person who could
+use force is the prince himself, and I don't think he could be got up
+to the knoll.  He's too heavy.  I've seen him.  And if you did get him
+up, I don't really think he'd ever find her in these caves," said the
+Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirely
+impersonal matter.
+
+"Anyhow, I'm not going," said the princess with even greater firmness.
+
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity.
+
+"You see, there isn't any real reason why she shouldn't stay here,"
+said the Terror.  "She came to England to improve her health; and she's
+improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange.  You
+can _see_ how improved it is.  She eats nearly as much as Erebus."
+
+"She has certainly changed," said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+
+"The Twins have a transforming effect on the young," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of resignation.
+
+"I am much better," said the princess.  "I'm getting quite strong, and
+I can run ever so fast."
+
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"But it's nonsense!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"But what can you _do_?" said the Terror gently.
+
+"I'll chance the _l�se-majest�_!" cried Miss Lambart; and she sprang
+swiftly forward.
+
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it.  Miss Lambart followed
+swiftly.  The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage
+forked into three dimmer passages.  Miss Lambart stopped short and
+tried to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of the
+retiring princess.  It came from none of the three; the floor of the
+eaves was covered with sound-deadening sand.  Miss Lambart walked back
+to the entrance of the cave.
+
+"She has escaped," she said in a tone of resignation.
+
+"Well, I really don't see any reason for you to put yourself about for
+the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange.  You have done more
+than you were called on to do in finding her.  You can leave the
+catching of her to them.  There's nothing to worry about: it's quite
+clear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good," said Sir
+Maurice in a comforting tone.
+
+"Yes; there is that," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Let me introduce my nephew.  Hyacinth Dangerfield--better, much
+better, known as the Terror--to you," Said Sir Maurice.
+
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: "How do you do?  I've been
+wanting to know you: the princess--I mean Lady Rowington--likes you
+ever so much."
+
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+
+"Perhaps you could give us some tea?  We want it badly," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes, I can.  We only drink milk and cocoa, of course.  But we have
+some tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday," said the
+Terror.
+
+"I take it that she saw nothing of the princess," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; she didn't see Lady Rowington.  You must remember that she's
+Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh?  I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess," said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"Yes; that was how," said the Terror blandly.
+
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their
+kettle on the fire for some time.  Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed
+the picnic greatly.  On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed.
+Miss Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess;
+and she came out of hiding and took her tea with them.
+
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical
+change in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was
+a browner, brighter, stronger child.  Plainly, too, she was a more
+determined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved of
+that change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved by
+the princess' kinsfolk and train.  But she was somewhat distressed that
+the legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deep
+scratches.  She had none of the experienced Twins' quickness to see and
+dodge thorns.  She took Miss Lambart's sympathy lightly enough; indeed
+she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorable
+warfare.
+
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was
+assured that this green wood life was the very thing the princess
+needed, she was resolved to give him no help herself.  She was pleased
+to learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess'
+acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance and
+cultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in the
+peach-garden.
+
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of
+their entertainers and set out through the wood.  They had not gone a
+hundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that the
+strenuous life had again begun.
+
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle
+Deeping Grange with the news of their great discovery.  But she found
+that Sir Maurice had formed other plans.  They were both agreed that no
+consideration was owing to the billowy archduke.  His manners deprived
+him of any right to it.  Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping
+post-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and help
+wrote two long telegrams.  The first was to the editor of the Morning
+Post, the second was to the prime minister.  In both he set forth his
+discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in a
+wood, and her reasons for running away to them.  The postmistress
+despatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease
+the international situation at once.  Since both the editor and the
+prime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there was
+no fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect.
+
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of
+Mrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged
+Europe into Armageddon.  Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with
+unruffled calm.  She showed no surprise at all; she only said that she
+had found it very strange that a princess should vanish at Muttle
+Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it.  She perceived at once that
+the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name of
+Lady Rowington.
+
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no
+haste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant
+atmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange.  It was past seven therefore when
+the Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archduke
+with her news.
+
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he
+always fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with
+sufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of her
+news.  He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it.  It
+annoyed him greatly.  He was taking considerable pleasure in standing
+on a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern
+sire.  His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laugh
+consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter.  His second feeling
+was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirring
+things about the Terror's manifesto and the stolen princess, would be
+furiously angry with him.
+
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss
+Lambart was ignorant.  Then when he grew cooler and paler his
+oft-repeated phrase was: "Eet must be 'ushed!"
+
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care
+that the affair should not be hushed up.  She did not wish every blow
+to strike him at once.  Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste
+he rolled off to the dining-room.
+
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke's equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up
+the stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at
+once, as she was.  She took no heed of the command, dressed at her
+ease, and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after his
+struggle with the hors-d'oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his
+first entr�e.
+
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about
+the place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was
+encamped with.  Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as
+clearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible.
+Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercised
+her authority and brought the princess back with her.
+
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that
+if she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and
+that it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through
+miles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns were
+sacrosanct.
+
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and
+summon home his truant child.  Miss Lambart objected that it would mean
+hewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit his
+passage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allow
+it.  Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go.  Miss Lambart with
+infinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must be
+hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there was
+not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves.
+
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity.  Then he
+struck the table and cried:
+
+"Count Zerbst shall do eet!  To-morrow morning!  You shall 'eem lead to
+ze wood.  'E shall breeng 'er."
+
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a
+German count would hardly be proper.
+
+"Brobare?  What ees 'brobare'?" said the archduke.
+
+"_Convenable_," said Miss Lambart.
+
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to
+militate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the
+earliest possible moment.  Miss Lambart said that they must.  In the
+end it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowington
+and that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to the
+entrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to the
+princess her father's command to return to the Grange, and if she
+should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car.
+
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would
+never set eyes, much less hands, on the princess.  Count Zerbst's
+smooth pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little
+mustache, which in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion
+accentuated the extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his small
+eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely something about "sdradegy."  He
+looked at Miss Lambart very unamiably.  He felt that she was not
+impressed by him as were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resented
+it.  He resolved to capture the princess at any cost.
+
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the _Morning
+Post_ the true story of his daughter's disappearance; and he was fuming
+still when the car came from Rowington.  It was a powerful car and a
+weight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been
+careful to demand a weight-carrier.  With immense fuss the archduke
+disposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled with
+billowy curves.  The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang to
+the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she might
+the more easily direct his course.
+
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no
+objection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran
+the path to the knoll.  At the entrance of it the count stepped out of
+the car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the air
+of a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but he
+was to bring her at once.
+
+In a last generous outburst he cried: "Pooll 'er by the ear!  Bud
+breeng 'er."
+
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and
+martial air.  Miss Lambart was not impressed by it.  She thought that
+in his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently
+tighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place
+under the green wood trees.  She remembered how lightly the Twins and
+the princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his getting
+near any of them.  Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods she
+had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which
+to approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent.  Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with
+all the competence of a trumpet.
+
+Her doubt was well-grounded.  The quick ears of Erebus were the first
+to catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred
+yards from the entrance of the path to the knoll.  Ever since the
+departure of Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been making
+ready against invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings to
+the secret caves.
+
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to
+the knoll.  They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well
+lighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge.  But the
+entrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave
+in the heart of the knoll.  On this shaft the Twins had spent their
+best pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they had
+reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches high
+and eighteen inches broad.  The opening into this passage could,
+naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was
+hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave.  It had been a
+somewhat difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so
+narrow a passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite
+sure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car
+was coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed
+their way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind
+them, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between the
+larger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of the
+wall of the cave.  Then she betook herself to a point of vantage among
+the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch the
+entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an
+excellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train
+from Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais.  Miss
+Lambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on the
+efforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll.  She stepped out of the car and
+strolled up and down on the pleasant turf.  Presently she saw a figure
+coming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when it
+came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice.
+
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the
+discoverer of his daughter's hiding-place.  The archduke, mindful of
+the fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance
+to the world, received him ungraciously.  Miss Lambart at once told Sir
+Maurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectation
+that anything would come of it.  Sir Maurice agreed with her; and the
+fuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promising
+soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau.  Then Sir Maurice suggested that
+they should go to the knoll and help the count.  Miss Lambart assented
+readily; and they set out at once.  They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll.  It was quiet and seemed utterly
+deserted.
+
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer.
+Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they
+should find him and help him search them; they plunged into the caves
+and began to hunt for him.  They did not find the count; neither did
+they find the princess nor the Twins.  They shouted to him many times
+as they traversed the caves; but they had no answer.
+
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they
+reached it.  He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the
+princess.  He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to
+the princess.  No answer had come to his calling.  He had kept coming
+out of the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll.  At one of these
+exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl,
+dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told the
+princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the
+knoll.  With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged
+after her into the wood.  Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among
+the bushes, and by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in
+sight.  Once, indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good and
+all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take up
+the chase again.  But he did not catch her.  Indeed he did not lessen
+the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
+For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and
+endurance.  Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the
+going, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance.  It was
+true that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff,
+tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck.  But he was not near
+enough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly
+flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all.  All the while he
+was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course of
+the next hundred yards.
+
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran
+down a field path toward the village of Little Deeping.  By the time
+the count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards.  To
+his joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost
+ground quickly.  When they reached the common, he was a bare forty
+yards behind her.  He was not surprised when in despair she left the
+path and bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it.
+
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious
+air, and knocked firmly on the door.  Sarah opened it; and he demanded
+the instant surrender of the princess.  Sarah heard him with an
+exasperating air of blank bewilderment.  He repeated his demand more
+firmly and loudly.
+
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: "Please, mum: 'ere's a furrin
+gentleman asking for a princess.  I expect as it's that there missing
+one."
+
+"Do nod mock!  She 'ees 'ere!" cried the count fiercely.
+
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been
+arranging flowers, and came to the door.
+
+"The princess is not here," she said gently.
+
+"But I haf zeen 'er!  She haf now ad once coom!  She 'ides!" cried the
+count.
+
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet
+by its strings.  The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+
+"I expect he means me.  At least he's run after me all the way from the
+knoll here," said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+
+The count's eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden
+outburst of fluent German.  He did not think that any of his hearers
+could understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; he
+hoped they could not; he could not help it if they did.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully.  She did not
+suppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the
+count to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day.  She was
+sorry for him.  He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fall
+foul of the Twins.
+
+Erebus caught her mother's thoughtful eye.  At once she cried
+resentfully: "How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made
+him think I was the princess?  He never asked me who I was.  He just
+shouted once and ran after me.  I was hurrying home to get some salad
+oil and get back to the knoll by lunch."
+
+"Yes, you would run all the way," said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+
+"Well, you'd have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!
+Just look at that mustache!  It would frighten anybody!" cried Erebus
+in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+
+"Yes, I see," said her mother with undiminished patience.
+
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed
+his fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda.  He
+explained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistake
+Erebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to
+appear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman.  Erebus left them
+together; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to the
+knoll.  They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been an
+after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it.  That
+would be the safe course.
+
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car,
+looking frequently at his watch.  He had expected the count to return
+with the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  Then he
+had expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count and
+the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  None of them
+returned.  The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highest
+of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of this
+enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair.  The count sat
+drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had
+not really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased
+that he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of
+her acquaintance.  Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and
+talked seriously about everything and certain other things, but chiefly
+about themselves and each other.
+
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay
+between him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter
+remained uncaught.  He chafed and fumed.  His vexation grew even more
+keen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that the
+thoughtless count had borne away the case.  He appealed to the
+chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington and
+ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car,
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!" and sank down again panting with
+the effort.
+
+[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"]
+
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes.  The archduke's
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry.  No
+answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+"P'raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace," said the chauffeur,
+somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+
+"Yes, shout!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: "Zerbst!
+Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: "I shout--you shout--all ad
+vonce!"
+
+"Every little 'elps," said the chauffeur politely.
+
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+"He seems to be growing impatient."
+
+"He isn't calling us.  And it's no use our going back without either
+the princess or the count," said Miss Lambart quickly.
+
+"Not the slightest," said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if that
+were possible, to him and kissed her.
+
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and
+their discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their
+earlier friendship.  They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been
+discussing the matter of being married at an early date.
+
+"I don't think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all.  They
+don't treat you decently, you know--not even for royalties," he went on.
+
+"Oh, it wouldn't do not to go back--at any rate for to-night--though,
+of course, there's no point in my staying longer, since the princess
+isn't there," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"You don't know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is hauling
+her to her circular sire," said Sir Maurice.  "The Twins can not be
+successful all the time."
+
+"We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"That wouldn't be the slightest use," said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete certainty.  "If the princess is in the caves, she is not in an
+accessible one.  But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or
+even likelier, to be at the Grange.  The Twins are quite intelligent
+enough to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to look
+for them.  It's no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we're
+very comfortable here.  Why not stay just as we are?"
+
+They stayed there.
+
+But the archduke's impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the
+minutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away.  At ten
+minutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers
+should be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once
+he despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+
+The chauffeur made no haste about it.  He had heard of the caves on
+Deeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them.  Besides, he
+made it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in
+his mouth since eleven o'clock; and he felt now off duty.  He explored
+half a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir
+Maurice and gave them the archduke's message.  They joined him in his
+search for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to him
+loudly.
+
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near.
+The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late
+for it.  There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from
+his solar plexus.
+
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the
+knoll.
+
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to
+sink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a
+gloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the
+chauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to the
+knoll.
+
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst.  The archduke cursed his equerry
+wheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the
+car and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the
+car went bumping down the turfed aisle.  Once in the road the
+chauffeur, anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducal
+hospitality, let her rip.  But half a mile down the road, they came
+upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer.  It was Count Zerbst.  After a
+long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebus
+had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to
+find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping
+Grange.  In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his
+patent leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he was
+indeed footsore.  He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh of
+relief.
+
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone
+was cheerful.  The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and
+disappointments of the morning.  Count Zerbst had acquired a deep
+respect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; and
+he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter with
+Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princess
+good, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimson
+baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage her
+charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial
+social reasons.  The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to
+recover her lost charge.
+
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the
+baroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily.  He made no secret of
+the fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to
+the woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but it
+might take a week or ten days.  The archduke cried shame upon a
+strategist of his ability that he should be baffled by children for a
+week or ten days.  Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the
+children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were
+using.  At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their
+aid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth
+the risk of the ridicule it might bring upon them.
+
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had
+something more pleasant to give her mind to.  But at last she said with
+some impatience: "Why can't the princess stay where she is?  That
+open-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good.  She is
+eating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as ever
+she took in her life before."
+
+"Eembossible!  Shall I live in a cave?" cried the baroness.
+
+"It doesn't matter at all where you live.  It is the princess we are
+considering," said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+
+"Drue!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+"Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?"
+cried the baroness.
+
+"She isn't," said Miss Lambart shortly.  "In fact she's leading a far
+better and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here.  The
+doctor's orders were never properly carried out."
+
+"Ees zat zo?" said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+
+"Eengleesh doctors!  What zey know?  Modern!" cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders.  The baroness
+defended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be
+dying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water the
+doctors had ordered her.  But the archduke stormed on.  At last he had
+some one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show of
+reason; and he vented it.
+
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart's counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of
+the princess remaining at the knoll.  They found many objections to it,
+and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be
+encamped by themselves in the heart of a wood.
+
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more
+efficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+
+"Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself.  Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind
+at ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better
+health than if she had stayed on here."
+
+"Bud 'ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and--" cried
+the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority.
+
+"Goot!" cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed at
+the thought of escaping forthwith to his home.  "Eet shall be zo!  And
+ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who
+do as ze doctors zay."
+
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting
+provisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the
+path to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewest
+possible number of garments she would need during her stay.
+
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the
+Rowington car to the knoll.  Not far from the park gates she met Sir
+Maurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her.  At the
+entrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisions
+and Miss Lambart's trunk from the car, and dismissed it.  Then they
+went to the knoll.
+
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it.
+But after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in
+peace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves
+above them and heard the news.  She made haste to bear it to the Terror
+and the princess who received it with joy.  They had already been
+cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge once
+more into the strenuous life.  They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; and
+the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her
+position at the knoll secure.
+
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full
+share of the strenuous life.  She played her part in it manfully.  Even
+Erebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to
+admit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her
+engaged in the strenuous life.  Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;
+and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the
+speed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life on
+the lower place.  Both of them found the knoll a delightful place for
+lovers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the
+princess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the
+beginning arranged.  Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss
+Lambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly with
+her.  It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was not
+only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to him
+in the course of the next few weeks.  She grumbled about it to the
+Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in the
+matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads.  Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss
+Lambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriage
+were very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous
+life.  She failed.  Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that
+plain fact, and failed again.  He declared that it was his first duty,
+as an uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were not
+quick about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him.  Erebus
+carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; and
+there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for several
+days.  The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most
+natural and satisfactory thing in the world.  Her only complaint was
+that she and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same
+day as Miss Lambart.
+
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll
+even more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest
+felicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them.  Sir Maurice
+arrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, than
+sunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset.  But the
+pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, since
+the archduke's tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess must
+return to Germany.  She was bitterly grieved at parting with the
+Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the
+next summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again.
+It seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive association
+with the Twins she would have her way about it.  Nevertheless, in spite
+of her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm
+ideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the most
+unaffected fashion.
+
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir
+James Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for
+years been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at
+any rate for a while.  It had always been their keen desire to fish the
+Grange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished all
+the years Sir James had been wandering about the world.  But Mr.
+Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused their
+request.  He believed that their presence would be good neither for the
+stream, the fish, nor the estate.
+
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they
+felt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that
+they might be able to compass their desire.  Also they felt that the
+sooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hear
+unfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freely
+with his neighbors.  Therefore, with the help of their literary
+mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leave
+to fish the Grange water.  Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath
+indeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so
+many years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he
+left their honeyed missive unanswered.
+
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days.  Then it was
+slowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their
+letter at all; and they grew very angry indeed.  Their anger was in
+close proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter.  The name
+of Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carried
+in their retentive minds.
+
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him
+for the affront he had put on them.  Scorching, in his feverish,
+Central African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerful
+motor-car, he looked well beyond their reach.  But Fortune favors the
+industrious who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus came
+bicycling swiftly up to the cats' home, and cried:
+
+"As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook's water!"
+
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his
+hands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+
+"Are you sure?" he said calmly.  "It's a long way from the ridge to the
+stream."
+
+"Not for my eyes!" said Erebus with some measure of impatience in her
+tone.  "I'm quite sure that it was Sir James; and I'm quite sure that
+it was old Glazebrook's meadow.  Lend me your handkerchief."
+
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a
+less pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a
+perfect content.  She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with
+her interesting news.
+
+"I wish I'd seen him too," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"It's quite enough for me to have seen him!" said Erebus with some heat.
+
+"It would be better if we'd both seen him," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"It's such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice of
+our letter!" said Erebus indignantly.
+
+"Yes, it is," said the Terror.
+
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor
+at considerable length.  The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be
+listening to her.  In truth he was considering what advantage might be
+drawn from Sir James' transgression.
+
+At last he said: "The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching."
+
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result
+that two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream,
+stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of
+the wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream
+below.
+
+"He'll soon be at the boundary fence," said the Terror in a hushed
+voice of quiet satisfaction.
+
+"If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!" said Erebus
+who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+
+"It's on the other side of it they're rising," said the Terror in a
+calmly hopeful tone.
+
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast
+after vain cast.  He was a big game hunter; he had given but little
+time and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at which
+his water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket
+still empty of trout.  He looked longingly at his neighbor's water; as
+the Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely.  Then the
+watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+
+"He's not going to poach, after all!" cried Erebus in a tone of acute
+disappointment.
+
+"Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all?
+Long Ridge is a good way off," said the Terror looking across to it.
+
+"I did.  I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook's meadow," said
+Erebus firmly.
+
+"It's very disappointing," said the Terror, frowning at the disobliging
+fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: "Well, it can't be
+helped; we've got to go on watching him every evening till he does.  If
+he's poached once, he'll poach again."
+
+"Look!" said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary
+fence.  He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning
+the little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter's
+eyes.  It is to be feared that he had been too long used to the
+high-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where big
+game dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor's
+fish.  Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of netting
+his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant.
+Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to give
+them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since
+Glazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the
+Morgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty
+years.  Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught
+him poaching.
+
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human
+beings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper
+in the wood.  Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of
+view, regard poaching with abhorrence.  But he would perceive that his
+master was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them
+that chance of making a sportsman-like end.  At any rate the keeper
+would hold his tongue.
+
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a
+tone of triumph: "Well, he's gone and done it now."
+
+"Yes, we've got him all right," said the Terror in a tone of calm
+thankfulness.
+
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir
+James caught three good fish.
+
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a
+figure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+
+"Look!  There's old Glazebrook!  He'll catch him!  Won't it be fun?"
+she cried, wriggling in her joy.
+
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+"Yes: it would be fun.  There'd be no end of a row.  But it wouldn't be
+any use to us.  I'm going to warn him."
+
+With that he sent a clear cry of "Cave!" ringing down the stream.
+
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly
+and noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: "We'll
+teach him not to answer our letters."
+
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road,
+took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and
+lifted them over the gate.  They reached home in time for dinner.
+
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the
+time since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had
+been for a bicycle ride.  She did not press him to be more particular
+in his account of their doings, though from Erebus' air of subdued
+excitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise
+was in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror's
+uncommon power of polite evasion.
+
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o'clock, she went out into
+the garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they
+were not within hearing.  She told herself that she would be lucky if
+she got them to bed by ten.  But she would have been surprised, indeed,
+had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in
+a condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best.
+
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats' home quietly, mounted,
+rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house,
+and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool
+and tidy.  They timed their arrival with such nicety that as they
+dismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the
+content inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himself
+comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not
+only assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it
+would prevail.  A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his
+fish with the usual strictness, _can not_ allow himself to be
+prosecuted for poaching.
+
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at
+the coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business," said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;
+and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted
+Sir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return to
+Cassel-Nassau.  He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during the
+last days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and had
+formed a high opinion of their ability and their manners.  Moreover, of
+a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield
+whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful
+tone: "It's very late, Master Terror.  You can't expect Sir James to
+see people at this hour."
+
+"I know it's late; but the business is important--very important," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+Mawley hesitated.  His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous
+of obliging her children.  Then he said:
+
+"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll tell Sir James that you're here."
+
+"Thank you," said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round
+them at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master
+and Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+
+"Oh?  They're the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to
+fish.  But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little
+devils in the county, so I took no notice of their letter," said Sir
+James.
+
+"Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so.  But it's my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do.  And after all
+they're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behave
+like ordinary children," said Mawley in the tone and manner of a
+persuasive diplomat.
+
+"Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish," said Sir James.
+"There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of
+noisy children won't make those easier to catch.  But I may as well
+tell them so myself; so you may bring them here."
+
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room.  They
+entered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of
+themselves, and greeted Sir James politely.
+
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his
+steward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick,
+red-faced and robustious.  He felt that these pleasant-looking young
+gentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation.
+There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him
+than they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large
+arched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the
+small clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of
+the Terror, pleased them.  He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+
+"Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?"
+he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+
+"We saw you in Glazebrook's meadow this afternoon--poaching," said the
+Terror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone.
+
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort.  He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+
+"Oh?  Then it was one of you who called 'Cave!' from the wood?" said
+Sir James.
+
+"Yes; we didn't want old Glazebrook to catch you," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh--er--thanks," said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+
+"That wouldn't have been any use to us," said the Terror.
+
+"Of use to you?" said Sir James.
+
+"Yes; if he'd caught you, there wouldn't be any reason why we should
+fish your water," said the Terror.
+
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+
+"But is there any reason now?" he said.
+
+"Yes.  You see, you were poaching," said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in something of the manner of
+a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished
+enlightenment:
+
+"Well, I'm--hanged if it isn't blackmail!" he cried.
+
+"Blackmail?" said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation.  "Why,
+that's what the Scotch reavers used to do!  I never knew exactly what
+it was."
+
+"And we're doing it.  That is nice," said Erebus, almost preening
+herself.
+
+"But this is disgraceful!  If you'd been village children--but
+gentlefolk!" cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+
+"Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed," said the
+Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a kind of stealing," said
+Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother's fur stole.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a felony," said Sir James
+loftily.
+
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+"Poaching's worse."
+
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
+very angry eyes.  The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air.  Their
+appearance no longer pleased him.
+
+"It's your own fault entirely," said the Terror coldly.  "If you'd been
+civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't have
+bothered about you.  But you didn't take any notice of it--"
+
+"And it was beastly cheek," said Erebus.
+
+"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing.  So we kept an eye
+on you and caught you poaching," said the Terror.
+
+"Without any excuse for it.  You've plenty of fishing of your own,"
+said Erebus severely.
+
+"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneak
+to the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
+
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't going
+to do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish your
+water at all.  We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll get
+prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook.  That's what we came to say."
+
+"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
+write to you," said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
+find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
+night, and left the room.
+
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
+expressed his feelings without difficulty.  Then he began to laugh.  It
+was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
+been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
+rankled.  He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of
+Africa, by much more ferocious creatures.  But after sleeping on the
+matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased
+it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield
+children were allowed to fish his water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AND AN APOLOGY
+
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
+triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
+fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's
+faint appetite.
+
+She had grown stronger during the summer.  She was not, indeed,
+definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak.  But, a woman of
+spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness
+of her life in the country.  It was sapping her strength and energy; in
+it she would grow old long before her time.  The Twins had been used to
+find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;
+and the change troubled them.  Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for
+her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the
+trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her.  But she
+made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound
+of the Twins on the bank of the stream.  To his pleased surprise he
+neither saw nor heard them.  For the most part they fished in the early
+morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appetite
+at breakfast.  But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other
+acted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of his
+sight.  They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assured
+them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James.  As the
+Terror phrased it:
+
+"He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point in
+rubbing it in."
+
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them.  Erebus was
+playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare
+Sir James' feelings.  Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was
+impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it
+snapped the gut and was gone.
+
+"Evidently you're no so good at fishing as blackmailing," said Sir
+James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+
+"I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!" said Erebus with some heat;
+and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself
+looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep
+brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]
+
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene
+of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his
+eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.
+
+"This is Sir James Morgan, mother," said the Terror quickly.
+
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+"It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish."
+
+"Oh--ah--yes--n-n-not at all," stammered Sir James, blushing faintly.
+
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+
+"Oh, but it was," said Mrs. Dangerfield.  "And I'm seeing that they
+don't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that,
+thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none too
+many fish in the stream."
+
+"It's very good of you.  B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch,"
+said Sir James.
+
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished
+to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence.  Yet he did not
+wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: "You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they'd like to."
+
+"Are they as good fishermen as that?" said Sir James.
+
+"Well, they've been fishing ever since they could handle a rod.  They
+are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring.  So I limit them to three fish a day," said Mrs. Dangerfield;
+and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+
+"It's very good of you," said Sir James.  He hesitated, shuffled his
+feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs.
+Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: "I should like to
+stay and see how they do it.  I might pick up a wrinkle or two."
+
+"Of course.  Why, it's your stream," she said.
+
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to
+the fishing.  Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air
+of fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness.  His
+first discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest
+desire to remain in her presence.  He not only stayed with them till
+the Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to Colet
+House with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of the
+deepest reluctance.  It can hardly be doubted that he had been smitten
+by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we more
+gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not
+received the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth.  If,
+instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them,
+he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate
+condition of meeting her often.  It did not for a moment enter his mind
+that if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily have
+failed to fall in love with her at all.  He cudgeled his brains to find
+some way of meeting her again and meeting her often.  He was to meet
+her quite soon without any effort on his part.
+
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had
+been smitten by that emotional _coup de foudre_, for she was walking
+with a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she
+said in a really cheerful tone:
+
+"I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the
+exciting life he had in Africa."
+
+"Rather!", said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+
+She had not missed Sir James' sentence about the superiority of Erebus'
+blackmailing to her fishing.  But she knew the Twins far too well to
+ask them for an explanation of it before him.  None the less it clung
+to her mind.
+
+At supper therefore she said: "What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?"
+
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the
+explanation; and he said suavely:
+
+"Oh, it was about the fishing."
+
+"How--about the fishing?" said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+
+"Well, he didn't want to give us leave.  In fact he never answered our
+letter asking for it," said the Terror.
+
+"And of course we couldn't stand that; and we had to make him," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"Make him?  How did you make him?" said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+The Terror told her.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised
+and annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that
+her offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger.  She felt chiefly
+annoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to
+blackmail should be Sir James.
+
+"Then you did blackmail him," she said in a tone of dismay.
+
+"He seemed to think that we were--like the Douglases used to," said the
+Terror in an amiable tone.
+
+"But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong--very wrong,
+indeed," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+"Well, he _did_ seem to think so," said the Terror.  "But we thought he
+was prejudiced; and we didn't take much notice of him."
+
+"And we couldn't possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum--it
+was such a polite letter--and not take it out of him," said Erebus.
+
+"And it hasn't done any harm, you know.  We wanted those trout ever so
+much more than he did," said the Terror.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as
+she pondered how to deal with the affair.  She was still chiefly
+annoyed that Sir James should have been the victim.  The Twins gazed at
+her with a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they were
+burdened by a sense of wrong-doing.  They were merely sorry that she
+was annoyed.
+
+"Well, there's nothing for it: you'll have to apologize to Sir
+James--both of you," she said at last.
+
+"Apologize to him!  But he never answered our letter!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it,
+opened it again and said in a soothing tone: "All right, Mum; we'll
+apologize."
+
+"I'll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel
+Sir James to invite them to continue to fish.
+
+There had been some such intention in the Terror's mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real
+apology.  But he said amiably: "All right; just as you like, Mum."
+
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her
+breath.  After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the
+Terror bitterly for not refusing firmly.
+
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path
+across the fields, to the Grange.  Surprise and extreme pleasure were
+mingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into the
+drawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would
+find Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching
+her children fish.  His night's rest had trebled his interest in her
+and his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her.  The appeal to
+him of her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever.
+
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless
+enough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been
+dead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put to
+it to make both ends meet.  His compassion had been deeply stirred; she
+was so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life.  He
+wished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to that
+smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as he
+possibly could.
+
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could
+scarcely believe his joyful ears.  He had to put a constraint on
+himself to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley's
+eyes, and not dash to it at full speed.  He entered the room with his
+eyes shining very brightly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily.  She was
+looking grave and ill at ease.
+
+"I've come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James," she said as
+they shook hands.  "I find that these children have been blackmailing
+you; and I've brought them to apologize.  I--I'm exceedingly distressed
+about it."
+
+"Oh, there's no need to be--no need at all.  It was rather a joke," Sir
+James protested quickly.
+
+"But blackmailing isn't a joke--though of course they didn't realize
+what a serious thing it is--"
+
+"It was the Douglases doing it," broke in the Terror in an explanatory
+tone.
+
+"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+
+"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you.  They had me in a cleft stick,"
+protested Sir James.
+
+"Well then you ought to have come straight to me," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"Oh, but really--a little fishing--what is a little fishing?  I
+couldn't come bothering you about a thing like that," protested Sir
+James.
+
+"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  "Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going to
+apologize."
+
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:
+
+"I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James."
+
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very
+stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+
+"Oh, not at all--not at all--don't mention it.  Besides, I owe you an
+apology for not answering your letter," said Sir James in all the
+discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due.  Then he
+heaved a sigh of relief and added: "Well, that's all right.  And now I
+hope you'll do all the fishing you want to."
+
+"Certainly not; I can't allow them to fish your water any more," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+
+"Oh, but really," said Sir James with a harried air.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+
+"But you'll have some tea--after that hot walk!" cried Sir James.
+
+"No, thank you, I must be getting home," said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly.
+
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out.  As Erebus
+passed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him.  She was
+desirous that he should not overrate her apology.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap
+from the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it.  He came down
+the steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the
+park, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the
+gardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shooting
+about the world.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship.  But she could not drive him from her side on his own
+land.  They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead.  When Sir James and
+Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight.
+Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way with
+her.
+
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James,
+the Terror said:
+
+"Well, he was quite decent about it.  It made him much more
+uncomfortable than we were.  I suppose it was because we're more used
+to Mum."
+
+"What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?" said the
+unappeased Erebus.
+
+"Oh, well; he didn't mean to.  It was an accident, you know," said the
+Terror.
+
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer
+intimacy with Sir James.
+
+"Accident!  People shouldn't have accidents like that!" said Erebus in
+a tone of bitter scorn.
+
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James
+diplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty,
+their grace and their intelligence.  The diplomacy was not natural (he
+was no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject he
+could at the moment think of.  He could not have found a quicker way to
+Mrs. Dangerfield's approval.  She had been disposed to dislike him for
+having been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart.
+Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it was
+only natural that she should invite him to tea.  He accepted with
+alacrity.  At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to
+see more of her.  With a natural simplicity he used his skill in
+woodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covert
+afforded by the common to watch Colet House.  Thanks to this simple
+device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere in
+the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;
+and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he
+had ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in
+his enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right.  He had
+been making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but he
+perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty to
+settle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his duty
+by his estate and his neighbors.
+
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his
+instinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that
+to bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the
+land of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed
+of.  But he had a stout heart, the hunter's pertinacity, and a burning
+resolve to succeed.
+
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be
+useful friends in the matter.  But did they chance on him walking with
+their mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily
+aloof.  He must abate their hostility.
+
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were
+starting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully,
+stopped and said: "I'm awfully sorry I gave you away the other day.
+But I never saw your mother till I'd done it."
+
+"Don't mention it," said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+
+"So you ought to be," said Erebus.
+
+"It's a pity you should lose your fishing.  If I'd known how good you
+both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter,"
+said Sir James hypocritically.  "But I was misinformed about you."
+
+"It's worse that mother should lose the trout.  She does hate butcher's
+meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly," said
+Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+
+"It's like that, is it?" said Sir James quickly; and an expression of
+deep concern filled his face.
+
+"Yes, and she did eat those trout," said Erebus plaintively.
+
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched
+him with little hope in their faces.  Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;
+and he said:
+
+"Look here: you mayn't fish my water; but there's no reason why you
+shouldn't fish Glazebrook's.  _I_ think that a man who nets his water
+loses all rights."
+
+"Yes, he does," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I'll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined.  I
+want to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook--he's not a sportsman."
+
+The Terror's face had brightened; but he said: "But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?"
+
+"You can reckon them presents from me.  They would be--practically--if
+I'm going to pay the fines," said Sir James.
+
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing
+tenderly with exactitude which appealed to them.  The Terror himself
+could not have been more tender with it.
+
+"That's a ripping idea!" said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval.
+
+The peace was thus concluded.
+
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win
+their good will.  He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of
+chocolate.  If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he
+would carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with
+sumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained them
+with stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even
+more than they thrilled them.  But he won their hearts most by his
+sympathy with them in the matter of their mother's appetite, and by
+joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of
+taking the short cut to her heart by praising them.  He laid himself
+out to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for
+himself as large as possible a place in her life.  She was not long
+discovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as a
+very pleasant shock.  None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster,
+who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, had
+attracted her so strongly as did Sir James.  Even as her delicacy made
+the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorous
+robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the
+keener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues.  When
+no less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James
+and Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tongues
+began to wag.
+
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
+London, one morning met the Twins in the village.  They greeted her
+politely and made to escape.  But she was in the mood, her most
+constant mood, to babble.  She stopped them, and with a knowing air,
+and even more offensive smile, said:
+
+"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
+soon in Little Deeping, are we?"
+
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
+them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
+said:
+
+"Are we?"
+
+"I should have thought you would have known all about it," she said
+with a cackling little giggle.  "Mind you tell me as soon as you're
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother."
+
+"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
+and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
+her own.
+
+"Oh, nothing--nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
+sternness.  "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother--But
+there--there's probably nothing in it--the Morgans always were
+rovers--one foot at sea and one on shore--I dare say he'll be in the
+middle of Africa before the week is out.  Good morning--good morning."
+
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
+the grocer's shop.
+
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning.  Then Erebus
+said: "Silly old idiot!"
+
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning.  At last he broke out:
+"This won't do!  We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
+And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
+cheerful for her."
+
+"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said?  It
+would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a
+panic.
+
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+
+"_Do_ you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus.
+
+"I dare say there is.  Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's
+always very civil to us--people aren't generally," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh, but we must stop it!  We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why must we?"
+
+"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried
+Erebus fiercely.
+
+"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum," said the Terror.  "She
+does have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never going
+anywhere.  And, after all, we shouldn't mind Sir James when we got used
+to him."
+
+"But we should!  And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"
+
+"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher--at all," said the Terror.
+
+"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it," said the
+Terror firmly.  "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made up
+their minds.  But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant by
+saying that the Morgans were rovers."
+
+Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
+utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop.  Then she said in a tone of considerable
+relief:
+
+"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marrying
+Mum."
+
+"Yes, that's what she did mean," growled the Terror.  "And she'll go
+about telling everybody that he's only fooling."
+
+"But I don't think he is.  I don't think he would," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"No more do I," said the Terror.
+
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence.  Then the Terror's face
+cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+
+"I know the thing to do!  I'll go and ask him his intentions.  That's
+what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut--you know:
+that fellow from Rowington--was fooling about with Miss Hawley."
+
+"All right, we'll go and ask him," said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.
+
+"No, no, you can't go.  I must go alone," said the Terror quickly.
+"It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do--people said so
+about Miss Hawley--and I'm the only man of the family about.  If Uncle
+Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do
+it."
+
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint.  She alleged that the restrictions
+which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
+to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
+everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
+successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
+which he performed alone.
+
+"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do," said the
+Terror with very cold severity.  "You know what Mrs. Morton said about
+Miss Hawley and the Cut--that the men of the family did it."
+
+"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus.
+
+"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it.  So it's no
+use you're making a fuss," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir
+James would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone,
+early in the afternoon.
+
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him
+straight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over
+his after-lunch coffee.  Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was
+beginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in the
+country, and poured him out a cup of coffee.
+
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple
+matter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his
+usual diplomacy, said with firm directness: "I've come to ask your
+intentions, sir."
+
+"My intentions?" said Sir James, not taking him.
+
+"Yes.  You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you're only fooling," said the Terror.
+
+"The deuce they are!" cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angry
+comprehension.
+
+"Yes.  So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+"Of course--of course," said Sir James.
+
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled.
+Then he added gravely: "My intentions are not only extremely serious
+but they're extremely immediate.  I'd marry your mother to-morrow if
+she'd let me."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief.  "Of
+course I knew you were all right.  Only, it was the thing to do, with
+these silly old idiots talking."
+
+"Quite so--quite so," said Sir James.
+
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly
+drinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been
+suffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the
+Terror's serenity was soothing.
+
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: "Do
+you think your mother would marry me?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; women are so funny," said the Terror
+with a sage air.
+
+Sir James pulled at his mustache.  Then the compulsion to have some
+one's opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy's, came
+on him strongly; and he said:
+
+"I wish I knew what to do.  As it is we're very good friends; and if I
+asked her to marry me, I might spoil that."
+
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: "I
+don't think you would.  Mum's very sensible, though she is so pretty."
+
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: "I'll
+risk it!"
+
+He rang the bell and ordered his car.  He talked to the Terror jerkily
+and somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his
+perturbation with considerable interest.  It seemed to him very curious
+in a hard-bitten hunter of big game.  They started and in the two level
+miles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car's speeds nine times.
+
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air
+of detachment: "I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed."
+
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for
+her.
+
+"If I only could!" said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he
+entered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a
+thrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come.
+
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of
+him; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+
+"Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!"
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+
+"Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!"
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's face was one flush; and she cried: "B-b-but it's out
+of the question.  I--I'm old enough to be your mother!"
+
+"Now how?--I'm three years and seven months older than you," said Sir
+James, taken aback.
+
+"I shall be an old woman while you're still quite young!" she protested.
+
+"You won't ever be old!  You're not the kind!" cried Sir James with
+some heat; and then with sudden understanding: "If that's your only
+reason, why, that settles it!"
+
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+
+When he set her down and held her at arm's length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: "Oh, James, you are--ever
+so much more--impetuous--than I thought.  You gave me--no time."
+
+"Thank goodness, I took the Terror's tip!" said Sir James.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<HTML>
+<HEAD>
+
+<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+<TITLE>
+The Terrible Twins
+</TITLE>
+
+<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
+BODY { color: Black;
+       background: White;
+       margin-right: 10%;
+       margin-left: 10%;
+       font-size: medium;
+       font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;
+       text-align: justify }
+
+P {text-indent: 4% }
+
+P.noindent {text-indent: 0% }
+
+P.poem {text-indent: 0%;
+        margin-left: 10%;
+        font-size: small }
+
+P.letter {font-size: small }
+
+p.dedication {text-indent: 0%;
+              margin-left: 15%;
+              text-align: justify }
+
+
+
+</STYLE>
+
+</HEAD>
+
+<BODY>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Terrible Twins
+
+Author: Edgar Jepson
+
+Illustrator: Hanson Booth
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2006 [EBook #19043]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<A NAME="img-front"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="&quot;Cats for the cats' home!&quot; said Sir Maurice Falconer." BORDER="2" WIDTH="565" HEIGHT="417">
+<H3>
+[Frontispiece: "Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.]
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+By
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+EDGAR JEPSON
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+Author of
+<BR>
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+<BR>
+HANSON BOOTH
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+INDIANAPOLIS
+<BR>
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+<BR>
+PUBLISHERS
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+COPYRIGHT 1913
+<BR>
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+[Transcriber's note: The original book was missing pages 3, 4, 53, and
+54.  There are transcriber's notes at those locations in this e-book.
+Page 53 is the last page of chapter 2, and page 54 is the first page of
+chapter 3.]
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<CENTER>
+
+<TABLE WIDTH="80%">
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">AND CAPTAIN BASTER</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">GUARDIAN ANGELS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">AND THE CATS' HOME</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">AND THE SACRED BIRD</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">AND PRINGLE'S POND</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">AND THE UNREST CURE</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap13">AND AN APOLOGY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap14">AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-front">
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said
+Sir Maurice Falconer.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. <I>Frontispiece</I>
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-194">
+"This is different," she said.
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-229">
+We are avenged.
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-232">
+She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-280">
+The Archduke bellowed, "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-312">
+Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes <BR>
+of a very pretty woman.
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really
+discussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with the
+greatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit.  It was indeed
+a nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw
+stones quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size and
+weight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the
+bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated,
+quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand his
+presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him.  Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth
+Wolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the
+same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud
+vehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said
+firmly, "I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of
+times."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty,
+which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps we did," said Anastasia amiably.  They went swiftly down the
+road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike.
+No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed,
+dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and
+piquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting a
+serenity.  But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir Maurice
+Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+[Transcriber's note: page 3 missing]
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+[Transcriber's note: page 4 missing]
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+demand, had forbidden them to use them any longer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the
+action of Little Deeping.  It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since
+their exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation
+they loved.  In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves
+to become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and
+since they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness
+of eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition.  There
+may, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow the
+Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter or
+harder than Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted
+it gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over
+it (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate
+than to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrow
+path through the gorse and bracken.  They had gone some fifty yards,
+when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: "Bang-g-g!
+Bang-g-g!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the
+gorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on
+his richly freckled face.  He stood over the fallen Twins; and his
+smile of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ha!  Ha!  Shot through the heads!" he cried.  "Their bones will bleach
+in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red
+Bear the terror of the Cherokees!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife.  Then he
+took from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an
+inconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant
+imagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone of
+lively satisfaction: "You're only one game ahead."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought we were three," said Erebus, rising.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're down in the book," said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blue
+eyes were very stern.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of
+you again," said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins.  He ambushed and scalped
+them; they ambushed and scalped him.  Seeing that they had already
+passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their
+part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it.  But Wiggins was a
+favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly
+on across the common.  Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth.
+Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly
+spring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The game
+isn't really fair; you're two to one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You keep very level," said the Terror politely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; it's my superior astuteness," said Wiggins sedately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Goodness!  What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation," Wiggins explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, everybody says that.  But what is a European reputation?" said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Everybody in Europe knows him," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert.  It seemed to them
+a name both affected and ostentatious.  Besides, crop it as you might,
+his hair <I>would</I> assume the appearance of a mop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to
+see two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's Mum," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of
+booty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And&mdash;and&mdash;it's the Cruncher with her!" cried Erebus in a tone in which
+disgust outrang surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of all the sickening things!  The Cruncher!" cried the Terror, echoing
+her disgust.  "What's he come down again for?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the
+approaching pair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gentleman whom they called the "Cruncher," and who from their tones
+of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher
+on account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent
+teeth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of
+superiority: "<I>I</I> know why he's come down."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why?" said the Terror quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's come down to marry your mother," said Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What?" cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How dare you say a silly thing like that?" cried Erebus fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>I</I> didn't say it," protested Wiggins.  "Mrs. Blenkinsop said it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That silly old gossip!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Mrs. Morton said it, too," said Wiggins.  "They came to tea
+yesterday and talked about it.  I was there: there was a plum cake&mdash;one
+of those rich ones from Springer's at Rowington.  And they said it
+would be such a good thing for both of you because he's so awfully
+rich: the Terror would go to Eton; and you'd go to a good school and
+get a proper bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wouldn't go!  I should hate it!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; they said you wouldn't like wholesome discipline," said the
+faithful reporter.  "And they didn't seem to think your mother would
+like it either&mdash;marrying the Cruncher."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Like it?  She wouldn't dream of it&mdash;a bounder like that!" said the
+Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know&mdash;I don't know&mdash;if she thought it would be good for
+us&mdash;she'd do anything for us&mdash;you know she would!" cried Erebus,
+wringing her hands in anxious fear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out
+in dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was
+flushed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This must be stopped," he said through his set teeth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But how?" said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll find a way.  It's war!" said the Terror darkly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: "I'm on your side," he said.  "I'm
+a trusty ally.  He called me Freckles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come on," said the Terror.  "We'd better face him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy.  As they drew near, the
+Terror's face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty
+voice: "How's Terebus and the Error; and how's Freckles?" he cried, and
+laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins
+shook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain
+Baster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with her delightful smile.  "I know you keep them out of
+mischief."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's generally all over before I come," said Wiggins somewhat glumly;
+and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've not had that kiss yet, Terebus.  I'm going to have it this time
+I'm here," said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you?" said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at him
+with the eyes of hate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, "You'll come to tea with us,
+Wiggins?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you very much," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.  As he
+alighted on it once more, he added.  "Tea at other people's houses is
+so much nicer than at home.  Don't you think so, Terror?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I always eat more&mdash;somehow," said the Terror with a grave smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side
+of Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein,
+enlivened the walk with his delightful humor.  The gallant officer was
+the very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed,
+glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose,
+neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny.  The son of the
+famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which great
+wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in a
+crack regiment.  The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative,
+was not enjoying it.  To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, "I'm
+a very pally man."  It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for any
+one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship,
+for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, he
+enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of
+personal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused
+the face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed his
+freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield's white brow in a distressful
+frown.  The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;
+his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which he
+had been so suddenly confronted.  More than once Erebus countered a
+witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce the
+rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer.  Once this unbidden but
+humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied her
+even this relief.  She could only treat him with a steely civility.
+The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he
+was too new for it.  The old, worn, faded, carefully polished
+furniture, for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
+century, seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness.  It seemed
+to demand the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels.  Mrs.
+Dangerfield liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere.  When
+her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feeling
+that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had he escaped
+calling in a bright plaid satin tie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not
+unconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster.  Indeed, he took
+some credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabby
+furniture.  In a high good humor he went on shining and shining all
+through tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a while
+dimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the inn
+and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shining
+again.  Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into the
+garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's a pig&mdash;and a beast!  We can't let Mum marry him!  We <I>must</I> stop
+it!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's all very well to say 'must.'  But you know what Mum is: if she
+thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said the Terror
+gloomily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And she never consults us&mdash;never!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only when she's a bit doubtful," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then she's not doubtful now.  She hasn't said a word to us about it,"
+said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what looks so bad.  It looks as if she'd made up her mind
+already; and if she has, it's no use talking to her," said the Terror
+yet more gloomily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly
+backward and forward from one to the other.  He preserved a decorous
+sympathetic silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, it's no good talking to Mum," said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you can't squash the Cruncher!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why not?  We've squashed other people, haven't we?" said the Terror
+sharply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never any one so thick-skinned as him," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror frowned deeply again: "We can always try," he said coldly.
+"And look here: I've been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don't
+like stepfathers, there's no reason why stepfathers should like
+stepchildren."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Cruncher likes us, though it's no fault of ours," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's just it; he doesn't really know us.  If he saw the kind of
+stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But he can't even see we hate him," objected Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, and if he did, he wouldn't mind, he'd think it a joke.  My idea
+isn't to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if we
+give our minds to it," said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning.  Then a dazzling smile
+illumined her charming face; and she cried: "Oh, yes!  Let's give him
+socks!  Let's begin at once!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes: I'll help!  I'm a trusty ally!" cried Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth joyfully at the thought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their
+brains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently Wiggins said: "You might make him an apple-pie bed.  They're
+very annoying when you're sleepy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's an apple-pie bed?" said Erebus scornfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a beginning, anyhow," said the Terror in an approving tone; and
+he added with the air of a philosopher: "Little things, and big things,
+they all count."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can't," said Erebus
+bitterly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By Jove!  That cigarette-case!  Come on!" cried the Terror; and he led
+the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where are we going?" said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're going to make him that apple-pie bed.  There's nothing like
+making a beginning.  We shall think of heaps of other things.  If we
+don't worry about them, they'll occur to us.  They always do," said the
+Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping,
+where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the
+front door which stood open.  At the sound of their footsteps in her
+hall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar
+to learn what they wanted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway," said the Terror politely.  "We've come
+for Captain Baster's cigarette-case.  He's left it somewhere in his
+room."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway
+rubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her
+eyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a
+frown; and she said: "Bother the thing!  It's sure to be stuck
+somewhere out of sight.  And the bar full, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you trouble; I'll get it.  I know the bedroom," said the Terror
+with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, thank you, sir," said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror.  In
+less than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the
+bed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless
+unprotected bedroom.  Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on the
+mantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress.  The Terror locked
+Captain Baster's portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside the
+shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That'll teach him not to be so careless."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster's inviting dress-boots with water.  Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't stand giggling there!  Why don't you do something?" said Erebus
+sharply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: "A clothes-brush in bed is
+very annoying when you stick your foot against it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him.
+He took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against
+the bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the
+other of Captain Baster's feet was sure to find it.  The Terror did not
+care which foot was successful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from
+the dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the
+inn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat
+vengeful triumph: "There! you see things <I>do</I> occur to us."  Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: "But it was Wiggins who set us
+going."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm an ally; and he called me Freckles," said Wiggins vengefully; and
+once more he spurned the earth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most
+thickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too
+sheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mind the mud, Wiggins," said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness in
+the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: "It wouldn't be
+a nice place to fall down in, would it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister
+little laugh, and said: "Wiggins, you're a treasure!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is it?  What is it now?" said Erebus quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A little job of my own.  It wouldn't do for you and Wiggins to have a
+hand in it, he'll swear so," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who'll swear?" said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Cruncher.  And you're a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear such
+language," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Rubbish!" said Erebus sharply.  "Tell us what it is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror shook his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a beastly shame!  I ought to help&mdash;I always do," cried Erebus in
+a bitterly aggrieved tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror shook his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right," said Erebus.  "Who wants to help in a stupid thing like
+that?  But all the same you'll go and make a silly mull of it without
+me&mdash;you always do."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You jolly well wait and see," said the Terror with calm confidence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached
+the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster
+still talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story
+illustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea
+and one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies.  He laid great stress on
+the prices he had paid for them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her
+offspring with an air of doubtful surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+"Thank you, Error&mdash;thank you.  But why didn't you bring it to me,
+Terebus?  Then you'd have earned that kiss I'm going to give you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+"Oh, I helped to get it."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+GUARDIAN ANGELS
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+At seven o'clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn.  Of
+his own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp.  He left
+the house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining
+before Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she
+was four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two
+years younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts.  But he
+chiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to which
+his ardent soul aspired to climb.  She had but to return to the polite
+world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened
+circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a
+host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.
+Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing a
+mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield's brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to
+select to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a
+gown with which she had never been truly pleased.  The troubled air did
+not leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins,
+for they, too, were gloomy.  They were pleased, indeed, with the
+beginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in the
+end.  Where their interests were concerned their mother was of a
+firmness indeed hard to move.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that
+disturbed them, especially at the Terror.  Erebus in a pretty light
+frock of her mother's days of prosperity, which had been cut down and
+fitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one's eyes; but the sleeves
+of the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings,
+bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his
+failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be
+unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by his
+distinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English
+gentleman.  After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the
+harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must
+appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was
+wearing.  It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not
+really feel a conquering hero after eight o'clock at night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water.  It was a
+good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water
+its lining had not soaked up.  The gallant officer said a good deal
+about its retentive properties to the mute boot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had
+himself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom.  A flash of
+intuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he begged
+her, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one&mdash;any one!!&mdash;enter
+his bedroom.  Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied,
+or beds made without human intervention.  He begged her, not perhaps
+unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the
+better for his directness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
+As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees
+which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a
+clothes-line tight.  It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge
+on the other side of the lane.  There it was fastened to a stout stake;
+and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails.  At its
+tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the
+mud-patch.  It was at its tightest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain
+Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace.  As he moved through
+the bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night&mdash;that
+very night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield's devotion with his avowal
+of an answering passion.  He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror;
+and like a conqueror he whistled.  Then he found the clothes-line,
+suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick,
+but sprawling.  He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the
+welkin shuddered as it rang.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield
+waited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a
+troubled frown.  Her woman's instinct assured her that Captain Baster
+would propose that night; and she dreaded it.  Two or three times she
+rose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark,
+troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they did
+not please her as they usually did.  Those eyes were one of the sources
+from which had sprung Captain Baster's attraction to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful
+things for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing
+them.  She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and
+husband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart and
+sterling qualities.  She assured herself that she had the power to draw
+them out; once he was her husband, she would change him.  But still she
+was ill at ease.  Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful of
+her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was
+unfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come next
+morning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a
+relief that it frightened her.  She sat down and wrote out a telegram
+to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, and
+bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed at
+one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning.  She did not wish to
+take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible.
+She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard
+for her interests.  She tried not to hope that he would find marriage
+with Captain Baster incompatible with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness.  He thought
+for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability.
+Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet.  In the middle of it he
+missed his shaving-brush.  He hunted for it furiously; he could have
+sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau.  He did swear, but
+not to any definite fact.  There was nothing for it: he must expose his
+tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not
+vanished from it.  In one short night it had lost its pristine
+freshness.  This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast
+gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air of
+one who has abandoned hope.  Later he came out of it with his roving
+black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was
+smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches&mdash;red patches.  At the door
+the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted him
+with the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brush
+under the mattress of his bed.  He looked round the village of Little
+Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to
+the expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new
+lock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness
+of his soul.  Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged
+chin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of
+his future stepson.  As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was
+awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was
+awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile
+asked him if he had slept well.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of your
+tricks!  You play another on  me, and I'll give you the soundest
+licking you ever had in your life!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: "Whatever's the matter?" he said in a tone of amazement.
+"I thought you loved a joke.  You said you did&mdash;yesterday&mdash;at tea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You try it on again!" said Captain Baster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, whatever has put your back up?" said the Terror in a tone of even
+greater amazement.  "Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the
+water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness:
+Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the
+bedroom of Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Waxy?" he cried joyously.  "He's black in the face!  I told him he
+said he loved a joke."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat.  She was bitterly
+aggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall the
+night before.  The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his
+glorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: "Now, you
+quite understand.  You'll stick to them like a leech.  You won't give
+him any chance of talking to Mum alone.  It's most important."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I understand.  But what's that?  Anybody could do it," she said in a
+tone of extreme bitterness.  "It's you that's getting all the real fun."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you'll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you're
+careful," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, I shall.  But what's that?  I tell you what it is: I'm
+going to have my proper share of the real fun.  The first chance I get,
+I'm going to stone him&mdash;so there!" said Erebus fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right.  But it doesn't seem quite the thing for a girl to do,"
+said the Terror in a judicial tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Rats!" said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave
+the purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat
+painfully, time to fade.  When she did come to him, he was further
+annoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent air
+announced her intention of accompanying them.  Mrs. Dangerfield was
+surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation.
+Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to propose
+before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to
+hide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her
+charm: she was the mother of the Terror.  He found, too, that his
+instinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded.  She
+was a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed to
+fascinate her.  Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew once
+more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was no
+getting rid of her.  She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhat
+pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries.  How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances?  He felt that his humor
+was growing strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus' own fault (he could swear
+it) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal
+brambles.  Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her
+ankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear.  The moment he
+offered, furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of a
+limp.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one's children like that&mdash;well.  Certainly she was losing her charm;
+she was the mother of Erebus also.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of
+wife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near
+Colet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and
+distinction came through the garden gate to meet them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a cry of "Uncle Maurice!" the crippled Erebus dashed to meet him
+with the light bounds of an antelope.  Captain Baster could hardly
+believe his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by
+repute.  It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his
+friend.  With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never
+dreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune.  But why had he not
+learned this splendid fact before?  Why had he been kept in the dark?
+He did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy making
+confidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her that
+he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anything
+about herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up
+for lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated
+his right to the name of Pallybaster.  His friendliness was
+overwhelming.  Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to
+dine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, to
+shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimental
+steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew.  He could not
+bear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice.  The Twins
+were intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their
+uncle's attention.  They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their
+stepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned a
+respectful silence in the presence of their elders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make
+it.  Captain Baster's love was of his life a thing apart, but his
+social aspirations were the chief fact of his existence.  Besides,
+there was no haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his
+avowal with a passionate eagerness; any time would do for that.  But he
+must seize the fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by the
+bond of the warmest friendship.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to
+the interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world,
+humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to.  He tried to make opportunities
+for him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he
+did not seem to see them.  In truth Captain Baster was a little
+disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:
+polite&mdash;yes; indeed, politeness could go no further.  But he lacked
+warmth.  After all he had not pinned him down to the definite
+acceptance of a single invitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When, at seven o'clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a
+bosom friend.  He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the
+air of one who has paused from exhausting toil: "I feel
+sticky&mdash;positively sticky," he said.  "Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy
+friends!  I thought we should never get rid of him.  I thought he'd
+stuck himself to us for the rest of our natural lives."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+"That's what he's up to."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's not a friend of mine!" cried Erebus hotly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We call him the Cruncher&mdash;because of his teeth," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then beware, Erebus&mdash;beware!  You are young and possibly savory," said
+Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You children had better go and get ready for dinner," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins went to the door.  On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+"It's Mum he wants to crunch up&mdash;not me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oho!  I see&mdash;heroism.  That was what you wanted to consult me about."
+Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: "It
+won't do, Anne&mdash;it won't do at all.  I am convinced of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Think?  I'm sure of it," said Sir Maurice in a tone of complete
+conviction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the children; he could do so much for the children," pleaded Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He could, but he wouldn't.  That kind of bounder never does any one
+any good but himself.  No, no; the children are right in calling him
+the Cruncher.  He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times
+better for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that
+ever came out of pickles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you know best.  You do understand these things," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do understand Basters," said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a
+weight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus.  Once Sir Maurice asked
+her the cause of it.  She only shook her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he
+had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it.  But
+on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before
+him with his stick for clotheslines.  He came out of the dark lane into
+the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a
+strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he
+walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for
+more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with
+considerable force.  He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise
+with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his
+head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed
+in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came.  He was just in
+time to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow.  Then he
+found a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed
+unwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly,
+embrace.  As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet
+and realized that there was only one thing to do.  He tore along the
+turf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt.  A stone struck the
+garden gate as he opened it.  He did not pause to ring; he opened the
+front door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room.  The
+Terror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughts
+with his Uncle Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: "I&mdash;I
+made sure it was that young whelp!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a
+natural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang
+to their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from
+it with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush's
+clinging affection.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've been stoned&mdash;stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!" he
+cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble brow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was
+cool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate
+indignation of a bosom friend.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How many of them were there?" said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen," said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know&mdash;I know what it is!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an
+illuminating flash of womanly intuition.  "You've been humorous with
+some of the villagers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no!  I haven't joked with a single one of them!" cried Captain
+Baster.  "But I'll teach the scoundrels a lesson!  I'll put the police
+on them tomorrow morning.  I'll send for a detective from London.  I'll
+prosecute them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: "I couldn't find your
+handkerchief anywhere, Mum.  It took me ever such a time," she said,
+giving it to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror's face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: "Have you been running to find it?  You're quite out of
+breath."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain
+Baster.&#8230;  But no: it was impossible&mdash;a child in whose veins flowed
+some of the bluest blood in England.  Besides, her slender arms could
+never have thrown the stones as straight and hard as that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth
+slightly open.  He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief,
+and stumbled out of the room.  They heard a door bang up-stairs; then,
+through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound.  It occurred
+to the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the
+gorse prickles out of Captain Baster's clothes.  She had nearly
+finished when Sir Maurice returned.  He carried a handkerchief in his
+hand, and he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed
+somewhat exhausted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;
+and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he
+would wreak on the scoundrelly villagers.  But after a while he forgot
+his pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he
+plied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o'clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of
+admiration and approval of Erebus' strenuous endeavor to instil into
+Captain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed
+out her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed when
+she was in high favor with him.  As he did it she related gleefully the
+stoning of their enemy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she had done, he said warmly: "It was ripping.  But the nuisance
+is: he doesn't know it was you who did it, and so it's rather wasted."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you worry: I'll let him know sometime to-morrow," said Erebus
+firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; but he's awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?" said the
+Terror doubtfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: "I don't think he'd do
+that; he'd look so silly being stoned by a girl.  Anyhow, I'll chance
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right," said the Terror.  "It's worth chancing it to put him off
+marrying mother.  And of course Uncle Maurice is here.  He'll see
+nothing serious happens."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course he will," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster
+had weighed on their uncle's mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him
+from behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard
+him singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It went:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"<I>Where did his colonel dig him up,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So young, so fair, so sweet,<BR>
+With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?</I>"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself,
+softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving
+but silent lips of Erebus repeated it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was silent; and she said: "Oh, uncle!  It's splendid!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: "You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I'll pull your long ears," he said amiably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;
+then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she
+said: "Here he comes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds,
+paused and cried: "I'm going back to bed!  Tell him I'm in bed!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
+Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed.  Mrs. Dangerfield,
+informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
+friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus.  He showed
+an inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
+Dangerfield was firm.  She did not bring him back till half past
+twelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in
+his bedroom.  Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he
+hinted as much) but he was disappointed.  In the end he returned to The
+Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
+on a walk with the Terror.  Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
+overtake them, and set out briskly to do so.  He walked hard enough to
+compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
+better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
+Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
+swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
+friends to meet him and her brother.  Here was his chance to shine, to
+show Sir Maurice his social mettle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He could have wished that the party had been larger.  They were only a
+dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
+and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
+Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
+the afternoon with Erebus.  Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
+or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
+have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand.  He was soon
+the life and soul of the gathering.  He was humorous with the vicar
+about the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the
+country on the intelligence.  He tried to be humorous with Mr.
+Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from
+some profession or business.  This was so signal a failure that he
+dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town
+and his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he
+told them about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at
+polo and at golf.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except
+Sir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect
+equality, as "Maurice, old boy," or "Maurice, old chap," or plain
+"Maurice."  He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warm
+perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were
+aware that their mother's tea-party was a failure.  As a rule her
+little parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness;
+and her guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another.
+The Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and a
+faint persistent frown troubled his serenity.  Erebus was more dimly
+aware that her enemy was spoiling the party.  Only Sir Maurice and Mr.
+Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice's enjoyment was
+mingled with vexation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain
+Baster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end
+of his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered
+his grievance.  Forthwith he related at length the affair of the night
+before: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on the
+common.  When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them
+except the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing
+violently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: "Er&mdash;er&mdash;yes; most extraordinary.
+But I don't think it could have been the villagers.  They're&mdash;er&mdash;very
+peaceful people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It must have been some rowdies from Rowington," said the squire in the
+loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what
+he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an
+incredulous unwinking stare.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some
+care.  The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right
+gable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by
+a couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun
+round as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's where I meant to hit it the first time," said Erebus with a
+little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The silence that fell was oppressive.  Captain Baster gazed earnestly
+at Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking
+stare.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions," said the
+higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice.  "I made sure it was
+the Terror."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So did I," said the vicar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'd have bet on it," said the squire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The silence fell again.  Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue
+bump on his marble brow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: "Has any one heard Wiggins' new
+song?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: "No!  Let's hear it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come on, Wiggins!" cried the vicar heartily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew
+it in the depths of his horror-stricken heart.  He ground his teeth
+softly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he
+could have borne the earth's suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with
+his right.  Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had
+chanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear
+shrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"<I>Where did his colonel dig him up,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So young, so fair, so sweet,<BR>
+With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?</I>"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished
+everybody was looking at Captain Baster's boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Captain Baster's face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt
+into irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+[Transcriber's note: page 53 missing from book.]
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE CATS' HOME
+</H3>
+
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+[Transcriber's note: page 54 missing from book]
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Wiggins," said Sir Maurice amiably.  "And if we start apologizing,
+there will be no end to it.  I should have to come in myself as the
+maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying about."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was certainly a happy effort," said the vicar, smiling.  Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: "We're going to London next week;
+perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and
+presently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had
+lifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party.  They
+were talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice
+were seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton,
+were getting their little chances of shining.  The Twins and Wiggins
+slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for their
+going.  In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had so
+nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a
+state of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one
+another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the
+exploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the
+two onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest.  The Terror was
+also doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he prevented
+Erebus, eager to enjoy her uncle's society, from returning to the house
+till it was time to dress for dinner.  He wished to give his mother
+time to get over the worst of her annoyance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
+daughter with any great severity.  But even so, Erebus did not receive
+these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit.  Unlike the philosophic
+Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, after
+a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
+make out a case for herself; and she did so now.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
+not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
+descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
+the sphere of the laws of hospitality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Besides he never behaved like a guest," she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone.  "He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one&mdash;especially to me.  And if he was always trying to score off me,
+I'd a perfect right to score off him.  And anyhow, I wasn't going to
+let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it.  He'd be
+a perfectly beastly stepfather&mdash;you know he would."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
+discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
+discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again.  She knew that however
+bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
+sufficiently to heart.  She was sure that she would not stone another
+guest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
+Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay.  The Twins, though
+they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
+fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, were
+very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
+Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl.  Also he had many
+talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
+of action she frequently urged on him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness.  It was not acute
+boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
+every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
+English and French with her mother.  Their afternoon leisure,
+therefore, rarely palled on them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
+suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins.  They went,
+therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile away
+on the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the
+common.  They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patience
+by staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common.  Their eyes began to
+shine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards
+from the common's edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for
+covert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left.
+They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted,
+to cut him off.  They were successful.  They caught him crossing an
+open space, yelled "Bang!" together; and in accordance with the rules
+of the game Wiggins fell to the ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the
+immemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves
+hastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily
+said: "That makes you two games ahead."  Then he spurned the earth and
+added: "I'm going to have a bicycle."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint
+frown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror's face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There'll be no living with Wiggins now, he'll be so cocky," said
+Erebus bitterly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no; he won't," said the Terror.  "But we ought to have bicycles,
+too.  We want them badly.  We never get really far from the village.
+We always get stopped on the way&mdash;rats, or something."  And his
+guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look
+of yearning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are orchards over there where they don't know us," said Erebus
+wistfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We <I>must</I> have bicycles.  I've been thinking so for a long time," said
+the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must have the moon!" said Erebus with cold scorn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bicycles aren't so far away," said the Terror sagely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They moved swiftly across the common.  Erebus poured forth a long
+monotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made
+this Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat.  With ears impervious to his
+sister's vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful,
+pondering this pressing problem.  Now and again, for obscure but
+profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps and
+bounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the
+Terror to say: "I've got a penny.  We'll go and get some bull's-eyes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing
+the village, when they met three small boys.  One of them carried a
+kitten.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus stopped short.  "What are you going to do with that kitten,
+Billy Beck?" she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We be goin' to drown 'im in the pond," said Billy Beck in the
+important tones of an executioner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands.  "You're not going to
+do anything of the sort, you little beast!" she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and
+disappointment, and he howled:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gimme my kitty!  Mother says she won't 'ave 'im about the 'ouse, an' I
+could drown 'im."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You won't have him," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst
+into blubbering roar of "It's ourn!  It ain't yourn!  It's ourn!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It isn't!  A kitten isn't any one's to drown!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice.  Erebus edged away from him ready to
+fly, should human justice intervene actively.  The Terror put his hand
+in his pocket and fumbled.  He drew out a penny, and looked at it
+earnestly.  He was weighing the respective merits of justice and
+bull's-eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here's a penny for your kitten.  You can buy bull's-eyes with it," he
+said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck's tearful eyes.  "'E's worth
+more'n a penny&mdash;a kitty like 'im!" he blubbered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not to drown.  It's all you'll get," said the Terror curtly.  He
+tossed the penny to Billy's feet, turned on his heel and went back
+across the common away from the village.  Some of the brightness faded
+out of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wouldn't have given him a penny.  He was only going to drown the
+kitten," said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was his kitten.  We couldn't take it without paying for it," said
+the Terror coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, "There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants&mdash;and puppies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror stopped short, and said: "By Jove!  There's Aunt Amelia!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia,
+who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, and
+yet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but
+spent it all on horrid cats' homes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's just it," said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation.
+"Come along; I want you to write a letter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm not going to write any disgusting letter!" cried Erebus hotly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you're not going to get any bicycle.  Come on.  I'll look out the
+words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he's got into the way of using grammar.  It'll be
+useful.  Come on!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of
+being a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year,
+and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head,
+Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified.
+Practise had made the Terror's ears impervious at will to his sister's
+questions, which were frequent and innumerable.  Without a word of
+explanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at the
+dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himself
+on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by his
+side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he said coldly: "Now don't make any blots, or you'll have to do it
+all over again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never make blots!  It's you that makes blots!" cried Erebus,
+ruffled.  "Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do.
+Ever so much better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's why you're writing the letter and not me," said the Terror
+coldly.  "Fire away: 'My dear Aunt Amelia'&mdash;I say, Wiggins, what's the
+proper words for 'awfully keen'?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Keen' is 'interested'&mdash;I don't know how many 'r's' there are in
+'interested'&mdash;and 'awfully' is an awfully difficult word," said
+Wiggins, pondering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror looked up "interested" in the dictionary with a laborious
+painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single "r"
+in it; then he said, "What's the right word for 'awfully,' Wiggins?
+Buck up!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Tremendously,'" said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's it," said the Terror.  "'My dear Aunt Amelia: I have often
+heard that you are tremendously interested in cats' homes'"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should think you had!" said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now don't jabber, please; just stick to the writing," said the Terror.
+"I've got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if you
+jabber?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Little Deeping wants a cats' home awfully'&mdash;no: 'tremendously.'  I
+like that word 'tremendously'; it means something," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're jabbering yourself now," said Erebus unpleasantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror
+continued: "'The quantity of kittens that are drowned is
+horrible'&mdash;that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than
+cats&mdash;'and I have been thinking'&mdash;Oughtn't you to put in some stops?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm putting in stops&mdash;lots," said Erebus contemptuously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'I have been thinking&mdash;that if you wanted to have a cats' home
+here'&mdash;What's the right word for 'running a thing,' Wiggins?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is a word 'overseer'&mdash;slaves have them," he said cautiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it
+out, and continued: "'I could overseer it for you.  I have got my eye
+on a building which would suit us tremendously well.  But these things
+cost money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty
+pounds'&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thirty pounds!  My goodness!" cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We may as well go the whole hog," said the Terror philosophically.
+"Go on: 'Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a
+real home&mdash;'  What's the word for 'bust up,' Wiggins?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Burst up," said Wiggins without hesitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no; not the grammar&mdash;the right word!  Oh, I know; 'go
+bankrupt'&mdash;'it might go bankrupt.  So it you would like to have a cats'
+home here and send me some money, I will start it at once.  Your
+affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.'  There!" said the
+Terror with a sigh of relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you've left me out altogether," said Erebus in a suddenly
+aggrieved tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should jolly well think I had!  You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say 'Dam,' she won't have
+anything to do with you," said the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no pleasing some people," said Erebus mournfully.  "When I
+went there the silly old parrot couldn't say a thing; and when I came
+away, he could say 'Dam!  Dam!  Dam!' from morning till night without
+making a mistake."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a word people don't like," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river.  I told Aunt Amelia
+so," said Erebus firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She might not believe you; she doesn't know how truthfully we've been
+brought up," said the Terror.  "Go on; sign my name to the letter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's forgery.  You ought to sign your name yourself," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter.  Sign away," said the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: "But what good's the money going
+to be to us, if we've got to spend it on a silly old cats' home?  It
+only means a lot of trouble."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror's face.  "Well,
+you see, there aren't many cats in Little Deeping&mdash;not enough to fill a
+cats' home decently," he said slowly.  "We should have to have bicycles
+to collect them&mdash;from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and farther
+off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming
+face, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:
+"Well, you do think of things!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have to," said the Terror.  "If I didn't we should never have a
+single thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield.  He did not tell her
+of the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had
+thought he would write to Aunt Amelia.  Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased
+with him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with his
+great-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own.
+She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her,
+though she suspected that it contained some artless request.  She
+thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt to
+make requests rather than not write at all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their
+lives.  Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their
+lives those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the very
+middle of some important enterprise to discuss the rides they would
+take on them, the orchards that those machines would bring within their
+reach.  But the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mind
+forbade him to discuss his chickens before they were hatched.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not
+remarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief
+characteristic of Lady Ryehampton.  As the purport of her
+great-nephew's letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beaming
+smile of gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and as
+she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried in
+unctuous tones: "The dear boy!  So young, but already enthusiastic
+about great things!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she
+was going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more
+victimized.  She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady
+Ryehampton to a noble phrase.  Her eyes brightened with humorous
+appreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to the
+end of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was one
+of the last places in England to need a cats' home.  Then she bethought
+herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, and
+her face went blank.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and
+said warmly: "It's really wonderful.  You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose I must," said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction.
+"And I must be careful not to discourage him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror's face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers.  It was only right that some of
+Lady Ryehampton's money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school.  It was monstrous that the great bulk
+of it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings
+came first.  And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm," she said
+gravely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats' home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not
+better send fifty.  Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite
+comfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty was
+enough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton could
+give it later.  Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having set her employer's hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back.  Lady Ryehampton would spend money on
+cats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it.  But Miss
+Hendersyde kept referring to the Terror's enterprise all that day and
+the next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon Lady
+Ryehampton signed the check for thirty pounds.  At Miss Hendersyde's
+suggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it
+into postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House.  The
+excited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from
+him, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the
+precious packet to the Terror in the orchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;
+and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: "Thirty pounds&mdash;well!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the
+spur of that marvelous moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's splendid&mdash;splendid!" she cried.  "It's the best thing you ever
+thought of!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the
+envelope into the breast pocket of his coat.  A frown of the most
+thoughtful consideration furrowed his brow.  Then he said firmly: "The
+first thing, to do is to get the bicycles.  If once we've got them, no
+one will take them away from us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course they won't," said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning
+the earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a
+casual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: "May we have
+the cow-house for our very own, Mum?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Terror!  Surely you don't want to keep ferrets!" cried Mrs.
+Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror's developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think
+we could make a little pocket-money out of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am afraid you're growing terribly mercenary," said his mother; then
+she added with a sigh: "But I don't wonder at it, seeing how hard up
+you always are.  You can have the cow-house.  It's right at the end of
+the paddock&mdash;well away from the house&mdash;so that I don't see that you can
+do any harm with it whatever you do.  But how are you going to make
+pocket-money out of it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I haven't got it all worked out yet," said the Terror quickly.
+"But we'll tell you all about it when we have.  Thanks ever so much for
+the cow-house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a
+boy of his years.  He changed but one of the six postal orders at
+Little Deeping&mdash;that would make talk enough&mdash;and then, having begged a
+holiday from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their market
+town, ten miles away, taking Erebus with him.  There he changed three
+more postal orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycle
+shop, with hearts that beat high.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way
+which, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus
+to the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she
+had long ago learned the futility of exasperation.  He began by an
+exhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and he
+made it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, one
+of those smart young men who pamper a chin's passion for receding by
+letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all on
+edge.  Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of his
+pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young
+man perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of
+buying two.  He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to
+develop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in price
+to the buyer of two bicycles.  Then he made his offer: he would give
+fourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles.  His serenity was
+quite unruffled by the seller's furious protests.  Then the real
+struggle began.  The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, two
+lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the seller
+came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeled
+their machines out of the shop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street.
+Then he said: "We've saved the cats' home quite two pounds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And it's made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It must have&mdash;arguing like that," said Erebus quickly; and her eyes
+brightened as she caught his drift.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment.  It's a long ride
+home," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course it ought," said Erebus with decision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner's shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: "Of course overseers
+have a salary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course they do," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That settles the matter of pocket-money," said the Terror.  "We'll
+have sixpence a week each."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only sixpence?" said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you see, there are the bicycles.  I don't think we can make it
+more than sixpence.  And I tell you what: we shall have to keep
+accounts.  I'll buy an account-book.  You're very good at
+arithmetic&mdash;you'll like keeping accounts," said the Terror suavely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that
+it would be delicate at that moment to protest.  Therefore on leaving
+the shop the Terror bought an account-book.  His distrust of literature
+prevented him from paying more than a penny for it.  From the
+stationer's he went to an ironmonger's and bought a saw, a brace, a
+gimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws&mdash;his tool-box had long
+needed refilling.  Then they mounted their machines proudly (they had
+learned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home.  After
+their visit to the confectioner's they rode rather sluggishly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the
+Terror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a
+quiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on
+Erebus' bicycle with excellent apples.  The tools had been packed into
+the Terror's basket.  They did not disturb the farmer's wife at the
+busy dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to
+Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: "I shouldn't wonder if
+these bicycles didn't pay for themselves in time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I said there were orchards out here where they didn't know us," said
+Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in
+the cow-house.  At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the
+morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements.  It had
+long been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning.  It was quite
+suitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a
+size to hold two cows.  The measurements made, they went, with an
+important moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timber
+merchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him.  There was
+some discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that of
+the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, with
+some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns.  Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he
+forthwith put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet
+House.  The Twins, eager to be at work, helped him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable
+constructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches.  That evening
+Erebus wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus
+proposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally
+forth on a splendid foray.  The Terror would not hear of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," he said firmly.  "We're going to get the cats' home finished
+before we use those bicycles at all.  Then nobody can complain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to
+go down to the vicarage for his morning's lessons with the vicar.  He
+set to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;
+and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came.  He had spent a fruitless
+hour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied
+forth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept them
+within their borders.  He was deeply impressed by the sight of the
+bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers of
+his friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise him
+greatly.  But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtained
+their bicycles before he had obtained his.  None the less he helped
+them construct the cats' home with enthusiasm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort.  So
+much sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces
+were chipped out of them.  But their spirits never flagged; and by
+sunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirty
+cats.  It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all of
+the same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness:
+and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the
+transformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said
+firmly: "What we want now is cats."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were
+willing to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their
+owners no longer needed.  They had, indeed, one offer of a cat
+suffering from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly to
+its owner that theirs was a home, not a hospital.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she
+pointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: "Look
+here: I'm going to begin with kittens."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How will you get kittens, if you can't get cats?  Everybody likes
+kittens.  It's only when they grow up and stop playing that they don't
+want them," said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm going to buy them," said the Terror firmly.  "I'm going to give
+threepence each for kittens that can just lap.  We don't want kittens
+that can't lap.  They'd be too much trouble."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's a good idea," said Erebus, brightening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It'll stop them drowning kittens all right.  The only thing I'm not
+sure about is the accounts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're always bothering about those silly old accounts!" said Erebus
+sharply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of
+their expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts.
+Aunt Amelia is so used to cats' homes that are given their cats.  She's
+told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be
+taken in."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>I</I> don't want them to go down.  It makes all the less accounts to
+keep," said Erebus readily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, that's settled," said the Terror cheerfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the
+tidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who
+could just lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the
+impatient Erebus grew louder and louder.  There was no doubt that she
+loved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of that
+grievance to those about her.  Since she could only discuss this
+grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it.
+Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patient
+brother's resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to a
+council.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He opened the discussion by saying: "We've got to have kittens, or
+cats.  We can't have any pocket-money for 'overseering' till there's
+something to overseer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And that splendid cats' home we've made stopping empty all the time,"
+said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't mind that.  I'm sick of hearing about it," said the Terror
+coldly.  "But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia will
+soon be wanting to know what's happening to the home; and she'll make a
+fuss if there aren't any cats in it.  So we must have cats."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats.  There are cats all
+over the country; and when we're out bicycling, a good way from home,
+we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with
+us.  We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in
+eight days the home would be full and two over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And we should be prosecuted for stealing them," said the Terror coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But they'd be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed," protested Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That wouldn't make any difference.  No; it's no good trying to get
+them that way," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, they won't come of themselves," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They would with valerian," said Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who's Valerian?" said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It isn't a who.  It's a drug at the chemist's," said Wiggins.  "I've
+been talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says if
+you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats will
+follow it for miles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your father seems to know everything&mdash;such a lot of useful things as
+well as higher mathematics," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's why he has a European reputation," said Wiggins; and he spurned
+the earth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of
+the enchanting drug.  Just before they reached the village, on their
+way home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it,
+poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the
+village to his garden gate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the
+father of Wiggins.  All that evening and far into the night twelve cats
+fought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next day the Terror turned the cats' home into a cat-trap.  He cut
+a hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted
+it with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the
+outside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside.  He was
+late finishing it, and went from it to his dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring
+at the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had
+come from the village with some kittens.  The Twins excused themselves
+politely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly
+had brought no less than five small kittens in a basket.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping
+test.  Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they
+lapped.  The fifth would not lap.  It only mewed.  Therefore the Terror
+took only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them.  The
+fifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They took the four kittens down to the cats' home; and since they were
+so small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk
+to satisfy their hunger during the night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now we've got these kittens, we needn't bother about getting cats,"
+said the Terror as they returned to the house.  "And I'm glad it is
+kittens and not cats.  Kittens eat less."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you've had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's an emergency exit&mdash;like the theaters have&mdash;only it's an
+entrance," said the Terror.  "But thank goodness, we've begun at last;
+now we can have salaries for 'overseering'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens
+to their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady
+Ryehampton that the home was already constructed and in process of
+occupation.  Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid of
+enthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, "saved
+from the awful death of drowning."  Lady Ryehampton replied promptly in
+a spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found
+themselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and the
+account-book.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations.  Till they were
+six years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in
+Monmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar.  Then their father
+had fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had
+along with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leaving
+Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed.  All the while since
+his death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and the
+Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires of
+their hearts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;
+and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as
+the bulk of the children of the well-to-do.  But it did not come in the
+way of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;
+and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliest
+interest in financial matters.  He was resolved that the cats' home and
+the wages of "overseering" should last as long as possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a
+quart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with
+him that milk spelled ruin.  But they could see no way of reducing the
+price of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food for
+growing kittens.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a
+heavy silence had fallen on them.  Then of a sudden the face of the
+Terror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:
+"I've got it; we'll feed them on skim-milk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens," said Erebus scornfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping.  Butter-making was its
+chief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens," said the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But how can we get it?  They don't sell it about here," said Erebus.
+"And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn't sell skim-milk,
+nobody's going to sell skim-milk to-day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it," said the Terror confidently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Old Stubbs!  But he hates us worse than any one!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes; he doesn't like us.  But he's awfully keen on money; every
+one says so.  And he won't care whose money he gets so long as he gets
+it.  Come on; we'll go and talk to him about it," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs
+and knocked resolutely.  The maid, who was well aware that her master
+and the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some
+hesitation.  The Twins had never entered the farmer's house before,
+though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightly
+uncomfortable.  They found the parlor into which they were shown
+uncommonly musty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate
+fringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion
+in his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes.  Even when he learned that they
+had come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terror
+incidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cash
+payments.  Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, that
+he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to the
+discussion of prices.  Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts;
+the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of
+view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice.  But the
+Terror's suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck
+a bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at
+threepence halfpenny the pailful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens
+to the home; and the Terror had yet another idea.  Milk alone seemed an
+insufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the
+matter of stale bread.  There were more negotiations; and in the end
+the Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearly
+his own price.  Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throve
+on it; and it went further than plain milk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure.  They had been busy filling
+certain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with
+the best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the
+countryside afforded.  But what spare time he had the Terror devoted to
+a great feat of painting.  He painted in white letters on a black
+board:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LADY RYEHAMPTON'S CATS' HOME
+</H3>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that
+could be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins
+agreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their
+aunt saw it she would be deeply gratified.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be
+fixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their mother
+formally into their confidence.  She had learned of the formation of
+the cats' home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked
+to her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give them
+details about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited the
+interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussion
+for fully a week.  She had explained to them that she never interfered
+with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, and
+that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats' home.  Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had
+been brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order.
+Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of its
+construction.  Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackle
+affair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for
+they were judicious in their use.  They were careful to sally forth
+when she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the common
+and came back across the common and their neighbors saw them riding
+very little.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she
+accepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection
+of the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise.  She
+expressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and the
+extensive scale on which it was being run.  She agreed with the Terror
+that to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning was
+a great work.  But she asked no questions, not even how it was that the
+cats' home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples.  She knew that
+an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to be
+given her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: "The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What?  Are those your bicycles?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield.  "But
+wherever did you get the money from to buy them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Amelia found the money," said the Terror.  "You know she's very
+keen&mdash;tremendously interested in cats' homes.  She thinks we are doing
+a great work, as well as you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: "You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats'
+home in Little Deeping?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes," said the Terror carelessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she
+<I>must</I> not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins.  She bit her
+tongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears.  It was
+painful; but it enabled her to complete her inspection with the
+required gravity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke
+a fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise.  Several of
+them, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to
+it; and Wiggins brought his father.  All of them expressed an
+admiration of the institution and of the methods on which it was
+conducted.  To one another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of the
+intelligence of Lady Ryehampton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience
+the Twins drew their salary for "overseering."  It provided them with
+many of the less expensive desires of their hearts.  Now and again
+Erebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than ten
+pounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raised
+to a shilling a week.  But the Terror would not consent: he said their
+salaries for "overseeing" would naturally be much higher, and that they
+would have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it had
+not been for the bicycles.  As it was, they were bound to work off the
+price of the bicycles.  Besides, he added with a philosophical air,
+six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week for
+six months.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained
+twenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle
+(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were
+informed that for the time being the home was full.  Erebus clamored to
+have its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terror
+maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quite
+enough.  Everything was working smoothly.  Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed
+for the door; and Erebus opened it.  On the steps stood their Uncle
+Maurice; and he wore a harried air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, it's Uncle Maurice!" cried Erebus springing upon him and
+embracing him warmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's Uncle Maurice, mother!" cried the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he's by no means sure
+of it himself!  Is it my head or my heels I'm standing on?" said Sir
+Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping
+station, laden with wicker baskets.  From the baskets came the sound of
+mewing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Whatever is it?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a
+neat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and
+shut the door after him with an air of exhaustion.  He leaned back
+against it and said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I had a sudden message&mdash;Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visit
+to this inf&mdash;this cats' home these little friends are pretending to run
+for her.  I saw that there was no time to lose&mdash;there must be a cats'
+home with cats in it&mdash;or she'd cut them both out of her will.  I bought
+cats&mdash;all over London&mdash;they've been with me ever since&mdash;yowling&mdash;they
+yowled in the taxi&mdash;all over London&mdash;they traveled down as far as
+Rowington with me and an old gentleman&mdash;a high-spirited old
+gentleman&mdash;yowling&mdash;not only the cats but the old gentleman, too&mdash;-and
+they traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maiden
+ladies&mdash;timid maiden ladies!&mdash;yowling!  But come on: we've got to make
+a cats' home at once!"  And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets
+with the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant or
+perish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we've got a cats' home&mdash;only it's full of kittens," said Erebus
+gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good heavens!  Do you mean to say I've gone through this nightmare for
+nothing?" cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!" said the Terror with swift
+politeness.  "The cats will come in awfully useful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They'll make the home look so much more natural.  All kittens isn't
+natural," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And they'll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia.  She was only
+expecting kittens," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What?" howled Sir Maurice.  "Do you mean to say I've parleyed for
+hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two&mdash;two&mdash;timid maiden ladies,
+just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly.  "I ought to
+have had more confidence in you," he said faintly.  "I ought to know
+your powers by now.  And I did.  I know well that any people who have
+dealings with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt
+Amelia was going to get it; and I've got it myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you didn't think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?" said the
+Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gracious, no!" cried Sir Maurice.  "I only thought that you might
+possibly induce her to humbug herself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his
+words than met the ear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+"And I'm afraid there's very little for you.  But I'll make you an
+omelette."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can not dine amid this yowling," said Sir Maurice firmly, waving his
+hand over the vocal baskets.  "These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan't be able to eat a morsel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll put them in the cats' home," said the Terror quickly.  "I'll
+just put on a pair of thick gloves.  Wiggins' father&mdash;he's a higher
+mathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing&mdash;says
+that hydrophobia is very rare among cats.  But it's just as well to be
+careful with these London ones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, lord, I never thought of that," said Sir Maurice with a shudder.
+"I've been risking my life as well!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern.  He and Erebus
+helped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches.
+Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession&mdash;a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable.  At dinner he reduced his appreciative
+kinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his
+parleying with his excited fellow travelers.  He could now view it with
+an impartial mind.  After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats'
+home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps.  The rest of the
+evening passed peacefully and pleasantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed
+that the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:
+"We ought to have more cats."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:
+"By Jove, yes.  This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge.
+And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the
+good of the home.  The more we can say that we've used them for it, the
+less any one can grumble about them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Most cats are shut up now," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; we must catch the morning cats.  They get out quite early&mdash;when
+people start out to work," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an
+alarm.  The Terror set it for half past five.  At that hour it awoke
+him with extreme difficulty.  He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty.
+Five minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchen
+to stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning;
+then they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle of
+valerian.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping.  There the Terror poured valerian on
+one of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus.  Forthwith she
+started to trail it to the cats' home.  He rode on to Great Deeping and
+trailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats' home.
+When he reached it he found Erebus' bicycle in its corner; and when,
+after strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with a
+rag freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he found
+that she was already in bed again.  He made haste back to bed himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and
+put the cats they had attracted to it into hutches.  But they slept on
+till breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon
+lured them straight into the dining-room.  After all, as Erebus told
+the hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the new
+cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleven
+o'clock.  They could not escape from the home.  The Twins therefore
+devoted their most careful attention to their breakfast with their
+minds quite at ease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at
+ease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor.
+Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said "Please, ma'am, it's
+Lady Ryehampton"; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold.  Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking
+very anxious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton's stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness.  To
+Erebus, the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: "I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats' home.  I always do.  It's the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment."  The
+frown on her face grew rhadamanthine.  "And last night I saw your Uncle
+Maurice at the station&mdash;he did not see me&mdash;with cats, London cats, in
+baskets.  On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of
+well-known London cat-dealers.  I do not support a cats' home at Little
+Deeping for London cats bought at London dealers.  Why have they been
+brought here?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was Uncle Maurice's idea," he said.  "He didn't think that there
+ought only to be kittens in a cats' home.  We didn't mind ourselves;
+and of course, if he puts cats in it, he'll have to subscribe to the
+home.  What we have started it for was kittens&mdash;to save them from the
+awful death of drowning.  We wrote and told you.  And we've saved quite
+a lot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats
+to bring them all the way from London to a cats' home at Deeping?  He
+hates cats, and always has!" she said fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, I hate cats," said Sir Maurice with cold severity.  "But I
+hate children's being brought up to be careless a great deal more.  A
+cats' home is not a cats' home unless it has cats in it; and you've
+been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling a
+kittens' home a cats' home.  If you will interfere in their
+up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into
+careless ways."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady
+Ryehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: "That's all very well,"
+she said in a less severe tone.  "But is there a kittens' home at
+all&mdash;a kittens' home with kittens in it?  That's what I want to know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats' home.
+You don't think we'd deceive you, Aunt Amelia?" said the Terror in a
+deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There!  I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be," said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course there's a cats' home with kittens in it!" said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with some heat.  "The Terror wouldn't lie to you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!" cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very
+good best.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: "Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there's a c-c-cats' home&mdash;but Sir Maurice's senseless
+interference&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Senseless interference!  Do you call saving children from careless
+habits senseless interference?" cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You had no business to interfere without consulting me," said Lady
+Ryehampton.  Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: "But I want to
+see this cats' home&mdash;now!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll take you at once," said the Terror quickly, and politely he
+opened the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice
+his hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it.  When
+they came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distant
+high-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and more
+horrible grew the din.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of
+suspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were wide
+open in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a
+defiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  Only the Terror was serene.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages," said
+Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats," said the Terror calmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Visiting cats?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come," said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed.  "I must tell the
+managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it,
+too.  But what are these cats doing?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It sounds as if they were quarreling," said the Terror calmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the
+din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish.  It was as if the voices
+of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door&mdash;wide.  Cats did not come out.&#8230;  A large ball of cats came
+out, gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur.  Ten yards from the door
+it dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore,
+yelling, to the four quarters of the heavens.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: "I
+sometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion.  He
+walked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human
+ken.  There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned
+against the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive
+bricks feebly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with
+an air of modest pride.  A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of
+perfect, if highly-scented, peace.  Twenty-three kittens and eight cats
+sat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead
+stillness.  Their eyes were very bright.  By a kindly provision of
+nature they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes of
+that vociferous fray.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song.  She
+was charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and
+healthiness of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness.
+She gushed enthusiastic approbation.  "To think," she cried, "that you
+have done this yourself!  A boy of thirteen!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Erebus did quite as much as I did," said the Terror quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Wiggins helped a lot.  He's a friend of ours," said Erebus no less
+quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton's face softened to Erebus&mdash;to Erebus, the instructor of
+parrots.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice joined them.  His eyes were red and moist, as if they had
+but now been full of tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a very creditable piece of work," he said in a tone of warm
+approval.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell.
+She said uneasily: "But you must be heavily in debt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In debt?" said the Terror.  "Oh, no; we couldn't be.  Mother would
+hate us to be in debt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought&mdash;a cats' home&mdash;oh, but I <I>am</I> glad I brought my check-book
+with me!" cried Lady Ryehampton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl.
+She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus
+kicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously
+realized that the future of the home, the wages of "overseering," were
+secure.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE SACRED BIRD
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the
+Terror did all he could to foster her interest in it.  The crowning
+effect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty
+sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many
+pauses to gambol and play.  The only thing about the home which was not
+quite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door.
+She liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did not
+like its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all of
+them of the same size.  At the same time she did not like to hurt the
+feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: "By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform&mdash;the same as the boards over
+the entrances of my other cats' homes.  The lettering of them is always
+in gold."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right.  I'll get some gold paint, and paint them over," said the
+Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no, I can't give you the trouble of doing it all over again," said
+Lady Ryehampton quickly.  "I'll have a board made, and painted in
+London&mdash;exactly like the board of my cats' home at Tysleworth&mdash;and sent
+down to you to fix up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thanks very much," said the Terror.  "It will save me a great deal of
+trouble.  Painting isn't nearly so easy as it looks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction.  She invited them all
+to lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs.
+Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simple
+establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver.  As she told her
+neighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in the
+house.  The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebus
+was very quiet for two hours after it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating
+visit to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the
+Terror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to
+London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to
+travel with Lady Ryehampton.  Besides, the question what was to be done
+with the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled.
+He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep,
+since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats' home.
+At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them any
+more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They discussed the matter.  Erebus was inclined to keep the cats,
+declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens.  The
+Terror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view,
+wished to be relieved of them.  In the end it was decided that Sir
+Maurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he had
+bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this
+unexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home.
+Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings a
+week.  The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each.
+Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put
+fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank.  He thought it a wise
+thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum on
+some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove.
+The cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board
+came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror's
+handiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along
+with Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the
+important matter of their mother's Christmas present.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their
+breakfasts and discussing it gravely.  The kittens were indulging in
+engaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion which
+always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling
+eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds.  They could see
+their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; and
+so large a sum must be expended with judgment.  It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and
+attractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the
+hair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: "I know what she really
+wants though."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's that?" said the Terror sharply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker's at Rowington,"
+said Erebus.  "I heard her sigh when she looked at it.  She used to
+have beautiful furs once&mdash;when father was alive.  But she sold them&mdash;to
+get things for us, I suppose.  Uncle Maurice told me so&mdash;at least I got
+it out of him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of
+decision: "How much is that stole?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it's no good thinking about it&mdash;it's three guineas," said Erebus
+quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's a mort o' money, as old Stubbs says," said the Terror; and the
+frown deepened on his brow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder if we could get it?" said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face.  "I should like
+to.  It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things&mdash;much harder than
+for us, because we've never had them&mdash;at least, we had them when we
+were small, but we never got used to them.  So we've forgotten."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, we're all right as long as we have useful things," said the
+Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown.  "But you're right about
+Mum&mdash;she must be different.  I've got to think this out."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Three guineas is such a lot to think out," said Erebus despondently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago," said the Terror
+firmly.  "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats' home, though not so useful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it's different&mdash;we <I>had</I> to have bicycles&mdash;you said so," said
+Erebus eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we've got to have this stole," said the Terror in a tone of
+finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But how?" said Erebus eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Things will occur to us.  They always do," said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches.  Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens?  Does any one ever buy
+kittens?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We did; we gave threepence each for these," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home.  We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that.  We shouldn't have
+dreamt of doing such a thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn't got any," said Erebus
+in a tone of decision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You would, would you?  That's just what I wanted to know: girls will
+buy kittens," said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction.  "Well, we'll
+sell these."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we can't empty the home," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We wouldn't.  We'd buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepence
+each, and sell these at a shilling.  We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So we should&mdash;a whole sovereign!" cried Erebus; then she added in a
+somewhat envious tone: "You do think of things."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have to.  Where should we be, if I didn't?" said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But who are we going to sell them to?  Everybody round here has cats."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, they have," said the Terror, frowning again.  "Well, we shall
+have to sell them somewhere else."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to
+the house, pondering.  The Terror collected the books for his morning's
+work slowly, still thoughtful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he was leaving the house he said: "Look here; the place for us to
+sell them is Rowington.  The people round here sell most of their
+things at Rowington&mdash;butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Ellen would sell them for us&mdash;in the market," said Erebus quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course she would!  You see, you think of things, too!" cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter
+of selling their kittens.  She had been their nurse for the first four
+years of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a
+small farmer.  She had an affection for them, especially for the
+Terror; and she had not lost touch with them.  She welcomed them
+warmly, ushered them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter of
+elderberry wine and a cake.  When she had helped them to cake and
+poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had brought
+them to her house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellen's mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her
+pony-cart.  She laughed consumedly at the Terror's belief that any one
+would want to buy kittens.  But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was
+very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell
+their kittens at her stall in Rowington market.  Ellen consented to
+make the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist the
+Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to oblige
+him; but she held out no hopes of success.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not
+share her despondency.  Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen's
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+"I tell you what: even if we don't sell those kittens, we can always
+buy the stole.  There's all that cats' home money in the bank.  We can
+take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, we can't," said the Terror firmly.  "We're not going to use that
+money for anything but the cats' home.  I promised Mum I wouldn't.
+Besides, she'd like the stole ever so much better if we'd really earned
+it ourselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we shan't," said Erebus gloomily.  "If we sold all the kittens, it
+will only make twenty-three shillings."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then we must find something else to sell," said the Terror with
+decision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little
+Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field
+of mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very
+good friends.  Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an
+honest day's work in his life.  Yet he was the smartest man in the
+village, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his
+constitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the English pheasants from all
+dangers save the small shot of those who have them fed.  Tom Cobb waged
+war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird.  Sometimes for
+a whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with
+never a check to his ardor.  In another season some prying gamekeeper
+would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and an
+infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him.  The fine was always
+paid.  Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against
+a rainy day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted
+one another with smiles of mutual respect.  They rode on a few yards;
+and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped, slipped off his bicycle,
+and wheeled it back to the gate.  Erebus followed him more slowly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've been wondering if you'd do me a favor, Tom," said the Terror.
+"I've always wanted to know how to make a snare.  I'll give you
+half-a-crown if you'll teach me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Tom Cobb's clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated.  He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little
+knowledge was a dangerous thing&mdash;for others.  He foresaw trouble for
+the sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the
+gamekeepers.  He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them.
+And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He grinned and said slowly, "Yes, Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy to
+teach you 'ow to make a snare."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you.  I'll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two," said the
+Terror gratefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It <I>will</I> be nice to know how to make snares!" cried Erebus happily as
+they rode on.  "I wonder we never thought of it before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We didn't want a fur stole before," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to
+Tom Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares.
+But the Terror would not.  Often he was indulgent; often he was firm.
+To-day he was firm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather
+sadly: "I've still a lot to learn.  But come on: I've got to buy
+something in Rowington."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and
+they had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell.  At Rowington the
+Terror bought copper wire at an ironmonger's; and he was very careful
+to buy it of a certain thickness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the
+experiment.  Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they
+washed them thoroughly in the kitchen.  They dried them, and decided to
+keep them in its warmth till the next morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making
+of snares.  Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares
+at once.  The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while
+before he got one at all to his liking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Remembering Tom Cobb's instructions, he washed it, and then put on
+gloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the
+rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the
+cabbages.  He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare,
+and thrilled with joy.  The fur stole had come within the range of
+possibility.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens,
+brushing them with the Terror's hair-brush till their fur was of a
+sleekness it had never known before.  Then Erebus adorned the neck of
+each with a bow of blue ribbon.  Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed
+on the bows, and sewed them on firmly.  It could not be doubted that
+they looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens.  Directly after
+breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of their
+bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but
+they had to return to their lessons.  After lunch they made three more
+snares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if
+anything, more deft at snare-making than his own.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and
+when they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their joy that the
+basket which had held the six kittens was empty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and
+said: "Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong.  I've sold
+them kitties&mdash;every one&mdash;and I've had two more ordered.  It was when
+the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the
+Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Five," said the Terror.  "I must pay you a shilling for selling them.
+It's what they call commission."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, sir; I don't want any commission," said Ellen firmly.  "As long as
+those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than
+any one else in the market.  I haven't had such a good day not ever
+before.  And I'll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm.
+The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden
+about the common.  He caught three rabbits.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed
+the kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last he said rather sadly: "It's sometimes rather awkward being a
+Dangerfield."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why?" said Erebus surprised.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those rabbits," said the Terror.  "I want to sell them.  But it's no
+good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer.  Even
+if he wanted rabbits&mdash;which he mightn't&mdash;he'd only give me sixpence
+each for them.  But if I were to sell them myself <I>here</I>, I could get
+eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them.  But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can't go about selling things.  Uncle Maurice said I had
+the makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn't go into
+business.  It's the family tradition not to.  That's what he said."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps he was only rotting," said Erebus hopefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, he wasn't.  I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition,
+too.  I expect that's why we're all so hard up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the squire sells things," said Erebus quickly.  "And you can't say
+he isn't a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren't so old as the
+Dangerfields."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, he does.  He sells some of his game," said the Terror, in a
+tone of great relief.  "Game must be all right, and we can easily count
+rabbits as game."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they
+had caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of
+the neighborhood.  The Terror went to the back doors of their
+well-to-do neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the
+gratifying result that in less than an hour he had sold all four of
+them at eightpence each.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them.  They
+had already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three
+shillings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew
+when to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went
+on.  It was the fault of the rabbit market.  At the fifteenth rabbit,
+when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole,
+the bottom fell out of it.  For the time the desire of Little Deeping
+to eat rabbits was sated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who,
+after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was to
+bring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different
+thing, Master Dangerfield."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: "And how much
+would you pay for pheasants?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic
+she had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of
+threepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: "Two and
+threepence each, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer.  He
+saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All right,
+I'll bring you two or three a week.  But you'll have to pay cash."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Of course, sir," said the cook.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you know any one else who'd buy pheasants?" he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, there's Mr. Carrington's cook," said the cook slowly.  "She has
+the management of the housekeeping money like I do.  I think she might
+buy pheasants from you.  Mr. Carrington's very partial to game."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Right," said the Terror.  "And thank you for telling me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the
+matter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits.  He made a
+direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each.
+After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught
+rabbits would catch pheasants.  At first he was for catching those
+pheasants by himself.  Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;
+snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl's work.
+Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebus
+and must tell her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: "But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Woods," said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled
+fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The only thing is, we don't know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants.  And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;
+and that wouldn't do at all," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But there's nobody else to ask."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know about that.  There's Wiggins' father.  He knows a lot of
+useful things besides higher mathematics.  The only thing is, we must
+do it in such a way that he doesn't see we're trying to get anything
+out of him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I should think we could do that.  He's really quite simple,"
+said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As long as <I>you</I> understand what I'm driving at," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington
+market, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next
+morning.  Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rival
+poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell.  The Twins at
+once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance
+that those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling.  They
+were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; and
+the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of
+coming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the
+third afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly,
+about three miles from Little Deeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington.  They had a
+great respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor.
+In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his
+presence.  She did not know what he might say about her next.  He was,
+therefore, somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles and
+joined him.  He wondered what they wanted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the
+society of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk
+was running on pheasants.  Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants,
+except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the
+devastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:
+villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might live
+undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woods
+to itself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was
+not aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he
+bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to
+the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained the
+villages of all the intelligent.  The skilful poacher who harried the
+sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the
+poacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words.
+He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher
+with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to
+display in the presence of the young.  The Terror came from that talk
+with a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of
+raisins at the leading grocer's.  They might well have bought them at
+Little Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought
+Rowington safer.  They always took every possible precaution at the
+beginning of an enterprise.  They did not ride straight home.  Three
+miles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill.  At the
+foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping
+wood, acre upon acre.  It had lately passed, along with the rest of the
+Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain.
+He was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less
+modern stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of having
+the finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it,
+he did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them.  His friends came
+wholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins' came to the clump on
+the hill.  The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them
+behind the hedge.  He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle
+basket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down
+the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked
+through it.  One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the
+wood below.  The occurrence pleased him.  He crawled out of the clump
+on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the
+ditch of the hedge to the wood.  He did not lay it right down to the
+wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it.  Then he returned
+with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus.  They rode home well content.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again.
+Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood
+to the clump.  But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the
+clump.  Just above the end of the ditch.  Later he took from that snare
+a plump but sacred bird.  Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs.
+Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence
+to Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself
+serenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's all right," said Erebus cheerfully.  "That makes&mdash;that makes
+twenty-eight and eleven-pence.  We <I>are</I> getting on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; it's twenty-eight and eleven-pence now," said the Terror quickly.
+"But you don't seem to see that when we've got the stole for Mum these
+pheasants will still be going on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course they will!" cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightly
+indeed at the joyful thought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after
+breakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the
+clump above Great Deeping wood.  He reached it at the hour when
+gamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thorough
+examination of it.  He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose the
+two likeliest places for his snares.  He did not set them then and
+there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them.  He came again
+in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then.
+Later he sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the
+cook of Mr. Carrington.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens.  They found themselves in the happy position of needing only
+six shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the
+clump of trees above Great Deeping wood.  They had laid a trail of
+raisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it
+on the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and
+since the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over
+Great Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley.
+The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear and
+bright.  But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided that
+instead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as well
+examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey.
+It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads,
+alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of
+his purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of
+his friends' latest exploits) and made his dispositions.  When they
+came to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a
+lookout ahead.  The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins.
+Wiggins held the two bicycles.  The Terror listened.  The wood was very
+still in its winter silence.  He slipped through the hedge into it, and
+presently came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasant
+indeed.  He put it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty
+yards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting
+fashion as he came.  There was neither time nor room to turn.  They
+rode on; and the keeper made for the Terror.  The Terror swerved; and
+the keeper swerved.  Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came to
+the ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as he
+could.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of "Keeper!" set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently,
+when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and
+dismounted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The keeper's got him.  This is a mess!" said the Terror, who was
+panting a little from their spurt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If only it had been one of us!" cried Erebus.  "Whatever are we to do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If that beastly keeper hadn't seen me with the pheasant, I'd get
+Wiggins away, somehow," said the Terror.  "But, as it is, it's me they
+really want; and I'd get fined to a dead certainty.  Come on, let's go
+back and see what's happened to him.  You scout on ahead.  Nobody knows
+you're in it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right," said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a
+sign of an ambush.  The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty
+yards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the
+alarm.  They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond the
+end of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way up
+the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey.  The keeper held Wiggins
+with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right.
+The Twins dismounted.  Even at that distance they could see the deep
+dejection of their friend.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's not really any reason for him to be frightened.  He was never
+in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What does that matter?  He <I>will</I> be frightened out of his life; he's
+so young," cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after their
+receding friend with very anxious eyes.  "He's not like us; he won't
+cheek the keeper all the way like we should."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck," said the Terror in a reassuring tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But he won't understand he's all right.  He's only ten.  And there's
+no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bully
+him," cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he'll be out of
+it," said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no!  That won't do at all!" cried Erebus fiercely.  "We've got to
+rescue him now&mdash;at once.  We got him into the mess; and we've got to
+get him out of it.  You've got to find a way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's all very well," said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took off
+his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: "I can't see what we can
+do."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm going to get him out of it somehow!" cried Erebus in a furious
+desperation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty
+yards.  It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher
+of the three, the only one in real danger.  As he leaned on his
+machine, watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth.  For all
+his natural serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant to
+him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and
+the keeper.  She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that
+the keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door,
+when she saw Wiggins' bicycle standing against one of the pillars of
+the great porch.  In a natural elation at having captured a poacher,
+and eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gone
+straight into the great hall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then
+she moved Wiggins' bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came
+out, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of
+sight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered
+the knocker firmly, and rang the bell.  The moment the door opened she
+stepped quickly past the footman into the hall.  The keeper sat on a
+chair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking white
+and woebegone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+"What are you doing with my little brother?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her
+position.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone,
+but he said triumphantly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I caught 'im poachin'&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stand up!  What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?" cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+"'E was poachin'," he said sulkily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He was not!  A little boy like that!" cried Erebus scornfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Anyways, 'e was aidin' an' abettin', an' I've brought 'im to Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosynimer an' it's for 'im to say," said the keeper stubbornly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle
+click by which the Twins called each other to attention.  At the sound
+Wiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself.  Erebus
+measured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there came
+into the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-faced
+young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where's the boacher?" he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting in
+his emotion to the ancestral "b."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bolt, Wiggins!" she cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the
+footman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus.  She slammed the
+door behind the vanished Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door.  He caught her by the left arm to
+sling her out of the way.  It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught
+him a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing
+of her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack of
+a whip-lash.  Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender.  He howled
+again, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists.  She caught the
+first blow on an uncommonly acute elbow.  The second never fell, for
+the footman caught him by the collar and swung him round.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's not for the likes of you to 'it Henglish young ladies!" he cried
+with patriotic indignation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+"Ged out of my house!  Now&mdash;at once&mdash;ged out!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And pleased I shall be to go&mdash;when I've bin paid my wages.  It's a
+month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow.  I've had enough of
+furriners," said the footman with cold exultation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go&mdash;go&mdash;ged oud!" roared Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When I've bin paid my wages," said the footman coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus waited to hear no more.  She turned the latch, slipped through
+the door, and slammed it behind her.  To her dismay she saw a big
+motorcar coming round the corner of the house.  She mounted quickly and
+raced down the drive.  Wiggins was already out of sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've sent Wiggins on!" he shouted as she passed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come on!  Come on!" she shrieked back.  "The beastly foreigner's got a
+motor-car!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car
+had been ready to start.  They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down
+the road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew.  They
+were fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles to
+their one on that good road.  The Twins alone would have made a longer
+race of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins.  They had gone
+little more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as it
+came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go on, Terror!" cried Erebus.  "You're the one that matters!  You did
+the poaching!  I'll look after Wiggins!  He'll be all right with me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the
+advice sank in, and he shot ahead.  Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and
+they rode on.  The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly
+as it would have done had not Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the
+courage of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it.  He was howling
+at his straining chauffeur to go slower.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than
+fifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging
+briskly along.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's your father!" gasped Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and
+Erebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all!  It was the Terror!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
+incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
+father.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
+single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence.  Mr. Carrington
+seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
+arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
+technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut on
+the point which put him to sleep."  He fell as falls a sack of
+potatoes, and lay like a log.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his most
+agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
+no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
+between them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't say as I do, sir," he said civilly; and he backed away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
+young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion," said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Assaults?&mdash;'Im assault?&mdash;Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, of
+Great Deeping Court, sir," said the keeper respectfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
+be summoned for assault.  Good afternoon," said Mr. Carrington, and he
+turned on his heel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
+employer.  Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head.  He put his
+walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
+with rueful tenderness.  None the less he looked pleased; it was
+gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
+such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
+Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
+proud air.  They felt that they shone with his reflected glory.  It was
+a delightful sensation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: "Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, my child.  I am not a pork-butcher," said Mr. Carrington amiably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He <I>looked</I> as if he was dead," said Erebus; and there was a faint
+ring of disappointment in her tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope
+that it will be a better and wiser self," said Mr. Carrington.  "But
+what was it all about?  What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;
+then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: "It
+was a pheasant in Great Deeping wood," she said.  "The Terror found it,
+I suppose.  I had gone on, and I didn't see that part.  But it was
+Wiggins the keeper caught.  Of course&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,"
+broke in Mr. Carrington.  "Had you ridden on too, Rupert?  Or did you
+see what happened?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes; I was there," said Wiggins readily.  "And the Terror found
+the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket.  And we had
+just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I
+ran into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court.  I wasn't
+really frightened&mdash;at least, not much."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The keeper had no right to touch him," Erebus broke in glibly.
+"Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn't even go into the wood;
+and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and
+the keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then
+that horrid Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold
+of me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once.  I
+should think that the mark is still there "&mdash;her speed of speech
+slackened to a slower vengeful gratification and then quickened
+again&mdash;"and he began to thump me and the footman interfered, and I came
+away, and they came after us in the car, and you saw what happened&mdash;at
+least you did it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Lucidity itself," said Mr. Carrington.  "But let us have the matter of
+the pheasant clear.  Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance of
+finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly,
+and said, "Well, there was a snare, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: "I thought so.  I thought we should
+come to that snare in time.  Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, he didn't know anything about it!" Erebus broke in quickly.
+"We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous!  He's so young!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be eleven in a fortnight!" said Wiggins with some heat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker's in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could
+think of getting it," said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Light!  Light at last!" cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently.
+"Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitely
+Pomeranian!  But it's just as well that they have, or that ingenious
+brother of yours would be in a fine mess.  As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited."  He
+chuckled again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from
+Erebus the full story of their poaching.  When they reached the village
+he did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr.
+Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and had
+retired to Little Deeping.  At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good
+afternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on the
+notice of any of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer's keepers who might be sent out
+to hunt for the real culprit.  He would better keep quiet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home.  She found the Terror
+in the cats' home, awaiting her impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, did Wiggins get away all right?" he cried.  "I passed Mr.
+Carrington; and I thought he'd see that they didn't carry him off
+again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr.
+Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By Jove!  That was ripping!  I do wish I'd been there!" said the
+Terror.  "He only hit him once, you say?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only once.  And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer's keepers are out hunting for you," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am lying low," said the Terror.  "And I've got rid of that pheasant.
+I sold it to Mr. Carrington's cook as I came through the village.  I
+thought it was better out of the way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then that's all right.  We only want about another half-crown," said
+Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to
+a better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he
+still retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly
+interest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching
+not only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because
+she could so ill afford the expense of the case.  He readily fell in
+with the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take the
+offensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer had
+given them the weapons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o'clock that
+evening Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R.
+S.; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served
+with a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was in
+a chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been "put to
+sleep by an uppercut on the point."  He made haste to despatch a car
+into Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The lawyer knew his client's unpopularity in the county, and advised
+him earnestly to try to hush these matters up.  He declared that
+however Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench
+of English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by a
+big young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of European
+reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen,
+gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician's little boy from wrongful
+arrest and detention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his
+devotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy.  But he
+perceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him too
+far, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shoot
+the particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not be
+deeply touched by it.  Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use every
+effort to settle the matter out of court.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over
+to Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington's house.  He found Mr.
+Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to
+placate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude
+which had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford to
+be generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with an
+uppercut on the point.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the
+more prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a
+veritable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms.  The summonses
+should be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about that
+poached pheasant and that Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty
+guineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital.  The lawyer
+accepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection to
+complying with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington
+sent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this
+poaching.  He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at
+length on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caught
+and prosecuted.  In the end he gave him the choice of giving his word
+to snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that he
+was poaching.  The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants the
+more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching,
+she would forbid him to set another snare for anything.  Besides, he
+had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before.  Only he
+pointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a
+pheasant, for pheasants went everywhere.  Mr. Carrington admitted this
+fact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting his
+snares on ground sacred to the sacred bird.  If pheasants wandered into
+them on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault.  Thanks therefore
+to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of the
+Terror's narrow escape.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds,
+since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete.  They
+turned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the
+hedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs.  Mrs. Blenkinsop's cook
+paid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time
+making the purchase.  As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of
+more stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush.  Accordingly
+on the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to
+buy it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing
+hard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker's shop, Erebus
+gazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer,
+the confectioner, and said sadly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a pity it isn't Saturday and we had our 'overseering' salary.  We
+might have gone to Springer's and had a jolly good blow-out for once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror gazed at Springer's window thoughtfully, and said: "Yes, it
+is a pity.  We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed
+somewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles.  She was
+very thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had
+chosen the very best of them.  The girl who was serving them made out
+the bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the three
+guineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purse
+of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, and
+counted them slowly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole
+when a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: "I
+shall want five per cent. discount for cash."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, we don't do that sort of thing here," said the girl quickly.
+"This is such an old-established establishment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't help that.  I must have discount for cash," said the Terror
+yet more firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity.  Mr. Barker
+came and she put the matter to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, sir; I'm afraid we couldn't think of it.  Barker's is too old
+established a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doing
+business," said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: "All right," he
+said.  "You can put the stole down to me&mdash;Master Hyacinth Dangerfield,
+Colet House, Little Deeping."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as
+the coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: "I'm afraid we can't
+do that, sir.  Our terms are cash&mdash;strictly cash."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, they're not.  My mother has had an account here for the last
+six years," said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went into
+the bag.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of
+warm geniality he cried: "Oh, that alters the case altogether!  In the
+case of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we're
+delighted to deduct five per cent. discount for cash&mdash;delighted.  Make
+out the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away
+the stole tenderly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave
+three shillings discount in his pocket and said: "Now for Springer's!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND PRINGLE'S POND
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an
+almost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had
+any.  She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it
+had cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats' home fund,
+since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should be
+diverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to them
+for the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it.  On
+the whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had been
+raised.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas.  It
+was the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude
+and gently rollicked.  There was a dearth of children, young men and
+maidens among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins
+were in request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings.
+Thanks to the Terror, the three of them took this brightening function
+with considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorous
+piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performed
+two charades in a very painstaking fashion.  They had but little
+dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always
+well received.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas.  The weather broke about
+the middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy
+snow-storm.  The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common
+in front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellent
+toboggan on which they rushed down the hill into the village street.
+These were but light pleasures.  They watched the ponds with the most
+careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour's
+skating.  Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr.
+Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the
+vicarage, drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son
+take any risk whatever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;
+and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear.  They ate
+their breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered
+together his books for his morning's work they made their plans.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two
+pairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: "Then
+that's settled.  I'll meet you at Pringle's pond as soon after half
+past twelve as I can get there; but you'd better not go on it before I
+come."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it'll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday," said Erebus
+impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Wiggins isn't to go on it before I come.  You'll do as you like
+of course&mdash;as usual&mdash;and if you fall in, it'll be your own lookout.
+But he's to wait till I come.  If the ice does bear, it won't bear any
+too well; and I'm responsible for Wiggins.  I promised Mr. Carrington
+to look after him," said the Terror in tones of stern gravity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: "As if I
+couldn't take care of him just as well as you.  I'm as old as you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But you are a girl; there's no
+getting over it; and it does make a difference."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she
+scowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly
+behind him.  She hated to be reminded that she was a girl.  The
+reminder rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs.
+Dangerfield asked her what was distressing her that she scowled so
+fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she
+was ready to go skating.  She set out briskly across the common, and
+found Wiggins waiting for her at his father's garden-gate.  He joined
+her in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its
+bearing with the most hopeful confidence.  She displayed an equal
+confidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows.
+More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps and
+bounds.  His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold winter
+sunlight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle's pond.  The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting.  Also it
+looked quite thick and strong.  Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
+that it bore her, and tested it with some care.  She even jumped up and
+down on it.  It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself
+that ice always cracks, more or less.  She set about putting on her
+skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed,
+followed her example.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
+looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently.  No; she
+would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
+till he came.&#8230;  She could look after him quite as well as the
+Terror.&#8230;  She had tested the ice thoroughly.&#8230;  It was
+perfectly safe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him.  The
+ice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it
+cracked again.  Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling
+Wiggins not to go far from the edge.  She skated round and across the
+pond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight,
+resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came.
+Wiggins skated about the pond.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
+eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
+a shrill cry from Wiggins.  She turned sharply to see the water welling
+up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
+row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
+the wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She screamed and dashed toward it.  She had nearly reached it when his
+head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice.  Two more
+steps and a loud crack gave her pause.  It flashed on her that if she
+went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
+water herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hold on!  Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
+and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She screamed again and yet again.  Wiggins' face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered.  Then she sank down gently, at
+full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
+so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
+toward the hole.  Half a minute's cautious squirming brought her hands
+to the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists.
+The ice bent under her weight, but it did not break.  The icy water,
+welling out over it, began to drench her arms and chest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could
+not.  She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins' little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes.  She
+could not.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"C-c-can't you p-p-pull m-m-me out?" chattered Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, not yet," she said hoarsely.  "But it's all right.  The Terror
+will be here in a minute."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She listened with all her ears for an answer.  A bird squeaked shrilly
+on the other side of the field; there was no other sound.  Wiggins'
+white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of
+fear.  Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold," said Wiggins in a very faint voice; he
+began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Try to stick it out!  Don't give in!  It's only a minute or two
+longer!  The Terror <I>must</I> come!" she cried fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling
+ashamed of it.  Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of
+hopeless bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in
+their sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They terrified Erebus beyond words.  She screamed, and then she
+screamed and screamed.  Wiggins' face was a mere white blur through her
+blinding tears of terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror
+cried loudly: "Stop that row!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir
+her and Wiggins.  He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he cried: "Squirm round to the left.  I'll help you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and
+she squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending
+ice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a
+willow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull
+began to draw them toward the bank.  The ice creaked as Wiggins' chest
+came over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once
+flat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily.
+He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most of
+her weight off the ice.  Then he stepped down on to it and picked up
+Wiggins.  Erebus' stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they did
+not open easily to let them go.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then
+he pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened
+the blade with his teeth for quickness' sake, tossed it to Erebus and
+cried: "Cut off his skates!  Pull off his boots and stockings!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins' coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began
+to rub his chest violently.  In the spring the Twins had attended a
+course of the St. John's Ambulance Society lectures, and among other
+things had learned how to treat those dying from exposure.  The Terror
+was the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been the
+subject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into
+it.  Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with
+cold and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his
+boots, pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at
+his legs.  The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently
+till the blood reddened that.  Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins' knickerbockers and rubbed his
+thighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled
+them on Wiggins' legs.  The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror's coat and jersey came well down them.  Wiggins was completely
+covered.  But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her
+jacket and tied it round Wiggins' waist by the sleeves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no
+longer a dead waxen color.  He opened his eyes twice and shut them
+feebly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: "Come on, old chap!  Make an effort!
+We want to get you home!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins' cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder,
+bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set
+off toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along.  They
+went slowly for Wiggins' feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly
+along.  Their arms round him helped warm him.  It would have taken them
+a long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soon
+after they came out of Pringle's meadows on to the road, Jakes, the
+Great Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle
+Deeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart.  Wiggins was
+quickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington's
+in about four minutes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to
+Erebus: "You bolt home as hard as you can go.  You must be awfully wet
+and cold; and if you don't want to be laid up, the sooner you take some
+quinine and get to bed the better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran
+home as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins
+as a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington's house in an uproar.  The
+Terror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and
+housemaid and Mr. Carrington himself.  Wiggins was carried into the hot
+kitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet.
+The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expert
+Terror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must be
+restored slowly.  As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and water
+with a teaspoon.  In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able to
+talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed
+and warm the blankets.  In another five minute's Mr. Carrington carried
+Wiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine.  Presently
+he fell asleep.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without
+stockings and a jersey.  He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr.
+Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over,
+he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the water
+and Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking.  He
+was careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins
+go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for saving
+him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and
+then further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine.  On
+his way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle's pond and picked
+up the skates and garments that had been left there.  When he reached
+home he found that Erebus was in bed.  She seemed little the worse for
+lying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins
+afloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worse
+and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her
+disregard for his instructions; he only said: "I just told Mr.
+Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the
+pond."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That was awfully decent of you," said Erebus after a pause in which
+she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the
+spirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected.  She was as
+quick as any one to realize that all's well that ends well; and Wiggins
+escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed.  The adventure, however,
+induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescending
+with him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquired
+something of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonly
+solicitous for his welfare.  To such a point did this solicitude go
+that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing about
+him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their
+lives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their
+games; then tended the inmates of the cats' home, selling them as they
+grew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to
+lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.  The free water runs for rather more than half a mile
+on the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it
+with an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling that
+they left no fish for any one else.  Also the Twins tried to get leave
+to fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream.  But
+Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to
+give them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since Sir
+James was absent, shooting big game in Africa.  They resented the
+refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream.  It
+was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early
+morning on the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their
+Aunt Amelia.  Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that
+it was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehampton
+had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much.  On his return he
+was able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt's parrot still
+said "dam" with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan
+had let Muttle Deeping Grange.  In the life of the Deeping villages the
+mere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the
+inhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of
+Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of
+their being when the news came that it had been let to a German
+princess.  The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with the
+liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from their
+fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of
+Cassel-Nassau, was only twelve years and seven months old.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors.
+Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a
+<I>German</I> princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the
+matter, and refused to be interested or impressed.  Erebus was more
+resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high
+patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing
+to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea,
+gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with
+meaning, "And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass
+when it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she
+should model herself on a German.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't suppose it would really make any difference who you modeled
+yourself on," said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank than
+grammatical.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of
+her neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her.  She did
+not, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she
+had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor.  They only saw her on her
+afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against the
+sun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness
+(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come to
+England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for
+her health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she
+should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the
+excellent Deeping air would strengthen her.  The news abated a little
+the cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attention
+to their young neighbor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and
+her appetite was poor.  Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and
+in particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit.  It was not the
+best season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were
+coming to an end.  Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas.  The
+Twins were annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carry
+out the doctor's orders; but there seemed no help for it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor's
+visit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling
+their bicycles out of the cats' home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes
+of the Terror; and he said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've got an idea!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried
+joyfully; "Thank goodness!  I was beginning to get afraid that nothing
+was ever going to occur to us again.  I thought it was the hot weather.
+What is it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those Germans," said the Terror darkly.  "Now that they've got the
+Grange, why shouldn't we make a raid on the peach-garden.  They say the
+Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told me
+they ripen uncommon early.  They're probably ripe now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's a splendid idea!  It will just teach those Germans!" cried
+Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot.  Then after a pause she added reluctantly: "But if the
+princess is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches
+herself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She couldn't want all of them.  Why we couldn't.  There are hundreds,"
+said the Terror quickly.  "And they're the very thing for Mum.  Bananas
+are all very well in their way; but they're not like real fruit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course; Mum <I>must</I> have them," said Erebus with decision.  "But how
+are we going to get into the peach-garden?  The door in the wall only
+opens on the inside."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're not.  I've worked it out.  Now you just hurry up and get some
+big leaves to put the peaches in.  Mum will like them ever so much
+better with the bloom on, though it doesn't really make any difference
+to the taste."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of
+different kinds.  When she came back she found the Terror tying the
+landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing,
+to the backbone of his bicycle.  She put the leaves into her bicycle
+basket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since
+they had spent several days in careful scouting before they had made
+their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds.  A screen of
+trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; and
+the Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood,
+came down the wall behind that screen of trees.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low
+bough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed
+the garden.  It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound
+that disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed
+the golden burden of the tree beneath him.  The ready Erebus handed the
+landing-net up to him.  He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;
+slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the
+wall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a
+leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket.  The Terror netted
+another and another and another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The garden was not as empty as he believed.  On a garden chair in the
+little lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from
+him by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat,
+or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von
+Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructions
+that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was
+doing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her as
+little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spot
+on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden.  Her
+eyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully
+crimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the
+sound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess was warmly&mdash;very warmly&mdash;dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;
+the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her
+lap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look of
+intolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the
+end-of the wall of pear tree&mdash;a moving object against the garden wall.
+She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a
+peach rose and vanished over the top of the wall.  She stared at the
+part of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds another
+peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that,
+in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the
+wall of pear-tree.  As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the
+wall, a fair-haired boy.  Even as she saw him something rose and
+vanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was a
+landing-net.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably,
+raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: "How do you do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to
+make admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke
+pursuit and risk his peaches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you do?" said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+"What are you doing up there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm looking at the garden," said the Terror truthfully, but not quite
+accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown.  She
+thought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and
+his serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the
+lie.  She thought that he looked a nice boy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval&mdash;as much approval as
+one could give to a girl.  The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray
+eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line
+from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that it
+made her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face.  She looked
+fragile; and he felt sorry for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This garden's very hot," he said.  "It's like holding one's face over
+an oven."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it is," said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yet there's quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of the
+walls," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious
+examining eyes.  Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I tell you what: come out into the wood.  I know an awfully cool
+place.  You'd find it very refreshing," said the Terror in the tone of
+one who has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at
+the sleeping baroness.  The sight of that richly crimson face made the
+garden feel hotter than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do come.  My sister's here, and it will be very jolly in the wood&mdash;the
+three of us," said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you well-born?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:
+"Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in
+the Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns.  And they did very well
+at Cr�cy and Agincourt, too," he added pensively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Suppose the baroness were to wake?" she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror's face: "Oh, is that the
+baroness snoring?  I thought it was a pig," he said frankly.  "She
+won't wake for another hour.  Nobody snoring like that could."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess.  She
+cast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: "Very goot; I
+will coom."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall.  When she came
+through it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it.  The
+Terror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.  He
+gave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in the
+case of a princess, etiquette demanded it.  Then they moved along the
+screen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess,
+which was uncommonly slow.  She kept looking from one to the other with
+curious, rather timid, pleased eyes.  She saw the landing-net that
+Erebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror's bicycle; but she
+saw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the
+home wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through
+without difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths of
+the wood, and moved down it in single file.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I expect you never found this path," said the Terror to the princess
+who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I haf not found it.  I haf never been in this wood till now," said
+the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You haven't been in this wood!  But it's the home wood&mdash;the jolliest
+part of the estate," cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise.  "And
+there are two paths straight into it from the gardens."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I stay always in the gardens," said the princess sedately.  "The
+Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that I
+go out of sight of her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time,"
+said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Slack?  What is slack?" said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She means feeble," said the Terror.  "But all the same those gardens
+are big enough; there's plenty of room to run about in them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I do not run.  It is not dignified.  The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked," said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No wonder you're delicate," said Erebus, politely trying to keep a
+touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One can not help being delicate," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know," said the Terror doubtfully.  "If you're in the open air
+a lot and do run about, you don't <I>keep</I> delicate.  Wiggins used to be
+delicate, but he isn't now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is Wiggins?" said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's a friend of ours&mdash;not so old as we are&mdash;quite a little boy," said
+Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, would
+have resented with extreme bitterness.  "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told
+Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing with
+children of your own age, you'd soon get strong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what I've come to England for," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think there's much chance of your getting strong in that
+peach-garden.  It didn't feel to me like the open air at all," said the
+Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it is the open air," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader
+one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep
+and pathless bank.  The Twins started up it as if it were neither here
+nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Am I to climb this?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle
+against the trunk of a tree, and said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll help you up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round
+the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of
+the bank.  He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it;
+but none the less she reached the top panting a little.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You certainly aren't in very good training," he said rather sadly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Training?  What is training?" said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's being fit," said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And what is being fit?" said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's being strong&mdash;and well&mdash;and able to run miles and miles," said
+Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You needn't shout at her," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm trying to make her understand," said Erebus firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I do understand&mdash;when it is not the slang you are using.  I know
+English quite well," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You certainly speak it awfully well," said the Terror politely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle.  They went a little
+deeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in
+the cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This <I>is</I> different," she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-194"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-194.jpg" ALT="&quot;This is different,&quot; she said." BORDER="2" WIDTH="417" HEIGHT="611">
+<H3>
+[Illustration: "This is different," she said.]
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; this is the real open air," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I do get lots of open air," protested the princess.  "Why, I sleep
+with my window open&mdash;at least that much."  She held out her two
+forefingers some six inches apart.  "The baroness did not like it.  She
+said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills.  But Doctor
+Arbuthnot said that it must be open.  I think I sleep better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they'll go; and then
+they're not wide enough in this hot weather," said Erebus in the tone
+of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you'd be cooler still,"
+said the Terror rather quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat
+and jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure.  She had quite
+lost her air of discomfort and boredom.  Her eyes were shining
+brightly; and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitement
+of her situation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up
+children, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal
+personages unless they first speak to you.  If they were, they did not
+let that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their
+healthy curiosity.  It may be they felt that in the free green wood the
+etiquette of courts was out of place.  At any rate they did not let it
+trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive,
+interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the
+lessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games
+she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea,
+her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner,
+the hour she went to bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it
+was only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her
+importance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunate
+mortals.  She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquette
+in not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question.  Indeed
+she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom that
+any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom,
+indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her
+fellow creatures.  She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had
+never had any really sympathetic playmates.  The children of
+Cassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their minds
+were harassed by the fear lest they should be guilty of some appalling
+breach of etiquette.  The manner of the Twins, therefore, was a
+pleasant change for her.  They were polite, but quite unconstrained;
+and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded had
+never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness,
+they were safely asleep in her presence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new
+friends she looked for.  As she exposed more and more of the trammeling
+net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was
+enmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have found
+so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said
+with heart-felt conviction:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, thank goodness, I'm not a princess!  It must be perfectly awful!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It must be nearly as bad to be a prince," said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with
+parted lips and amazed incredulous eyes.  Their words had given her the
+shock of her short lifetime.  As far as memory carried her back, she
+had been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a
+German princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and
+delightful lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little less
+glorious and delightful than the lot of a German prince.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"B-b-but it's sp-p-plendid to be a princess!  Everybody says so!" she
+stammered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They were humbugging you.  You've just made it quite clear that it's
+horrid in every kind of way.  Why, you can't do any single thing you
+want to.  There's always somebody messing about you to see that you
+don't," said Erebus with cold decision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"B-b-but one is a <I>p-p-princess</I>," stammered the princess, with
+something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're forgetting the food," he said quickly to Erebus.  "I don't
+suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have all
+the sweets and ices she wants."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course," said the princess; and then she went on quickly: "B-b-but
+it isn't what you have to eat that makes it so&mdash;so&mdash;so important being
+a princess.  It's&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it's awfully important what you have to eat!" cried the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should jolly well think so!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her
+exalted station; but the Twins would not have it.  They kept her firmly
+to the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets.  The
+princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly
+but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
+new part of dispenser of information.  Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
+and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
+unheeded by the interested trio.  The crimson baroness had awakened,
+missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
+her.  A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
+was not in them.  As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
+panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
+search of her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
+the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
+tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
+Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
+distant voice calling out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen!  There's some one
+calling.  I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be getting
+back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess rose reluctantly.  Then her face clouded; and she said in
+a tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear!  How annoyed the baroness will be!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I have to; she's my&mdash;my <I>gouvernante</I>," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time," said Erebus coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us.  She
+mightn't think we were good for you.  Some people round here don't seem
+to understand us," said the Terror suavely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
+brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are you
+coming to-morrow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully.  They had no plans for the
+morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
+exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror's heart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We should like to come very much," he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think I shall be able to come," said Erebus with the important
+air of one burdened with many affairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: "But if your
+brother comes?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll come, anyhow," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it isn't the baroness.  It's Miss Lambart," said the princess in a
+tone of relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You take too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus again firmly.
+"Who is Miss Lambart?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's my English lady-in-waiting.  I always have one when I'm in
+England, of course.  I like her.  She tries to amuse me.  But the
+baroness doesn't like her," said the princess, and she sighed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come along, I'll help you down the bank and take you pretty close to
+Miss Lambart.  It wouldn't do for her to know of this place.  It's our
+secret lair," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried
+her down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from
+which Miss Lambart had called.  As they went he adjured her to confine
+herself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walking
+in the wood.  His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of the
+drive, were:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you stand so much nonsense from that baroness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and
+found her thirty yards away.  The Terror slipped noiselessly away
+through the undergrowth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess' footsteps, and said:
+"Oh, here you are, Highness.  We've all been hunting for you.  The
+baroness thought you were lost."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought I would walk in the wood," said the princess demurely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It certainly seems to have done you good.  You're looking brighter and
+fresher than you've looked since you've been down here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The wood is real open air," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease,
+eating a peach.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should have liked one a good deal sooner," he said, as he took one
+from the basket.  "But I didn't like to say anything about them.  She
+mightn't have understood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't," said Erebus somewhat
+truculently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had
+so plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's not a bad kid," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's awfully feeble.  Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a
+bank.  She's not any use to us," said Erebus in a tone of contempt.
+"In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should
+find her a perfect nuisance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps.  Still we may as well amuse her a bit.  She seems to be
+having a rotten time with that old red baroness and all that
+etiquette," said the Terror in a kindly tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She needn't stand it, if she doesn't like it.  I shouldn't," said
+Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: "I tell you
+what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that old
+red baroness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But I expect she'd take a lot of
+teaching.  I don't think she's the kind of kid to do much jumping on
+people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you never know.  We can always try," said Erebus cheerfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood.  It
+was not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered
+by bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved
+as the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but
+little attention to it.  The Twins moved out of it safely and returned
+home with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they had
+been treating a princess with singular firmness.  Nor were they at all
+troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mental
+kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuum
+applied to fruit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that
+afternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and
+bought them for her there.  When two more were forthcoming for her
+dessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so much
+of their salary for "overseering" on her.  The Twins said nothing.  It
+was only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she
+began to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not of
+trade.  Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little late
+to inquire and protest.  Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twins
+had admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit of
+it.  Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping
+home wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who
+met them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes.
+This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain to
+them of this unheard-of breach of etiquette.  She was doubtful how the
+complaint would be received at any rate by Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since
+the sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it
+rather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror.  There was
+something very satisfactory in his strength.  Again they settled
+themselves comfortably on the bank of the pool.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another.  Beside the clear
+golden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the
+pale face of the princess looked waxen.  The blue linen blouse, short
+serge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt,
+serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them an
+air not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb.  In
+her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings and
+heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddled
+sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased
+by the Terror's observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all
+when one had such thick hair as she.  But she was some time acting on
+Erebus' suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be
+more comfortable still.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to
+tell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her
+having gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home
+wood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I tell you what: you've spoilt that baroness," said the Terror when
+she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But she's my <I>gouvernante</I>.  I have to do as she bids," protested the
+princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's all rubbish.  You're the princess; and other people ought to do
+what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any silly
+thing you don't want to.  She wouldn't me," said Erebus with even
+greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think she would," said the princess with a faint sigh; and she
+looked at Erebus with envious eyes.  "But when she starts making a fuss
+and gets so red and excited, she&mdash;she&mdash;rather frightens me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me," said Erebus with a
+very cold ferocity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I rather like people like that.  I think they look so funny when
+they're really red and excited," said the Terror gently.  "But what
+you've got to do is to stand up to her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tell her that you don't care what she says," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cheek her," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I couldn't.  It would be too difficult," said the princess, shaking
+her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find how
+soon you'll get used to shutting her up," said the Terror.  "But I
+don't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy.  I believe in
+being quite polite but not giving way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is very noisy," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her.  It's the only way.  But mind
+you only have rows when you're in the right about something," said the
+Terror.  "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone.  It's no good
+having a row when you're in the wrong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think it's best always to have a row," said Erebus with an air of
+wide experience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, it isn't&mdash;at least it wouldn't be for the princess&mdash;she's not
+like you," said the Terror quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no: not always&mdash;only when one is in the right.  I see that," said
+the princess.  "But what should I have a row about?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a
+pretext for an honest row.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have some
+one to play with?  It's silly being as dull as you are.  What's the
+good of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled.  "It would be nice!  You and Erebus could come to tea with me
+and sooper and loonch often and again!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay.  It
+was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go
+to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and
+girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That wouldn't do at all," said the Terror quickly.  "You had better
+not tell them anything at all about us.  They wouldn't let us come to
+the Grange; and they'd stop you coming here.  It's ever so much nicer
+meeting secretly like this."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here," said
+the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It couldn't be done.  They wouldn't have us at the Grange," said
+Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But why not?" said the princess in surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The people about here don't understand us," said the Terror somewhat
+sadly.  "They'd think we should be bad for you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it is not so!  You are ever so good to me!" cried the princess
+hotly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's no good.  You couldn't make grown-ups see that&mdash;you know what
+they are.  No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet
+us here," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she
+sighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say.  You know more about
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's all right," said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you.
+Suppose we taught you some exercises.  You could practise them at home;
+and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What things?" said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you'd be able to run&mdash;and jump.  Why we might even be able to
+teach you to climb," said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his
+tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner
+vision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess.  Forthwith the Twins set
+about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of
+muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil.  In spite of the
+seeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back
+to the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate
+before she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the
+house or about the gardens.  The Terror therefore conducted her down
+the screen of trees to the door in the wall.  She had left it
+unlatched; and he pushed it open gently.  There was no sound of
+snoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I expect she is still looking for me in the house," said the princess
+calmly.  "They'd be shouting if she weren't."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  I say; do you want <I>all</I> these peaches?" said the Terror,
+looking round the loaded walls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Me?  No.  I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch.  But I
+don't care for peaches much.  It's the way the baroness eats them, I
+think&mdash;the juice roonning down, you know.  And she eats six or seven
+always."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That woman's a pig.  I thought she looked like one," said the Terror
+with conviction.  "But if you don't want them all, may I have some for
+my mother?  The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond of
+peaches."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus.  Take them
+all," said the princess with quick generosity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large
+cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil.  But when she
+was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.
+Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked
+the Twins how they came by them.  They assured her that they had been
+given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a
+secret.  She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it
+likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom
+took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that
+either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on
+eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body.  They adjured her again and again to thrust off
+the yoke of the baroness.  The last pregnant words of Erebus to her
+were: "You just call her an old red pig, and see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that
+very evening.  The princess was dining with the Baroness Von
+Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly
+jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk
+with the princess; and she had done it rudely.  The princess, who
+wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed.  They had reached
+dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in
+her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that
+it must be the air of Muttle Deeping.  The baroness uttered a loud and
+contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches.  The princess
+looked at her with an expression of great dislike.  The baroness
+gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human
+being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the
+princess spoke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want some children to play with," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped
+down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are no
+children in zis country, your Royal Highness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in
+England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I see plenty of children when I drive," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born," said the
+baroness in rasping tones.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with," said the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Moost?  Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice.  "Bud eed ees whad
+I know ees goot for you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're good for me," said the princess firmly.  "And you must find
+them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display
+of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer
+crimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: "Bud eed ees
+eembossible whad your royal highness ask!  Zere are no 'igh an'
+well-born children 'ere.  Zey are een Loondon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you must send for some," said the princess, who, having taken
+the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Moost?  Moost?  I do nod know whad ees 'appen to you, your Royal
+Highness.  I say eed ees eembossible!" shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But surely her highness' request is a very natural one, Baroness; and
+there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look
+for them.  Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have
+children of her own age to play with," said Miss Lambart who had been
+pitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping
+her to the companionship she needed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do nod indervere, Englanderin!" bellowed the baroness; and her crimson
+was enriched with streaks of purple.  "I am in ze charge of 'er royal
+highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow.
+She was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her
+young mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Old&mdash;red&mdash;peeg."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping
+grunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But whad&mdash;but whad&mdash;" she said faintly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Old&mdash;red&mdash;peeg," said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effect
+of the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bud whad ees eed zat 'appen?" muttered the bewildered baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father
+that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
+everything what the English doctor bids," said the princess in a
+sinister tone.  "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the
+Baroness Hochfelden will be my <I>gouvernante</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
+happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
+Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
+well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness," she
+said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them.  Is
+it not, Mees Lambart?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be charmed to try, Highness," said Miss Lambart readily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do nod indervere!  I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped the
+baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
+glowing with the joy of victory.  At the door she paused to say:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I want them soon&mdash;at once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
+night air, she went firmly out into the garden.  The next morning at
+breakfast she again demanded children to play with.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
+baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
+to come to play with the princess.  She only stipulated that they
+should be high and well-born.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins&mdash;Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl.  They're high and well-born
+enough.  But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl.  They're independent young people.  Besides, I'm not at all sure
+that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess.  It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such&mdash;er&mdash;er ardent spirits.  You might have her developing a spirit of
+freedom; and you wouldn't like that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Mein Gott</I>, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then there's Wiggins&mdash;Rupert Carrington.  He's younger and quieter but
+active enough.  He'd soon teach her to run about."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well-born?  He's a <I>Carrington</I>," said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
+impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily.  When the princess, who had
+hoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him
+with resignation.  Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of
+Wiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on the
+qualifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, he'll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; he
+always does.  But you mustn't mind that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate
+be a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their
+fair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend.  Not only was his
+reluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English young
+gentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit as
+sincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a little
+girl far more insulting than they would have done.  They did their best
+to soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing out
+to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, and
+impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; that's all very well," said Wiggins gloomily.  "But I've been
+seeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now I
+shall see less than ever."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the
+stiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and he
+scalped her with gratifying frequency.  In this way it came about that,
+in the matter of play, the princess led a double life.  She spent the
+early part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from tea
+till the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society of
+Wiggins.  She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wiggins
+was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he could
+tell.  Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air.
+They took that change at but a short distance from their home, since
+the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford.
+They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in
+the dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle of
+Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from
+the knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of
+philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they
+could.  She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going
+to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been
+made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was
+presently weeping.  She was ashamed; but she could not help it.  The
+compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would try
+to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly
+the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was
+magnificently inspired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here: why shouldn't you come with us into camp?" he said eagerly.
+"A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange.  You
+really do get open air camping out at the knoll."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid
+thought.  Then it fell; and she said: "They'd never let me&mdash;never."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you'd never ask them," said the Terror.  "You'd just slip away and
+come with us.  We've kept our knowing you so dark that they'd never
+dream you were with us in the knoll caves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect.  She
+had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the
+afternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them
+would be beyond the delight of dreams.  But to her unadventured soul
+the difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting.  The Twins, however,
+were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began
+surmounting these.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,"
+said the Terror thoughtfully.  "You see, I've got to go down every day
+for milk and things, and they're sure to ask me if I've seen anything
+of you.  Of course, I can't lie about it; and then they'll not only
+take you away, but they'll probably turn us out of the caves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the drawback," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment.  A deep frown
+furrowed the Terror's brow; and he said: "If only you weren't a
+princess they wouldn't make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I
+might never be asked anything about you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course," said the
+princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a
+glorious smile, and he cried:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By Jove!  Of course you would!  I never thought of that!  Why, you'd
+be some one else and not the princess at all!  We shouldn't know where
+the princess was if we were asked."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course we shouldn't!" said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of this
+ignorance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel," said the
+princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: "I
+suppose you have to have a title.  But I think an English one would be
+best here: Lady Rowington now.  No one would ever ask us where Lady
+Rowington is, because there isn't any Lady Rowington."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes: Lady Rowington&mdash;I would wish an English title," said the
+princess readily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If we could only think of some way of making them think that she'd
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gipsies don't steal children nowadays," said the Terror; and he paused
+considering.  Then he added, "I tell you what though: Nihilists
+would&mdash;at least they'd steal a princess.  Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never heard of any," said the princess.  "There are thousands of
+Socialists."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Socialists will do," said the Terror cheerfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till
+the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have
+everything in order.  Then they discussed her needs.  She could not
+bring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not
+been stolen.  She must share the wardrobe of Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, no.  I have money," said the princess, thrusting her hand into
+her pocket.  "Will you not buy me clothes?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and
+handed it to the Terror.  He and Erebus examined it with warm
+admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow.  There's a pool
+just under the knoll," said the Terror.  "How much shall we want,
+Erebus?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'd better have two pounds and be on the safe side," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to
+his own.  Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of
+the peach-garden at nine o'clock, or thereabouts at night.  He would
+wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
+the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will.  He made several
+suggestions about the manner of her escape.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
+purchasing her outfit.  They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
+shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
+stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress.  They carried the parcels
+home on their bicycles.  When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
+Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
+throwing the searchers off the scent.  It was:
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-229"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-229.jpg" ALT="Skull and Crossbones captioned &quot;We are avenged.  A Desparate Socialist&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="261" HEIGHT="137">
+<H3>
+[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned <BR>
+"We are avenged.  A Desparate Socialist"]
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
+Knoll.  The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so
+that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom
+Cobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
+encamped with them.  This year she had not cared for the effort; and
+she had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuous
+atmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and
+pleasant.  She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to
+encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll.  Not only were they of approved
+readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were
+as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
+isle.  She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take as
+many blankets as she suggested.  In other years he had been disposed to
+grumble at the number she thought necessary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite.  Then they began
+to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
+brought them up, in their proper caves.  With a break of an hour for a
+bath this occupied them till tea-time.  After tea they bathed again and
+then set about collecting fuel from the wood.  They were too tired to
+spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
+their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs.  They
+were up betimes, bathing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before.  They spent most
+of it in the pool or on its bank.  In the afternoon Wiggins came and
+did not leave them till seven.  Soon after eight o'clock the Terror set
+out to keep his tryst with the princess.  He took with him the
+Socialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening
+from the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange to
+Deeping Knoll.  Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall
+two or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess
+on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it.  He shook
+hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told
+him how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone
+to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen,
+down the stairs and out of the house.  He praised her skill; and she
+found his praise very grateful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the
+princess found them daunting.  They were full of strange noises, many
+of them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes
+seemed to move.  The Terror was not long discovering her fear, and
+forthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the
+path was broad enough to allow it.  When she quivered to some woodland
+sound, he told her what it was and eased her mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active
+games with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough
+ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down
+and rested.  The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled
+to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror.
+When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into
+the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests
+of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her.  She was
+almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-232"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-232.jpg" ALT="She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll." BORDER="2" WIDTH="425" HEIGHT="619">
+<H3>
+[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came <BR>
+at last to the foot of the knoll.]
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey
+the princess found it grateful indeed.  They sat for a while in a row
+before the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the
+princess had visited.  But soon the yawns which she could not repress
+showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that she
+should go to bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to
+herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it
+alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the
+cave of Erebus.  After the journey and the excitement she was not long
+falling into a dreamless sleep.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk.
+Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath.  The
+princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but
+under the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went.  She
+came out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she
+came to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her
+life enjoyed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the
+caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games
+of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to
+an active life.  It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;
+after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of
+which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as
+hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you
+could yell.  After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported
+themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o'clock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping
+her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required
+speed.  Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full
+half-hour before he and Erebus left it.  After dinner the princess was
+so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terror
+insisted that she should lie down for an hour.  She protested that she
+did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this
+glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon.  But he could be admitted
+safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had
+become Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to
+profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts.  Also he would be very
+useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the
+excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess.  So far
+its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were
+content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three
+counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for
+some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists and
+a princess.  It was the general belief that she had been chloroformed
+and abducted through her bedroom window.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the
+probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the
+routes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and the
+towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be.  At the
+end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes,
+very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+"You might have told me that she was coming here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing," said
+Erebus sternly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So I should, if I'd known you knew her at all," said Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what nobody knows," said Erebus triumphantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And look here: she's here incognita," said the Terror.  "She's taken
+the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she's not the princess at
+all.  So if you're asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully
+say she isn't."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course&mdash;I see.  This is a go!" said Wiggins cheerfully; and he
+spurned the earth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we're not expecting them and see her," said the Terror.  "So I'm going
+to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will
+shout to us.  But there's no need to do that yet; nobody will think
+about us for a day or two."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; of course they won't.  I didn't," said Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that
+followed.  It kept the princess always beside the Terror.  Always he
+was using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required
+speed.  Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princess
+been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough
+ground.  On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly
+move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing
+yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had
+died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his
+pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly
+fond of no one.  It is hardly too much to say that she was coming to
+adore the Terror.  Even at their most violent and thrilling moments his
+care for her never relaxed.  He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he
+plastered her scratches.  He saw to it that she came out of the pool
+the moment that she looked chill.  He picked out for her the tidbits at
+their meals.  He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass
+was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly
+refused to play the lady's-maid.  Since the Terror was one of those who
+enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently
+forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in
+handling the silken strands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her
+hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe
+shock.  Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;
+indeed, she had never had the chance.  But he had just finished his
+task and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a
+sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and
+kissed him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you <I>are</I> nice!" she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror's ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds.
+He flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any
+one should have seen it!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: "Don't
+you like for me to kiss you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said,
+faintly but gallantly: "Yes&mdash;oh, rather."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then kiss me," said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her
+gingerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I <I>am</I> fond of you, you know," said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror's scattered wits at last worked.  He rose to his feet, and
+said quickly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; let's be getting to the others."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess rose obediently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not
+frequent, were, at any rate, not rare.  The Terror at first endured
+them; then he came rather to like them.  But he strictly enjoined
+discretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that she
+kissed him.  The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one else
+for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no
+natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware
+of the practise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;
+and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out
+of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose the Terror's in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that.  I think it's awfully silly."  And he spurned the earth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: "He never does!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;
+and her eyes were flashing.  He had seen her angry often enough, but
+never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a
+grievous indiscretion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps she kissed him," he said quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He'd never let her!" cried Erebus fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps they didn't," said Wiggins readily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know they did!" cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I may have made a mistake.  It's quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing," said Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from
+his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl.  He had seen the
+princess with an arm round the Terror's neck, and they had kissed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the
+least resistance, sought the princess.  She found her lying back
+drowsily against a sunny bank.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: "Princess
+or no princess, you shan't kiss the Terror!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up.  Her gray eyes darkened
+and sparkled.  She had never made a face in her life; it is not
+improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was
+ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous
+face at Erebus, and said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you do, I'll smack you!" cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by
+a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in
+the matter of a male.  She met Erebus' blazing eyes squarely and said
+confidently:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He won't let you.  And if you do he'll smack you&mdash;much harder!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then
+and there.  But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules
+only permit you to strike any one standing up.  Erebus forgot them,
+stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a
+really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and
+she cried:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know all about your kissing the princess!  I never heard of such
+silly babyishness!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to
+the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as
+he said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, what harm is there in it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's babyish!  It's what mollycoddles do!  It's girlish!  It's&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mind your own business!  It isn't babyish at all!  She's asked me
+to marry her; and when we're grown up I'm going to&mdash;so there!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE UNREST CURE
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by
+what she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission
+had raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered
+no protest.  She knew that protest would be vain, that against his
+obstinacy she was helpless.  She wrung her hands and turned aside into
+the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiest
+ideals.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then followed a period of strain.  She assumed an attitude of very
+haughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins,
+and let them coldly alone.  From this attitude Wiggins was the chief
+sufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;
+Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the
+strenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily.  As
+often as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined the
+errant pair.  It is to be feared that the princess found the kisses
+sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on
+Deeping Knoll.  There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the
+Twins had had a hand in her disappearance.  But no one had any reason
+to suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted.  Doctor
+Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but they
+were mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always very
+careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was at
+the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficient
+truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was.  The
+bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down.
+Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice
+Falconer in the matter.  When he first read in his <I>Morning Post</I> of
+the disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from
+Muttle Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: "The Twins
+again!" and to that conviction his mind clung.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the
+Socialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny
+paper.  He told himself that Socialists are an educated, even
+over-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skull
+and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rate
+accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialist
+would spell desperate with two "a's" in an important document without
+being corrected by a confederate.  On the other hand the drawing of the
+skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which the
+immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two "a's" in
+any document.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of
+his relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been
+for the international situation produced by the disappearance of the
+princess.  As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings,
+dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled to
+postpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organ
+and organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudly
+disavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England and
+Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at one
+another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiring
+frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets.  Even then
+Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would
+not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet
+minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty
+thousand pounds' worth of consols.  He disliked the lady so strongly
+that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt
+that the time had come to ease the international situation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping.  His conviction
+that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess
+became certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were
+encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that
+disappearance.  But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his
+habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood
+and park to Muttle Deeping Grange.  He gave his card to the butler and
+told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms
+of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three
+minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:
+"Is this business worrying you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is rather.  You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible.  Besides, since I'm
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being
+taken explained; and they want the same explanation over and over
+again.  Since the archduke came it has been very trying.  I think that
+he is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sorry to hear that they've been worrying you like this.  If I'd
+known, I'd have come down and stopped it earlier," said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of lively self-reproach.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stop it?  Why, what can you do?" cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyes
+wide in her surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess.  But it's only a belief, mind.  So don't be too hopeful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart's pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, if you could!" she cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can,
+for the easier part; and we'll put my belief to the test," said Sir
+Maurice briskly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: "I shan't be able to
+get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss.  They're very unpleasant
+people, you know.  Could we take the baroness with us?  She'll <I>have</I>
+to be carried in something."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is she very fat?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then she'd never get to the place I have in mind," said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it very far?  Couldn't we walk to it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's about three miles," said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, that's nothing&mdash;at least not for me.  But you?" said Miss Lambart,
+who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
+weakling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can manage it.  Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
+limbs," said Sir Maurice.  "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and
+pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
+park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
+surface of the distant wood.  Sir Maurice had once walked to it with
+the Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
+inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
+course.  It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
+charming companion through such a charming country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+"Where are we going to?  Where do you think the princess is?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You've been here a month.  Haven't you heard of the Dangerfield
+twins?" said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
+and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them.  But he said that they were not
+the kind of children for her, though they were the only high and
+well-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood.  He
+seemed to think that they would make her rebellious."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder," said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her&mdash;a
+very nice little boy," said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wiggins!  The Twins' greatest friend!  Well, I'll be shot!" cried Sir
+Maurice; and he laughed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
+something to do with the princess' disappearance?  How old are they?"
+said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
+mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
+Socialists and foreigners.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen.  But I do know
+that nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their
+having a hand in it.  I have the honor to be their uncle," said Sir
+Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them.  She's
+a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
+she is delicate to fragility," Miss Lambart protested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of deep conviction.  "But it would not necessarily be a
+matter of persuasion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But what else could it be&mdash;children of thirteen or fourteen!" cried
+Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I assure you that it might quite easily have been force," said Sir
+Maurice seriously.  "My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll.
+It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part
+communicating with one another.  I can conceive of nothing more likely
+than that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;
+and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom.  They
+might lure her to some distance from the Grange before they had
+recourse to force."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It sounds incredible&mdash;children," said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we shall see," said Sir Maurice cheerfully.  Then he added in a
+more doubtful tone; "If only we can take them by surprise, which won't
+be so easy as it sounds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase.  But it was a
+very pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking
+with him through this pleasant sunny land.  When presently he turned
+the talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still.
+He was very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance at
+having had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome <I>corv�e</I> of
+acting as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to the
+domineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome <I>corv�e</I>
+indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been.  He
+sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented by
+that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the
+baroness and the archduke during the last few days.  The baroness had
+tried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; and
+the archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at
+having been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash to
+England, had been very rude indeed.  She was much pleased by the warmth
+of Sir Maurice's indignation; but she protested against his making any
+attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, without
+harming himself.  But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke,
+nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in
+the broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path
+led to the knoll.  Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take
+it.  He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have it
+guarded, if the princess were indeed with them.  He led the way into
+the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for her
+carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her frock
+get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the
+knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir
+Maurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering
+earnestly ahead through the branches.  Now and again a loud yell came
+from the knoll; and once a chorus of yells.  Finding that her coldness
+(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on her
+insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;
+and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in
+an astonished whisper:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That was awfully like the princess' voice."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought you said she was delicate," said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So she was," said Miss Lambart firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen
+and unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the
+knoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in its
+face.  They waited, watching it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning
+to wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed
+kin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging
+down her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped
+into a clump of bushes to the right of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The princess!" said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward,
+but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing
+in a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington," said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an
+ear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms
+round his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came
+to the ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Delicate to fragility," muttered Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Whatever has she been doing to herself?" said Miss Lambart faintly,
+gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't know the Twins," said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a
+breakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the
+battling pair.  As far as the spectators could judge she and the
+princess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelled
+their shrillest.  Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from the
+cave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the aching
+welkin rang.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and
+Wiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled.  The princess
+and the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled.  The princess
+wriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an arm
+round his neck.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was splendid!" she cried, and kissed him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very
+good grace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I never!" said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"These delicate children," said Sir Maurice.  "But it's certainly a
+delightful place for lovers.  I'm so glad we've found it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was
+flushing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come along!" she said quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first.  He did not stir; but a curious,
+short, sharp cry came from his throat.  It seemed to loose a spring in
+the princess.  She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly,
+frowning.  The Terror rose more slowly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good afternoon, Highness.  I've come to take you back to the Grange,"
+said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm not going," said the princess firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm afraid you must.  Your father is there; and he wants you," said
+Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewise
+toward the mouth of the cave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his
+pockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But if you don't come of yourself, we shall have to carry you," said
+Miss Lambart sternly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: "I don't see
+how you can.  You can't touch a princess you know.  It would be
+<I>l�se-majest�</I>.  She's told me all about it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir
+Maurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively.  But he said: "Oh, come;
+this won't do, Terror, don't you know!  Her highness will <I>have</I> to
+come."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see how you're going to get her.  The only person who could
+use force is the prince himself, and I don't think he could be got up
+to the knoll.  He's too heavy.  I've seen him.  And if you did get him
+up, I don't really think he'd ever find her in these caves," said the
+Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirely
+impersonal matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Anyhow, I'm not going," said the princess with even greater firmness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see, there isn't any real reason why she shouldn't stay here,"
+said the Terror.  "She came to England to improve her health; and she's
+improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange.  You
+can <I>see</I> how improved it is.  She eats nearly as much as Erebus."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She has certainly changed," said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Twins have a transforming effect on the young," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of resignation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am much better," said the princess.  "I'm getting quite strong, and
+I can run ever so fast."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of
+satisfaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it's nonsense!" said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But what can you <I>do</I>?" said the Terror gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll chance the <I>l�se-majest�</I>!" cried Miss Lambart; and she sprang
+swiftly forward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it.  Miss Lambart followed
+swiftly.  The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage
+forked into three dimmer passages.  Miss Lambart stopped short and
+tried to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of the
+retiring princess.  It came from none of the three; the floor of the
+eaves was covered with sound-deadening sand.  Miss Lambart walked back
+to the entrance of the cave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She has escaped," she said in a tone of resignation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I really don't see any reason for you to put yourself about for
+the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange.  You have done more
+than you were called on to do in finding her.  You can leave the
+catching of her to them.  There's nothing to worry about: it's quite
+clear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good," said Sir
+Maurice in a comforting tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; there is that," said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let me introduce my nephew.  Hyacinth Dangerfield&mdash;better, much
+better, known as the Terror&mdash;to you," Said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: "How do you do?  I've been
+wanting to know you: the princess&mdash;I mean Lady Rowington&mdash;likes you
+ever so much."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps you could give us some tea?  We want it badly," said Sir
+Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I can.  We only drink milk and cocoa, of course.  But we have
+some tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday," said the
+Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I take it that she saw nothing of the princess," said Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no; she didn't see Lady Rowington.  You must remember that she's
+Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh?  I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess," said Sir Maurice quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; that was how," said the Terror blandly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their
+kettle on the fire for some time.  Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed
+the picnic greatly.  On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed.
+Miss Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess;
+and she came out of hiding and took her tea with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical
+change in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was
+a browner, brighter, stronger child.  Plainly, too, she was a more
+determined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved of
+that change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved by
+the princess' kinsfolk and train.  But she was somewhat distressed that
+the legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deep
+scratches.  She had none of the experienced Twins' quickness to see and
+dodge thorns.  She took Miss Lambart's sympathy lightly enough; indeed
+she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorable
+warfare.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was
+assured that this green wood life was the very thing the princess
+needed, she was resolved to give him no help herself.  She was pleased
+to learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess'
+acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance and
+cultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in the
+peach-garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of
+their entertainers and set out through the wood.  They had not gone a
+hundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that the
+strenuous life had again begun.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle
+Deeping Grange with the news of their great discovery.  But she found
+that Sir Maurice had formed other plans.  They were both agreed that no
+consideration was owing to the billowy archduke.  His manners deprived
+him of any right to it.  Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping
+post-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and help
+wrote two long telegrams.  The first was to the editor of the Morning
+Post, the second was to the prime minister.  In both he set forth his
+discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in a
+wood, and her reasons for running away to them.  The postmistress
+despatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease
+the international situation at once.  Since both the editor and the
+prime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there was
+no fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of
+Mrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged
+Europe into Armageddon.  Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with
+unruffled calm.  She showed no surprise at all; she only said that she
+had found it very strange that a princess should vanish at Muttle
+Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it.  She perceived at once that
+the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name of
+Lady Rowington.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no
+haste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant
+atmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange.  It was past seven therefore when
+the Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archduke
+with her news.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he
+always fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with
+sufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of her
+news.  He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it.  It
+annoyed him greatly.  He was taking considerable pleasure in standing
+on a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern
+sire.  His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laugh
+consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter.  His second feeling
+was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirring
+things about the Terror's manifesto and the stolen princess, would be
+furiously angry with him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss
+Lambart was ignorant.  Then when he grew cooler and paler his
+oft-repeated phrase was: "Eet must be 'ushed!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care
+that the affair should not be hushed up.  She did not wish every blow
+to strike him at once.  Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste
+he rolled off to the dining-room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke's equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up
+the stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at
+once, as she was.  She took no heed of the command, dressed at her
+ease, and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after his
+struggle with the hors-d'oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his
+first entr�e.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about
+the place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was
+encamped with.  Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as
+clearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible.
+Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercised
+her authority and brought the princess back with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that
+if she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and
+that it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through
+miles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns were
+sacrosanct.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and
+summon home his truant child.  Miss Lambart objected that it would mean
+hewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit his
+passage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allow
+it.  Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go.  Miss Lambart with
+infinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must be
+hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there was
+not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity.  Then he
+struck the table and cried:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Count Zerbst shall do eet!  To-morrow morning!  You shall 'eem lead to
+ze wood.  'E shall breeng 'er."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a
+German count would hardly be proper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Brobare?  What ees 'brobare'?" said the archduke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Convenable</I>," said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to
+militate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the
+earliest possible moment.  Miss Lambart said that they must.  In the
+end it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowington
+and that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to the
+entrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to the
+princess her father's command to return to the Grange, and if she
+should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would
+never set eyes, much less hands, on the princess.  Count Zerbst's
+smooth pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little
+mustache, which in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion
+accentuated the extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his small
+eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely something about "sdradegy."  He
+looked at Miss Lambart very unamiably.  He felt that she was not
+impressed by him as were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resented
+it.  He resolved to capture the princess at any cost.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the <I>Morning
+Post</I> the true story of his daughter's disappearance; and he was fuming
+still when the car came from Rowington.  It was a powerful car and a
+weight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been
+careful to demand a weight-carrier.  With immense fuss the archduke
+disposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled with
+billowy curves.  The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang to
+the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she might
+the more easily direct his course.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no
+objection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran
+the path to the knoll.  At the entrance of it the count stepped out of
+the car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the air
+of a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but he
+was to bring her at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a last generous outburst he cried: "Pooll 'er by the ear!  Bud
+breeng 'er."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and
+martial air.  Miss Lambart was not impressed by it.  She thought that
+in his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently
+tighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place
+under the green wood trees.  She remembered how lightly the Twins and
+the princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his getting
+near any of them.  Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods she
+had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which
+to approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent.  Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with
+all the competence of a trumpet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her doubt was well-grounded.  The quick ears of Erebus were the first
+to catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred
+yards from the entrance of the path to the knoll.  Ever since the
+departure of Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been making
+ready against invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings to
+the secret caves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to
+the knoll.  They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well
+lighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge.  But the
+entrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave
+in the heart of the knoll.  On this shaft the Twins had spent their
+best pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they had
+reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches high
+and eighteen inches broad.  The opening into this passage could,
+naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was
+hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave.  It had been a
+somewhat difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so
+narrow a passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite
+sure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car
+was coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed
+their way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind
+them, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between the
+larger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of the
+wall of the cave.  Then she betook herself to a point of vantage among
+the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch the
+entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an
+excellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train
+from Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais.  Miss
+Lambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on the
+efforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll.  She stepped out of the car and
+strolled up and down on the pleasant turf.  Presently she saw a figure
+coming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when it
+came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the
+discoverer of his daughter's hiding-place.  The archduke, mindful of
+the fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance
+to the world, received him ungraciously.  Miss Lambart at once told Sir
+Maurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectation
+that anything would come of it.  Sir Maurice agreed with her; and the
+fuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promising
+soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau.  Then Sir Maurice suggested that
+they should go to the knoll and help the count.  Miss Lambart assented
+readily; and they set out at once.  They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll.  It was quiet and seemed utterly
+deserted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer.
+Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they
+should find him and help him search them; they plunged into the caves
+and began to hunt for him.  They did not find the count; neither did
+they find the princess nor the Twins.  They shouted to him many times
+as they traversed the caves; but they had no answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they
+reached it.  He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the
+princess.  He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to
+the princess.  No answer had come to his calling.  He had kept coming
+out of the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll.  At one of these
+exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl,
+dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told the
+princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the
+knoll.  With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged
+after her into the wood.  Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among
+the bushes, and by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in
+sight.  Once, indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good and
+all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take up
+the chase again.  But he did not catch her.  Indeed he did not lessen
+the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
+For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and
+endurance.  Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the
+going, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance.  It was
+true that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff,
+tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck.  But he was not near
+enough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly
+flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all.  All the while he
+was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course of
+the next hundred yards.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran
+down a field path toward the village of Little Deeping.  By the time
+the count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards.  To
+his joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost
+ground quickly.  When they reached the common, he was a bare forty
+yards behind her.  He was not surprised when in despair she left the
+path and bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious
+air, and knocked firmly on the door.  Sarah opened it; and he demanded
+the instant surrender of the princess.  Sarah heard him with an
+exasperating air of blank bewilderment.  He repeated his demand more
+firmly and loudly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: "Please, mum: 'ere's a furrin
+gentleman asking for a princess.  I expect as it's that there missing
+one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do nod mock!  She 'ees 'ere!" cried the count fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been
+arranging flowers, and came to the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The princess is not here," she said gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I haf zeen 'er!  She haf now ad once coom!  She 'ides!" cried the
+count.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet
+by its strings.  The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I expect he means me.  At least he's run after me all the way from the
+knoll here," said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The count's eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden
+outburst of fluent German.  He did not think that any of his hearers
+could understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; he
+hoped they could not; he could not help it if they did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully.  She did not
+suppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the
+count to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day.  She was
+sorry for him.  He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fall
+foul of the Twins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus caught her mother's thoughtful eye.  At once she cried
+resentfully: "How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made
+him think I was the princess?  He never asked me who I was.  He just
+shouted once and ran after me.  I was hurrying home to get some salad
+oil and get back to the knoll by lunch."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, you would run all the way," said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you'd have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!
+Just look at that mustache!  It would frighten anybody!" cried Erebus
+in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I see," said her mother with undiminished patience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed
+his fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda.  He
+explained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistake
+Erebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to
+appear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman.  Erebus left them
+together; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to the
+knoll.  They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been an
+after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it.  That
+would be the safe course.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car,
+looking frequently at his watch.  He had expected the count to return
+with the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  Then he
+had expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count and
+the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  None of them
+returned.  The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highest
+of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of this
+enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair.  The count sat
+drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had
+not really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased
+that he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of
+her acquaintance.  Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and
+talked seriously about everything and certain other things, but chiefly
+about themselves and each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay
+between him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter
+remained uncaught.  He chafed and fumed.  His vexation grew even more
+keen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that the
+thoughtless count had borne away the case.  He appealed to the
+chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington and
+ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car,
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!" and sank down again panting with
+the effort.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-280"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-280.jpg" ALT="The archduke bellowed: &quot;Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="393" HEIGHT="530">
+<H3>
+[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"]
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes.  The archduke's
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry.  No
+answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"P'raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace," said the chauffeur,
+somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, shout!" said the archduke quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: "Zerbst!
+Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: "I shout&mdash;you shout&mdash;all ad
+vonce!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Every little 'elps," said the chauffeur politely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+"He seems to be growing impatient."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He isn't calling us.  And it's no use our going back without either
+the princess or the count," said Miss Lambart quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not the slightest," said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if that
+were possible, to him and kissed her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and
+their discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their
+earlier friendship.  They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been
+discussing the matter of being married at an early date.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all.  They
+don't treat you decently, you know&mdash;not even for royalties," he went on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it wouldn't do not to go back&mdash;at any rate for to-night&mdash;though,
+of course, there's no point in my staying longer, since the princess
+isn't there," said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is hauling
+her to her circular sire," said Sir Maurice.  "The Twins can not be
+successful all the time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly," said Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That wouldn't be the slightest use," said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete certainty.  "If the princess is in the caves, she is not in an
+accessible one.  But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or
+even likelier, to be at the Grange.  The Twins are quite intelligent
+enough to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to look
+for them.  It's no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we're
+very comfortable here.  Why not stay just as we are?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They stayed there.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the archduke's impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the
+minutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away.  At ten
+minutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers
+should be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once
+he despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chauffeur made no haste about it.  He had heard of the caves on
+Deeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them.  Besides, he
+made it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in
+his mouth since eleven o'clock; and he felt now off duty.  He explored
+half a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir
+Maurice and gave them the archduke's message.  They joined him in his
+search for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to him
+loudly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near.
+The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late
+for it.  There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from
+his solar plexus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the
+knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to
+sink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a
+gloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the
+chauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to the
+knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst.  The archduke cursed his equerry
+wheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the
+car and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the
+car went bumping down the turfed aisle.  Once in the road the
+chauffeur, anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducal
+hospitality, let her rip.  But half a mile down the road, they came
+upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer.  It was Count Zerbst.  After a
+long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebus
+had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to
+find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping
+Grange.  In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his
+patent leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he was
+indeed footsore.  He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh of
+relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone
+was cheerful.  The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and
+disappointments of the morning.  Count Zerbst had acquired a deep
+respect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; and
+he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter with
+Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princess
+good, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimson
+baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage her
+charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial
+social reasons.  The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to
+recover her lost charge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the
+baroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily.  He made no secret of
+the fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to
+the woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but it
+might take a week or ten days.  The archduke cried shame upon a
+strategist of his ability that he should be baffled by children for a
+week or ten days.  Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the
+children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were
+using.  At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their
+aid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth
+the risk of the ridicule it might bring upon them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had
+something more pleasant to give her mind to.  But at last she said with
+some impatience: "Why can't the princess stay where she is?  That
+open-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good.  She is
+eating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as ever
+she took in her life before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eembossible!  Shall I live in a cave?" cried the baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It doesn't matter at all where you live.  It is the princess we are
+considering," said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Drue!" said the archduke quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?"
+cried the baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She isn't," said Miss Lambart shortly.  "In fact she's leading a far
+better and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here.  The
+doctor's orders were never properly carried out."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ees zat zo?" said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eengleesh doctors!  What zey know?  Modern!" cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders.  The baroness
+defended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be
+dying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water the
+doctors had ordered her.  But the archduke stormed on.  At last he had
+some one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show of
+reason; and he vented it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart's counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of
+the princess remaining at the knoll.  They found many objections to it,
+and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be
+encamped by themselves in the heart of a wood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more
+efficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself.  Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind
+at ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better
+health than if she had stayed on here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bud 'ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and&mdash;" cried
+the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Goot!" cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed at
+the thought of escaping forthwith to his home.  "Eet shall be zo!  And
+ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who
+do as ze doctors zay."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting
+provisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the
+path to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewest
+possible number of garments she would need during her stay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the
+Rowington car to the knoll.  Not far from the park gates she met Sir
+Maurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her.  At the
+entrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisions
+and Miss Lambart's trunk from the car, and dismissed it.  Then they
+went to the knoll.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it.
+But after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in
+peace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves
+above them and heard the news.  She made haste to bear it to the Terror
+and the princess who received it with joy.  They had already been
+cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge once
+more into the strenuous life.  They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; and
+the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her
+position at the knoll secure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full
+share of the strenuous life.  She played her part in it manfully.  Even
+Erebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to
+admit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her
+engaged in the strenuous life.  Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;
+and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the
+speed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life on
+the lower place.  Both of them found the knoll a delightful place for
+lovers.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the
+princess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the
+beginning arranged.  Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss
+Lambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly with
+her.  It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was not
+only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to him
+in the course of the next few weeks.  She grumbled about it to the
+Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in the
+matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads.  Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss
+Lambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriage
+were very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous
+life.  She failed.  Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that
+plain fact, and failed again.  He declared that it was his first duty,
+as an uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were not
+quick about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him.  Erebus
+carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; and
+there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for several
+days.  The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most
+natural and satisfactory thing in the world.  Her only complaint was
+that she and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same
+day as Miss Lambart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll
+even more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest
+felicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them.  Sir Maurice
+arrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, than
+sunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset.  But the
+pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, since
+the archduke's tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess must
+return to Germany.  She was bitterly grieved at parting with the
+Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the
+next summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again.
+It seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive association
+with the Twins she would have her way about it.  Nevertheless, in spite
+of her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm
+ideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the most
+unaffected fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir
+James Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for
+years been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at
+any rate for a while.  It had always been their keen desire to fish the
+Grange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished all
+the years Sir James had been wandering about the world.  But Mr.
+Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused their
+request.  He believed that their presence would be good neither for the
+stream, the fish, nor the estate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they
+felt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that
+they might be able to compass their desire.  Also they felt that the
+sooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hear
+unfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freely
+with his neighbors.  Therefore, with the help of their literary
+mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leave
+to fish the Grange water.  Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath
+indeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so
+many years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he
+left their honeyed missive unanswered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days.  Then it was
+slowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their
+letter at all; and they grew very angry indeed.  Their anger was in
+close proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter.  The name
+of Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carried
+in their retentive minds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him
+for the affront he had put on them.  Scorching, in his feverish,
+Central African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerful
+motor-car, he looked well beyond their reach.  But Fortune favors the
+industrious who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus came
+bicycling swiftly up to the cats' home, and cried:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook's water!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his
+hands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you sure?" he said calmly.  "It's a long way from the ridge to the
+stream."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not for my eyes!" said Erebus with some measure of impatience in her
+tone.  "I'm quite sure that it was Sir James; and I'm quite sure that
+it was old Glazebrook's meadow.  Lend me your handkerchief."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a
+less pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a
+perfect content.  She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with
+her interesting news.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish I'd seen him too," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's quite enough for me to have seen him!" said Erebus with some heat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It would be better if we'd both seen him," said the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice of
+our letter!" said Erebus indignantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor
+at considerable length.  The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be
+listening to her.  In truth he was considering what advantage might be
+drawn from Sir James' transgression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last he said: "The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result
+that two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream,
+stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of
+the wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream
+below.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He'll soon be at the boundary fence," said the Terror in a hushed
+voice of quiet satisfaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!" said Erebus
+who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's on the other side of it they're rising," said the Terror in a
+calmly hopeful tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast
+after vain cast.  He was a big game hunter; he had given but little
+time and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at which
+his water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket
+still empty of trout.  He looked longingly at his neighbor's water; as
+the Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely.  Then the
+watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's not going to poach, after all!" cried Erebus in a tone of acute
+disappointment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all?
+Long Ridge is a good way off," said the Terror looking across to it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I did.  I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook's meadow," said
+Erebus firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's very disappointing," said the Terror, frowning at the disobliging
+fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: "Well, it can't be
+helped; we've got to go on watching him every evening till he does.  If
+he's poached once, he'll poach again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look!" said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary
+fence.  He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning
+the little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter's
+eyes.  It is to be feared that he had been too long used to the
+high-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where big
+game dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor's
+fish.  Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of netting
+his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant.
+Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to give
+them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since
+Glazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the
+Morgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty
+years.  Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught
+him poaching.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human
+beings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper
+in the wood.  Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of
+view, regard poaching with abhorrence.  But he would perceive that his
+master was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them
+that chance of making a sportsman-like end.  At any rate the keeper
+would hold his tongue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a
+tone of triumph: "Well, he's gone and done it now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, we've got him all right," said the Terror in a tone of calm
+thankfulness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir
+James caught three good fish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a
+figure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look!  There's old Glazebrook!  He'll catch him!  Won't it be fun?"
+she cried, wriggling in her joy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+"Yes: it would be fun.  There'd be no end of a row.  But it wouldn't be
+any use to us.  I'm going to warn him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that he sent a clear cry of "Cave!" ringing down the stream.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly
+and noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: "We'll
+teach him not to answer our letters."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road,
+took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and
+lifted them over the gate.  They reached home in time for dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the
+time since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had
+been for a bicycle ride.  She did not press him to be more particular
+in his account of their doings, though from Erebus' air of subdued
+excitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise
+was in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror's
+uncommon power of polite evasion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o'clock, she went out into
+the garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they
+were not within hearing.  She told herself that she would be lucky if
+she got them to bed by ten.  But she would have been surprised, indeed,
+had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in
+a condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats' home quietly, mounted,
+rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house,
+and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool
+and tidy.  They timed their arrival with such nicety that as they
+dismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the
+content inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himself
+comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not
+only assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it
+would prevail.  A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his
+fish with the usual strictness, <I>can not</I> allow himself to be
+prosecuted for poaching.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at
+the coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business," said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;
+and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted
+Sir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return to
+Cassel-Nassau.  He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during the
+last days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and had
+formed a high opinion of their ability and their manners.  Moreover, of
+a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield
+whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful
+tone: "It's very late, Master Terror.  You can't expect Sir James to
+see people at this hour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know it's late; but the business is important&mdash;very important," said
+the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mawley hesitated.  His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous
+of obliging her children.  Then he said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll tell Sir James that you're here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you," said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round
+them at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master
+and Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh?  They're the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to
+fish.  But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little
+devils in the county, so I took no notice of their letter," said Sir
+James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so.  But it's my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do.  And after all
+they're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behave
+like ordinary children," said Mawley in the tone and manner of a
+persuasive diplomat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish," said Sir James.
+"There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of
+noisy children won't make those easier to catch.  But I may as well
+tell them so myself; so you may bring them here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room.  They
+entered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of
+themselves, and greeted Sir James politely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his
+steward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick,
+red-faced and robustious.  He felt that these pleasant-looking young
+gentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation.
+There must be a mistake somewhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him
+than they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large
+arched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the
+small clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of
+the Terror, pleased them.  He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?"
+he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We saw you in Glazebrook's meadow this afternoon&mdash;poaching," said the
+Terror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort.  He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh?  Then it was one of you who called 'Cave!' from the wood?" said
+Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; we didn't want old Glazebrook to catch you," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh&mdash;er&mdash;thanks," said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That wouldn't have been any use to us," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of use to you?" said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; if he'd caught you, there wouldn't be any reason why we should
+fish your water," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But is there any reason now?" he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  You see, you were poaching," said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in something of the manner of
+a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished
+enlightenment:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I'm&mdash;hanged if it isn't blackmail!" he cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Blackmail?" said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation.  "Why,
+that's what the Scotch reavers used to do!  I never knew exactly what
+it was."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And we're doing it.  That is nice," said Erebus, almost preening
+herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But this is disgraceful!  If you'd been village children&mdash;but
+gentlefolk!" cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed," said the
+Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a kind of stealing," said
+Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother's fur stole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a felony," said Sir James
+loftily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+"Poaching's worse."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
+very angry eyes.  The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air.  Their
+appearance no longer pleased him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's your own fault entirely," said the Terror coldly.  "If you'd been
+civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't have
+bothered about you.  But you didn't take any notice of it&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And it was beastly cheek," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing.  So we kept an eye
+on you and caught you poaching," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Without any excuse for it.  You've plenty of fishing of your own,"
+said Erebus severely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneak
+to the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't going
+to do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish your
+water at all.  We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll get
+prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook.  That's what we came to say."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
+write to you," said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
+find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
+night, and left the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
+expressed his feelings without difficulty.  Then he began to laugh.  It
+was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
+been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
+rankled.  He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of
+Africa, by much more ferocious creatures.  But after sleeping on the
+matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased
+it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield
+children were allowed to fish his water.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND AN APOLOGY
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
+triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
+fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's
+faint appetite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had grown stronger during the summer.  She was not, indeed,
+definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak.  But, a woman of
+spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness
+of her life in the country.  It was sapping her strength and energy; in
+it she would grow old long before her time.  The Twins had been used to
+find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;
+and the change troubled them.  Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for
+her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the
+trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her.  But she
+made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound
+of the Twins on the bank of the stream.  To his pleased surprise he
+neither saw nor heard them.  For the most part they fished in the early
+morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appetite
+at breakfast.  But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other
+acted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of his
+sight.  They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assured
+them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James.  As the
+Terror phrased it:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point in
+rubbing it in."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them.  Erebus was
+playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare
+Sir James' feelings.  Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was
+impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it
+snapped the gut and was gone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Evidently you're no so good at fishing as blackmailing," said Sir
+James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!" said Erebus with some heat;
+and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself
+looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-312"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-312.jpg" ALT="Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman." BORDER="2" WIDTH="425" HEIGHT="557">
+<H3>
+[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking <BR>
+into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene
+of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his
+eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is Sir James Morgan, mother," said the Terror quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+"It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh&mdash;ah&mdash;yes&mdash;n-n-not at all," stammered Sir James, blushing faintly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but it was," said Mrs. Dangerfield.  "And I'm seeing that they
+don't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that,
+thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none too
+many fish in the stream."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's very good of you.  B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch,"
+said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished
+to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence.  Yet he did not
+wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: "You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they'd like to."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are they as good fishermen as that?" said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, they've been fishing ever since they could handle a rod.  They
+are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring.  So I limit them to three fish a day," said Mrs. Dangerfield;
+and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's very good of you," said Sir James.  He hesitated, shuffled his
+feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs.
+Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: "I should like to
+stay and see how they do it.  I might pick up a wrinkle or two."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course.  Why, it's your stream," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to
+the fishing.  Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air
+of fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness.  His
+first discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest
+desire to remain in her presence.  He not only stayed with them till
+the Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to Colet
+House with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of the
+deepest reluctance.  It can hardly be doubted that he had been smitten
+by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we more
+gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not
+received the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth.  If,
+instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them,
+he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate
+condition of meeting her often.  It did not for a moment enter his mind
+that if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily have
+failed to fall in love with her at all.  He cudgeled his brains to find
+some way of meeting her again and meeting her often.  He was to meet
+her quite soon without any effort on his part.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had
+been smitten by that emotional <I>coup de foudre</I>, for she was walking
+with a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she
+said in a really cheerful tone:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the
+exciting life he had in Africa."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Rather!", said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had not missed Sir James' sentence about the superiority of Erebus'
+blackmailing to her fishing.  But she knew the Twins far too well to
+ask them for an explanation of it before him.  None the less it clung
+to her mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At supper therefore she said: "What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the
+explanation; and he said suavely:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it was about the fishing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How&mdash;about the fishing?" said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he didn't want to give us leave.  In fact he never answered our
+letter asking for it," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And of course we couldn't stand that; and we had to make him," said
+Erebus sternly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Make him?  How did you make him?" said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror told her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised
+and annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that
+her offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger.  She felt chiefly
+annoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to
+blackmail should be Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you did blackmail him," she said in a tone of dismay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He seemed to think that we were&mdash;like the Douglases used to," said the
+Terror in an amiable tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong&mdash;very wrong,
+indeed," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he <I>did</I> seem to think so," said the Terror.  "But we thought he
+was prejudiced; and we didn't take much notice of him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And we couldn't possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum&mdash;it
+was such a polite letter&mdash;and not take it out of him," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And it hasn't done any harm, you know.  We wanted those trout ever so
+much more than he did," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as
+she pondered how to deal with the affair.  She was still chiefly
+annoyed that Sir James should have been the victim.  The Twins gazed at
+her with a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they were
+burdened by a sense of wrong-doing.  They were merely sorry that she
+was annoyed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, there's nothing for it: you'll have to apologize to Sir
+James&mdash;both of you," she said at last.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Apologize to him!  But he never answered our letter!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it,
+opened it again and said in a soothing tone: "All right, Mum; we'll
+apologize."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel
+Sir James to invite them to continue to fish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There had been some such intention in the Terror's mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real
+apology.  But he said amiably: "All right; just as you like, Mum."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her
+breath.  After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the
+Terror bitterly for not refusing firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path
+across the fields, to the Grange.  Surprise and extreme pleasure were
+mingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into the
+drawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would
+find Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching
+her children fish.  His night's rest had trebled his interest in her
+and his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her.  The appeal to
+him of her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless
+enough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been
+dead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put to
+it to make both ends meet.  His compassion had been deeply stirred; she
+was so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life.  He
+wished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to that
+smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as he
+possibly could.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could
+scarcely believe his joyful ears.  He had to put a constraint on
+himself to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley's
+eyes, and not dash to it at full speed.  He entered the room with his
+eyes shining very brightly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily.  She was
+looking grave and ill at ease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James," she said as
+they shook hands.  "I find that these children have been blackmailing
+you; and I've brought them to apologize.  I&mdash;I'm exceedingly distressed
+about it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, there's no need to be&mdash;no need at all.  It was rather a joke," Sir
+James protested quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But blackmailing isn't a joke&mdash;though of course they didn't realize
+what a serious thing it is&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was the Douglases doing it," broke in the Terror in an explanatory
+tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you.  They had me in a cleft stick,"
+protested Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well then you ought to have come straight to me," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but really&mdash;a little fishing&mdash;what is a little fishing?  I
+couldn't come bothering you about a thing like that," protested Sir
+James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  "Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going to
+apologize."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very
+stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, not at all&mdash;not at all&mdash;don't mention it.  Besides, I owe you an
+apology for not answering your letter," said Sir James in all the
+discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due.  Then he
+heaved a sigh of relief and added: "Well, that's all right.  And now I
+hope you'll do all the fishing you want to."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly not; I can't allow them to fish your water any more," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but really," said Sir James with a harried air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you'll have some tea&mdash;after that hot walk!" cried Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, thank you, I must be getting home," said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out.  As Erebus
+passed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him.  She was
+desirous that he should not overrate her apology.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+</H3>
+
+
+<P>
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap
+from the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it.  He came down
+the steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the
+park, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the
+gardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shooting
+about the world.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship.  But she could not drive him from her side on his own
+land.  They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead.  When Sir James and
+Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight.
+Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way with
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James,
+the Terror said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he was quite decent about it.  It made him much more
+uncomfortable than we were.  I suppose it was because we're more used
+to Mum."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?" said the
+unappeased Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, well; he didn't mean to.  It was an accident, you know," said the
+Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer
+intimacy with Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Accident!  People shouldn't have accidents like that!" said Erebus in
+a tone of bitter scorn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James
+diplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty,
+their grace and their intelligence.  The diplomacy was not natural (he
+was no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject he
+could at the moment think of.  He could not have found a quicker way to
+Mrs. Dangerfield's approval.  She had been disposed to dislike him for
+having been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart.
+Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it was
+only natural that she should invite him to tea.  He accepted with
+alacrity.  At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to
+see more of her.  With a natural simplicity he used his skill in
+woodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covert
+afforded by the common to watch Colet House.  Thanks to this simple
+device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere in
+the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;
+and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he
+had ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in
+his enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right.  He had
+been making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but he
+perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty to
+settle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his duty
+by his estate and his neighbors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his
+instinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that
+to bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the
+land of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed
+of.  But he had a stout heart, the hunter's pertinacity, and a burning
+resolve to succeed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be
+useful friends in the matter.  But did they chance on him walking with
+their mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily
+aloof.  He must abate their hostility.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were
+starting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully,
+stopped and said: "I'm awfully sorry I gave you away the other day.
+But I never saw your mother till I'd done it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't mention it," said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So you ought to be," said Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a pity you should lose your fishing.  If I'd known how good you
+both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter,"
+said Sir James hypocritically.  "But I was misinformed about you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's worse that mother should lose the trout.  She does hate butcher's
+meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly," said
+Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's like that, is it?" said Sir James quickly; and an expression of
+deep concern filled his face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, and she did eat those trout," said Erebus plaintively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched
+him with little hope in their faces.  Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;
+and he said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here: you mayn't fish my water; but there's no reason why you
+shouldn't fish Glazebrook's.  <I>I</I> think that a man who nets his water
+loses all rights."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, he does," said the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I'll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined.  I
+want to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook&mdash;he's not a sportsman."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror's face had brightened; but he said: "But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can reckon them presents from me.  They would be&mdash;practically&mdash;if
+I'm going to pay the fines," said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing
+tenderly with exactitude which appealed to them.  The Terror himself
+could not have been more tender with it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's a ripping idea!" said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The peace was thus concluded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win
+their good will.  He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of
+chocolate.  If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he
+would carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with
+sumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained them
+with stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even
+more than they thrilled them.  But he won their hearts most by his
+sympathy with them in the matter of their mother's appetite, and by
+joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of
+taking the short cut to her heart by praising them.  He laid himself
+out to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for
+himself as large as possible a place in her life.  She was not long
+discovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as a
+very pleasant shock.  None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster,
+who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, had
+attracted her so strongly as did Sir James.  Even as her delicacy made
+the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorous
+robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the
+keener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues.  When
+no less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James
+and Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tongues
+began to wag.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
+London, one morning met the Twins in the village.  They greeted her
+politely and made to escape.  But she was in the mood, her most
+constant mood, to babble.  She stopped them, and with a knowing air,
+and even more offensive smile, said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
+soon in Little Deeping, are we?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
+them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
+said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are we?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should have thought you would have known all about it," she said
+with a cackling little giggle.  "Mind you tell me as soon as you're
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
+and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
+her own.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, nothing&mdash;nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
+sternness.  "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother&mdash;But
+there&mdash;there's probably nothing in it&mdash;the Morgans always were
+rovers&mdash;one foot at sea and one on shore&mdash;I dare say he'll be in the
+middle of Africa before the week is out.  Good morning&mdash;good morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
+the grocer's shop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning.  Then Erebus
+said: "Silly old idiot!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning.  At last he broke out:
+"This won't do!  We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
+And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
+cheerful for her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said?  It
+would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a
+panic.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Do</I> you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I dare say there is.  Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's
+always very civil to us&mdash;people aren't generally," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but we must stop it!  We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why must we?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried
+Erebus fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It isn't altogether what we like&mdash;there's Mum," said the Terror.  "She
+does have a rotten time of it&mdash;always being hard up and never going
+anywhere.  And, after all, we shouldn't mind Sir James when we got used
+to him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we should!  And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher&mdash;at all," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it," said the
+Terror firmly.  "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made up
+their minds.  But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant by
+saying that the Morgans were rovers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
+utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop.  Then she said in a tone of considerable
+relief:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marrying
+Mum."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, that's what she did mean," growled the Terror.  "And she'll go
+about telling everybody that he's only fooling."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I don't think he is.  I don't think he would," said Erebus quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No more do I," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence.  Then the Terror's face
+cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know the thing to do!  I'll go and ask him his intentions.  That's
+what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut&mdash;you know:
+that fellow from Rowington&mdash;was fooling about with Miss Hawley."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right, we'll go and ask him," said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no, you can't go.  I must go alone," said the Terror quickly.
+"It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do&mdash;people said so
+about Miss Hawley&mdash;and I'm the only man of the family about.  If Uncle
+Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint.  She alleged that the restrictions
+which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
+to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
+everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
+successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
+which he performed alone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do," said the
+Terror with very cold severity.  "You know what Mrs. Morton said about
+Miss Hawley and the Cut&mdash;that the men of the family did it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it.  So it's no
+use you're making a fuss," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir
+James would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone,
+early in the afternoon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him
+straight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over
+his after-lunch coffee.  Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was
+beginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in the
+country, and poured him out a cup of coffee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple
+matter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his
+usual diplomacy, said with firm directness: "I've come to ask your
+intentions, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My intentions?" said Sir James, not taking him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you're only fooling," said the Terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The deuce they are!" cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angry
+comprehension.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions," said
+the Terror firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course&mdash;of course," said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled.
+Then he added gravely: "My intentions are not only extremely serious
+but they're extremely immediate.  I'd marry your mother to-morrow if
+she'd let me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's all right," said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief.  "Of
+course I knew you were all right.  Only, it was the thing to do, with
+these silly old idiots talking."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite so&mdash;quite so," said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly
+drinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been
+suffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the
+Terror's serenity was soothing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: "Do
+you think your mother would marry me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I haven't the slightest idea; women are so funny," said the Terror
+with a sage air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James pulled at his mustache.  Then the compulsion to have some
+one's opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy's, came
+on him strongly; and he said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish I knew what to do.  As it is we're very good friends; and if I
+asked her to marry me, I might spoil that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: "I
+don't think you would.  Mum's very sensible, though she is so pretty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: "I'll
+risk it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rang the bell and ordered his car.  He talked to the Terror jerkily
+and somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his
+perturbation with considerable interest.  It seemed to him very curious
+in a hard-bitten hunter of big game.  They started and in the two level
+miles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car's speeds nine times.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air
+of detachment: "I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If I only could!" said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he
+entered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a
+thrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of
+him; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Dangerfield's face was one flush; and she cried: "B-b-but it's out
+of the question.  I&mdash;I'm old enough to be your mother!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now how?&mdash;I'm three years and seven months older than you," said Sir
+James, taken aback.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be an old woman while you're still quite young!" she protested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You won't ever be old!  You're not the kind!" cried Sir James with
+some heat; and then with sudden understanding: "If that's your only
+reason, why, that settles it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he set her down and held her at arm's length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: "Oh, James, you are&mdash;ever
+so much more&mdash;impetuous&mdash;than I thought.  You gave me&mdash;no time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank goodness, I took the Terror's tip!" said Sir James.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE END
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
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@@ -0,0 +1,7915 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Terrible Twins
+
+Author: Edgar Jepson
+
+Illustrator: Hanson Booth
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2006 [EBook #19043]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+By
+
+EDGAR JEPSON
+
+
+
+Author of
+
+The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+HANSON BOOTH
+
+
+
+
+INDIANAPOLIS
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT 1913
+
+THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: The original book was missing pages 3, 4, 53, and
+54.  There are transcriber's notes at those locations in this e-book.
+Page 53 is the last page of chapter 2, and page 54 is the first page of
+chapter 3.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Chapter
+
+    I  AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+   II  GUARDIAN ANGELS
+  III  AND THE CATS' HOME
+   IV  AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+    V  AND THE SACRED BIRD
+   VI  AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+  VII  AND PRINGLE'S POND
+ VIII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+   IX  AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+    X  AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+   XI  AND THE UNREST CURE
+  XII  AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+ XIII  AND AN APOLOGY
+  XIV  AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said
+  Sir Maurice Falconer. . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"This is different," she said.
+
+We are avenged.
+
+She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.
+
+The Archduke bellowed, "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of
+a very pretty woman.
+
+
+
+
+THE TERRIBLE TWINS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AND CAPTAIN BASTER
+
+For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really
+discussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with the
+greatest number of stones, in the most amicable spirit.  It was indeed
+a nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw
+stones quicker, straighter and harder than any one of their size and
+weight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the
+bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but irritated,
+quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand his
+presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him.  Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her
+experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth
+Wolfram Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the
+same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud
+vehemence, because if you were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed.
+
+Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said
+firmly, "I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of
+times."
+
+So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty,
+which hung from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins.
+
+"Perhaps we did," said Anastasia amiably.  They went swiftly down the
+road, munching in a peaceful silence.
+
+It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike.
+No stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed,
+dark-haired, dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and
+piquant a face, for the cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of
+Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+on whose firmly chiseled features rested so perpetual, so contrasting a
+serenity.  But it was a whim of man, of their wicked uncle Sir Maurice
+Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 3 missing]
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 4 missing]
+
+
+
+demand, had forbidden them to use them any longer.
+
+The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the
+action of Little Deeping.  It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since
+their exploits afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation
+they loved.  In a bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves
+to become the finest stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and
+since they had every natural aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness
+of eye, they were well on their way to realize their ambition.  There
+may, indeed, have been northern boys of thirteen who could outthrow the
+Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a stone straighter or
+harder than Erebus.
+
+They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted
+it gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over
+it (for the Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate
+than to unlatch it and walk through) and took their way along a narrow
+path through the gorse and bracken.  They had gone some fifty yards,
+when from among the bracken on their right a voice cried: "Bang-g-g!
+Bang-g-g!"
+
+The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the
+gorse, his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on
+his richly freckled face.  He stood over the fallen Twins; and his
+smile of triumph changed to a scowl of fiendish ferocity.
+
+"Ha!  Ha!  Shot through the heads!" he cried.  "Their bones will bleach
+in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red
+Bear the terror of the Cherokees!"
+
+Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife.  Then he
+took from his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an
+inconceivable note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant
+imagination of Erebus) made an entry in it, and said in a tone of
+lively satisfaction: "You're only one game ahead."
+
+"I thought we were three," said Erebus, rising.
+
+"They're down in the book," said Wiggins; firmly; and his bright blue
+eyes were very stern.
+
+"Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of
+you again," said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls.
+
+Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins.  He ambushed and scalped
+them; they ambushed and scalped him.  Seeing that they had already
+passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their
+part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it.  But Wiggins was a
+favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
+
+The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly
+on across the common.  Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth.
+Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly
+spring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
+
+Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The game
+isn't really fair; you're two to one."
+
+"You keep very level," said the Terror politely.
+
+"Yes; it's my superior astuteness," said Wiggins sedately.
+
+"Goodness!  What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
+
+"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a European
+reputation," Wiggins explained.
+
+"Yes, everybody says that.  But what is a European reputation?" said
+Erebus in a captious tone.
+
+"Everybody in Europe knows him," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.
+
+They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert.  It seemed to them
+a name both affected and ostentatious.  Besides, crop it as you might,
+his hair _would_ assume the appearance of a mop.
+
+They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to
+see two figures coming toward them, eighty yards away.
+
+"It's Mum," said Erebus.
+
+Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of
+booty, and thrust it into a gorse-bush.
+
+"And--and--it's the Cruncher with her!" cried Erebus in a tone in which
+disgust outrang surprise.
+
+"Of all the sickening things!  The Cruncher!" cried the Terror, echoing
+her disgust.  "What's he come down again for?"
+
+They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the
+approaching pair.
+
+The gentleman whom they called the "Cruncher," and who from their tones
+of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain
+Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher
+on account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent
+teeth.
+
+They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of
+superiority: "_I_ know why he's come down."
+
+"Why?" said the Terror quickly.
+
+"He's come down to marry your mother," said Wiggins.
+
+"What?" cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank
+consternation; and they stopped short.
+
+"How dare you say a silly thing like that?" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"_I_ didn't say it," protested Wiggins.  "Mrs. Blenkinsop said it."
+
+"That silly old gossip!" cried Erebus.
+
+"And Mrs. Morton said it, too," said Wiggins.  "They came to tea
+yesterday and talked about it.  I was there: there was a plum cake--one
+of those rich ones from Springer's at Rowington.  And they said it
+would be such a good thing for both of you because he's so awfully
+rich: the Terror would go to Eton; and you'd go to a good school and
+get a proper bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all--"
+
+"I wouldn't go!  I should hate it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Yes; they said you wouldn't like wholesome discipline," said the
+faithful reporter.  "And they didn't seem to think your mother would
+like it either--marrying the Cruncher."
+
+"Like it?  She wouldn't dream of it--a bounder like that!" said the
+Terror.
+
+"I don't know--I don't know--if she thought it would be good for
+us--she'd do anything for us--you know she would!" cried Erebus,
+wringing her hands in anxious fear.
+
+The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out
+in dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was
+flushed.
+
+"This must be stopped," he said through his set teeth.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus.
+
+"We'll find a way.  It's war!" said the Terror darkly.
+
+Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: "I'm on your side," he said.  "I'm
+a trusty ally.  He called me Freckles."
+
+"Come on," said the Terror.  "We'd better face him."
+
+They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy.  As they drew near, the
+Terror's face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling
+still.
+
+From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty
+voice: "How's Terebus and the Error; and how's Freckles?" he cried, and
+laughed heartily at his own delightful humor.
+
+The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins
+shook hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain
+Baster.
+
+"I'm always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with her delightful smile.  "I know you keep them out of
+mischief."
+
+"It's generally all over before I come," said Wiggins somewhat glumly;
+and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth.
+
+"I've not had that kiss yet, Terebus.  I'm going to have it this time
+I'm here," said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed his rich laugh.
+
+"Are you?" said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at him
+with the eyes of hate.
+
+They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, "You'll come to tea with us,
+Wiggins?"
+
+"Thank you very much," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.  As he
+alighted on it once more, he added.  "Tea at other people's houses is
+so much nicer than at home.  Don't you think so, Terror?"
+
+"I always eat more--somehow," said the Terror with a grave smile.
+
+They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side
+of Mrs. Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein,
+enlivened the walk with his delightful humor.  The gallant officer was
+the very climax of the florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed,
+glossy-haired young man of twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose,
+neatly rounded off in a little knob forever shiny.  The son of the
+famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every advantage which great
+wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave career in a
+crack regiment.  The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, unappreciative,
+was not enjoying it.  To his brother officers he was known as
+Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, "I'm
+a very pally man."  It was very true: it was difficult, indeed, for any
+one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his friendship,
+for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, he
+enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs.
+
+All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of
+personal talk that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused
+the face of Wiggins with a flush of mortification that dimmed his
+freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. Dangerfield's white brow in a distressful
+frown.  The Terror, serene, impassive, showed no sign of hearing him;
+his mind was hard at work on this very serious problem with which he
+had been so suddenly confronted.  More than once Erebus countered a
+witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp enough to pierce the
+rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer.  Once this unbidden but
+humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality denied her
+even this relief.  She could only treat him with a steely civility.
+The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit.
+
+He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he
+was too new for it.  The old, worn, faded, carefully polished
+furniture, for the most part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
+century, seemed abashed in the presence of his floridness.  It seemed
+to demand the setting of spacious, ornately glittering hotels.  Mrs.
+Dangerfield liked him less in her own drawing-room than anywhere.  When
+her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled by a curious feeling
+that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had he escaped
+calling in a bright plaid satin tie.
+
+The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not
+unconscious of it, did not trouble Captain Baster.  Indeed, he took
+some credit to himself for being so little contemptuous of the shabby
+furniture.  In a high good humor he went on shining and shining all
+through tea; and though at the end of it his luster was for a while
+dimmed by the discovery that he had left his cigarette-case at the inn
+and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was presently shining
+again.  Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly into the
+garden.
+
+They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething.
+
+"He's a pig--and a beast!  We can't let Mum marry him!  We _must_ stop
+it!" cried Erebus.
+
+"It's all very well to say 'must.'  But you know what Mum is: if she
+thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said the Terror
+gloomily.
+
+"And she never consults us--never!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Only when she's a bit doubtful," said the Terror.
+
+"Then she's not doubtful now.  She hasn't said a word to us about it,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"That's what looks so bad.  It looks as if she'd made up her mind
+already; and if she has, it's no use talking to her," said the Terror
+yet more gloomily.
+
+They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly
+backward and forward from one to the other.  He preserved a decorous
+sympathetic silence.
+
+"No, it's no good talking to Mum," said Erebus presently in a
+despairing tone.
+
+"Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher
+ourselves," said the Terror.
+
+"But you can't squash the Cruncher!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why not?  We've squashed other people, haven't we?" said the Terror
+sharply.
+
+"Never any one so thick-skinned as him," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror frowned deeply again: "We can always try," he said coldly.
+"And look here: I've been thinking all tea-time: if stepchildren don't
+like stepfathers, there's no reason why stepfathers should like
+stepchildren."
+
+"The Cruncher likes us, though it's no fault of ours," said Erebus.
+
+"That's just it; he doesn't really know us.  If he saw the kind of
+stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off," said the Terror.
+
+"But he can't even see we hate him," objected Erebus.
+
+"No, and if he did, he wouldn't mind, he'd think it a joke.  My idea
+isn't to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if we
+give our minds to it," said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone.
+
+Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning.  Then a dazzling smile
+illumined her charming face; and she cried: "Oh, yes!  Let's give him
+socks!  Let's begin at once!"
+
+"Yes: I'll help!  I'm a trusty ally!" cried Wiggins; and he spurned the
+earth joyfully at the thought.
+
+They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their
+brains for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities.
+
+Presently Wiggins said: "You might make him an apple-pie bed.  They're
+very annoying when you're sleepy."
+
+He spoke with an air of experience.
+
+"What's an apple-pie bed?" said Erebus scornfully.
+
+Wiggins hung his head, abashed.
+
+"It's a beginning, anyhow," said the Terror in an approving tone; and
+he added with the air of a philosopher: "Little things, and big things,
+they all count."
+
+"I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can't," said Erebus
+bitterly.
+
+"By Jove!  That cigarette-case!  Come on!" cried the Terror; and he led
+the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping.
+
+"Where are we going?" said Erebus.
+
+"We're going to make him that apple-pie bed.  There's nothing like
+making a beginning.  We shall think of heaps of other things.  If we
+don't worry about them, they'll occur to us.  They always do," said the
+Terror, at once practical and philosophical.
+
+They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping,
+where, as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the
+front door which stood open.  At the sound of their footsteps in her
+hall the stout but good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar
+to learn what they wanted.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway," said the Terror politely.  "We've come
+for Captain Baster's cigarette-case.  He's left it somewhere in his
+room."
+
+At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway
+rubbed her hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her
+eyes had rested on the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a
+frown; and she said: "Bother the thing!  It's sure to be stuck
+somewhere out of sight.  And the bar full, too."
+
+"Don't you trouble; I'll get it.  I know the bedroom," said the Terror
+with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs.
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir," said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar.
+
+Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror.  In
+less than two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the
+bed; and their intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless
+unprotected bedroom.  Erebus sprang to the shaving-brush on the
+mantelpiece and thrust it under the mattress.  The Terror locked
+Captain Baster's portmanteau; and as he placed the keys beside the
+shaving-brush, he said coldly:
+
+"That'll teach him not to be so careless."
+
+Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain
+Baster's inviting dress-boots with water.  Wiggins rocked with laughter.
+
+"Don't stand giggling there!  Why don't you do something?" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: "A clothes-brush in bed is
+very annoying when you stick your foot against it."
+
+He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him.
+He took the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against
+the bottom of the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the
+other of Captain Baster's feet was sure to find it.  The Terror did not
+care which foot was successful.
+
+Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from
+the dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the
+inn.
+
+As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat
+vengeful triumph: "There! you see things _do_ occur to us."  Then with
+his usual scrupulous fairness he added: "But it was Wiggins who set us
+going."
+
+"I'm an ally; and he called me Freckles," said Wiggins vengefully; and
+once more he spurned the earth.
+
+On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most
+thickly overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too
+sheltered to have dried after the heavy rain of the day before.
+
+"Mind the mud, Wiggins," said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness in
+the matter.
+
+Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: "It wouldn't be
+a nice place to fall down in, would it?"
+
+The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister
+little laugh, and said: "Wiggins, you're a treasure!"
+
+"What is it?  What is it now?" said Erebus quickly.
+
+"A little job of my own.  It wouldn't do for you and Wiggins to have a
+hand in it, he'll swear so," said the Terror.
+
+"Who'll swear?" said Erebus.
+
+"The Cruncher.  And you're a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear such
+language," said the Terror.
+
+"Rubbish!" said Erebus sharply.  "Tell us what it is."
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"It's a beastly shame!  I ought to help--I always do," cried Erebus in
+a bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+The Terror shook his head.
+
+"All right," said Erebus.  "Who wants to help in a stupid thing like
+that?  But all the same you'll go and make a silly mull of it without
+me--you always do."
+
+"You jolly well wait and see," said the Terror with calm confidence.
+
+Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached
+the house.
+
+They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster
+still talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story
+illustrating his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea
+and one three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies.  He laid great stress on
+the prices he had paid for them.
+
+When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her
+offspring with an air of doubtful surprise.
+
+Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity:
+"Thank you, Error--thank you.  But why didn't you bring it to me,
+Terebus?  Then you'd have earned that kiss I'm going to give you."
+
+Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone:
+"Oh, I helped to get it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GUARDIAN ANGELS
+
+At seven o'clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn.  Of
+his own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp.  He left
+the house a proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining
+before Mrs. Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance.
+
+He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she
+was four years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two
+years younger, and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts.  But he
+chiefly saw in her an admirable ladder to those social heights to which
+his ardent soul aspired to climb.  She had but to return to the polite
+world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened
+circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a
+host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.
+Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing a
+mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt
+rather than knew that with women he was irresistible.
+
+It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield's brow in a
+troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to
+select to wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a
+gown with which she had never been truly pleased.  The troubled air did
+not leave her face during dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins,
+for they, too, were gloomy.  They were pleased, indeed, with the
+beginning of the campaign, but still very doubtful of success in the
+end.  Where their interests were concerned their mother was of a
+firmness indeed hard to move.
+
+Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that
+disturbed them, especially at the Terror.  Erebus in a pretty light
+frock of her mother's days of prosperity, which had been cut down and
+fitted to her, was a sight to brighten any one's eyes; but the sleeves
+of the dark coat which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings,
+bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye.
+
+The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his
+failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be
+unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by his
+distinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English
+gentleman.  After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the
+harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must
+appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was
+wearing.  It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not
+really feel a conquering hero after eight o'clock at night.
+
+Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water.  It was a
+good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water
+its lining had not soaked up.  The gallant officer said a good deal
+about its retentive properties to the mute boot.
+
+At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had
+himself fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom.  A flash of
+intuition connected the Terror with the watered boot; and he begged
+her, with loud acerbity, never again to let any one--any one!!--enter
+his bedroom.  Mrs. Pittaway objected that slops could not be emptied,
+or beds made without human intervention.  He begged her, not perhaps
+unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the
+better for his directness.
+
+Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
+As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees
+which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a
+clothes-line tight.  It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge
+on the other side of the lane.  There it was fastened to a stout stake;
+and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails.  At its
+tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the
+mud-patch.  It was at its tightest.
+
+Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain
+Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace.  As he moved through
+the bracing autumn air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night--that
+very night he would crown Mrs. Dangerfield's devotion with his avowal
+of an answering passion.  He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror;
+and like a conqueror he whistled.  Then he found the clothes-line,
+suddenly, pitched forward and fell, not heavily, for the mud was thick,
+but sprawling.  He rose, oozy and dripping, took a long breath, and the
+welkin shuddered as it rang.
+
+The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind.
+
+Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield
+waited restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a
+troubled frown.  Her woman's instinct assured her that Captain Baster
+would propose that night; and she dreaded it.  Two or three times she
+rose and walked up and down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark,
+troubled eyes in the two old, almost giltless round mirrors, they did
+not please her as they usually did.  Those eyes were one of the sources
+from which had sprung Captain Baster's attraction to her.
+
+But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful
+things for them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing
+them.  She told herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and
+husband; that under his unfortunate manner were a good heart and
+sterling qualities.  She assured herself that she had the power to draw
+them out; once he was her husband, she would change him.  But still she
+was ill at ease.  Perhaps, in her heart of hearts, she was doubtful of
+her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros hide.
+
+When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was
+unfortunately prevented from coming that evening, but would come next
+morning to take her for a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a
+relief that it frightened her.  She sat down and wrote out a telegram
+to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their trusty hard-working maid, and
+bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly upstairs to bed at
+one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning.  She did not wish to
+take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as possible.
+She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd
+man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard
+for her interests.  She tried not to hope that he would find marriage
+with Captain Baster incompatible with them.
+
+Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness.  He thought
+for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability.
+Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet.  In the middle of it he
+missed his shaving-brush.  He hunted for it furiously; he could have
+sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau.  He did swear, but
+not to any definite fact.  There was nothing for it: he must expose his
+tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.
+
+Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not
+vanished from it.  In one short night it had lost its pristine
+freshness.  This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast
+gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air of
+one who has abandoned hope.  Later he came out of it with his roving
+black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was
+smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches--red patches.  At the door
+the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn accosted him
+with the news that she had just found his keys and his shaving-brush
+under the mattress of his bed.  He looked round the village of Little
+Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place.
+
+None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to
+the expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new
+lock, for his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness
+of his soul.  Half an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged
+chin, he took his way to Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of
+his future stepson.  As he drew near it he saw that that stepson was
+awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer still he saw that he was
+awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity.
+
+The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile
+asked him if he had slept well.
+
+The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain's veins, and he said
+somewhat thickly: "Look here, my lad, I don't want any more of your
+tricks!  You play another on  me, and I'll give you the soundest
+licking you ever had in your life!"
+
+The serenity on the Terror's face broke up into an expression of the
+deepest pain: "Whatever's the matter?" he said in a tone of amazement.
+"I thought you loved a joke.  You said you did--yesterday--at tea."
+
+"You try it on again!" said Captain Baster.
+
+"Now, whatever has put your back up?" said the Terror in a tone of even
+greater amazement.  "Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or the
+water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?"
+
+It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat's swiftness:
+Captain Baster's boot missed him by a hair's breadth.
+
+The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the
+bedroom of Erebus.
+
+"Waxy?" he cried joyously.  "He's black in the face!  I told him he
+said he loved a joke."
+
+Erebus only growled deep down in her throat.  She was bitterly
+aggrieved that she had not had a hand in Captain Baster's downfall the
+night before.  The Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his
+glorious exploit and of the shuddering welkin.
+
+He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: "Now, you
+quite understand.  You'll stick to them like a leech.  You won't give
+him any chance of talking to Mum alone.  It's most important."
+
+"I understand.  But what's that?  Anybody could do it," she said in a
+tone of extreme bitterness.  "It's you that's getting all the real fun."
+
+"But you'll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if you're
+careful," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course, I shall.  But what's that?  I tell you what it is: I'm
+going to have my proper share of the real fun.  The first chance I get,
+I'm going to stone him--so there!" said Erebus fiercely.
+
+"All right.  But it doesn't seem quite the thing for a girl to do,"
+said the Terror in a judicial tone.
+
+"Rats!" said Erebus.
+
+It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave
+the purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat
+painfully, time to fade.  When she did come to him, he was further
+annoyed by the fact that Erebus came too, and with a truculent air
+announced her intention of accompanying them.  Mrs. Dangerfield was
+surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a gentle occupation.
+Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to propose
+before she had taken counsel with her brother.
+
+Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to
+hide from himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her
+charm: she was the mother of the Terror.  He found, too, that his
+instinctive distaste for the company of Erebus was not ungrounded.  She
+was a nuisance; she would talk about wet boots; the subject seemed to
+fascinate her.  Then, when at last he recovered his spirits, grew once
+more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, there was no
+getting rid of her.  She was impervious to hints; she refused, somewhat
+pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries.  How could a man
+be his humorous self in these circumstances?  He felt that his humor
+was growing strained, losing its delightful lightness.
+
+Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus' own fault (he could swear
+it) that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal
+brambles.  Her howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her
+ankle (he could swear it); there was not a tear.  The moment he
+offered, furiously, to carry her, she walked without a vestige of a
+limp.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up
+one's children like that--well.  Certainly she was losing her charm;
+she was the mother of Erebus also.
+
+His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of
+wife for him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near
+Colet House, a slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and
+distinction came through the garden gate to meet them.
+
+With a cry of "Uncle Maurice!" the crippled Erebus dashed to meet him
+with the light bounds of an antelope.  Captain Baster could hardly
+believe his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by
+repute.  It was Sir Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his
+friend.  With his aid a man might climb to the highest social peaks.
+
+When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never
+dreamed it) he could not believe his good fortune.  But why had he not
+learned this splendid fact before?  Why had he been kept in the dark?
+He did not reflect that he had been so continuously busy making
+confidences about himself, his possessions and his exploits to her that
+he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling him anything
+about herself.
+
+But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up
+for lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated
+his right to the name of Pallybaster.  His friendliness was
+overwhelming.  Before the end of lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to
+dine with him at his mess, to dine with him at two of his clubs, to
+shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the forthcoming regimental
+steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean.
+
+All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew.  He could not
+bear that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice.  The Twins
+were intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their
+uncle's attention.  They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their
+stepfather, it would be his first task to see that they learned a
+respectful silence in the presence of their elders.
+
+He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make
+it.  Captain Baster's love was of his life a thing apart, but his
+social aspirations were the chief fact of his existence.  Besides,
+there was no haste; he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his
+avowal with a passionate eagerness; any time would do for that.  But he
+must seize the fleeting hour and bind Sir Maurice to himself by the
+bond of the warmest friendship.
+
+Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to
+the interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world,
+humorous, knowing, wealthy, to talk to.  He tried to make opportunities
+for him to escape from them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he
+did not seem to see them.  In truth Captain Baster was a little
+disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find him frankly responsive:
+polite--yes; indeed, politeness could go no further.  But he lacked
+warmth.  After all he had not pinned him down to the definite
+acceptance of a single invitation.
+
+When, at seven o'clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance
+that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a
+bosom friend.  He felt that the friendship might need clenching.
+
+As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the
+air of one who has paused from exhausting toil: "I feel
+sticky--positively sticky," he said.  "Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy
+friends!  I thought we should never get rid of him.  I thought he'd
+stuck himself to us for the rest of our natural lives."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning:
+"That's what he's up to."
+
+"He's not a friend of mine!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"We call him the Cruncher--because of his teeth," said the Terror.
+
+"Then beware, Erebus--beware!  You are young and possibly savory," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"You children had better go and get ready for dinner," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+The Twins went to the door.  On the threshold Erebus turned and said:
+"It's Mum he wants to crunch up--not me."
+
+The bolt shot, she fled through the door.
+
+Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly:
+
+"Oho!  I see--heroism.  That was what you wanted to consult me about."
+Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: "It
+won't do, Anne--it won't do at all.  I am convinced of it."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which
+disappointment and relief were very nicely blended.
+
+"Think?  I'm sure of it," said Sir Maurice in a tone of complete
+conviction.
+
+"But the children; he could do so much for the children," pleaded Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"He could, but he wouldn't.  That kind of bounder never does any one
+any good but himself.  No, no; the children are right in calling him
+the Cruncher.  He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times
+better for them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that
+ever came out of pickles."
+
+"Well, you know best.  You do understand these things," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield; and she sighed.
+
+"I do understand Basters," said Sir Maurice in a confident tone.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a
+weight oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit.
+
+Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave
+thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus.  Once Sir Maurice asked
+her the cause of it.  She only shook her head.
+
+Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he
+had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it.  But
+on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before
+him with his stick for clotheslines.  He came out of the dark lane into
+the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a
+strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
+
+There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he
+walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for
+more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with
+considerable force.  He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise
+with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his
+head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
+
+With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed
+in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came.  He was just in
+time to stop a singularly hard stone with his marble brow.  Then he
+found a gorse-bush (by tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed
+unwilling to release him from its stimulating, not to say prickly,
+embrace.  As he wallowed in it another stone found him, his ankle-bone.
+
+He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet
+and realized that there was only one thing to do.  He tore along the
+turf road to Colet House as hard as he could pelt.  A stone struck the
+garden gate as he opened it.  He did not pause to ring; he opened the
+front door, plunged heavily across the hall into the drawing-room.  The
+Terror formed the center of a domestic scene; he was playing draughts
+with his Uncle Maurice.
+
+Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: "I--I
+made sure it was that young whelp!"
+
+This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a
+natural confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang
+to their feet, asking with one voice what had befallen him.
+
+Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from
+it with a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush's
+clinging affection.
+
+"I've been stoned--stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the common!" he
+cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his marble brow.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was
+cool, interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate
+indignation of a bosom friend.
+
+"How many of them were there?" said the Terror.
+
+"From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a
+dozen," said Captain Baster; and he panted still.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled.
+
+"I know--I know what it is!" cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an
+illuminating flash of womanly intuition.  "You've been humorous with
+some of the villagers!"
+
+"No, no!  I haven't joked with a single one of them!" cried Captain
+Baster.  "But I'll teach the scoundrels a lesson!  I'll put the police
+on them tomorrow morning.  I'll send for a detective from London.  I'll
+prosecute them."
+
+Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: "I couldn't find your
+handkerchief anywhere, Mum.  It took me ever such a time," she said,
+giving it to her.
+
+The puzzled air faded from the Terror's face; and he said in a tone of
+deep meaning: "Have you been running to find it?  You're quite out of
+breath."
+
+For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain
+Baster. . . .  But no: it was impossible--a child in whose veins flowed
+some of the bluest blood in England.  Besides, her slender arms could
+never have thrown the stones as straight and hard as that.
+
+On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb
+self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth
+slightly open.  He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief,
+and stumbled out of the room.  They heard a door bang up-stairs; then,
+through the ceiling, they heard a curious drumming sound.  It occurred
+to the Terror that it might be the heels of Sir Maurice on the floor.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the
+gorse prickles out of Captain Baster's clothes.  She had nearly
+finished when Sir Maurice returned.  He carried a handkerchief in his
+hand, and he had recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed
+somewhat exhausted.
+
+Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero;
+and for a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he
+would wreak on the scoundrelly villagers.  But after a while he forgot
+his pricks and bruises to bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he
+plied him with unflagging friendliness for the rest of the evening.
+
+The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o'clock since their Uncle
+Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of
+admiration and approval of Erebus' strenuous endeavor to instil into
+Captain Baster the perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed
+out her abundant hair for her, an office he sometimes performed when
+she was in high favor with him.  As he did it she related gleefully the
+stoning of their enemy.
+
+When she had done, he said warmly: "It was ripping.  But the nuisance
+is: he doesn't know it was you who did it, and so it's rather wasted."
+
+"Don't you worry: I'll let him know sometime to-morrow," said Erebus
+firmly.
+
+"Yes; but he's awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?" said the
+Terror doubtfully.
+
+Erebus considered the point; then she said: "I don't think he'd do
+that; he'd look so silly being stoned by a girl.  Anyhow, I'll chance
+it."
+
+"All right," said the Terror.  "It's worth chancing it to put him off
+marrying mother.  And of course Uncle Maurice is here.  He'll see
+nothing serious happens."
+
+"Of course he will," said Erebus.
+
+It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster
+had weighed on their uncle's mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him
+from behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard
+him singing to himself, and paused to listen to his song.
+
+It went:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+
+He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself,
+softly, twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving
+but silent lips of Erebus repeated it.
+
+He was silent; and she said: "Oh, uncle!  It's splendid!"
+
+Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: "You tell any one, little
+pitcher, and I'll pull your long ears," he said amiably.
+
+Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes;
+then nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she
+said: "Here he comes."
+
+Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds,
+paused and cried: "I'm going back to bed!  Tell him I'm in bed!"
+
+He vanished, slamming the door behind him.
+
+Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
+Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed.  Mrs. Dangerfield,
+informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
+friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus.  He showed
+an inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.
+
+Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
+Dangerfield was firm.  She did not bring him back till half past
+twelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in
+his bedroom.  Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he
+hinted as much) but he was disappointed.  In the end he returned to The
+Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.
+
+He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
+on a walk with the Terror.  Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
+overtake them, and set out briskly to do so.  He walked hard enough to
+compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
+better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
+Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.
+
+Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
+swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
+friends to meet him and her brother.  Here was his chance to shine, to
+show Sir Maurice his social mettle.
+
+He could have wished that the party had been larger.  They were only a
+dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
+and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
+Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
+the afternoon with Erebus.  Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
+or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
+have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand.  He was soon
+the life and soul of the gathering.  He was humorous with the vicar
+about the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the
+country on the intelligence.  He tried to be humorous with Mr.
+Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from
+some profession or business.  This was so signal a failure that he
+dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town
+and his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he
+told them about his motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at
+polo and at golf.
+
+He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except
+Sir Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect
+equality, as "Maurice, old boy," or "Maurice, old chap," or plain
+"Maurice."  He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a warm
+perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him.
+
+The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were
+aware that their mother's tea-party was a failure.  As a rule her
+little parties were so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness;
+and her guests went away pleased with themselves, her and one another.
+The Terror was keenly alive to the effect of Captain Baster; and a
+faint persistent frown troubled his serenity.  Erebus was more dimly
+aware that her enemy was spoiling the party.  Only Sir Maurice and Mr.
+Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir Maurice's enjoyment was
+mingled with vexation.
+
+Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain
+Baster in a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end
+of his panegyric on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered
+his grievance.  Forthwith he related at length the affair of the night
+before: how he had been stoned by a dozen hulking scoundrels on the
+common.  When he came to the end of it, he looked round for sympathy.
+
+His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them
+except the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing
+violently.
+
+The vicar broke the silence; he said: "Er--er--yes; most extraordinary.
+But I don't think it could have been the villagers.  They're--er--very
+peaceful people."
+
+"It must have been some rowdies from Rowington," said the squire in the
+loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what
+he said.
+
+Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an
+incredulous unwinking stare.
+
+She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some
+care.  The first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right
+gable of the house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by
+a couple of inches; the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun
+round as if a vigorous gale were devoting itself to its tail only.
+
+"That's where I meant to hit it the first time," said Erebus with a
+little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat.
+
+The silence that fell was oppressive.  Captain Baster gazed earnestly
+at Erebus, his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking
+stare.
+
+"That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions," said the
+higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice.  "I made sure it was
+the Terror."
+
+"So did I," said the vicar.
+
+"I'd have bet on it," said the squire.
+
+The silence fell again.  Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue
+bump on his marble brow.
+
+Erebus broke the silence; she said: "Has any one heard Wiggins' new
+song?"
+
+The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: "No!  Let's hear it!"
+
+"Come on, Wiggins!" cried the vicar heartily.
+
+They felt that the situation was saved.
+
+Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew
+it in the depths of his horror-stricken heart.  He ground his teeth
+softly and glared at the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he
+could have borne the earth's suddenly opening and swallowing her up.
+
+The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with
+his right.  Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had
+chanted the song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear
+shrill treble, sang, slightly out of tune:
+
+  "_Where did his colonel dig him up,
+    So young, so fair, so sweet,
+  With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?
+    Was it Wapping or Basinghall Street?_"
+
+As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished
+everybody was looking at Captain Baster's boots; his feet required them
+square-toed.
+
+Captain Baster's face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen
+circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt
+into irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 53 missing from book.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AND THE CATS' HOME
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: page 54 missing from book]
+
+
+Wiggins," said Sir Maurice amiably.  "And if we start apologizing,
+there will be no end to it.  I should have to come in myself as the
+maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying about."
+
+"It was certainly a happy effort," said the vicar, smiling.  Then he
+changed the subject firmly, saying: "We're going to London next week;
+perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice."
+
+A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and
+presently it was clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had
+lifted a wet blanket of quite uncommon thickness from the party.  They
+were talking easily and freely; and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice
+were seeing to it that every one, even Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton,
+were getting their little chances of shining.  The Twins and Wiggins
+slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their ease for their
+going.  In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had so
+nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a
+state of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one
+another.
+
+After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the
+exploits of Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the
+two onslaughts his violent niece had made on a guest.  The Terror was
+also doing his best in the matter: with unbending firmness he prevented
+Erebus, eager to enjoy her uncle's society, from returning to the house
+till it was time to dress for dinner.  He wished to give his mother
+time to get over the worst of her annoyance.
+
+Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
+daughter with any great severity.  But even so, Erebus did not receive
+these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit.  Unlike the philosophic
+Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, after
+a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
+make out a case for herself; and she did so now.
+
+Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
+not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
+descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
+the sphere of the laws of hospitality.
+
+"Besides he never behaved like a guest," she went on in a bitterly
+aggrieved tone.  "He was always making himself objectionable to every
+one--especially to me.  And if he was always trying to score off me,
+I'd a perfect right to score off him.  And anyhow, I wasn't going to
+let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it.  He'd be
+a perfectly beastly stepfather--you know he would."
+
+This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
+discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
+discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again.  She knew that however
+bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
+sufficiently to heart.  She was sure that she would not stone another
+guest.
+
+With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
+Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay.  The Twins, though
+they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
+fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, were
+very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
+Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl.  Also he had many
+talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
+of action she frequently urged on him.
+
+When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness.  It was not acute
+boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
+every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
+English and French with her mother.  Their afternoon leisure,
+therefore, rarely palled on them.
+
+One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
+suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins.  They went,
+therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile away
+on the outskirts of Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the
+common.  They saw their prey in the garden; and he tried their patience
+by staying there for nearly a quarter of an hour.
+
+Then he came briskly up the road to the common.  Their eyes began to
+shine with the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards
+from the common's edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for
+covert and disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left.
+They fell noiselessly back, going as quickly as concealment permitted,
+to cut him off.  They were successful.  They caught him crossing an
+open space, yelled "Bang!" together; and in accordance with the rules
+of the game Wiggins fell to the ground.
+
+They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the
+immemorial oaks for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves
+hastily of the wood-pigeons feeding on their acorns.
+
+Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his
+tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily
+said: "That makes you two games ahead."  Then he spurned the earth and
+added: "I'm going to have a bicycle."
+
+The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint
+frown broke the ineffable serenity of the Terror's face.
+
+"There'll be no living with Wiggins now, he'll be so cocky," said
+Erebus bitterly.
+
+"Oh, no; he won't," said the Terror.  "But we ought to have bicycles,
+too.  We want them badly.  We never get really far from the village.
+We always get stopped on the way--rats, or something."  And his
+guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look
+of yearning.
+
+"There are orchards over there where they don't know us," said Erebus
+wistfully.
+
+"We _must_ have bicycles.  I've been thinking so for a long time," said
+the Terror.
+
+"We must have the moon!" said Erebus with cold scorn.
+
+"Bicycles aren't so far away," said the Terror sagely.
+
+They moved swiftly across the common.  Erebus poured forth a long
+monotonous complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made
+this Cosmic All a mere time-honored cheat.  With ears impervious to his
+sister's vain lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful,
+pondering this pressing problem.  Now and again, for obscure but
+profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the earth and proceeded by leaps and
+bounds.
+
+Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the
+Terror to say: "I've got a penny.  We'll go and get some bull's-eyes."
+
+At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased.
+
+They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing
+the village, when they met three small boys.  One of them carried a
+kitten.
+
+Erebus stopped short.  "What are you going to do with that kitten,
+Billy Beck?" she said.
+
+"We be goin' to drown 'im in the pond," said Billy Beck in the
+important tones of an executioner.
+
+Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands.  "You're not going to
+do anything of the sort, you little beast!" she said.
+
+The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and
+disappointment, and he howled:
+
+"Gimme my kitty!  Mother says she won't 'ave 'im about the 'ouse, an' I
+could drown 'im."
+
+"You won't have him," said Erebus.
+
+Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst
+into blubbering roar of "It's ourn!  It ain't yourn!  It's ourn!"
+
+"It isn't!  A kitten isn't any one's to drown!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold
+personification of human justice.  Erebus edged away from him ready to
+fly, should human justice intervene actively.  The Terror put his hand
+in his pocket and fumbled.  He drew out a penny, and looked at it
+earnestly.  He was weighing the respective merits of justice and
+bull's-eyes.
+
+"Here's a penny for your kitten.  You can buy bull's-eyes with it," he
+said with a sigh, and held out the coin.
+
+A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck's tearful eyes.  "'E's worth
+more'n a penny--a kitty like 'im!" he blubbered.
+
+"Not to drown.  It's all you'll get," said the Terror curtly.  He
+tossed the penny to Billy's feet, turned on his heel and went back
+across the common away from the village.  Some of the brightness faded
+out of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins.
+
+"I wouldn't have given him a penny.  He was only going to drown the
+kitten," said Erebus in a grudging tone.
+
+"It was his kitten.  We couldn't take it without paying for it," said
+the Terror coldly.
+
+Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went.
+
+Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, "There ought to be a home
+for kittens nobody wants--and puppies."
+
+The Terror stopped short, and said: "By Jove!  There's Aunt Amelia!"
+
+Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia,
+who had more money than all the rest of the family put together, and
+yet never rained postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but
+spent it all on horrid cats' homes.
+
+"That's just it," said the Terror in a tone of considerable animation.
+"Come along; I want you to write a letter."
+
+"I'm not going to write any disgusting letter!" cried Erebus hotly.
+
+"Then you're not going to get any bicycle.  Come on.  I'll look out the
+words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much
+of his father, he's got into the way of using grammar.  It'll be
+useful.  Come on!"
+
+They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of
+being a helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year,
+and only ten brief wet summers had passed over his own tousled head,
+Erebus clamoring to have her suddenly aroused curiosity gratified.
+Practise had made the Terror's ears impervious at will to his sister's
+questions, which were frequent and innumerable.  Without a word of
+explanation he led the way home; without a word he set her down at the
+dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat down himself
+on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins by his
+side.
+
+Then he said coldly: "Now don't make any blots, or you'll have to do it
+all over again."
+
+"I never make blots!  It's you that makes blots!" cried Erebus,
+ruffled.  "Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you do.
+Ever so much better."
+
+"That's why you're writing the letter and not me," said the Terror
+coldly.  "Fire away: 'My dear Aunt Amelia'--I say, Wiggins, what's the
+proper words for 'awfully keen'?"
+
+"'Keen' is 'interested'--I don't know how many 'r's' there are in
+'interested'--and 'awfully' is an awfully difficult word," said
+Wiggins, pondering.
+
+The Terror looked up "interested" in the dictionary with a laborious
+painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single "r"
+in it; then he said, "What's the right word for 'awfully,' Wiggins?
+Buck up!"
+
+"'Tremendously,'" said Wiggins with the air of a successful Columbus.
+
+"That's it," said the Terror.  "'My dear Aunt Amelia: I have often
+heard that you are tremendously interested in cats' homes'"--
+
+"I should think you had!" said Erebus.
+
+"Now don't jabber, please; just stick to the writing," said the Terror.
+"I've got to make this letter a corker; and how can I think if you
+jabber?"
+
+Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task.
+
+"'Little Deeping wants a cats' home awfully'--no: 'tremendously.'  I
+like that word 'tremendously'; it means something," said the Terror.
+
+"You're jabbering yourself now," said Erebus unpleasantly.
+
+Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror
+continued: "'The quantity of kittens that are drowned is
+horrible'--that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than
+cats--'and I have been thinking'--Oughtn't you to put in some stops?"
+
+"I'm putting in stops--lots," said Erebus contemptuously.
+
+"'I have been thinking--that if you wanted to have a cats' home
+here'--What's the right word for 'running a thing,' Wiggins?"
+
+Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one
+another.
+
+"There is a word 'overseer'--slaves have them," he said cautiously.
+
+The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it
+out, and continued: "'I could overseer it for you.  I have got my eye
+on a building which would suit us tremendously well.  But these things
+cost money, and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty
+pounds'--
+
+"Thirty pounds!  My goodness!" cried Erebus; and her eyes opened wide.
+
+"We may as well go the whole hog," said the Terror philosophically.
+"Go on: 'Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a
+real home--'  What's the word for 'bust up,' Wiggins?"
+
+"Burst up," said Wiggins without hesitation.
+
+"No, no; not the grammar--the right word!  Oh, I know; 'go
+bankrupt'--'it might go bankrupt.  So it you would like to have a cats'
+home here and send me some money, I will start it at once.  Your
+affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.'  There!" said the
+Terror with a sigh of relief.
+
+"But you've left me out altogether," said Erebus in a suddenly
+aggrieved tone.
+
+"I should jolly well think I had!  You know that ever since you stayed
+with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say 'Dam,' she won't have
+anything to do with you," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"There's no pleasing some people," said Erebus mournfully.  "When I
+went there the silly old parrot couldn't say a thing; and when I came
+away, he could say 'Dam!  Dam!  Dam!' from morning till night without
+making a mistake."
+
+"It's a word people don't like," said the Terror.
+
+"Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river.  I told Aunt Amelia
+so," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"She might not believe you; she doesn't know how truthfully we've been
+brought up," said the Terror.  "Go on; sign my name to the letter."
+
+"That's forgery.  You ought to sign your name yourself," said Erebus.
+
+"No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the
+rest of the letter.  Sign away," said the Terror firmly.
+
+Erebus signed away, and then she said: "But what good's the money going
+to be to us, if we've got to spend it on a silly old cats' home?  It
+only means a lot of trouble."
+
+The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror's face.  "Well,
+you see, there aren't many cats in Little Deeping--not enough to fill a
+cats' home decently," he said slowly.  "We should have to have bicycles
+to collect them--from Great Deeping, and Muttle Deeping, and farther
+off."
+
+Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming
+face, as she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration:
+"Well, you do think of things!"
+
+"I have to," said the Terror.  "If I didn't we should never have a
+single thing."
+
+The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield.  He did not tell her
+of the splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had
+thought he would write to Aunt Amelia.  Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased
+with him for his thought: she wished him to stand well with his
+great-aunt, since she was a rich woman without children of her own.
+She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter should be shown to her,
+though she suspected that it contained some artless request.  She
+thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt to
+make requests rather than not write at all.
+
+The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their
+lives.  Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their
+lives those bicycles would bring about; she would pause in the very
+middle of some important enterprise to discuss the rides they would
+take on them, the orchards that those machines would bring within their
+reach.  But the Terror would have none of it; his calm philosophic mind
+forbade him to discuss his chickens before they were hatched.
+
+Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not
+remarkable that philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief
+characteristic of Lady Ryehampton.  As the purport of her
+great-nephew's letter slowly penetrated her mind, a broad and beaming
+smile of gratification spread slowly over her large round face; and as
+she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her companion, she cried in
+unctuous tones: "The dear boy!  So young, but already enthusiastic
+about great things!"
+
+Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she
+was going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more
+victimized.  She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady
+Ryehampton to a noble phrase.  Her eyes brightened with humorous
+appreciation as she read the letter of Erebus; and when she came to the
+end of it she opened her mouth to point out that Little Deeping was one
+of the last places in England to need a cats' home.  Then she bethought
+herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a little click, and
+her face went blank.
+
+Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and
+said warmly: "It's really wonderful.  You must have inspired him with
+that enthusiasm yourself."
+
+"I suppose I must," said Lady Ryehampton with an air of satisfaction.
+"And I must be careful not to discourage him."
+
+Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror's face, his charming sympathetic
+manners, and his darned knickerbockers.  It was only right that some of
+Lady Ryehampton's money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be
+educating him at a good school.  It was monstrous that the great bulk
+of it should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings
+came first.  And the Terror was such an attractive human being.
+
+"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm," she said
+gravely.
+
+Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats' home
+could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not
+better send fifty.  Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite
+comfortable by compromising: she said that she thought thirty was
+enough to begin with; that if more were needful, Lady Ryehampton could
+give it later.  Lady Ryehampton accepted the suggestion.
+
+Having set her employer's hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it
+that she did not draw it back.  Lady Ryehampton would spend money on
+cats, but she could not be hurried in the spending of it.  But Miss
+Hendersyde kept referring to the Terror's enterprise all that day and
+the next morning, with the result that on the next afternoon Lady
+Ryehampton signed the check for thirty pounds.  At Miss Hendersyde's
+suggestion she drew the money in cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it
+into postal orders, for there is no bank at Little Deeping.
+
+On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House.  The
+excited Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from
+him, signed the receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the
+precious packet to the Terror in the orchard.
+
+The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly.
+
+But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face;
+and he said in a somewhat breathless tone: "Thirty pounds--well!"
+
+Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the
+spur of that marvelous moment.
+
+"It's splendid--splendid!" she cried.  "It's the best thing you ever
+thought of!"
+
+The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the
+envelope into the breast pocket of his coat.  A frown of the most
+thoughtful consideration furrowed his brow.  Then he said firmly: "The
+first thing, to do is to get the bicycles.  If once we've got them, no
+one will take them away from us."
+
+"Of course they won't," said Erebus, with eager acceptance of his idea.
+
+The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning
+the earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins.
+
+In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a
+casual air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: "May we have
+the cow-house for our very own, Mum?"
+
+"Oh, Terror!  Surely you don't want to keep ferrets!" cried Mrs.
+Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror's developing that
+inevitable boyish taste.
+
+"Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think
+we could make a little pocket-money out of it."
+
+"I am afraid you're growing terribly mercenary," said his mother; then
+she added with a sigh: "But I don't wonder at it, seeing how hard up
+you always are.  You can have the cow-house.  It's right at the end of
+the paddock--well away from the house--so that I don't see that you can
+do any harm with it whatever you do.  But how are you going to make
+pocket-money out of it?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't got it all worked out yet," said the Terror quickly.
+"But we'll tell you all about it when we have.  Thanks ever so much for
+the cow-house."
+
+For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus.
+
+The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a
+boy of his years.  He changed but one of the six postal orders at
+Little Deeping--that would make talk enough--and then, having begged a
+holiday from the vicar, he took the train to Rowington, their market
+town, ten miles away, taking Erebus with him.  There he changed three
+more postal orders; and then the Twins took their way to the bicycle
+shop, with hearts that beat high.
+
+The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way
+which, in any one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus
+to the very limits of endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she
+had long ago learned the futility of exasperation.  He began by an
+exhaustive examination of every make of bicycle in the shop; and he
+made it with a thoroughness that worried the eager bicycle-seller, one
+of those smart young men who pamper a chin's passion for receding by
+letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his nerves were all on
+edge.  Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out of his
+pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind
+whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young
+man perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of
+buying two.  He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to
+develop the point that there must be a considerable reduction in price
+to the buyer of two bicycles.  Then he made his offer: he would give
+fourteen pounds for two eight-pound-ten bicycles.  His serenity was
+quite unruffled by the seller's furious protests.  Then the real
+struggle began.  The Terror came out of it with two bicycles, two
+lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to hold a cat; the seller
+came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant Twins wheeled
+their machines out of the shop.
+
+The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street.
+Then he said: "We've saved the cats' home quite two pounds."
+
+"Yes," said Erebus.
+
+"And it's made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it," said the Terror.
+
+"It must have--arguing like that," said Erebus quickly; and her eyes
+brightened as she caught his drift.
+
+"Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment.  It's a long ride
+home," said the Terror.
+
+"Of course it ought," said Erebus with decision.
+
+Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a
+confectioner's shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and
+entered the shop with an important moneyed air.
+
+At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: "Of course overseers
+have a salary."
+
+"Of course they do," said Erebus.
+
+"That settles the matter of pocket-money," said the Terror.  "We'll
+have sixpence a week each."
+
+"Only sixpence?" said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise.
+
+"Well, you see, there are the bicycles.  I don't think we can make it
+more than sixpence.  And I tell you what: we shall have to keep
+accounts.  I'll buy an account-book.  You're very good at
+arithmetic--you'll like keeping accounts," said the Terror suavely.
+
+Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that
+it would be delicate at that moment to protest.  Therefore on leaving
+the shop the Terror bought an account-book.  His distrust of literature
+prevented him from paying more than a penny for it.  From the
+stationer's he went to an ironmonger's and bought a saw, a brace, a
+gimlet, a screw-driver and two gross of screws--his tool-box had long
+needed refilling.  Then they mounted their machines proudly (they had
+learned to ride on the machines of acquaintances) and rode home.  After
+their visit to the confectioner's they rode rather sluggishly.
+
+They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the
+Terror turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a
+quiet orchard, in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on
+Erebus' bicycle with excellent apples.  The tools had been packed into
+the Terror's basket.  They did not disturb the farmer's wife at the
+busy dinner-hour; the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to
+Erebus.
+
+As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: "I shouldn't wonder if
+these bicycles didn't pay for themselves in time."
+
+"I said there were orchards out here where they didn't know us," said
+Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin.
+
+They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in
+the cow-house.  At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the
+morning.
+
+After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements.  It had
+long been unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning.  It was quite
+suitable to their purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a
+size to hold two cows.  The measurements made, they went, with an
+important moneyed air, down to the village carpenter, the only timber
+merchant in the neighborhood, and bought planks from him.  There was
+some discussion before his idea about the price of planks and that of
+the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he said, with
+some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick
+returns.  Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he
+forthwith put the planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet
+House.  The Twins, eager to be at work, helped him.
+
+For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable
+constructive genius to the creation of cat-hutches.  That evening
+Erebus wrote his warm letter of thanks to Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus
+proposed that they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally
+forth on a splendid foray.  The Terror would not hear of it.
+
+"No," he said firmly.  "We're going to get the cats' home finished
+before we use those bicycles at all.  Then nobody can complain."
+
+He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to
+go down to the vicarage for his morning's lessons with the vicar.  He
+set to work again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon;
+and he saw to it that Erebus worked, too.
+
+In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came.  He had spent a fruitless
+hour lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied
+forth into the world, and then had come to see what had kept them
+within their borders.  He was deeply impressed by the sight of the
+bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his estimation of the powers of
+his friends was too high for any of their exploits to surprise him
+greatly.  But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have obtained
+their bicycles before he had obtained his.  None the less he helped
+them construct the cats' home with enthusiasm.
+
+For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort.  So
+much sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces
+were chipped out of them.  But their spirits never flagged; and by
+sunset on the third day they had constructed accommodation for thirty
+cats.  It may be that the wooden bars of the hutches were not all of
+the same breadth, but at any rate they were all of the same thickness:
+and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would squirm through them.
+
+At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the
+transformed cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said
+firmly: "What we want now is cats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION
+
+Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the
+countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were
+willing to afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their
+owners no longer needed.  They had, indeed, one offer of a cat
+suffering from the mange; but the Terror rejected it, saying coldly to
+its owner that theirs was a home, not a hospital.
+
+The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she
+pointed out that even a mangy cat was a beginning.
+
+Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such
+strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: "Look
+here: I'm going to begin with kittens."
+
+"How will you get kittens, if you can't get cats?  Everybody likes
+kittens.  It's only when they grow up and stop playing that they don't
+want them," said Erebus with her coldest scorn.
+
+"I'm going to buy them," said the Terror firmly.  "I'm going to give
+threepence each for kittens that can just lap.  We don't want kittens
+that can't lap.  They'd be too much trouble."
+
+"That's a good idea," said Erebus, brightening.
+
+"It'll stop them drowning kittens all right.  The only thing I'm not
+sure about is the accounts."
+
+"You're always bothering about those silly old accounts!" said Erebus
+sharply.
+
+She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of
+their expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye.
+
+"Well, I don't think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts.
+Aunt Amelia is so used to cats' homes that are given their cats.  She's
+told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be
+taken in."
+
+"_I_ don't want them to go down.  It makes all the less accounts to
+keep," said Erebus readily.
+
+"Well, that's settled," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the
+tidings of their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who
+could just lap.
+
+But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the
+impatient Erebus grew louder and louder.  There was no doubt that she
+loved a grievance; and even more she loved making no secret of that
+grievance to those about her.  Since she could only discuss this
+grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they heard enough about it.
+Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in her patient
+brother's resolve to take action; and he called her and Wiggins to a
+council.
+
+He opened the discussion by saying: "We've got to have kittens, or
+cats.  We can't have any pocket-money for 'overseering' till there's
+something to overseer."
+
+"And that splendid cats' home we've made stopping empty all the time,"
+said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone.
+
+"I don't mind that.  I'm sick of hearing about it," said the Terror
+coldly.  "But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia will
+soon be wanting to know what's happening to the home; and she'll make a
+fuss if there aren't any cats in it.  So we must have cats."
+
+"Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats.  There are cats all
+over the country; and when we're out bicycling, a good way from home,
+we could easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with
+us.  We ought to be able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in
+eight days the home would be full and two over."
+
+"And we should be prosecuted for stealing them," said the Terror coldly.
+
+"But they'd be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked
+after and fed," protested Erebus.
+
+"That wouldn't make any difference.  No; it's no good trying to get
+them that way," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+"Well, they won't come of themselves," said Erebus.
+
+"They would with valerian," said Wiggins.
+
+"Who's Valerian?" said Erebus.
+
+"It isn't a who.  It's a drug at the chemist's," said Wiggins.  "I've
+been talking to my father about cats a good deal lately, and he says if
+you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the ground, cats will
+follow it for miles."
+
+"Your father seems to know everything--such a lot of useful things as
+well as higher mathematics," said the Terror.
+
+"That's why he has a European reputation," said Wiggins; and he spurned
+the earth.
+
+That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of
+the enchanting drug.  Just before they reached the village, on their
+way home, the Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it,
+poured some valerian on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the
+village to his garden gate.
+
+The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the
+father of Wiggins.  All that evening and far into the night twelve cats
+fought clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields.
+
+The next day the Terror turned the cats' home into a cat-trap.  He cut
+a hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted
+it with a hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the
+outside, but lacked the intelligence to raise from the inside.  He was
+late finishing it, and went from it to his dinner.
+
+They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring
+at the back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had
+come from the village with some kittens.  The Twins excused themselves
+politely to their mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly
+had brought no less than five small kittens in a basket.
+
+Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping
+test.  Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they
+lapped.  The fifth would not lap.  It only mewed.  Therefore the Terror
+took only four of the kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them.  The
+fifth he returned to her, bidding her bring it back when it could lap.
+
+They took the four kittens down to the cats' home; and since they were
+so small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk
+to satisfy their hunger during the night.
+
+"Now we've got these kittens, we needn't bother about getting cats,"
+said the Terror as they returned to the house.  "And I'm glad it is
+kittens and not cats.  Kittens eat less."
+
+"Then you've had all the trouble of making that little door for
+nothing," said Erebus.
+
+"It's an emergency exit--like the theaters have--only it's an
+entrance," said the Terror.  "But thank goodness, we've begun at last;
+now we can have salaries for 'overseering'."
+
+During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens
+to their stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady
+Ryehampton that the home was already constructed and in process of
+occupation.  Accordingly Erebus wrote a letter, by no means devoid of
+enthusiasm, informing her that it already held eleven inmates, "saved
+from the awful death of drowning."  Lady Ryehampton replied promptly in
+a spirit of warm gratification that they had been so quick starting it.
+
+But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found
+themselves grappling earnestly with the food problem and the
+account-book.
+
+The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations.  Till they were
+six years old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in
+Monmouth, with toys beyond the dreams of Alnaschar.  Then their father
+had fallen into the hands of a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had
+along with them lost nearly all his money, and presently died, leaving
+Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income indeed.  All the while since
+his death it had been a hard struggle to make both ends meet; and the
+Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the desires of
+their hearts.
+
+But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak;
+and taking one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as
+the bulk of the children of the well-to-do.  But it did not come in the
+way of a regular allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work;
+and the processes of getting it had given the Terror the liveliest
+interest in financial matters.  He was resolved that the cats' home and
+the wages of "overseering" should last as long as possible.
+
+But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a
+quart, the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home.
+
+He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with
+him that milk spelled ruin.  But they could see no way of reducing the
+price of milk; and they were sure that it was the necessary food for
+growing kittens.
+
+Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a
+heavy silence had fallen on them.  Then of a sudden the face of the
+Terror brightened; and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone:
+"I've got it; we'll feed them on skim-milk."
+
+"They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens," said Erebus scornfully.
+
+That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping.  Butter-making was its
+chief industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs.
+
+"If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"But how can we get it?  They don't sell it about here," said Erebus.
+"And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn't sell skim-milk,
+nobody's going to sell skim-milk to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it," said the Terror confidently.
+
+"Old Stubbs!  But he hates us worse than any one!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Oh, yes; he doesn't like us.  But he's awfully keen on money; every
+one says so.  And he won't care whose money he gets so long as he gets
+it.  Come on; we'll go and talk to him about it," said the Terror.
+
+The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs
+and knocked resolutely.  The maid, who was well aware that her master
+and the Twins were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some
+hesitation.  The Twins had never entered the farmer's house before,
+though they had often entered his orchard; and they felt slightly
+uncomfortable.  They found the parlor into which they were shown
+uncommonly musty.
+
+Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate
+fringe that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion
+in his small, ferrety, red-rimmed eyes.  Even when he learned that they
+had come on business, his face did not brighten till the Terror
+incidentally dropped a sovereign on the floor and talked of cash
+payments.  Then his face shone; he made the admission, cautiously, that
+he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then they came to the
+discussion of prices.  Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in quarts;
+the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of
+view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice.  But the
+Terror's suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck
+a bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at
+threepence halfpenny the pailful.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens
+to the home; and the Terror had yet another idea.  Milk alone seemed an
+insufficient diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the
+matter of stale bread.  There were more negotiations; and in the end
+the Terror made a contract with the baker for a supply of it at nearly
+his own price.  Now he fed the kittens on bread and milk; they throve
+on it; and it went further than plain milk.
+
+The Twins enjoyed but little leisure.  They had been busy filling
+certain shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with
+the best apples the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the
+countryside afforded.  But what spare time he had the Terror devoted to
+a great feat of painting.  He painted in white letters on a black
+board:--
+
+LADY RYEHAMPTON'S CATS' HOME
+
+
+The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that
+could be desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins
+agreed that it was extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their
+aunt saw it she would be deeply gratified.
+
+With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be
+fixed up, they felt that the time had come to take their mother
+formally into their confidence.  She had learned of the formation of
+the cats' home from old Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked
+to her about it, and seemed surprised by her inability to give them
+details about its ultimate scope and purpose, for it had excited the
+interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent matter of discussion
+for fully a week.  She had explained to them that she never interfered
+with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, and
+that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment
+that filled as much of their time as did the cats' home.  Moreover, the
+Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had
+been brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order.
+Therefore she had no idea of its size or of the cost of its
+construction.  Like every one else she supposed it to be a ramshackle
+affair of makeshifts constructed from old planks and hen-coops.
+
+Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for
+they were judicious in their use.  They were careful to sally forth
+when she was taking her siesta after lunch; they went across the common
+and came back across the common and their neighbors saw them riding
+very little.
+
+When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she
+accepted the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection
+of the home with a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise.  She
+expressed her admiration of its convenience, its cleanliness, and the
+extensive scale on which it was being run.  She agreed with the Terror
+that to have saved so many kittens from the awful death of drowning was
+a great work.  But she asked no questions, not even how it was that the
+cats' home was fragrant with the scent of hidden apples.  She knew that
+an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, was about to be
+given her.
+
+Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: "The
+bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course."
+
+"What?  Are those your bicycles?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield.  "But
+wherever did you get the money from to buy them?"
+
+"Aunt Amelia found the money," said the Terror.  "You know she's very
+keen--tremendously interested in cats' homes.  She thinks we are doing
+a great work, as well as you."
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said
+rather breathlessly: "You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a cats'
+home in Little Deeping?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Terror carelessly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she
+_must_ not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins.  She bit her
+tongue with a firmness that filled her eyes with tears.  It was
+painful; but it enabled her to complete her inspection with the
+required gravity.
+
+The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke
+a fresh interest among their neighbors in their enterprise.  Several of
+them, including the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to
+it; and Wiggins brought his father.  All of them expressed an
+admiration of the institution and of the methods on which it was
+conducted.  To one another they expressed an unfavorable opinion of the
+intelligence of Lady Ryehampton.
+
+The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience
+the Twins drew their salary for "overseering."  It provided them with
+many of the less expensive desires of their hearts.  Now and again
+Erebus, mindful of the fact that they had still a little more than ten
+pounds left out of the original thirty, urged that it should be raised
+to a shilling a week.  But the Terror would not consent: he said their
+salaries for "overseeing" would naturally be much higher, and that they
+would have charged for their work in constructing the home, if it had
+not been for the bicycles.  As it was, they were bound to work off the
+price of the bicycles.  Besides, he added with a philosophical air,
+six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling a week for
+six months.
+
+Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained
+twenty-three inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle
+(probably a corruption of Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were
+informed that for the time being the home was full.  Erebus clamored to
+have its full complement of thirty kittens made up; but the Terror
+maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three was quite
+enough.  Everything was working smoothly.  Then one evening just before
+dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell.
+
+It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed
+for the door; and Erebus opened it.  On the steps stood their Uncle
+Maurice; and he wore a harried air.
+
+"Why, it's Uncle Maurice!" cried Erebus springing upon him and
+embracing him warmly.
+
+"It's Uncle Maurice, mother!" cried the Terror.
+
+"It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he's by no means sure
+of it himself!  Is it my head or my heels I'm standing on?" said Sir
+Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow.
+
+On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping
+station, laden with wicker baskets.  From the baskets came the sound of
+mewing.
+
+"Whatever is it?" cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother.
+
+"Cats for the cats' home!" said Sir Maurice Falconer.
+
+He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a
+neat row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and
+shut the door after him with an air of exhaustion.  He leaned back
+against it and said:
+
+"I had a sudden message--Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise visit
+to this inf--this cats' home these little friends are pretending to run
+for her.  I saw that there was no time to lose--there must be a cats'
+home with cats in it--or she'd cut them both out of her will.  I bought
+cats--all over London--they've been with me ever since--yowling--they
+yowled in the taxi--all over London--they traveled down as far as
+Rowington with me and an old gentleman--a high-spirited old
+gentleman--yowling--not only the cats but the old gentleman, too---and
+they traveled from Rowington to Little Deeping with me and two maiden
+ladies--timid maiden ladies!--yowling!  But come on: we've got to make
+a cats' home at once!"  And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets
+with the air of a man desperately resolved to act on the instant or
+perish.
+
+"But we've got a cats' home--only it's full of kittens," said Erebus
+gently.
+
+"Good heavens!  Do you mean to say I've gone through this nightmare for
+nothing?" cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket.
+
+"Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!" said the Terror with swift
+politeness.  "The cats will come in awfully useful."
+
+"They'll make the home look so much more natural.  All kittens isn't
+natural," said Erebus.
+
+"And they'll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia.  She was only
+expecting kittens," said the Terror.
+
+"What?" howled Sir Maurice.  "Do you mean to say I've parleyed for
+hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two--two--timid maiden ladies,
+just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?"
+
+He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly.  "I ought to
+have had more confidence in you," he said faintly.  "I ought to know
+your powers by now.  And I did.  I know well that any people who have
+dealings with you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt
+Amelia was going to get it; and I've got it myself."
+
+"But you didn't think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?" said the
+Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air.
+
+"Gracious, no!" cried Sir Maurice.  "I only thought that you might
+possibly induce her to humbug herself."
+
+The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his
+words than met the ear.
+
+"You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+"And I'm afraid there's very little for you.  But I'll make you an
+omelette."
+
+"I can not dine amid this yowling," said Sir Maurice firmly, waving his
+hand over the vocal baskets.  "These animals must be placed out of
+hearing, or I shan't be able to eat a morsel."
+
+"We'll put them in the cats' home," said the Terror quickly.  "I'll
+just put on a pair of thick gloves.  Wiggins' father--he's a higher
+mathematician, you know, and understands all this kind of thing--says
+that hydrophobia is very rare among cats.  But it's just as well to be
+careful with these London ones."
+
+"Oh, lord, I never thought of that," said Sir Maurice with a shudder.
+"I've been risking my life as well!"
+
+The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern.  He and Erebus
+helped carry the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches.
+Their uncle was much impressed by the arrangement of the home.
+
+The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted
+self-possession--a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the
+Terror, but not so durable.  At dinner he reduced his appreciative
+kinsfolk to the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his
+parleying with his excited fellow travelers.  He could now view it with
+an impartial mind.  After dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats'
+home and helped him feed the newcomers with scraps.  The rest of the
+evening passed peacefully and pleasantly.
+
+If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness
+sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed
+that the brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus.
+
+She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said:
+"We ought to have more cats."
+
+The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said:
+"By Jove, yes.  This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge.
+And it would mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the
+good of the home.  The more we can say that we've used them for it, the
+less any one can grumble about them."
+
+"Most cats are shut up now," said Erebus.
+
+"Yes; we must catch the morning cats.  They get out quite early--when
+people start out to work," said the Terror.
+
+Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an
+alarm.  The Terror set it for half past five.  At that hour it awoke
+him with extreme difficulty.  He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty.
+Five minutes later they were munching bread and butter in the kitchen
+to stay themselves against the cold of the bitter November morning;
+then they sallied forth, equipped with rags, string and the bottle of
+valerian.
+
+They bicycled to Muttle Deeping.  There the Terror poured valerian on
+one of the rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus.  Forthwith she
+started to trail it to the cats' home.  He rode on to Great Deeping and
+trailed a rag from there through Little Deeping to the cats' home.
+When he reached it he found Erebus' bicycle in its corner; and when,
+after strengthening the trail through the little hanging door with a
+rag freshly wetted with the drug, he returned to the house, he found
+that she was already in bed again.  He made haste back to bed himself.
+
+It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and
+put the cats they had attracted to it into hutches.  But they slept on
+till breakfast was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon
+lured them straight into the dining-room.  After all, as Erebus told
+the hesitating Terror, there was plenty of time to deal with the new
+cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach Little Deeping before eleven
+o'clock.  They could not escape from the home.  The Twins therefore
+devoted their most careful attention to their breakfast with their
+minds quite at ease.
+
+Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at
+ease, for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor.
+Then Sarah threw open the dining-room door, said "Please, ma'am, it's
+Lady Ryehampton"; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and
+formidable, on the threshold.  Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking
+very anxious.
+
+There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton's stern face; and when they
+rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness.  To
+Erebus, the instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger.
+
+Then in deep portentous tones she said: "I came down to pay a surprise
+visit to your cats' home.  I always do.  It's the only way I can make
+sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment."  The
+frown on her face grew rhadamanthine.  "And last night I saw your Uncle
+Maurice at the station--he did not see me--with cats, London cats, in
+baskets.  On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of
+well-known London cat-dealers.  I do not support a cats' home at Little
+Deeping for London cats bought at London dealers.  Why have they been
+brought here?"
+
+Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him:
+
+"It was Uncle Maurice's idea," he said.  "He didn't think that there
+ought only to be kittens in a cats' home.  We didn't mind ourselves;
+and of course, if he puts cats in it, he'll have to subscribe to the
+home.  What we have started it for was kittens--to save them from the
+awful death of drowning.  We wrote and told you.  And we've saved quite
+a lot."
+
+His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor.
+
+Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats
+to bring them all the way from London to a cats' home at Deeping?  He
+hates cats, and always has!" she said fiercely.
+
+"Of course, I hate cats," said Sir Maurice with cold severity.  "But I
+hate children's being brought up to be careless a great deal more.  A
+cats' home is not a cats' home unless it has cats in it; and you've
+been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling a
+kittens' home a cats' home.  If you will interfere in their
+up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into
+careless ways."
+
+Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady
+Ryehampton blinked at him somewhat owlishly: "That's all very well,"
+she said in a less severe tone.  "But is there a kittens' home at
+all--a kittens' home with kittens in it?  That's what I want to know."
+
+"But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats' home.
+You don't think we'd deceive you, Aunt Amelia?" said the Terror in a
+deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air.
+
+"There!  I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would
+be," said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief.
+
+"Of course there's a cats' home with kittens in it!" said Mrs.
+Dangerfield with some heat.  "The Terror wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+"Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!" cried Sir Maurice splendidly.
+
+The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very
+good best.
+
+In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: "Well, of
+c-c-c-course, if there's a c-c-cats' home--but Sir Maurice's senseless
+interference--"
+
+"Senseless interference!  Do you call saving children from careless
+habits senseless interference?" cried Sir Maurice indignantly.
+
+"You had no business to interfere without consulting me," said Lady
+Ryehampton.  Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: "But I want to
+see this cats' home--now!"
+
+"I'll take you at once," said the Terror quickly, and politely he
+opened the door.
+
+They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice
+his hat and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it.  When
+they came into the paddock their ears became aware of a distant
+high-pitched din; and the farther they went down it the louder and more
+horrible grew the din.
+
+Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of
+suspicious bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield's beautiful eyes were wide
+open in an anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a
+defiant scowl; and Sir Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  Only the Terror was serene.
+
+"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages," said
+Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats," said the Terror calmly.
+
+"Visiting cats?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
+
+"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if
+ever they are left homeless they will know where to come," said the
+Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of
+guilelessness.
+
+"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed.  "I must tell the
+managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it,
+too.  But what are these cats doing?"
+
+"It sounds as if they were quarreling," said the Terror calmly.
+
+It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the
+din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish.  It was as if the voices
+of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
+
+The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the
+door--wide.  Cats did not come out. . . .  A large ball of cats came
+out, gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur.  Ten yards from the door
+it dissolved into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore,
+yelling, to the four quarters of the heavens.
+
+After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence.
+
+The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: "I
+sometimes think it sets a bad example to the kittens."
+
+Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion.  He
+walked hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human
+ken.  There with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned
+against the wall, and shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive
+bricks feebly.
+
+But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with
+an air of modest pride.  A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of
+perfect, if highly-scented, peace.  Twenty-three kittens and eight cats
+sat staring earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead
+stillness.  Their eyes were very bright.  By a kindly provision of
+nature they had been able, in the darkness, to follow the fortunes of
+that vociferous fray.
+
+In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song.  She
+was charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and
+healthiness of the blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness.
+She gushed enthusiastic approbation.  "To think," she cried, "that you
+have done this yourself!  A boy of thirteen!"
+
+"Erebus did quite as much as I did," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"And Wiggins helped a lot.  He's a friend of ours," said Erebus no less
+quickly.
+
+Lady Ryehampton's face softened to Erebus--to Erebus, the instructor of
+parrots.
+
+Sir Maurice joined them.  His eyes were red and moist, as if they had
+but now been full of tears.
+
+"It's a very creditable piece of work," he said in a tone of warm
+approval.
+
+Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell.
+She said uneasily: "But you must be heavily in debt."
+
+"In debt?" said the Terror.  "Oh, no; we couldn't be.  Mother would
+hate us to be in debt."
+
+"I thought--a cats' home--oh, but I _am_ glad I brought my check-book
+with me!" cried Lady Ryehampton.
+
+She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl.
+She did not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus
+kicked him joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously
+realized that the future of the home, the wages of "overseering," were
+secure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AND THE SACRED BIRD
+
+Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the
+Terror did all he could to foster her interest in it.  The crowning
+effect was the feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty
+sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many
+pauses to gambol and play.  The only thing about the home which was not
+quite to the liking of Lady Ryehampton was the board over the door.
+She liked it as an advertisement of her philanthropy; but she did not
+like its form; she preferred her name in straighter letters, all of
+them of the same size.  At the same time she did not like to hurt the
+feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his handiwork.
+
+Then she had a happy thought, and said: "By the way, I think that the
+board over the door ought to be uniform--the same as the boards over
+the entrances of my other cats' homes.  The lettering of them is always
+in gold."
+
+"All right.  I'll get some gold paint, and paint them over," said the
+Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of
+salaries.
+
+"No, no, I can't give you the trouble of doing it all over again," said
+Lady Ryehampton quickly.  "I'll have a board made, and painted in
+London--exactly like the board of my cats' home at Tysleworth--and sent
+down to you to fix up."
+
+"Thanks very much," said the Terror.  "It will save me a great deal of
+trouble.  Painting isn't nearly so easy as it looks."
+
+Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction.  She invited them all
+to lunch at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs.
+Pittaway racked her brains and strained all the resources of her simple
+establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver.  As she told her
+neighbors later, nobody knew what it was to have a lady of title in the
+house.  The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much indeed; and even Erebus
+was very quiet for two hours after it.
+
+Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating
+visit to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the
+Terror, and in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to
+London.
+
+Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to
+travel with Lady Ryehampton.  Besides, the question what was to be done
+with the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled.
+He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep,
+since only his unfounded distrust had brought them to the cats' home.
+At the same time he could not bring himself to travel with them any
+more.
+
+They discussed the matter.  Erebus was inclined to keep the cats,
+declaring that it would be so nice to grow their own kittens.  The
+Terror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view,
+wished to be relieved of them.  In the end it was decided that Sir
+Maurice should make terms with one of the dealers from whom he had
+bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to that dealer.
+
+The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this
+unexpected ten pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home.
+Erebus was for at once increasing their salaries to three shillings a
+week.  The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each.
+Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put
+fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank.  He thought it a wise
+thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a large sum on
+some sudden overwhelming impulse.
+
+Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove.
+The cats were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board
+came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror's
+handiwork; they did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along
+with Wiggins who now had his bicycle, in the afternoons.
+
+Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the
+important matter of their mother's Christmas present.
+
+One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their
+breakfasts and discussing it gravely.  The kittens were indulging in
+engaging gambols before falling into the sleep of repletion which
+always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling
+eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds.  They could see
+their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that present; and
+so large a sum must be expended with judgment.  It must procure
+something not only useful but also attractive.
+
+They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and
+attractions of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the
+hair, when Erebus, frowning thoughtfully, said: "I know what she really
+wants though."
+
+"What's that?" said the Terror sharply.
+
+"It's one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker's at Rowington,"
+said Erebus.  "I heard her sigh when she looked at it.  She used to
+have beautiful furs once--when father was alive.  But she sold them--to
+get things for us, I suppose.  Uncle Maurice told me so--at least I got
+it out of him."
+
+The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of
+decision: "How much is that stole?"
+
+"Oh, it's no good thinking about it--it's three guineas," said Erebus
+quickly.
+
+"That's a mort o' money, as old Stubbs says," said the Terror; and the
+frown deepened on his brow.
+
+"I wonder if we could get it?" said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness
+dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face.  "I should like
+to.  It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things--much harder than
+for us, because we've never had them--at least, we had them when we
+were small, but we never got used to them.  So we've forgotten."
+
+"No, we're all right as long as we have useful things," said the
+Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown.  "But you're right about
+Mum--she must be different.  I've got to think this out."
+
+"Three guineas is such a lot to think out," said Erebus despondently.
+
+"I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago," said the Terror
+firmly.  "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really more
+important than bicycles and a cats' home, though not so useful."
+
+"But it's different--we _had_ to have bicycles--you said so," said
+Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Well, we've got to have this stole," said the Terror in a tone of
+finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted
+serenity.
+
+"But how?" said Erebus eagerly.
+
+"Things will occur to us.  They always do," said the Terror with a
+careless confidence.
+
+They began to put the kittens into their hutches.  Half-way through the
+operation the Terror paused:
+
+"I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens?  Does any one ever buy
+kittens?"
+
+"We did; we gave threepence each for these," said Erebus.
+
+"Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home.  We
+should never have bought a kitten but for that.  We shouldn't have
+dreamt of doing such a thing."
+
+"I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn't got any," said Erebus
+in a tone of decision.
+
+"You would, would you?  That's just what I wanted to know: girls will
+buy kittens," said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction.  "Well, we'll
+sell these."
+
+"But we can't empty the home," said Erebus.
+
+"We wouldn't.  We'd buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for threepence
+each, and sell these at a shilling.  We might make nearly a sovereign
+that way."
+
+"So we should--a whole sovereign!" cried Erebus; then she added in a
+somewhat envious tone: "You do think of things."
+
+"I have to.  Where should we be, if I didn't?" said the Terror.
+
+"But who are we going to sell them to?  Everybody round here has cats."
+
+"Yes, they have," said the Terror, frowning again.  "Well, we shall
+have to sell them somewhere else."
+
+They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to
+the house, pondering.  The Terror collected the books for his morning's
+work slowly, still thoughtful.
+
+As he was leaving the house he said: "Look here; the place for us to
+sell them is Rowington.  The people round here sell most of their
+things at Rowington--butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits."
+
+"And Ellen would sell them for us--in the market," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"Of course she would!  You see, you think of things, too!" cried the
+Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air.
+
+After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter
+of selling their kittens.  She had been their nurse for the first four
+years of their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a
+small farmer.  She had an affection for them, especially for the
+Terror; and she had not lost touch with them.  She welcomed them
+warmly, ushered them into her little parlor, brought in a decanter of
+elderberry wine and a cake.  When she had helped them to cake and
+poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had brought
+them to her house.
+
+Ellen's mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs
+and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her
+pony-cart.  She laughed consumedly at the Terror's belief that any one
+would want to buy kittens.  But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was
+very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell
+their kittens at her stall in Rowington market.  Ellen consented to
+make the attempt, for she had always found it difficult to resist the
+Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she was eager to oblige
+him; but she held out no hopes of success.
+
+The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not
+share her despondency.  Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen's
+pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression.
+
+Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said:
+"I tell you what: even if we don't sell those kittens, we can always
+buy the stole.  There's all that cats' home money in the bank.  We can
+take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees."
+
+"No, we can't," said the Terror firmly.  "We're not going to use that
+money for anything but the cats' home.  I promised Mum I wouldn't.
+Besides, she'd like the stole ever so much better if we'd really earned
+it ourselves."
+
+"But we shan't," said Erebus gloomily.  "If we sold all the kittens, it
+will only make twenty-three shillings."
+
+"Then we must find something else to sell," said the Terror with
+decision.
+
+His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little
+Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field
+of mangel-wurzel with vacant amiability.
+
+Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very
+good friends.  Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an
+honest day's work in his life.  Yet he was the smartest man in the
+village, the most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket.
+
+It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his
+constitutional disability to observe those admirable laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the English pheasants from all
+dangers save the small shot of those who have them fed.  Tom Cobb waged
+war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird.  Sometimes for
+a whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with
+never a check to his ardor.  In another season some prying gamekeeper
+would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, and an
+infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him.  The fine was always
+paid.  Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against
+a rainy day.
+
+He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted
+one another with smiles of mutual respect.  They rode on a few yards;
+and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped, slipped off his bicycle,
+and wheeled it back to the gate.  Erebus followed him more slowly.
+
+"I've been wondering if you'd do me a favor, Tom," said the Terror.
+"I've always wanted to know how to make a snare.  I'll give you
+half-a-crown if you'll teach me."
+
+Tom Cobb's clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but
+he hesitated.  He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little
+knowledge was a dangerous thing--for others.  He foresaw trouble for
+the sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the
+gamekeepers.  He did not foresee trouble for the Twins; he knew them.
+And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown.
+
+He grinned and said slowly, "Yes, Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy to
+teach you 'ow to make a snare."
+
+"Thank you.  I'll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two," said the
+Terror gratefully.
+
+"It _will_ be nice to know how to make snares!" cried Erebus happily as
+they rode on.  "I wonder we never thought of it before."
+
+"We didn't want a fur stole before," said the Terror.
+
+The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to
+Tom Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares.
+But the Terror would not.  Often he was indulgent; often he was firm.
+To-day he was firm.
+
+He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather
+sadly: "I've still a lot to learn.  But come on: I've got to buy
+something in Rowington."
+
+They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and
+they had to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell.  At Rowington the
+Terror bought copper wire at an ironmonger's; and he was very careful
+to buy it of a certain thickness.
+
+They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the
+experiment.  Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they
+washed them thoroughly in the kitchen.  They dried them, and decided to
+keep them in its warmth till the next morning.
+
+After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making
+of snares.  Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares
+at once.  The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while
+before he got one at all to his liking.
+
+Remembering Tom Cobb's instructions, he washed it, and then put on
+gloves before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the
+rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the
+cabbages.  He was up betimes next morning, found a rabbit in the snare,
+and thrilled with joy.  The fur stole had come within the range of
+possibility.
+
+Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens,
+brushing them with the Terror's hair-brush till their fur was of a
+sleekness it had never known before.  Then Erebus adorned the neck of
+each with a bow of blue ribbon.  Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed
+on the bows, and sewed them on firmly.  It could not be doubted that
+they looked much finer than ordinary unwashed kittens.  Directly after
+breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket of either of their
+bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to Ellen.
+
+They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but
+they had to return to their lessons.  After lunch they made three more
+snares; and the Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if
+anything, more deft at snare-making than his own.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and
+when they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their joy that the
+basket which had held the six kittens was empty.
+
+Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and
+said: "Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong.  I've sold
+them kitties--every one--and I've had two more ordered.  It was when
+the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went."
+
+She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the
+Terror.
+
+"Five," said the Terror.  "I must pay you a shilling for selling them.
+It's what they call commission."
+
+"No, sir; I don't want any commission," said Ellen firmly.  "As long as
+those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than
+any one else in the market.  I haven't had such a good day not ever
+before.  And I'll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring me."
+
+The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm.
+The Twins rode joyfully home with six shillings.
+
+That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden
+about the common.  He caught three rabbits.
+
+The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed
+the kittens and change the bay in the hutches.
+
+At last he said rather sadly: "It's sometimes rather awkward being a
+Dangerfield."
+
+"Why?" said Erebus surprised.
+
+"Those rabbits," said the Terror.  "I want to sell them.  But it's no
+good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer.  Even
+if he wanted rabbits--which he mightn't--he'd only give me sixpence
+each for them.  But if I were to sell them myself _here_, I could get
+eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them.  But, you see, a
+Dangerfield can't go about selling things.  Uncle Maurice said I had
+the makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn't go into
+business.  It's the family tradition not to.  That's what he said."
+
+"Perhaps he was only rotting," said Erebus hopefully.
+
+"No, he wasn't.  I asked Mum, and she said it was the family tradition,
+too.  I expect that's why we're all so hard up."
+
+"But the squire sells things," said Erebus quickly.  "And you can't say
+he isn't a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren't so old as the
+Dangerfields."
+
+"Of course, he does.  He sells some of his game," said the Terror, in a
+tone of great relief.  "Game must be all right, and we can easily count
+rabbits as game."
+
+Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they
+had caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of
+the neighborhood.  The Terror went to the back doors of their
+well-to-do neighbors and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the
+gratifying result that in less than an hour he had sold all four of
+them at eightpence each.
+
+They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them.  They
+had already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three
+shillings.
+
+It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew
+when to stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went
+on.  It was the fault of the rabbit market.  At the fifteenth rabbit,
+when they had but eighteen shillings and eightpence toward the stole,
+the bottom fell out of it.  For the time the desire of Little Deeping
+to eat rabbits was sated.
+
+It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who,
+after refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was to
+bring me a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different
+thing, Master Dangerfield."
+
+The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: "And how much
+would you pay for pheasants?"
+
+The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic
+she had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of
+threepence, perhaps ninepence, on each bird, and said: "Two and
+threepence each, sir."
+
+The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer.  He
+saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All right,
+I'll bring you two or three a week.  But you'll have to pay cash."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Of course, sir," said the cook.
+
+"Do you know any one else who'd buy pheasants?" he said.
+
+"Well, there's Mr. Carrington's cook," said the cook slowly.  "She has
+the management of the housekeeping money like I do.  I think she might
+buy pheasants from you.  Mr. Carrington's very partial to game."
+
+"Right," said the Terror.  "And thank you for telling me."
+
+He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the
+matter to his cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits.  He made a
+direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two and threepence each.
+After a vain attempt to beat him down to two shillings, she accepted it.
+
+He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught
+rabbits would catch pheasants.  At first he was for catching those
+pheasants by himself.  Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise;
+snaring pheasants was poaching; and poaching was not a girl's work.
+Then he came to the conclusion that he would need the help of Erebus
+and must tell her.
+
+When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: "But
+where are you going to get pheasants from?"
+
+"Woods," said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping gesture.
+
+Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled
+fiercely.
+
+"The only thing is, we don't know nearly enough about snaring
+pheasants.  And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it;
+and that wouldn't do at all," said the Terror.
+
+"But there's nobody else to ask."
+
+"I don't know about that.  There's Wiggins' father.  He knows a lot of
+useful things besides higher mathematics.  The only thing is, we must
+do it in such a way that he doesn't see we're trying to get anything
+out of him."
+
+"Well, I should think we could do that.  He's really quite simple,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"As long as _you_ understand what I'm driving at," said the Terror.
+
+That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington
+market, and carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next
+morning.  Ellen told them, with some indignation, that two rival
+poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell.  The Twins at
+once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance
+that those kittens were not a patch on those she was selling.  They
+were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold one; and
+the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole.
+
+On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of
+coming upon Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the
+third afternoon that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly,
+about three miles from Little Deeping.
+
+The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington.  They had a
+great respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor.
+In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his
+presence.  She did not know what he might say about her next.  He was,
+therefore, somewhat surprised when they slipped off their bicycles and
+joined him.  He wondered what they wanted.
+
+Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the
+society of their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk
+was running on pheasants.  Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants,
+except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the
+devastation the sacred bird was working in the English countryside:
+villages were being emptied and let fall to ruin that it might live
+undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to give it the woods
+to itself.
+
+It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was
+not aware that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he
+bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to
+the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that the towns drained the
+villages of all the intelligent.  The skilful poacher who harried the
+sacred bird was fast becoming extinct.
+
+Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the
+poacher; and the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words.
+He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher
+with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to
+display in the presence of the young.  The Terror came from that talk
+with a firm belief in the efficacy of raisins.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of
+raisins at the leading grocer's.  They might well have bought them at
+Little Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought
+Rowington safer.  They always took every possible precaution at the
+beginning of an enterprise.  They did not ride straight home.  Three
+miles out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill.  At the
+foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping
+wood, acre upon acre.  It had lately passed, along with the rest of the
+Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, a
+pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain.
+He was not loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less
+modern stocks, for, though he cherished the laudable ambition of having
+the finest pheasant shoot in England, and was on the way to realize it,
+he did not invite his neighbors to help shoot them.  His friends came
+wholly from The Polite World which so adorns the illustrated weeklies.
+
+It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins' came to the clump on
+the hill.  The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them
+behind the hedge.  He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle
+basket to his pocket, and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down
+the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked
+through it.  One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the
+wood below.  The occurrence pleased him.  He crawled out of the clump
+on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the
+ditch of the hedge to the wood.  He did not lay it right down to the
+wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it.  Then he returned
+with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus.  They rode home well content.
+
+Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again.
+Again the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood
+to the clump.  But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the
+clump.  Just above the end of the ditch.  Later he took from that snare
+a plump but sacred bird.  Later still he sold it to the cook of Mrs.
+Blenkinsop for two and threepence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR
+
+On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence
+to Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself
+serenely unmoved alike in victory and defeat.
+
+"That's all right," said Erebus cheerfully.  "That makes--that makes
+twenty-eight and eleven-pence.  We _are_ getting on."
+
+"Yes; it's twenty-eight and eleven-pence now," said the Terror quickly.
+"But you don't seem to see that when we've got the stole for Mum these
+pheasants will still be going on."
+
+"Of course they will!" cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very brightly
+indeed at the joyful thought.
+
+The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after
+breakfast; and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the
+clump above Great Deeping wood.  He reached it at the hour when
+gamekeepers are at their dinner, and was able to make a thorough
+examination of it.  He found it full of pheasant runs, and chose the
+two likeliest places for his snares.  He did not set them then and
+there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them.  He came again
+in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then.
+Later he sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the
+cook of Mr. Carrington.
+
+During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more
+kittens.  They found themselves in the happy position of needing only
+six shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole.
+
+But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the
+clump of trees above Great Deeping wood.  They had laid a trail of
+raisins and set a snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it
+on the valley road which divides the wood into two nearly equal parts.
+
+On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and
+since the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over
+Great Deeping hill, but took the longer level road along the valley.
+The afternoon was still young, and for December, uncommonly clear and
+bright.  But as they rode through the wood, the Terror decided that
+instead of returning to it in the favoring dusk he might as well
+examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself another journey.
+It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old heads,
+alas! do not grow on young shoulders.
+
+He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of
+his purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of
+his friends' latest exploits) and made his dispositions.  When they
+came to the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a
+lookout ahead.  The Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins.
+Wiggins held the two bicycles.  The Terror listened.  The wood was very
+still in its winter silence.  He slipped through the hedge into it, and
+presently came back bringing with him a very nice young pheasant
+indeed.  He put it into the basket of his bicycle, and mounted.
+
+They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty
+yards ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting
+fashion as he came.  There was neither time nor room to turn.  They
+rode on; and the keeper made for the Terror.  The Terror swerved; and
+the keeper swerved.  Wiggins ran bang into the keeper; and they came to
+the ground together as the Terror shot ahead, pedaling as hard as he
+could.
+
+He caught up Erebus, and his cry of "Keeper!" set her racing beside
+him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently,
+when no Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and
+dismounted.
+
+"The keeper's got him.  This is a mess!" said the Terror, who was
+panting a little from their spurt.
+
+"If only it had been one of us!" cried Erebus.  "Whatever are we to do?"
+
+"If that beastly keeper hadn't seen me with the pheasant, I'd get
+Wiggins away, somehow," said the Terror.  "But, as it is, it's me they
+really want; and I'd get fined to a dead certainty.  Come on, let's go
+back and see what's happened to him.  You scout on ahead.  Nobody knows
+you're in it."
+
+"All right," said Erebus; and she mounted briskly.
+
+She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a
+sign of an ambush.  The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty
+yards, ready to jump off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the
+alarm.  They got no sight of Wiggins till they came, just beyond the
+end of the wood, to the lodges of Great Deeping Park; then, half-way up
+the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey.  The keeper held Wiggins
+with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle with his right.
+The Twins dismounted.  Even at that distance they could see the deep
+dejection of their friend.
+
+"There's not really any reason for him to be frightened.  He was never
+in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant," said the Terror.
+
+"What does that matter?  He _will_ be frightened out of his life; he's
+so young," cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing after their
+receding friend with very anxious eyes.  "He's not like us; he won't
+cheek the keeper all the way like we should."
+
+"Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck," said the Terror in a reassuring tone.
+
+"But he won't understand he's all right.  He's only ten.  And there's
+no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales will bully
+him," cried Erebus with unabated anxiety.
+
+This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton.
+
+"Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he'll be out of
+it," said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle.
+
+"No, no!  That won't do at all!" cried Erebus fiercely.  "We've got to
+rescue him now--at once.  We got him into the mess; and we've got to
+get him out of it.  You've got to find a way."
+
+"It's all very well," said the Terror, frowning deeply; and he took off
+his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem.
+
+Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply.
+
+Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss.
+
+Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: "I can't see what we can
+do."
+
+"Oh, I'm going to get him out of it somehow!" cried Erebus in a furious
+desperation.
+
+With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive.
+
+The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty
+yards.  It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher
+of the three, the only one in real danger.  As he leaned on his
+machine, watching his vanishing sister, he ground his teeth.  For all
+his natural serenity, inaction was in the highest degree repugnant to
+him.
+
+Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and
+the keeper.  She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that
+the keeper would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door,
+when she saw Wiggins' bicycle standing against one of the pillars of
+the great porch.  In a natural elation at having captured a poacher,
+and eager to display his prize without delay, the keeper had gone
+straight into the great hall.
+
+Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then
+she moved Wiggins' bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came
+out, set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of
+sight lest he should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered
+the knocker firmly, and rang the bell.  The moment the door opened she
+stepped quickly past the footman into the hall.  The keeper sat on a
+chair facing her, and on a chair beside him sat Wiggins looking white
+and woebegone.
+
+Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply:
+"What are you doing with my little brother?"
+
+She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her
+position.
+
+The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone,
+but he said triumphantly:
+
+"I caught 'im poachin'--"
+
+"Stand up!  What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?" cried
+Erebus in her most imperative tone.
+
+The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air:
+"'E was poachin'," he said sulkily.
+
+"He was not!  A little boy like that!" cried Erebus scornfully.
+
+"Anyways, 'e was aidin' an' abettin', an' I've brought 'im to Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosynimer an' it's for 'im to say," said the keeper stubbornly.
+
+There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle
+click by which the Twins called each other to attention.  At the sound
+Wiggins, his face faintly flushed with hope, braced himself.  Erebus
+measured the distance with the eye of an expert, just as there came
+into the farther end of the hall that large, flabby, pudding-faced
+young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"Where's the boacher?" he roared in an eager, angry voice, reverting in
+his emotion to the ancestral "b."
+
+As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide.
+
+"Bolt, Wiggins!" she cried.
+
+Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the
+footman grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus.  She slammed the
+door behind the vanished Wiggins.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl.
+Erebus set her back against the door.  He caught her by the left arm to
+sling her out of the way.  It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught
+him a slap on his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing
+of her right, a slap that rang through the great hall like the crack of
+a whip-lash.  Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender.  He howled
+again, and thumped at Erebus with big flabby fists.  She caught the
+first blow on an uncommonly acute elbow.  The second never fell, for
+the footman caught him by the collar and swung him round.
+
+"It's not for the likes of you to 'it Henglish young ladies!" he cried
+with patriotic indignation.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously,
+"Ged out of my house!  Now--at once--ged out!"
+
+"And pleased I shall be to go--when I've bin paid my wages.  It's a
+month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow.  I've had enough of
+furriners," said the footman with cold exultation.
+
+"Go--go--ged oud!" roared Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer.
+
+"When I've bin paid my wages," said the footman coldly.
+
+Erebus waited to hear no more.  She turned the latch, slipped through
+the door, and slammed it behind her.  To her dismay she saw a big
+motorcar coming round the corner of the house.  She mounted quickly and
+raced down the drive.  Wiggins was already out of sight.
+
+Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her.
+
+"I've sent Wiggins on!" he shouted as she passed.
+
+"Come on!  Come on!" she shrieked back.  "The beastly foreigner's got a
+motor-car!"
+
+He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car
+had been ready to start.  They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down
+the road; and all three of them sat down to ride all they knew.  They
+were fully eight miles from home, and the car could go three miles to
+their one on that good road.  The Twins alone would have made a longer
+race of it; but the pace was set by the weaker Wiggins.  They had gone
+little more than three miles when they heard the honk of the car as it
+came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind them.
+
+"Go on, Terror!" cried Erebus.  "You're the one that matters!  You did
+the poaching!  I'll look after Wiggins!  He'll be all right with me."
+
+For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the
+advice sank in, and he shot ahead.  Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and
+they rode on.  The car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly
+as it would have done had not Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the
+courage of his famous grenadier ancestors, been in it.  He was howling
+at his straining chauffeur to go slower.
+
+Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than
+fifty yards behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging
+briskly along.
+
+"It's your father!" gasped Erebus.
+
+It was, indeed, the higher mathematician.
+
+As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and
+Erebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all!  It was the Terror!"
+
+"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly.
+
+On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
+D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.
+
+"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
+incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
+father.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington.
+
+The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
+single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence.  Mr. Carrington
+seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
+arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
+technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut on
+the point which put him to sleep."  He fell as falls a sack of
+potatoes, and lay like a log.
+
+The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.
+
+"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his most
+agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.
+
+The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
+no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
+between them.
+
+"I can't say as I do, sir," he said civilly; and he backed away.
+
+"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
+young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
+constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion," said the
+higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.
+
+"Assaults?--'Im assault?--Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, of
+Great Deeping Court, sir," said the keeper respectfully.
+
+"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
+looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
+be summoned for assault.  Good afternoon," said Mr. Carrington, and he
+turned on his heel.
+
+The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
+employer.  Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head.  He put his
+walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
+with rueful tenderness.  None the less he looked pleased; it was
+gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
+such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
+Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
+proud air.  They felt that they shone with his reflected glory.  It was
+a delightful sensation.
+
+They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet
+gratified tone: "Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?"
+
+"No, my child.  I am not a pork-butcher," said Mr. Carrington amiably.
+
+"He _looked_ as if he was dead," said Erebus; and there was a faint
+ring of disappointment in her tone.
+
+"In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope
+that it will be a better and wiser self," said Mr. Carrington.  "But
+what was it all about?  What did that truculent young ruffian want with
+Rupert?"
+
+Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration;
+then she dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: "It
+was a pheasant in Great Deeping wood," she said.  "The Terror found it,
+I suppose.  I had gone on, and I didn't see that part.  But it was
+Wiggins the keeper caught.  Of course--"
+
+"I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,"
+broke in Mr. Carrington.  "Had you ridden on too, Rupert?  Or did you
+see what happened?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I was there," said Wiggins readily.  "And the Terror found
+the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket.  And we had
+just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I
+ran into him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court.  I wasn't
+really frightened--at least, not much."
+
+"The keeper had no right to touch him," Erebus broke in glibly.
+"Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn't even go into the wood;
+and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and
+the keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then
+that horrid Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold
+of me by the arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once.  I
+should think that the mark is still there "--her speed of speech
+slackened to a slower vengeful gratification and then quickened
+again--"and he began to thump me and the footman interfered, and I came
+away, and they came after us in the car, and you saw what happened--at
+least you did it."
+
+She stopped somewhat breathless.
+
+"Lucidity itself," said Mr. Carrington.  "But let us have the matter of
+the pheasant clear.  Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance of
+finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be
+there ready to be brought home?"
+
+Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly,
+and said, "Well, there was a snare, you know."
+
+Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: "I thought so.  I thought we should
+come to that snare in time.  Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?"
+
+"Oh, no, he didn't know anything about it!" Erebus broke in quickly.
+"We should never have thought of letting him into anything so
+dangerous!  He's so young!"
+
+"I shall be eleven in a fortnight!" said Wiggins with some heat.
+
+"You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker's in Rowington for a
+Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could
+think of getting it," said Erebus in a confidential tone.
+
+"Light!  Light at last!" cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed gently.
+"Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; exquisitely
+Pomeranian!  But it's just as well that they have, or that ingenious
+brother of yours would be in a fine mess.  As it is, I think we can go
+on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited."  He
+chuckled again.
+
+He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from
+Erebus the full story of their poaching.  When they reached the village
+he did not go to his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr.
+Tupping, the lawyer who had sold his practise at Rowington and had
+retired to Little Deeping.  At his gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good
+afternoon and told her to tell the Terror not to thrust himself on the
+notice of any of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer's keepers who might be sent out
+to hunt for the real culprit.  He would better keep quiet.
+
+Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home.  She found the Terror
+in the cats' home, awaiting her impatiently.
+
+"Well, did Wiggins get away all right?" he cried.  "I passed Mr.
+Carrington; and I thought he'd see that they didn't carry him off
+again."
+
+Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr.
+Carrington had dealt with the Pomeranian foe.
+
+"By Jove!  That was ripping!  I do wish I'd been there!" said the
+Terror.  "He only hit him once, you say?"
+
+"Only once.  And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr.
+Rosenheimer's keepers are out hunting for you," said Erebus.
+
+"I am lying low," said the Terror.  "And I've got rid of that pheasant.
+I sold it to Mr. Carrington's cook as I came through the village.  I
+thought it was better out of the way."
+
+"Then that's all right.  We only want about another half-crown," said
+Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to
+a better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he
+still retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly
+interest; and among them was Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching
+not only because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because
+she could so ill afford the expense of the case.  He readily fell in
+with the view of Mr. Carrington that they had better take the
+offensive, and that the violent behavior of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer had
+given them the weapons.
+
+The result of their council was that not later than seven o'clock that
+evening Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little
+Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield,
+and with another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R.
+S.; and in the course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served
+with a summons for an assault on Rupert Carrington.
+
+Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the
+neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer was in
+a chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been "put to
+sleep by an uppercut on the point."  He made haste to despatch a car
+into Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business.
+
+The lawyer knew his client's unpopularity in the county, and advised
+him earnestly to try to hush these matters up.  He declared that
+however Pomeranian one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench
+of English magistrates would take a favorable view of an assault by a
+big young man on a middle-aged higher mathematician of European
+reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, aged thirteen,
+gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician's little boy from wrongful
+arrest and detention.
+
+Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested
+that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his
+devotion to the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy.  But he
+perceived clearly enough that he had let that devotion carry him too
+far, and that a Bench which never profited by it, so far as to shoot
+the particular sacred birds on which it was lavished, would not be
+deeply touched by it.  Therefore he instructed the lawyer to use every
+effort to settle the matter out of court.
+
+The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over
+to Little Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington's house.  He found Mr.
+Carrington uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to
+placate him by urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude
+which had robbed it of its violence, and that he could well afford to
+be generous to a man whom he had so neatly put to sleep with an
+uppercut on the point.
+
+Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the
+more prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a
+veritable poached pheasant; and at last he made terms.  The summonses
+should be withdrawn on condition that nothing more was heard about that
+poached pheasant and that Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty
+guineas to the funds of the Deeping Cottage Hospital.  The lawyer
+accepted the terms readily; and his client made no objection to
+complying with them.
+
+The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington
+sent for the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this
+poaching.  He did not profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at
+length on the extreme annoyance his mother would feel if he were caught
+and prosecuted.  In the end he gave him the choice of giving his word
+to snare no more pheasants, or of having his mother informed that he
+was poaching.  The Terror gave his word to snare no more pheasants the
+more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his poaching,
+she would forbid him to set another snare for anything.  Besides, he
+had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before.  Only he
+pointed out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a
+pheasant, for pheasants went everywhere.  Mr. Carrington admitted this
+fact and said that it would be enough if he refrained from setting his
+snares on ground sacred to the sacred bird.  If pheasants wandered into
+them on unpreserved ground, it was their own fault.  Thanks therefore
+to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never learned of the
+Terror's narrow escape.
+
+The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds,
+since the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete.  They
+turned their attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the
+hedge of the farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs.  Mrs. Blenkinsop's cook
+paid them half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete.
+
+Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time
+making the purchase.  As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of
+more stoles if they bought it before the Christmas rush.  Accordingly
+on the afternoon after the sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to
+buy it.
+
+It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing
+hard; and when they dismounted at the door of Barker's shop, Erebus
+gazed wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer,
+the confectioner, and said sadly:
+
+"It's a pity it isn't Saturday and we had our 'overseering' salary.  We
+might have gone to Springer's and had a jolly good blow-out for once."
+
+The Terror gazed at Springer's window thoughtfully, and said: "Yes, it
+is a pity.  We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid
+ourselves in advance."
+
+He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed
+somewhat absent-minded during her examination of the stoles.  She was
+very thorough in it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had
+chosen the very best of them.  The girl who was serving them made out
+the bill; and the Terror drew the little bag which held the three
+guineas (since it was all in silver they had been able to find no purse
+of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on the counter, and
+counted them slowly.
+
+He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole
+when a flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: "I
+shall want five per cent. discount for cash."
+
+"Oh, we don't do that sort of thing here," said the girl quickly.
+"This is such an old-established establishment."
+
+"I can't help that.  I must have discount for cash," said the Terror
+yet more firmly.
+
+The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own
+shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity.  Mr. Barker
+came and she put the matter to him.
+
+"Oh, no, sir; I'm afraid we couldn't think of it.  Barker's is too old
+established a house to connive at these sharp modern ways of doing
+business," said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air.
+
+The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: "All right," he
+said.  "You can put the stole down to me--Master Hyacinth Dangerfield,
+Colet House, Little Deeping."
+
+He began to shovel the money back into the bag.
+
+An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as
+the coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: "I'm afraid we can't
+do that, sir.  Our terms are cash--strictly cash."
+
+"Oh, no, they're not.  My mother has had an account here for the last
+six years," said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went into
+the bag.
+
+Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of
+warm geniality he cried: "Oh, that alters the case altogether!  In the
+case of the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we're
+delighted to deduct five per cent. discount for cash--delighted.  Make
+out the bill for three pounds, Miss Perkins."
+
+Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away
+the stole tenderly.
+
+As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave
+three shillings discount in his pocket and said: "Now for Springer's!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AND PRINGLE'S POND
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an
+almost extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had
+any.  She wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it
+had cost; she knew that it had not been drawn from the cats' home fund,
+since the Terror had promised her that none of that money should be
+diverted from its proper purpose; and she was the more grateful to them
+for the thought and labor they must have devoted to acquiring it.  On
+the whole she thought it wiser not to inquire how the money had been
+raised.
+
+The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas.  It
+was the one week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude
+and gently rollicked.  There was a dearth of children, young men and
+maidens among their Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins
+were in request as the lighter element in the Christmas gatherings.
+Thanks to the Terror, the three of them took this brightening function
+with considerable seriousness: each of them learned by heart a humorous
+piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; and they performed
+two charades in a very painstaking fashion.  They had but little
+dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the
+discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always
+well received.
+
+It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas.  The weather broke about
+the middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy
+snow-storm.  The Twins made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common
+in front of Colet House; and they constructed also an excellent
+toboggan on which they rushed down the hill into the village street.
+These were but light pleasures.  They watched the ponds with the most
+careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an hour's
+skating.  Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and Mr.
+Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the
+vicarage, drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son
+take any risk whatever.
+
+The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost;
+and the Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear.  They ate
+their breakfast in a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered
+together his books for his morning's work they made their plans.
+
+He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two
+pairs of brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: "Then
+that's settled.  I'll meet you at Pringle's pond as soon after half
+past twelve as I can get there; but you'd better not go on it before I
+come."
+
+"Oh, it'll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday," said Erebus
+impatiently.
+
+"Well, Wiggins isn't to go on it before I come.  You'll do as you like
+of course--as usual--and if you fall in, it'll be your own lookout.
+But he's to wait till I come.  If the ice does bear, it won't bear any
+too well; and I'm responsible for Wiggins.  I promised Mr. Carrington
+to look after him," said the Terror in tones of stern gravity.
+
+Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: "As if I
+couldn't take care of him just as well as you.  I'm as old as you."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But you are a girl; there's no
+getting over it; and it does make a difference."
+
+Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she
+scowled at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly
+behind him.  She hated to be reminded that she was a girl.  The
+reminder rankled at intervals during her lessons; and twice Mrs.
+Dangerfield asked her what was distressing her that she scowled so
+fiercely.
+
+At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she
+was ready to go skating.  She set out briskly across the common, and
+found Wiggins waiting for her at his father's garden-gate.  He joined
+her in a fine enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its
+bearing with the most hopeful confidence.  She displayed an equal
+confidence; and they took their brisk way across the white meadows.
+More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth and advanced by leaps and
+bounds.  His blue eyes were shining very brightly in the cold winter
+sunlight.
+
+In ten minutes they came to Pringle's pond.  The wind had swept the ice
+fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting.  Also it
+looked quite thick and strong.  Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
+that it bore her, and tested it with some care.  She even jumped up and
+down on it.  It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself
+that ice always cracks, more or less.  She set about putting on her
+skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed,
+followed her example.
+
+When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
+looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently.  No; she
+would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
+till he came. . . .  She could look after him quite as well as the
+Terror. . . .  She had tested the ice thoroughly. . . .  It was
+perfectly safe.
+
+Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him.  The
+ice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it
+cracked again.  Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling
+Wiggins not to go far from the edge.  She skated round and across the
+pond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight,
+resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came.
+Wiggins skated about the pond.
+
+She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
+eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
+a shrill cry from Wiggins.  She turned sharply to see the water welling
+up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
+row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
+the wind.
+
+Wiggins was in that hole under the water.
+
+She screamed and dashed toward it.  She had nearly reached it when his
+head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice.  Two more
+steps and a loud crack gave her pause.  It flashed on her that if she
+went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
+water herself.
+
+"Hold on!  Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
+and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
+through the still winter air.
+
+She screamed again and yet again.  Wiggins' face rose above the edge of
+the ice; and he gasped and spluttered.  Then she sank down gently, at
+full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
+so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
+toward the hole.  Half a minute's cautious squirming brought her hands
+to the edge of it; and with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists.
+The ice bent under her weight, but it did not break.  The icy water,
+welling out over it, began to drench her arms and chest.
+
+Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could
+not.  She could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from.
+
+Wiggins' little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his
+teeth chattered.
+
+She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes.  She
+could not.
+
+"C-c-can't you p-p-pull m-m-me out?" chattered Wiggins.
+
+"No, not yet," she said hoarsely.  "But it's all right.  The Terror
+will be here in a minute."
+
+She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again.
+
+She listened with all her ears for an answer.  A bird squeaked shrilly
+on the other side of the field; there was no other sound.  Wiggins'
+white face was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of
+fear.  Again she kicked about for a grip, in vain.
+
+"It's d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold," said Wiggins in a very faint voice; he
+began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers.
+
+She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were
+dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders.
+
+"Try to stick it out!  Don't give in!  It's only a minute or two
+longer!  The Terror _must_ come!" she cried fiercely.
+
+His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling
+ashamed of it.  Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of
+hopeless bewildered distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in
+their sockets scanning the cold sky in desperate appeal.
+
+They terrified Erebus beyond words.  She screamed, and then she
+screamed and screamed.  Wiggins' face was a mere white blur through her
+blinding tears of terror.
+
+She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror
+cried loudly: "Stop that row!"
+
+She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir
+her and Wiggins.  He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes.
+
+Then he cried: "Squirm round to the left.  I'll help you."
+
+He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and
+she squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending
+ice.
+
+In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a
+willow, gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull
+began to draw them toward the bank.  The ice creaked as Wiggins' chest
+came over the edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once
+flat on the ice, the Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily.
+He dragged Erebus, still by the ankles, half up the bank to get most of
+her weight off the ice.  Then he stepped down on to it and picked up
+Wiggins.  Erebus' stiff fingers still grasped his wrists; and they did
+not open easily to let them go.
+
+The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then
+he pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened
+the blade with his teeth for quickness' sake, tossed it to Erebus and
+cried: "Cut off his skates!  Pull off his boots and stockings!"
+
+Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins' coat, jersey and
+waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began
+to rub his chest violently.  In the spring the Twins had attended a
+course of the St. John's Ambulance Society lectures, and among other
+things had learned how to treat those dying from exposure.  The Terror
+was the quicker dealing with Wiggins since he had so often been the
+subject on which he and Erebus had practised many kinds of first-aid.
+
+He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into
+it.  Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with
+cold and terror) cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his
+boots, pulled them off, pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at
+his legs.  The Terror turned Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently
+till the blood reddened that.  Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt.
+
+Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on
+Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins' knickerbockers and rubbed his
+thighs till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled
+them on Wiggins' legs.  The stockings came well up his thighs; and the
+Terror's coat and jersey came well down them.  Wiggins was completely
+covered.  But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her
+stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her
+jacket and tied it round Wiggins' waist by the sleeves.
+
+Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no
+longer a dead waxen color.  He opened his eyes twice and shut them
+feebly.
+
+The Terror shook him, and shouted: "Come on, old chap!  Make an effort!
+We want to get you home!"
+
+With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over
+Wiggins' cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder,
+bade Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set
+off toward the village half carrying, half dragging him along.  They
+went slowly for Wiggins' feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly
+along.  Their arms round him helped warm him.  It would have taken them
+a long time to haul him all the way to his home; but fortunately soon
+after they came out of Pringle's meadows on to the road, Jakes, the
+Great Deeping butcher, who supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle
+Deeping with meat, came clattering along in his cart.  Wiggins was
+quickly hauled into it; and the three of them were at Mr. Carrington's
+in about four minutes.
+
+As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to
+Erebus: "You bolt home as hard as you can go.  You must be awfully wet
+and cold; and if you don't want to be laid up, the sooner you take some
+quinine and get to bed the better."
+
+As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran
+home as quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her.
+
+The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins
+as a half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington's house in an uproar.  The
+Terror, as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and
+housemaid and Mr. Carrington himself.  Wiggins was carried into the hot
+kitchen and rolled in a blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet.
+The cook was for two blankets and two hot water bottles; but the expert
+Terror insisted with a firmness there was no bending that heat must be
+restored slowly.  As Wiggins warmed he gave him warm brandy and water
+with a teaspoon.  In ten minutes Wiggins was quite animate, able to
+talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning circulation.
+
+The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed
+and warm the blankets.  In another five minute's Mr. Carrington carried
+Wiggins up to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine.  Presently
+he fell asleep.
+
+The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without
+stockings and a jersey.  He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr.
+Carrington, and now that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over,
+he told him how he had come to the pond to find Wiggins in the water
+and Erebus spread out on the ice, holding him back from sinking.  He
+was careful not to tell him that he had forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins
+go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to thank him for saving
+him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus.
+
+Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and
+then further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine.  On
+his way home the Terror went briskly round by Pringle's pond and picked
+up the skates and garments that had been left there.  When he reached
+home he found that Erebus was in bed.  She seemed little the worse for
+lying with her arms and chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins
+afloat; and when she learned that Wiggins also seemed none the worse
+and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her lunch with a fair appetite.
+
+The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her
+disregard for his instructions; he only said: "I just told Mr.
+Carrington that Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the
+pond."
+
+"That was awfully decent of you," said Erebus after a pause in which
+she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES
+
+The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the
+spirit of Erebus for as long as might have been expected.  She was as
+quick as any one to realize that all's well that ends well; and Wiggins
+escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed.  The adventure, however,
+induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far less condescending
+with him than she had been; indeed she seemed to have acquired
+something of a proprietary interest in him and was uncommonly
+solicitous for his welfare.  To such a point did this solicitude go
+that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing about
+him.
+
+During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their
+lives followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their
+games; then tended the inmates of the cats' home, selling them as they
+grew big, and replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to
+lap.
+
+In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little
+trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.  The free water runs for rather more than half a mile
+on the Little Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it
+with an assiduity and a skill which set the villagers grumbling that
+they left no fish for any one else.  Also the Twins tried to get leave
+to fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream.  But
+Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to
+give them leave: for no reason that the Twins could see, since Sir
+James was absent, shooting big game in Africa.  They resented the
+refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream.  It
+was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early
+morning on the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle
+Deeping Grange.
+
+About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their
+Aunt Amelia.  Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that
+it was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehampton
+had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much.  On his return he
+was able to assure the interested Erebus that their aunt's parrot still
+said "dam" with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration.
+
+Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan
+had let Muttle Deeping Grange.  In the life of the Deeping villages the
+mere letting of Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the
+inhabitants of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of
+Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of
+their being when the news came that it had been let to a German
+princess.  The women, at any rate, awaited her coming with the
+liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from their
+fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of
+Cassel-Nassau, was only twelve years and seven months old.
+
+The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors.
+Resenting deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a
+_German_ princess, they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the
+matter, and refused to be interested or impressed.  Erebus was more
+resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high
+patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing
+to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon to tea,
+gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents,
+uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with
+meaning, "And what a model she will be to the little girls of the
+neighborhood!"
+
+Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass
+when it was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she
+should model herself on a German.
+
+"I don't suppose it would really make any difference who you modeled
+yourself on," said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank than
+grammatical.
+
+When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of
+her neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her.  She did
+not, as they had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she
+had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor.  They only saw her on her
+afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickly veiled against the
+sun, sitting bolt upright in the victoria beside the crimson baroness
+(crimson in face; she wore black) in whose charge she had come to
+England.
+
+They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for
+her health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she
+should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the
+excellent Deeping air would strengthen her.  The news abated a little
+the cold hostility of Erebus; but the Twins paid but little attention
+to their young neighbor.
+
+Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and
+her appetite was poor.  Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and
+in particular he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit.  It was not the
+best season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were
+coming to an end.  Mrs. Dangerfield made shift to do with bananas.  The
+Twins were annoyed that this was the best that could be done to carry
+out the doctor's orders; but there seemed no help for it.
+
+It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor's
+visit that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling
+their bicycles out of the cats' home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes
+of the Terror; and he said:
+
+"I've got an idea!"
+
+An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried
+joyfully; "Thank goodness!  I was beginning to get afraid that nothing
+was ever going to occur to us again.  I thought it was the hot weather.
+What is it?"
+
+"Those Germans," said the Terror darkly.  "Now that they've got the
+Grange, why shouldn't we make a raid on the peach-garden.  They say the
+Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; and Watkins told me
+they ripen uncommon early.  They're probably ripe now."
+
+"That's a splendid idea!  It will just teach those Germans!" cried
+Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the
+patriot.  Then after a pause she added reluctantly: "But if the
+princess is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches
+herself."
+
+"She couldn't want all of them.  Why we couldn't.  There are hundreds,"
+said the Terror quickly.  "And they're the very thing for Mum.  Bananas
+are all very well in their way; but they're not like real fruit."
+
+"Of course; Mum _must_ have them," said Erebus with decision.  "But how
+are we going to get into the peach-garden?  The door in the wall only
+opens on the inside."
+
+"We're not.  I've worked it out.  Now you just hurry up and get some
+big leaves to put the peaches in.  Mum will like them ever so much
+better with the bloom on, though it doesn't really make any difference
+to the taste."
+
+Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of
+different kinds.  When she came back she found the Terror tying the
+landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing,
+to the backbone of his bicycle.  She put the leaves into her bicycle
+basket, and they rode briskly to Muttle Deeping.
+
+The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since
+they had spent several days in careful scouting before they had made
+their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds.  A screen of
+trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of the gardens; and
+the Twins, after coming from the road in the shelter of the home wood,
+came down the wall behind that screen of trees.
+
+About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low
+bough, raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed
+the garden.  It was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound
+that disquieted him little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig.
+
+He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed
+the golden burden of the tree beneath him.  The ready Erebus handed the
+landing-net up to him.  He chose his peach, the ripest he could see;
+slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the
+wall, and lowered it down to Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a
+leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle basket.  The Terror netted
+another and another and another.
+
+The garden was not as empty as he believed.  On a garden chair in the
+little lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from
+him by the thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat,
+or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von
+Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructions
+that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was
+doing her best to bring it about that the practise should do her as
+little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and most airless spot
+on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own
+comfortable sleeping.
+
+The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden.  Her
+eyes were shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully
+crimson, and from her short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the
+sound of snoring which the Terror had ascribed to some distant pig.
+
+The princess was warmly--very warmly--dressed for the sweltering
+afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow;
+the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her
+lap; and she was looking round the simmering garden with a look of
+intolerable discomfort and boredom on her pretty pale face.
+
+Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the
+end-of the wall of pear tree--a moving object against the garden wall.
+She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a
+peach rose and vanished over the top of the wall.  She stared at the
+part of the wall whence it had risen; and in a few seconds another
+peach seemed to rise and disappear.
+
+This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that,
+in spite of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the
+wall of pear-tree.  As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the
+wall, a fair-haired boy.  Even as she saw him something rose and
+vanished over the wall far too swiftly for her to see that it was a
+landing-net.
+
+Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably,
+raised his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: "How do you do?"
+
+He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to
+make admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke
+pursuit and risk his peaches.
+
+"How do you do?" said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating.
+"What are you doing up there?"
+
+"I'm looking at the garden," said the Terror truthfully, but not quite
+accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess.
+
+She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown.  She
+thought that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and
+his serene guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the
+lie.  She thought that he looked a nice boy.
+
+He gazed at her with growing interest and approval--as much approval as
+one could give to a girl.  The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray
+eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line
+from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin was so straight that it
+made her face almost triangular, it was a pretty face.  She looked
+fragile; and he felt sorry for her.
+
+"This garden's very hot," he said.  "It's like holding one's face over
+an oven."
+
+"Oh, it is," said the princess, with impatient weariness.
+
+"Yet there's quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of the
+walls," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious
+examining eyes.  Certainly he looked a nice boy.
+
+"I tell you what: come out into the wood.  I know an awfully cool
+place.  You'd find it very refreshing," said the Terror in the tone of
+one who has of a sudden been happily inspired.
+
+The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at
+the sleeping baroness.  The sight of that richly crimson face made the
+garden feel hotter than ever.
+
+"Do come.  My sister's here, and it will be very jolly in the wood--the
+three of us," said the Terror in his most persuasive tone.
+
+The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but
+unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness:
+
+"Are you well-born?"
+
+The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly:
+"Well, from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in
+the Weald before they were any Hohenzollerns.  And they did very well
+at Crecy and Agincourt, too," he added pensively.
+
+The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated.
+
+"Suppose the baroness were to wake?" she said.
+
+A light of understanding brightened the Terror's face: "Oh, is that the
+baroness snoring?  I thought it was a pig," he said frankly.  "She
+won't wake for another hour.  Nobody snoring like that could."
+
+The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess.  She
+cast one more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: "Very goot; I
+will coom."
+
+She walked to the door lower down the garden wall.  When she came
+through it, she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it.  The
+Terror, in a very dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet
+Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.  He
+gave their full and so little-used names because he felt that, in the
+case of a princess, etiquette demanded it.  Then they moved along the
+screen of trees, up the side of the garden wall toward the wood.
+
+The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess,
+which was uncommonly slow.  She kept looking from one to the other with
+curious, rather timid, pleased eyes.  She saw the landing-net that
+Erebus had fastened to the backbone of the Terror's bicycle; but she
+saw no connection between it and the vanishing peaches.
+
+They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the
+home wood, a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through
+without difficulty, took a narrow, little used path into the depths of
+the wood, and moved down it in single file.
+
+"I expect you never found this path," said the Terror to the princess
+who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle.
+
+"No, I haf not found it.  I haf never been in this wood till now," said
+the princess.
+
+"You haven't been in this wood!  But it's the home wood--the jolliest
+part of the estate," cried the Terror in the liveliest surprise.  "And
+there are two paths straight into it from the gardens."
+
+"But I stay always in the gardens," said the princess sedately.  "The
+Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that I
+go out of sight of her."
+
+"But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the time,"
+said Erebus.
+
+"Slack?  What is slack?" said the princess.
+
+"She means feeble," said the Terror.  "But all the same those gardens
+are big enough; there's plenty of room to run about in them."
+
+"But I do not run.  It is not dignified.  The Baroness Von Aschersleben
+would be shocked," said the princess with a somewhat prim air.
+
+"No wonder you're delicate," said Erebus, politely trying to keep a
+touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing.
+
+"One can not help being delicate," said the princess.
+
+"I don't know," said the Terror doubtfully.  "If you're in the open air
+a lot and do run about, you don't _keep_ delicate.  Wiggins used to be
+delicate, but he isn't now."
+
+"Who is Wiggins?" said the princess.
+
+"He's a friend of ours--not so old as we are--quite a little boy," said
+Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been present, would
+have resented with extreme bitterness.  "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told
+Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing with
+children of your own age, you'd soon get strong."
+
+"That's what I've come to England for," said the princess.
+
+"I don't think there's much chance of your getting strong in that
+peach-garden.  It didn't feel to me like the open air at all," said the
+Terror firmly.
+
+"But it is the open air," said the princess.
+
+They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader
+one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep
+and pathless bank.  The Twins started up it as if it were neither here
+nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
+
+But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
+
+"Am I to climb this?"
+
+The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle
+against the trunk of a tree, and said:
+
+"I'll help you up."
+
+With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round
+the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of
+the bank.  He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it;
+but none the less she reached the top panting a little.
+
+"You certainly aren't in very good training," he said rather sadly.
+
+"Training?  What is training?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being fit," said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
+
+"And what is being fit?" said the princess.
+
+"It's being strong--and well--and able to run miles and miles," said
+Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer.
+
+"You needn't shout at her," said the Terror.
+
+"I'm trying to make her understand," said Erebus firmly.
+
+"But I do understand--when it is not the slang you are using.  I know
+English quite well," said the princess.
+
+"You certainly speak it awfully well," said the Terror politely.
+
+He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle.  They went a little
+deeper into the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool.
+
+They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in
+the cool green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes.
+
+"This _is_ different," she said with a faint little sigh of pleasure.
+
+[Illustration: "This is different," she said.]
+
+"Yes; this is the real open air," said the Terror.
+
+"But I do get lots of open air," protested the princess.  "Why, I sleep
+with my window open--at least that much."  She held out her two
+forefingers some six inches apart.  "The baroness did not like it.  She
+said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills.  But Doctor
+Arbuthnot said that it must be open.  I think I sleep better."
+
+"We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they'll go; and then
+they're not wide enough in this hot weather," said Erebus in the tone
+of superiority that was beginning to sound galling.
+
+"I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you'd be cooler still,"
+said the Terror rather quickly.
+
+The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat
+and jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure.  She had quite
+lost her air of discomfort and boredom.  Her eyes were shining
+brightly; and her pale cheeks were a little flushed with the excitement
+of her situation.
+
+It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up
+children, were aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal
+personages unless they first speak to you.  If they were, they did not
+let that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their
+healthy curiosity.  It may be they felt that in the free green wood the
+etiquette of courts was out of place.  At any rate they did not let it
+trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest
+kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive,
+interrogation about the life of a royal child at a German court.
+
+They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the
+lessons she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games
+she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea,
+her occupations after tea, her dinner, her occupations after dinner,
+the hour she went to bed.
+
+There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it
+was only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her
+importance should be of the greatest interest to less fortunate
+mortals.  She was not even annoyed by their carelessness of etiquette
+in not waiting to be spoken to before they asked a question.  Indeed
+she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for it was seldom that
+any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom,
+indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her
+fellow creatures.  She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had
+never had any really sympathetic playmates.  The children of
+Cassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their minds
+were harassed by the fear lest they should be guilty of some appalling
+breach of etiquette.  The manner of the Twins, therefore, was a
+pleasant change for her.  They were polite, but quite unconstrained;
+and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded had
+never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness,
+they were safely asleep in her presence.
+
+But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new
+friends she looked for.  As she exposed more and more of the trammeling
+net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was
+enmeshed, their faces did not fill with the envy she would have found
+so natural on them; they grew gloomy.
+
+At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said
+with heart-felt conviction:
+
+"Well, thank goodness, I'm not a princess!  It must be perfectly awful!"
+
+"It must be nearly as bad to be a prince," said the Terror in the
+gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion.
+
+The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with
+parted lips and amazed incredulous eyes.  Their words had given her the
+shock of her short lifetime.  As far as memory carried her back, she
+had been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a
+German princess, a Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and
+delightful lot a female human being could enjoy, only a little less
+glorious and delightful than the lot of a German prince.
+
+"B-b-but it's sp-p-plendid to be a princess!  Everybody says so!" she
+stammered.
+
+"They were humbugging you.  You've just made it quite clear that it's
+horrid in every kind of way.  Why, you can't do any single thing you
+want to.  There's always somebody messing about you to see that you
+don't," said Erebus with cold decision.
+
+"B-b-but one is a _p-p-princess_," stammered the princess, with
+something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has
+suddenly given way.
+
+The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it.
+
+"You're forgetting the food," he said quickly to Erebus.  "I don't
+suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she can have all
+the sweets and ices she wants."
+
+"Of course," said the princess; and then she went on quickly: "B-b-but
+it isn't what you have to eat that makes it so--so--so important being
+a princess.  It's--"
+
+"But it's awfully important what you have to eat!" cried the Terror.
+
+"I should jolly well think so!" cried Erebus.
+
+The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her
+exalted station; but the Twins would not have it.  They kept her firmly
+to the broad human questions of German cookery and sweets.  The
+princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly
+but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
+new part of dispenser of information.  Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
+and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.
+
+In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
+unheeded by the interested trio.  The crimson baroness had awakened,
+missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
+her.  A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
+was not in them.  As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
+panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
+search of her.
+
+The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
+the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
+tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
+Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
+distant voice calling out.
+
+He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen!  There's some one
+calling.  I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be getting
+back."
+
+The princess rose reluctantly.  Then her face clouded; and she said in
+a tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear!  How annoyed the baroness will be!"
+
+"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus.
+
+"But I have to; she's my--my _gouvernante_," said the princess.
+
+"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
+baronesses tell you all the time," said Erebus coldly.
+
+The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
+rebelling.
+
+"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us.  She
+mightn't think we were good for you.  Some people round here don't seem
+to understand us," said the Terror suavely.
+
+The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
+brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are you
+coming to-morrow?"
+
+The Twins looked at each other doubtfully.  They had no plans for the
+morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
+exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.
+
+At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal in
+it touched the Terror's heart.
+
+"We should like to come very much," he said.
+
+The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.
+
+"I don't think I shall be able to come," said Erebus with the important
+air of one burdened with many affairs.
+
+The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: "But if your
+brother comes?"
+
+"Oh, I'll come, anyhow," said the Terror.
+
+The voice called again from the wood below, louder.
+
+"Oh, it isn't the baroness.  It's Miss Lambart," said the princess in a
+tone of relief.
+
+"You take too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus again firmly.
+"Who is Miss Lambart?"
+
+"She's my English lady-in-waiting.  I always have one when I'm in
+England, of course.  I like her.  She tries to amuse me.  But the
+baroness doesn't like her," said the princess, and she sighed.
+
+"Come along, I'll help you down the bank and take you pretty close to
+Miss Lambart.  It wouldn't do for her to know of this place.  It's our
+secret lair," said the Terror.
+
+"I see," said the princess.
+
+They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried
+her down it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from
+which Miss Lambart had called.  As they went he adjured her to confine
+herself to the simple if incomplete statement that she had been walking
+in the wood.  His last words to her, as they stood on the edge of the
+drive, were:
+
+"Don't you stand so much nonsense from that baroness."
+
+Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and
+found her thirty yards away.  The Terror slipped noiselessly away
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess' footsteps, and said:
+"Oh, here you are, Highness.  We've all been hunting for you.  The
+baroness thought you were lost."
+
+"I thought I would walk in the wood," said the princess demurely.
+
+"It certainly seems to have done you good.  You're looking brighter and
+fresher than you've looked since you've been down here."
+
+"The wood is real open air," said the princess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
+
+The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease,
+eating a peach.
+
+"I should have liked one a good deal sooner," he said, as he took one
+from the basket.  "But I didn't like to say anything about them.  She
+mightn't have understood."
+
+"It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't," said Erebus somewhat
+truculently.
+
+She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had
+so plainly preferred the Terror to her.
+
+"She's not a bad kid," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"She's awfully feeble.  Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a
+bank.  She's not any use to us," said Erebus in a tone of contempt.
+"In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should
+find her a perfect nuisance."
+
+"Perhaps.  Still we may as well amuse her a bit.  She seems to be
+having a rotten time with that old red baroness and all that
+etiquette," said the Terror in a kindly tone.
+
+"She needn't stand it, if she doesn't like it.  I shouldn't," said
+Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she added: "I tell you
+what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to jump on that old
+red baroness."
+
+"Yes," said the Terror doubtfully.  "But I expect she'd take a lot of
+teaching.  I don't think she's the kind of kid to do much jumping on
+people."
+
+"Oh, you never know.  We can always try," said Erebus cheerfully.
+
+"Yes," said the Terror.
+
+Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood.  It
+was not so difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered
+by bicycles, about the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved
+as the woods farther away from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but
+little attention to it.  The Twins moved out of it safely and returned
+home with easy minds: it did not occur to either of them that they had
+been treating a princess with singular firmness.  Nor were they at all
+troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some curious mental
+kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and tuum
+applied to fruit.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that
+afternoon; and she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and
+bought them for her there.  When two more were forthcoming for her
+dessert after dinner, she reproached them gently for spending so much
+of their salary for "overseering" on her.  The Twins said nothing.  It
+was only when two more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she
+began to suspect that they had come by the ways of warfare and not of
+trade.  Then, having already eaten four of them, it was a little late
+to inquire and protest.  Moreover, if there had been a crime, the Twins
+had admitted her to a full share in it by letting her eat the fruit of
+it.  Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying nothing.
+
+On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping
+home wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who
+met them on their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes.
+This was, indeed, a new experience to her; but she did not complain to
+them of this unheard-of breach of etiquette.  She was doubtful how the
+complaint would be received at any rate by Erebus.
+
+They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since
+the sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it
+rather pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror.  There was
+something very satisfactory in his strength.  Again they settled
+themselves comfortably on the bank of the pool.
+
+They were in the strongest contrast to one another.  Beside the clear
+golden tan of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the
+pale face of the princess looked waxen.  The blue linen blouse, short
+serge skirt and bare head and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt,
+serge knickerbockers and bare head and legs of the Terror gave them an
+air not only of coolness but also of a workmanlike freedom of limb.  In
+her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and skirt, woolen stockings and
+heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little princess looked a swaddled
+sweltering doll melting in the heat.
+
+She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased
+by the Terror's observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all
+when one had such thick hair as she.  But she was some time acting on
+Erebus' suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be
+more comfortable still.
+
+At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to
+tell of the fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her
+having gone alone into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home
+wood.
+
+"I tell you what: you've spoilt that baroness," said the Terror when
+she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction.
+
+"But she's my _gouvernante_.  I have to do as she bids," protested the
+princess.
+
+"That's all rubbish.  You're the princess; and other people ought to do
+what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any silly
+thing you don't want to.  She wouldn't me," said Erebus with even
+greater conviction than the Terror had shown.
+
+"I don't think she would," said the princess with a faint sigh; and she
+looked at Erebus with envious eyes.  "But when she starts making a fuss
+and gets so red and excited, she--she--rather frightens me."
+
+"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me," said Erebus with a
+very cold ferocity.
+
+"I rather like people like that.  I think they look so funny when
+they're really red and excited," said the Terror gently.  "But what
+you've got to do is to stand up to her."
+
+"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.
+
+"Tell her that you don't care what she says," said the Terror.
+
+"Cheek her," said Erebus.
+
+"I couldn't.  It would be too difficult," said the princess, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find how
+soon you'll get used to shutting her up," said the Terror.  "But I
+don't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy.  I believe in
+being quite polite but not giving way."
+
+"She is very noisy," said the princess.
+
+"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her.  It's the only way.  But mind
+you only have rows when you're in the right about something," said the
+Terror.  "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone.  It's no good
+having a row when you're in the wrong."
+
+"I think it's best always to have a row," said Erebus with an air of
+wide experience.
+
+"Well, it isn't--at least it wouldn't be for the princess--she's not
+like you," said the Terror quickly.
+
+"Oh, no: not always--only when one is in the right.  I see that," said
+the princess.  "But what should I have a row about?"
+
+The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a
+pretext for an honest row.
+
+Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have some
+one to play with?  It's silly being as dull as you are.  What's the
+good of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
+sparkled.  "It would be nice!  You and Erebus could come to tea with me
+and sooper and loonch often and again!"
+
+The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay.  It
+was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go
+to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and
+girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.
+
+"That wouldn't do at all," said the Terror quickly.  "You had better
+not tell them anything at all about us.  They wouldn't let us come to
+the Grange; and they'd stop you coming here.  It's ever so much nicer
+meeting secretly like this."
+
+"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here," said
+the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this
+good thing.
+
+"It couldn't be done.  They wouldn't have us at the Grange," said
+Erebus, supporting the Terror.
+
+"But why not?" said the princess in surprise.
+
+"The people about here don't understand us," said the Terror somewhat
+sadly.  "They'd think we should be bad for you."
+
+"But it is not so!  You are ever so good to me!" cried the princess
+hotly.
+
+"It's no good.  You couldn't make grown-ups see that--you know what
+they are.  No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet
+us here," said the Terror.
+
+The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she
+sighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say.  You know more about
+it."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror, greatly relieved.
+
+There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what:
+it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you.
+Suppose we taught you some exercises.  You could practise them at home;
+and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us."
+
+"What things?" said the princess.
+
+"Oh, you'd be able to run--and jump.  Why we might even be able to
+teach you to climb," said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his
+tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner
+vision.
+
+"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess.  Forthwith the Twins set
+about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of
+muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil.  In spite of the
+seeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back
+to the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate
+before she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the
+house or about the gardens.  The Terror therefore conducted her down
+the screen of trees to the door in the wall.  She had left it
+unlatched; and he pushed it open gently.  There was no sound of
+snoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden.
+
+"I expect she is still looking for me in the house," said the princess
+calmly.  "They'd be shouting if she weren't."
+
+"Yes.  I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?" said the Terror,
+looking round the loaded walls.
+
+"Me?  No.  I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch.  But I
+don't care for peaches much.  It's the way the baroness eats them, I
+think--the juice roonning down, you know.  And she eats six or seven
+always."
+
+"That woman's a pig.  I thought she looked like one," said the Terror
+with conviction.  "But if you don't want them all, may I have some for
+my mother?  The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond of
+peaches."
+
+"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus.  Take them
+all," said the princess with quick generosity.
+
+"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps," said the Terror.
+
+The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large
+cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
+
+The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil.  But when she
+was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.
+Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked
+the Twins how they came by them.  They assured her that they had been
+given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a
+secret.  She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it
+likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom
+took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that
+either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on
+eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
+
+The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the
+princess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to
+strengthening her body.  They adjured her again and again to thrust off
+the yoke of the baroness.  The last pregnant words of Erebus to her
+were: "You just call her an old red pig, and see."
+
+Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that
+very evening.  The princess was dining with the Baroness Von
+Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly
+jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk
+with the princess; and she had done it rudely.  The princess, who
+wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed.  They had reached
+dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in
+her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that
+it must be the air of Muttle Deeping.  The baroness uttered a loud and
+contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches.  The princess
+looked at her with an expression of great dislike.  The baroness
+gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human
+being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the
+princess spoke.
+
+"I want some children to play with," she said.
+
+Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped
+down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are no
+children in zis country, your Royal Highness."
+
+It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in
+England.
+
+"But I see plenty of children when I drive," said the princess.
+
+"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born," said the
+baroness in rasping tones.
+
+"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play
+with," said the princess.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice.  "Bud eed ees whad
+I know ees goot for you."
+
+"They're good for me," said the princess firmly.  "And you must find
+them."
+
+The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display
+of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer
+crimson; and she cried in a loud blustering voice: "Bud eed ees
+eembossible whad your royal highness ask!  Zere are no 'igh an'
+well-born children 'ere.  Zey are een Loondon."
+
+"Well, you must send for some," said the princess, who, having taken
+the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm.
+
+"Moost?  Moost?  I do nod know whad ees 'appen to you, your Royal
+Highness.  I say eed ees eembossible!" shouted the baroness; and she
+banged on the table with her fist.
+
+"But surely her highness' request is a very natural one, Baroness; and
+there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look
+for them.  Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have
+children of her own age to play with," said Miss Lambart who had been
+pitying the lonely child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping
+her to the companionship she needed.
+
+"Do nod indervere, Englanderin!" bellowed the baroness; and her crimson
+was enriched with streaks of purple.  "I am in ze charge of 'er royal
+highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children blay."
+
+The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow.
+She was angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her
+young mentors, especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus.
+
+She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging
+baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough:
+
+"Old--red--peeg."
+
+Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping
+grunt; she blinked; she could not believe her ears.
+
+"But whad--but whad--" she said faintly.
+
+"Old--red--peeg," said the princess, somewhat pleased with the effect
+of the words, and desirous of deepening it.
+
+"Bud whad ees eed zat 'appen?" muttered the bewildered baroness.
+
+"If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father
+that you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do
+everything what the English doctor bids," said the princess in a
+sinister tone.  "Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the
+Baroness Hochfelden will be my _gouvernante_."
+
+The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily
+happen, if the letter of the princess found the grand duke of
+Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, that she would lose this comfortable
+well-paid post, and the hated Baroness Hochfelden take it.
+
+"Bud zere are no 'igh an' well-born children, your Royal Highness," she
+said in a far gentler, apologetic voice.
+
+The princess frowned at her and said: "Mees Lambart will find them.  Is
+it not, Mees Lambart?"
+
+"I shall be charmed to try, Highness," said Miss Lambart readily.
+
+"Do nod indervere!  I veel zose childen vind myzelf!" snapped the
+baroness.
+
+The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but
+glowing with the joy of victory.  At the door she paused to say:
+
+"And I want them soon--at once."
+
+Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the
+night air, she went firmly out into the garden.  The next morning at
+breakfast she again demanded children to play with.
+
+Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the
+baroness asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited
+to come to play with the princess.  She only stipulated that they
+should be high and well-born.
+
+"Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the
+Twins--Mrs. Dangerfield's boy and girl.  They're high and well-born
+enough.  But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little
+girl.  They're independent young people.  Besides, I'm not at all sure
+that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess.  It would
+hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to
+such--er--er ardent spirits.  You might have her developing a spirit of
+freedom; and you wouldn't like that."
+
+"_Mein Gott_, no!" said the baroness with warm conviction.
+
+"Then there's Wiggins--Rupert Carrington.  He's younger and quieter but
+active enough.  He'd soon teach her to run about."
+
+"But is he well-born?" said the careful baroness.
+
+"Well-born?  He's a _Carrington_," said Doctor Arbuthnot with an
+impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry
+of the higher mathematician.
+
+The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily.  When the princess, who had
+hoped for the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him
+with resignation.  Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter.
+
+The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of
+Wiggins; and they cheered her by reporting favorably on the
+qualifications of their friend, though Erebus said somewhat sadly:
+
+"Of course, he'll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; he
+always does.  But you mustn't mind that."
+
+The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate
+be a change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness.
+
+The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their
+fair-haired, freckled, but infuriated friend.  Not only was his
+reluctance to don the immaculate morning dress of an English young
+gentleman for the delectation of foreign princesses every whit as
+sincere as their own, but he felt the invitation to play with a little
+girl far more insulting than they would have done.  They did their best
+to soothe him and make things pleasant for the princess, pointing out
+to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly enjoy, and
+impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble
+charitable action.
+
+"Yes; that's all very well," said Wiggins gloomily.  "But I've been
+seeing ever such a little of you lately in the afternoons; and now I
+shall see less than ever."
+
+Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the
+stiffness did not last; they became very good active friends; and he
+scalped her with gratifying frequency.  In this way it came about that,
+in the matter of play, the princess led a double life.  She spent the
+early part of the afternoon in the wood with the Twins; and from tea
+till the dressing-bell for dinner rang she enjoyed the society of
+Wiggins.  She told no one of her friendship with the Twins; and Wiggins
+was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them he could
+tell.  Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and
+muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that
+satisfied the exigent Terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY
+
+The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air.
+They took that change at but a short distance from their home, since
+the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford.
+They were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in
+the dry sandstone caves of Deeping Knoll, which rises in the middle of
+Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. Anstruther.
+
+Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from
+the knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of
+philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they
+could.  She was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going
+to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been
+made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was
+presently weeping.  She was ashamed; but she could not help it.  The
+compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would try
+to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
+
+None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly
+the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was
+magnificently inspired.
+
+"Look here: why shouldn't you come with us into camp?" he said eagerly.
+"A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the Grange.  You
+really do get open air camping out at the knoll."
+
+The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid
+thought.  Then it fell; and she said: "They'd never let me--never."
+
+"But you'd never ask them," said the Terror.  "You'd just slip away and
+come with us.  We've kept our knowing you so dark that they'd never
+dream you were with us in the knoll caves."
+
+The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect.  She
+had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the
+afternoons she spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them
+would be beyond the delight of dreams.  But to her unadventured soul
+the difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting.  The Twins, however,
+were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began
+surmounting these.
+
+"The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,"
+said the Terror thoughtfully.  "You see, I've got to go down every day
+for milk and things, and they're sure to ask me if I've seen anything
+of you.  Of course, I can't lie about it; and then they'll not only
+take you away, but they'll probably turn us out of the caves."
+
+"That's the drawback," said Erebus.
+
+The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment.  A deep frown
+furrowed the Terror's brow; and he said: "If only you weren't a
+princess they wouldn't make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I
+might never be asked anything about you."
+
+"I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a
+glorious smile, and he cried:
+
+"By Jove!  Of course you would!  I never thought of that!  Why, you'd
+be some one else and not the princess at all!  We shouldn't know where
+the princess was if we were asked."
+
+"Of course we shouldn't!" said Erebus, perceiving the advantage of this
+ignorance.
+
+"I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel," said the
+princess.
+
+The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: "I
+suppose you have to have a title.  But I think an English one would be
+best here: Lady Rowington now.  No one would ever ask us where Lady
+Rowington is, because there isn't any Lady Rowington."
+
+"Oh, yes: Lady Rowington--I would wish an English title," said the
+princess readily.
+
+"If we could only think of some way of making them think that she'd
+been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still," said Erebus.
+
+"Gipsies don't steal children nowadays," said the Terror; and he paused
+considering.  Then he added, "I tell you what though: Nihilists
+would--at least they'd steal a princess.  Are there any Nihilists in
+Cassel-Nassau?"
+
+"I never heard of any," said the princess.  "There are thousands of
+Socialists."
+
+"Socialists will do," said the Terror cheerfully.
+
+They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till
+the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have
+everything in order.  Then they discussed her needs.  She could not
+bring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not
+been stolen.  She must share the wardrobe of Erebus.
+
+"But, no.  I have money," said the princess, thrusting her hand into
+her pocket.  "Will you not buy me clothes?"
+
+She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and
+handed it to the Terror.  He and Erebus examined it with warm
+admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
+
+"We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow.  There's a pool
+just under the knoll," said the Terror.  "How much shall we want,
+Erebus?"
+
+"You'd better have two pounds and be on the safe side," said Erebus.
+
+The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to
+his own.  Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of
+the peach-garden at nine o'clock, or thereabouts at night.  He would
+wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
+the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will.  He made several
+suggestions about the manner of her escape.
+
+When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
+purchasing her outfit.  They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
+shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
+stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress.  They carried the parcels
+home on their bicycles.  When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
+Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
+
+That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
+throwing the searchers off the scent.  It was:
+
+[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned "We are avenged.  A
+Desparate Socialist"]
+
+
+He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
+
+They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
+Knoll.  The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so
+that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom
+Cobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
+
+In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
+encamped with them.  This year she had not cared for the effort; and
+she had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuous
+atmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and
+pleasant.  She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to
+encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll.  Not only were they of approved
+readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were
+as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
+isle.  She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take as
+many blankets as she suggested.  In other years he had been disposed to
+grumble at the number she thought necessary.
+
+The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
+lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite.  Then they began
+to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
+brought them up, in their proper caves.  With a break of an hour for a
+bath this occupied them till tea-time.  After tea they bathed again and
+then set about collecting fuel from the wood.  They were too tired to
+spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
+their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs.  They
+were up betimes, bathing.
+
+This day was far less strenuous than the day before.  They spent most
+of it in the pool or on its bank.  In the afternoon Wiggins came and
+did not leave them till seven.  Soon after eight o'clock the Terror set
+out to keep his tryst with the princess.  He took with him the
+Socialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening
+from the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the Grange to
+Deeping Knoll.  Then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall
+two or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
+
+He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess
+on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it.  He shook
+hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told
+him how she had bidden the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone
+to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen,
+down the stairs and out of the house.  He praised her skill; and she
+found his praise very grateful.
+
+The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the
+princess found them daunting.  They were full of strange noises, many
+of them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes
+seemed to move.  The Terror was not long discovering her fear, and
+forthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the
+path was broad enough to allow it.  When she quivered to some woodland
+sound, he told her what it was and eased her mind.
+
+She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active
+games with Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough
+ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down
+and rested.  The princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled
+to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the Terror.
+When they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into
+the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests
+of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her.  She was
+almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw
+its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright.
+
+[Illustration: She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot
+of the knoll.]
+
+Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey
+the princess found it grateful indeed.  They sat for a while in a row
+before the glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the
+princess had visited.  But soon the yawns which she could not repress
+showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the Terror suggested that she
+should go to bed.
+
+With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to
+herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it
+alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the
+cave of Erebus.  After the journey and the excitement she was not long
+falling into a dreamless sleep.
+
+When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk.
+Erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath.  The
+princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but
+under the eye of Erebus she could not shrink; and in she went.  She
+came out shivering, but Erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she
+came to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her
+life enjoyed.
+
+The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the
+caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games
+of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to
+an active life.  It began directly after breakfast with dish-washing;
+after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of
+which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as
+hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you
+could yell.  After this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported
+themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious
+business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o'clock.
+
+The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping
+her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required
+speed.  Also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full
+half-hour before he and Erebus left it.  After dinner the princess was
+so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the Terror
+insisted that she should lie down for an hour.  She protested that she
+did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this
+glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
+
+They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon.  But he could be admitted
+safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had
+become Lady Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to
+profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts.  Also he would be very
+useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
+
+At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the
+excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess.  So far
+its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were
+content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three
+counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for
+some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing Socialists and
+a princess.  It was the general belief that she had been chloroformed
+and abducted through her bedroom window.
+
+With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the
+probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the
+routes by which the Socialists might have carried her off, and the
+towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be.  At the
+end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes,
+very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
+
+Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully.
+
+Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully:
+"You might have told me that she was coming here."
+
+"You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"So I should, if I'd known you knew her at all," said Wiggins.
+
+"That's what nobody knows," said Erebus triumphantly.
+
+"And look here: she's here incognita," said the Terror.  "She's taken
+the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she's not the princess at
+all.  So if you're asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully
+say she isn't."
+
+"Of course--I see.  This is a go!" said Wiggins cheerfully; and he
+spurned the earth.
+
+"The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when
+we're not expecting them and see her," said the Terror.  "So I'm going
+to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will
+shout to us.  But there's no need to do that yet; nobody will think
+about us for a day or two."
+
+"No; of course they won't.  I didn't," said Wiggins.
+
+The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that
+followed.  It kept the princess always beside the Terror.  Always he
+was using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required
+speed.  Never in the history of the courts of Europe has a princess
+been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough
+ground.  On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly
+move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing
+yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself.
+
+All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had
+died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his
+pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly
+fond of no one.  It is hardly too much to say that she was coming to
+adore the Terror.  Even at their most violent and thrilling moments his
+care for her never relaxed.  He rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he
+plastered her scratches.  He saw to it that she came out of the pool
+the moment that she looked chill.  He picked out for her the tidbits at
+their meals.  He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass
+was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly
+refused to play the lady's-maid.  Since the Terror was one of those who
+enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently
+forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in
+handling the silken strands.
+
+It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her
+hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe
+shock.  Heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child;
+indeed, she had never had the chance.  But he had just finished his
+task and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a
+sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and
+kissed him.
+
+"Oh, you _are_ nice!" she said.
+
+The Terror's ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds.
+He flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any
+one should have seen it!
+
+The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: "Don't
+you like for me to kiss you?"
+
+The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said,
+faintly but gallantly: "Yes--oh, rather."
+
+"Then kiss me," said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
+
+The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her
+gingerly.
+
+"I _am_ fond of you, you know," said the princess in a frankly
+proprietary tone.
+
+The Terror's scattered wits at last worked.  He rose to his feet, and
+said quickly:
+
+"Yes; let's be getting to the others."
+
+The princess rose obediently.
+
+But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not
+frequent, were, at any rate, not rare.  The Terror at first endured
+them; then he came rather to like them.  But he strictly enjoined
+discretion on her; it would never do for Erebus to learn that she
+kissed him.  The princess had no desire that Erebus, or any one else
+for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no
+natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware
+of the practise.
+
+He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other;
+and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out
+of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus:
+
+"I suppose the Terror's in love with the princess, kissing her like
+that.  I think it's awfully silly."  And he spurned the earth.
+
+Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: "He never does!"
+
+Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush;
+and her eyes were flashing.  He had seen her angry often enough, but
+never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a
+grievous indiscretion.
+
+"Perhaps she kissed him," he said quickly.
+
+"He'd never let her!" cried Erebus fiercely.
+
+"Perhaps they didn't," said Wiggins readily.
+
+"You know they did!" cried Erebus yet more fiercely.
+
+"I may have made a mistake.  It's quite easy to make a mistake about
+that kind of thing," said Wiggins.
+
+Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from
+his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl.  He had seen the
+princess with an arm round the Terror's neck, and they had kissed.
+
+With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the
+least resistance, sought the princess.  She found her lying back
+drowsily against a sunny bank.
+
+Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: "Princess
+or no princess, you shan't kiss the Terror!"
+
+The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up.  Her gray eyes darkened
+and sparkled.  She had never made a face in her life; it is not
+improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was
+ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous
+face at Erebus, and said:
+
+"I shall!"
+
+"If you do, I'll smack you!" cried Erebus; and she ground her teeth.
+
+For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by
+a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in
+the matter of a male.  She met Erebus' blazing eyes squarely and said
+confidently:
+
+"He won't let you.  And if you do he'll smack you--much harder!"
+
+Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then
+and there.  But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules
+only permit you to strike any one standing up.  Erebus forgot them,
+stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a
+really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the Terror.
+
+She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and
+she cried:
+
+"I know all about your kissing the princess!  I never heard of such
+silly babyishness!"
+
+It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to
+the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as
+he said:
+
+"Well, what harm is there in it?"
+
+"It's babyish!  It's what mollycoddles do!  It's girlish!  It's--"
+
+The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
+
+"You mind your own business!  It isn't babyish at all!  She's asked me
+to marry her; and when we're grown up I'm going to--so there!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AND THE UNREST CURE
+
+Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by
+what she called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission
+had raised her to the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered
+no protest.  She knew that protest would be vain, that against his
+obstinacy she was helpless.  She wrung her hands and turned aside into
+the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one of their loftiest
+ideals.
+
+Then followed a period of strain.  She assumed an attitude of very
+haughty contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins,
+and let them coldly alone.  From this attitude Wiggins was the chief
+sufferer: the Terror had the princess and the princess had the Terror;
+Erebus enjoyed her display of haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the
+strenuous life, the rushing games, in which you yelled so heartily.  As
+often as he could he stole away from the haughty Erebus and joined the
+errant pair.  It is to be feared that the princess found the kisses
+sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them.
+
+No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on
+Deeping Knoll.  There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the
+Twins had had a hand in her disappearance.  But no one had any reason
+to suppose that they and the princess had even been acquainted.  Doctor
+Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned both Wiggins and the Terror; but they
+were mindful of the fact that Lady Rowington (they were always very
+careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and not the princess, was at
+the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with sufficient
+truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was.  The
+bursts of suspicion therefore were brief.
+
+But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down.
+Suspicion is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice
+Falconer in the matter.  When he first read in his _Morning Post_ of
+the disappearance of the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from
+Muttle Deeping Grange he said confidently to himself: "The Twins
+again!" and to that conviction his mind clung.
+
+It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the
+Socialist manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny
+paper.  He told himself that Socialists are an educated, even
+over-educated folk, and if one of them did set himself to draw a skull
+and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not exquisite, at any rate
+accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable that a Socialist
+would spell desperate with two "a's" in an important document without
+being corrected by a confederate.  On the other hand the drawing of the
+skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to which the
+immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he
+could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two "a's" in
+any document.
+
+But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of
+his relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been
+for the international situation produced by the disappearance of the
+princess.  As it was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings,
+dinners, theater parties, dances and suppers that he was compelled to
+postpone intervention till the sixth day, when every Socialist organ
+and organization from San Francisco eastward to Japan was loudly
+disavowing any connection with the crime, the newspapers of England and
+Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and bellowing at one
+another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery were wiring
+frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some
+plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets.  Even then
+Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would
+not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet
+minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty
+thousand pounds' worth of consols.  He disliked the lady so strongly
+that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt
+that the time had come to ease the international situation.
+
+With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping.  His conviction
+that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess
+became certitude when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were
+encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that
+disappearance.  But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his
+habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
+
+He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood
+and park to Muttle Deeping Grange.  He gave his card to the butler and
+told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms
+of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three
+minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
+
+She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said:
+"Is this business worrying you?"
+
+"It is rather.  You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in
+charge of the princess, I am partly responsible.  Besides, since I'm
+English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being
+taken explained; and they want the same explanation over and over
+again.  Since the archduke came it has been very trying.  I think that
+he is more of an imbecile than any royalty I ever met."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that they've been worrying you like this.  If I'd
+known, I'd have come down and stopped it earlier," said Sir Maurice in
+a tone of lively self-reproach.
+
+"Stop it?  Why, what can you do?" cried Miss Lambart, opening her eyes
+wide in her surprise.
+
+"Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing
+princess.  But it's only a belief, mind.  So don't be too hopeful."
+
+Miss Lambart's pretty face flushed with sudden hope:
+
+"Oh, if you could!" she cried.
+
+"Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough
+going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can,
+for the easier part; and we'll put my belief to the test," said Sir
+Maurice briskly.
+
+Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: "I shan't be able to
+get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss.  They're very unpleasant
+people, you know.  Could we take the baroness with us?  She'll _have_
+to be carried in something."
+
+"Is she very fat?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Then she'd never get to the place I have in mind," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Is it very far?  Couldn't we walk to it?"
+
+"It's about three miles," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing--at least not for me.  But you?" said Miss Lambart,
+who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
+weakling.
+
+"I can manage it.  Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
+limbs," said Sir Maurice.  "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and
+pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years."
+
+Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
+park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
+surface of the distant wood.  Sir Maurice had once walked to it with
+the Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
+inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
+course.  It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
+charming companion through such a charming country.
+
+As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
+"Where are we going to?  Where do you think the princess is?"
+
+"You've been here a month.  Haven't you heard of the Dangerfield
+twins?" said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
+and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them.  But he said that they were not
+the kind of children for her, though they were the only high and
+well-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood.  He
+seemed to think that they would make her rebellious."
+
+"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"I wonder," said Sir Maurice skeptically.
+
+"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her--a
+very nice little boy," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Wiggins!  The Twins' greatest friend!  Well, I'll be shot!" cried Sir
+Maurice; and he laughed.
+
+"But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
+something to do with the princess' disappearance?  How old are they?"
+said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
+mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
+Socialists and foreigners.
+
+"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen.  But I do know
+that nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their
+having a hand in it.  I have the honor to be their uncle," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them.  She's
+a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
+she is delicate to fragility," Miss Lambart protested.
+
+"If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the
+hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of deep conviction.  "But it would not necessarily be a
+matter of persuasion."
+
+"But what else could it be--children of thirteen or fourteen!" cried
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"I assure you that it might quite easily have been force," said Sir
+Maurice seriously.  "My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll.
+It is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part
+communicating with one another.  I can conceive of nothing more likely
+than that the idea of being brigands occurred to one or other of them;
+and they proceeded to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom.  They
+might lure her to some distance from the Grange before they had
+recourse to force."
+
+"It sounds incredible--children," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Sir Maurice cheerfully.  Then he added in a
+more doubtful tone; "If only we can take them by surprise, which won't
+be so easy as it sounds."
+
+Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase.  But it was a
+very pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking
+with him through this pleasant sunny land.  When presently he turned
+the talk to matters more personal to her, she liked it better still.
+He was very sympathetic: he sympathized with her in her annoyance at
+having had to waste so much of the summer on this tiresome _corvee_ of
+acting as lady-in-waiting on the little princess; for, thanks to the
+domineering jealousy of the baroness, it had been a tiresome _corvee_
+indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it might have been.  He
+sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been prevented by
+that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the princess.
+
+He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the
+baroness and the archduke during the last few days.  The baroness had
+tried to lay the blame of the disappearance of the princess on her; and
+the archduke, a vast, sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at
+having been torn from the summer ease of his Schloss to dash to
+England, had been very rude indeed.  She was much pleased by the warmth
+of Sir Maurice's indignation; but she protested against his making any
+attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could do it, without
+harming himself.  But she agreed with him that neither the grand duke,
+nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands.
+
+Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in
+the broad aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path
+led to the knoll.  Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take
+it.  He knew that the Twins were far too capable not to have it
+guarded, if the princess were indeed with them.  He led the way into
+the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the way for her
+carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her frock
+get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the
+knoll.
+
+They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir
+Maurice walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering
+earnestly ahead through the branches.  Now and again a loud yell came
+from the knoll; and once a chorus of yells.  Finding that her coldness
+(the Terror frankly called it sulking) had no effect whatever on her
+insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus had put it aside;
+and the strenuous life was once more in full swing.
+
+Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in
+an astonished whisper:
+
+"That was awfully like the princess' voice."
+
+"I thought you said she was delicate," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"So she was," said Miss Lambart firmly.
+
+Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen
+and unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the
+knoll, from which they could see the entrance of five caves in its
+face.  They waited, watching it.
+
+It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning
+to wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed
+kin, when a little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging
+down her back, came swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped
+into a clump of bushes to the right of it.
+
+"The princess!" said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping forward,
+but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her.
+
+Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing
+in a crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave.
+
+"That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington," said Sir Maurice.
+
+Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an
+ear-piercing yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms
+round his neck; they swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came
+to the ground.
+
+"Delicate to fragility," muttered Sir Maurice.
+
+"Whatever has she been doing to herself?" said Miss Lambart faintly,
+gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes.
+
+"You don't know the Twins," said Sir Maurice.
+
+On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a
+breakneck pace, yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the
+battling pair.  As far as the spectators could judge she and the
+princess were rending Wiggins limb from limb; and they all three yelled
+their shrillest.  Then with a yell the Terror leaped upon them from the
+cave and they were all four rolling on the ground while the aching
+welkin rang.
+
+Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and
+Wiggins tore themselves free, gained their feet and fled.  The princess
+and the Terror sat up, panting, flushed and disheveled.  The princess
+wriggled close to the Terror, snuggled against him, and put an arm
+round his neck.
+
+"It was splendid!" she cried, and kissed him.
+
+Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very
+good grace.
+
+"Well, I never!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"These delicate children," said Sir Maurice.  "But it's certainly a
+delightful place for lovers.  I'm so glad we've found it."
+
+He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was
+flushing.
+
+"Come along!" she said quickly.
+
+They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry.
+
+The quick-eyed Terror saw them first.  He did not stir; but a curious,
+short, sharp cry came from his throat.  It seemed to loose a spring in
+the princess.  She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly,
+frowning.  The Terror rose more slowly.
+
+"Good afternoon, Highness.  I've come to take you back to the Grange,"
+said Miss Lambart.
+
+"I'm not going," said the princess firmly.
+
+"I'm afraid you must.  Your father is there; and he wants you," said
+Miss Lambart.
+
+"No," said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step sidewise
+toward the mouth of the cave.
+
+The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his
+pockets; he wore the detached air of a spectator.
+
+"But if you don't come of yourself, we shall have to carry you," said
+Miss Lambart sternly.
+
+The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: "I don't see
+how you can.  You can't touch a princess you know.  It would be
+_lese-majeste_.  She's told me all about it."
+
+The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir
+Maurice Falconer; he smiled appreciatively.  But he said: "Oh, come;
+this won't do, Terror, don't you know!  Her highness will _have_ to
+come."
+
+"I don't see how you're going to get her.  The only person who could
+use force is the prince himself, and I don't think he could be got up
+to the knoll.  He's too heavy.  I've seen him.  And if you did get him
+up, I don't really think he'd ever find her in these caves," said the
+Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an entirely
+impersonal matter.
+
+"Anyhow, I'm not going," said the princess with even greater firmness.
+
+Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity.
+
+"You see, there isn't any real reason why she shouldn't stay here,"
+said the Terror.  "She came to England to improve her health; and she's
+improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the Grange.  You
+can _see_ how improved it is.  She eats nearly as much as Erebus."
+
+"She has certainly changed," said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which
+showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better.
+
+"The Twins have a transforming effect on the young," said Sir Maurice
+in a tone of resignation.
+
+"I am much better," said the princess.  "I'm getting quite strong, and
+I can run ever so fast."
+
+She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"But it's nonsense!" said Miss Lambart.
+
+"But what can you _do_?" said the Terror gently.
+
+"I'll chance the _lese-majeste_!" cried Miss Lambart; and she sprang
+swiftly forward.
+
+The princess bolted into the cave and up it.  Miss Lambart followed
+swiftly.  The cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage
+forked into three dimmer passages.  Miss Lambart stopped short and
+tried to hear from which of them came the sound of the footfalls of the
+retiring princess.  It came from none of the three; the floor of the
+eaves was covered with sound-deadening sand.  Miss Lambart walked back
+to the entrance of the cave.
+
+"She has escaped," she said in a tone of resignation.
+
+"Well, I really don't see any reason for you to put yourself about for
+the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange.  You have done more
+than you were called on to do in finding her.  You can leave the
+catching of her to them.  There's nothing to worry about: it's quite
+clear that this camping-out is doing her a world of good," said Sir
+Maurice in a comforting tone.
+
+"Yes; there is that," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"Let me introduce my nephew.  Hyacinth Dangerfield--better, much
+better, known as the Terror--to you," Said Sir Maurice.
+
+The Terror shook hands with her, and said: "How do you do?  I've been
+wanting to know you: the princess--I mean Lady Rowington--likes you
+ever so much."
+
+Miss Lambart was appeased.
+
+"Perhaps you could give us some tea?  We want it badly," said Sir
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes, I can.  We only drink milk and cocoa, of course.  But we have
+some tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday," said the
+Terror.
+
+"I take it that she saw nothing of the princess," said Sir Maurice.
+
+"Oh, no; she didn't see Lady Rowington.  You must remember that she's
+Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh?  I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew
+nothing about the princess," said Sir Maurice quickly.
+
+"Yes; that was how," said the Terror blandly.
+
+They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their
+kettle on the fire for some time.  Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed
+the picnic greatly.  On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed.
+Miss Lambart agreed to make no further attempt to capture the princess;
+and she came out of hiding and took her tea with them.
+
+Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical
+change in the princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was
+a browner, brighter, stronger child.  Plainly, too, she was a more
+determined child; and while, for her own part, Miss Lambart approved of
+that change also, she was quite sure that it would not be approved by
+the princess' kinsfolk and train.  But she was somewhat distressed that
+the legs of the princess should be marred by so many and such deep
+scratches.  She had none of the experienced Twins' quickness to see and
+dodge thorns.  She took Miss Lambart's sympathy lightly enough; indeed
+she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in honorable
+warfare.
+
+Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little
+difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was
+assured that this green wood life was the very thing the princess
+needed, she was resolved to give him no help herself.  She was pleased
+to learn that she was in no way responsible for the princess'
+acquaintance with the Twins; that she had made their acquaintance and
+cultivated their society while the careless baroness slept in the
+peach-garden.
+
+At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of
+their entertainers and set out through the wood.  They had not gone a
+hundred yards before a splendid yelling informed them that the
+strenuous life had again begun.
+
+Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle
+Deeping Grange with the news of their great discovery.  But she found
+that Sir Maurice had formed other plans.  They were both agreed that no
+consideration was owing to the billowy archduke.  His manners deprived
+him of any right to it.  Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping
+post-office, and with many appeals to her for suggestions and help
+wrote two long telegrams.  The first was to the editor of the Morning
+Post, the second was to the prime minister.  In both he set forth his
+discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in a
+wood, and her reasons for running away to them.  The postmistress
+despatched them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease
+the international situation at once.  Since both the editor and the
+prime minister were on friendly and familiar terms with him, there was
+no fear that the telegrams would fail of their effect.
+
+Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of
+Mrs. Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged
+Europe into Armageddon.  Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with
+unruffled calm.  She showed no surprise at all; she only said that she
+had found it very strange that a princess should vanish at Muttle
+Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it.  She perceived at once that
+the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by assuming the name of
+Lady Rowington.
+
+Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no
+haste to leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant
+atmosphere of Muttle Deeping Grange.  It was past seven therefore when
+the Little Deeping fly brought her to it; and she went to the archduke
+with her news.
+
+She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he
+always fell before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with
+sufficient attention to understand her at the first telling of her
+news.  He was some time understanding it, and longer believing it.  It
+annoyed him greatly.  He was taking considerable pleasure in standing
+on a pedestal before the eyes of Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern
+sire.  His first, and accurate, feeling was that Europe would laugh
+consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter.  His second feeling
+was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, stirring
+things about the Terror's manifesto and the stolen princess, would be
+furiously angry with him.
+
+He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss
+Lambart was ignorant.  Then when he grew cooler and paler his
+oft-repeated phrase was: "Eet must be 'ushed!"
+
+Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care
+that the affair should not be hushed up.  She did not wish every blow
+to strike him at once.  Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste
+he rolled off to the dining-room.
+
+Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the
+archduke's equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up
+the stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at
+once, as she was.  She took no heed of the command, dressed at her
+ease, and came down just as the archduke, perspiring freely after his
+struggle with the hors-d'oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his
+first entree.
+
+He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about
+the place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was
+encamped with.  Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as
+clearly as she could, and of the Twins she said as little as possible.
+Then he asked her with considerable acerbity why she had not exercised
+her authority and brought the princess back with her.
+
+Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that
+if she had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and
+that it was impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through
+miles of wood by force, since the persons of Hohenzollerns were
+sacrosanct.
+
+The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and
+summon home his truant child.  Miss Lambart objected that it would mean
+hewing expensively a path through the wood wide enough to permit his
+passage, and it was improbable that the owner of the wood would allow
+it.  Thereupon the baroness volunteered to go.  Miss Lambart with
+infinite pleasure explained that for her too an expensive path must be
+hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the knoll, there was
+not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its caves.
+
+The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity.  Then he
+struck the table and cried:
+
+"Count Zerbst shall do eet!  To-morrow morning!  You shall 'eem lead to
+ze wood.  'E shall breeng 'er."
+
+Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a
+German count would hardly be proper.
+
+"Brobare?  What ees 'brobare'?" said the archduke.
+
+"_Convenable_," said Miss Lambart.
+
+The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to
+militate against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the
+earliest possible moment.  Miss Lambart said that they must.  In the
+end it was decided that a motor-car should be procured from Rowington
+and that Miss Lambart should guide the archduke and the count to the
+entrance of the path to the knoll, the count should convey to the
+princess her father's command to return to the Grange, and if she
+should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the car.
+
+Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would
+never set eyes, much less hands, on the princess.  Count Zerbst's
+smooth pink face flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little
+mustache, which in some inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion
+accentuated the extraordinary insignificance of his nose; his small
+eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely something about "sdradegy."  He
+looked at Miss Lambart very unamiably.  He felt that she was not
+impressed by him as were the maidens of Cassel-Nassau; and he resented
+it.  He resolved to capture the princess at any cost.
+
+The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the _Morning
+Post_ the true story of his daughter's disappearance; and he was fuming
+still when the car came from Rowington.  It was a powerful car and a
+weight-carrier; Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been
+careful to demand a weight-carrier.  With immense fuss the archduke
+disposed himself in the back of the tonneau which he filled with
+billowy curves.  The moment he was settled in it Miss Lambart sprang to
+the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping it that she might
+the more easily direct his course.
+
+They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no
+objection to taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran
+the path to the knoll.  At the entrance of it the count stepped out of
+the car; and the archduke gave him his final instructions with the air
+of a Roman father; he was to bring the princess in any fashion, but he
+was to bring her at once.
+
+In a last generous outburst he cried: "Pooll 'er by the ear!  Bud
+breeng 'er."
+
+The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and
+martial air.  Miss Lambart was not impressed by it.  She thought that
+in his tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently
+tighter-fitting patent leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place
+under the green wood trees.  She remembered how lightly the Twins and
+the princess went; and she had the poorest expectation of his getting
+near any of them.  Also, as they had come up the aisle of the woods she
+had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a
+weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which
+to approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent.  Its powerful,
+loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with
+all the competence of a trumpet.
+
+Her doubt was well-grounded.  The quick ears of Erebus were the first
+to catch its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred
+yards from the entrance of the path to the knoll.  Ever since the
+departure of Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice the Twins had been making
+ready against invasion, conveying their provisions and belongings to
+the secret caves.
+
+The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to
+the knoll.  They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well
+lighted by two inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge.  But the
+entrance to them was by a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave
+in the heart of the knoll.  On this shaft the Twins had spent their
+best pains for two and a half wet days the year before; and they had
+reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage fifteen inches high
+and eighteen inches broad.  The opening into this passage could,
+naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was
+hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave.  It had been a
+somewhat difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so
+narrow a passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast.
+
+They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite
+sure that the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car
+was coming up the board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed
+their way up to the secret caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind
+them, and with small chunks filled in the interstices between the
+larger pieces of stone so that it looked more than ever a part of the
+wall of the cave.  Then she betook herself to a point of vantage among
+the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch the
+entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders.
+
+The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an
+excellent cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train
+from Rowington to London and the night boat from Dover to Calais.  Miss
+Lambart wasted no breath encouraging him in an expectation based on the
+efforts of Count Zerbst on the knoll.  She stepped out of the car and
+strolled up and down on the pleasant turf.  Presently she saw a figure
+coming down the aisle from the direction of Little Deeping; when it
+came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized Sir Maurice.
+
+When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the
+discoverer of his daughter's hiding-place.  The archduke, mindful of
+the fact that Sir Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance
+to the world, received him ungraciously.  Miss Lambart at once told Sir
+Maurice of the errand of Count Zerbst and of her very small expectation
+that anything would come of it.  Sir Maurice agreed with her; and the
+fuming archduke assured them that the count was the most promising
+soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau.  Then Sir Maurice suggested that
+they should go to the knoll and help the count.  Miss Lambart assented
+readily; and they set out at once.  They skirted the barriers of thorns
+in the path and came to the knoll.  It was quiet and seemed utterly
+deserted.
+
+They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer.
+Miss Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they
+should find him and help him search them; they plunged into the caves
+and began to hunt for him.  They did not find the count; neither did
+they find the princess nor the Twins.  They shouted to him many times
+as they traversed the caves; but they had no answer.
+
+This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they
+reached it.  He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the
+princess.  He had gone through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to
+the princess.  No answer had come to his calling.  He had kept coming
+out of the labyrinth on to the side of the knoll.  At one of these
+exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a little girl,
+dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told the
+princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the
+knoll.  With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged
+after her into the wood.  Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among
+the bushes, and by great good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in
+sight.  Once, indeed, when he thought that he had lost it for good and
+all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and he was able to take up
+the chase again.  But he did not catch her.  Indeed he did not lessen
+the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye.
+For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and
+endurance.  Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the
+going, he, too, was running with uncommon speed and endurance.  It was
+true that his face was a very bright red and that his so lately stiff,
+tall, white collar lay limply gray round his neck.  But he was not near
+enough to his quarry to be mortified by seeing that she was but faintly
+flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at all.  All the while he
+was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in the course of
+the next hundred yards.
+
+Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran
+down a field path toward the village of Little Deeping.  By the time
+the count was through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards.  To
+his joy, in the open country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost
+ground quickly.  When they reached the common, he was a bare forty
+yards behind her.  He was not surprised when in despair she left the
+path and bolted into the refuge of an old house that stood beside it.
+
+Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious
+air, and knocked firmly on the door.  Sarah opened it; and he demanded
+the instant surrender of the princess.  Sarah heard him with an
+exasperating air of blank bewilderment.  He repeated his demand more
+firmly and loudly.
+
+Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: "Please, mum: 'ere's a furrin
+gentleman asking for a princess.  I expect as it's that there missing
+one."
+
+"Do nod mock!  She 'ees 'ere!" cried the count fiercely.
+
+Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been
+arranging flowers, and came to the door.
+
+"The princess is not here," she said gently.
+
+"But I haf zeen 'er!  She haf now ad once coom!  She 'ides!" cried the
+count.
+
+At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet
+by its strings.  The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth.
+
+"I expect he means me.  At least he's run after me all the way from the
+knoll here," said Erebus in a clear quiet voice.
+
+The count's eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden
+outburst of fluent German.  He did not think that any of his hearers
+could understand that portion of his native tongue he was using; he
+hoped they could not; he could not help it if they did.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully.  She did not
+suppose for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the
+count to take so much violent exercise on such a hot day.  She was
+sorry for him.  He looked so fierce and young and inexperienced to fall
+foul of the Twins.
+
+Erebus caught her mother's thoughtful eye.  At once she cried
+resentfully: "How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made
+him think I was the princess?  He never asked me who I was.  He just
+shouted once and ran after me.  I was hurrying home to get some salad
+oil and get back to the knoll by lunch."
+
+"Yes, you would run all the way," said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently.
+
+"Well, you'd have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after you!
+Just look at that mustache!  It would frighten anybody!" cried Erebus
+in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions.
+
+"Yes, I see," said her mother with undiminished patience.
+
+She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed
+his fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda.  He
+explained to her at length, three times, how he had come to mistake
+Erebus for the flying princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to
+appear foolish in the eyes of such a pretty woman.  Erebus left them
+together; she made a point of taking a small bottle of salad oil to the
+knoll.  They had no use for salad oil indeed; but it had been an
+after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it.  That
+would be the safe course.
+
+In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car,
+looking frequently at his watch.  He had expected the count to return
+with the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  Then he
+had expected Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice to return with the count and
+the princess in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour.  None of them
+returned.  The princess was sitting on a heap of bracken in the highest
+of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking advantage of this
+enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair.  The count sat
+drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had
+not really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased
+that he had been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of
+her acquaintance.  Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and
+talked seriously about everything and certain other things, but chiefly
+about themselves and each other.
+
+So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay
+between him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter
+remained uncaught.  He chafed and fumed.  His vexation grew even more
+keen when he came to the end of his cigar and found that the
+thoughtless count had borne away the case.  He appealed to the
+chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington and
+ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none.
+
+At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car,
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!" and sank down again panting with
+the effort.
+
+[Illustration: The archduke bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"]
+
+The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes.  The archduke's
+bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry.  No
+answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+"P'raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace," said the chauffeur,
+somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to
+address an archduke.
+
+"Yes, shout!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: "Zerbst!
+Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury.
+
+Then with an air of inspiration he cried: "I shout--you shout--all ad
+vonce!"
+
+"Every little 'elps," said the chauffeur politely.
+
+With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll.
+
+On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly:
+"He seems to be growing impatient."
+
+"He isn't calling us.  And it's no use our going back without either
+the princess or the count," said Miss Lambart quickly.
+
+"Not the slightest," said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if that
+were possible, to him and kissed her.
+
+To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and
+their discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their
+earlier friendship.  They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been
+discussing the matter of being married at an early date.
+
+"I don't think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all.  They
+don't treat you decently, you know--not even for royalties," he went on.
+
+"Oh, it wouldn't do not to go back--at any rate for to-night--though,
+of course, there's no point in my staying longer, since the princess
+isn't there," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"You don't know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is hauling
+her to her circular sire," said Sir Maurice.  "The Twins can not be
+successful all the time."
+
+"We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly," said Miss Lambart.
+
+"That wouldn't be the slightest use," said Sir Maurice in a tone of
+complete certainty.  "If the princess is in the caves, she is not in an
+accessible one.  But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or
+even likelier, to be at the Grange.  The Twins are quite intelligent
+enough to hide princesses in the last place you would be likely to look
+for them.  It's no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we're
+very comfortable here.  Why not stay just as we are?"
+
+They stayed there.
+
+But the archduke's impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the
+minutes that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away.  At ten
+minutes to one he was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers
+should be so long returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once
+he despatched the chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay.
+
+The chauffeur made no haste about it.  He had heard of the caves on
+Deeping Knoll and had always been curious to see them.  Besides, he
+made it a point of honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in
+his mouth since eleven o'clock; and he felt now off duty.  He explored
+half a dozen caves thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir
+Maurice and gave them the archduke's message.  They joined him in his
+search for Count Zerbst, going through the caves and calling to him
+loudly.
+
+The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near.
+The face of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late
+for it.  There was a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from
+his solar plexus.
+
+Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and
+bellowed: "Zerbst!  Zerbst!  Zerbst!"
+
+Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the
+knoll.
+
+Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to
+sink heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a
+gloriously spread German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the
+chauffeur, Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice came out of the path to the
+knoll.
+
+They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst.  The archduke cursed his equerry
+wheezily but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the
+car and drive to the Grange as fast as petrol could take him.
+
+Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the
+car went bumping down the turfed aisle.  Once in the road the
+chauffeur, anxious to make trial at an early moment of the archducal
+hospitality, let her rip.  But half a mile down the road, they came
+upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer.  It was Count Zerbst.  After a
+long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since Erebus
+had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to
+find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping
+Grange.  In the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his
+patent leather boots had found him out with great severity; and he was
+indeed footsore.  He stepped into the grateful car with a deep sigh of
+relief.
+
+A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone
+was cheerful.  The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and
+disappointments of the morning.  Count Zerbst had acquired a deep
+respect for the intelligence of the young friends of the princess; and
+he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, who had discussed the matter with
+Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll was doing the princess
+good, and was certainly better for her than life with the crimson
+baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage her
+charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial
+social reasons.  The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to
+recover her lost charge.
+
+They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the
+baroness with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily.  He made no secret of
+the fact that he believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to
+the woods, he would in the end find and capture the princess, but it
+might take a week or ten days.  The archduke cried shame upon a
+strategist of his ability that he should be baffled by children for a
+week or ten days.  Count Zerbst said sulkily that it was not the
+children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they were
+using.  At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their
+aid the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth
+the risk of the ridicule it might bring upon them.
+
+Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had
+something more pleasant to give her mind to.  But at last she said with
+some impatience: "Why can't the princess stay where she is?  That
+open-air life, day and night, is doing her a world of good.  She is
+eating lots of good food and taking ten times as much exercise as ever
+she took in her life before."
+
+"Eembossible!  Shall I live in a cave?" cried the baroness.
+
+"It doesn't matter at all where you live.  It is the princess we are
+considering," said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the
+end of her patience with the baroness.
+
+"Drue!" said the archduke quickly.
+
+"Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a gave?"
+cried the baroness.
+
+"She isn't," said Miss Lambart shortly.  "In fact she's leading a far
+better and healthier and more intelligent life than she does here.  The
+doctor's orders were never properly carried out."
+
+"Ees zat zo?" said the archduke, frowning at the baroness.
+
+"Eengleesh doctors!  What zey know?  Modern!" cried the baroness
+scornfully.
+
+In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness,
+upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders.  The baroness
+defended herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be
+dying of a galloping consumption had she had all the air and water the
+doctors had ordered her.  But the archduke stormed on.  At last he had
+some one on whom he could vent his anger with an excellent show of
+reason; and he vented it.
+
+Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart's counsel in the matter, they
+returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of
+the princess remaining at the knoll.  They found many objections to it,
+and the chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be
+encamped by themselves in the heart of a wood.
+
+Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more
+efficient persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said:
+
+"Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at
+the knoll myself.  Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind
+at ease; and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better
+health than if she had stayed on here."
+
+"Bud 'ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant and--" cried
+the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her authority.
+
+"Goot!" cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed at
+the thought of escaping forthwith to his home.  "Eet shall be zo!  And
+ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who
+do as ze doctors zay."
+
+So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting
+provisions, arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the
+path to the knoll every morning and preparing and packing the fewest
+possible number of garments she would need during her stay.
+
+Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the
+Rowington car to the knoll.  Not far from the park gates she met Sir
+Maurice strolling toward the Grange, and took him with her.  At the
+entrance of the path to the knoll they took the baskets of provisions
+and Miss Lambart's trunk from the car, and dismissed it.  Then they
+went to the knoll.
+
+It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it.
+But after Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in
+peace-bearing terms, Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves
+above them and heard the news.  She made haste to bear it to the Terror
+and the princess who received it with joy.  They had already been
+cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were eager to plunge once
+more into the strenuous life.  They welcomed Miss Lambart warmly; and
+the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her
+position at the knoll secure.
+
+They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full
+share of the strenuous life.  She played her part in it manfully.  Even
+Erebus, who was inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to
+admit that as a brigand, an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone.
+
+But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her
+engaged in the strenuous life.  Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared;
+and always spent some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the
+speed at which she had been living it, and on cooling down to life on
+the lower place.  Both of them found the knoll a delightful place for
+lovers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING
+
+Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the
+princess, the Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the
+beginning arranged.  Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss
+Lambart, it was only natural that they should grow very friendly with
+her.  It was therefore a bitter blow to Erebus to find that she was not
+only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also about to be married to him
+in the course of the next few weeks.  She grumbled about it to the
+Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in the
+matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older
+heads.  Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss
+Lambart, making every effort to convince her that love and marriage
+were very silly things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous
+life.  She failed.  Then she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that
+plain fact, and failed again.  He declared that it was his first duty,
+as an uncle, to be married before his nephew, and that if he were not
+quick about it the Terror would certainly anticipate him.  Erebus
+carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter triumph; and
+there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for several
+days.  The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most
+natural and satisfactory thing in the world.  Her only complaint was
+that she and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same
+day as Miss Lambart.
+
+Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll
+even more than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest
+felicity, and the knoll is the ideal place for them.  Sir Maurice
+arrived at it not so very much later, considering his urban habit, than
+sunrise; and he did not leave it till long after sunset.  But the
+pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp was broken up, since
+the archduke's tenancy of the Grange expired, and the princess must
+return to Germany.  She was bitterly grieved at parting with the
+Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the
+next summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again.
+It seemed not unlikely that after her short but impressive association
+with the Twins she would have her way about it.  Nevertheless, in spite
+of her exhaustive experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm
+ideals of those who led it, at their parting she cried in the most
+unaffected fashion.
+
+Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir
+James Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for
+years been hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at
+any rate for a while.  It had always been their keen desire to fish the
+Grange water, for it had been carefully preserved and little fished all
+the years Sir James had been wandering about the world.  But Mr.
+Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, had always refused their
+request.  He believed that their presence would be good neither for the
+stream, the fish, nor the estate.
+
+But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they
+felt to be prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that
+they might be able to compass their desire.  Also they felt that the
+sooner they made the attempt to do so the better: Sir James might hear
+unfavorable accounts of them, if they gave him time to consort freely
+with his neighbors.  Therefore, with the help of their literary
+mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking leave
+to fish the Grange water.  Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the
+letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath
+indeed to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so
+many years that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he
+left their honeyed missive unanswered.
+
+The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days.  Then it was
+slowly borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their
+letter at all; and they grew very angry indeed.  Their anger was in
+close proportion to the pains they had spent on the letter.  The name
+of Sir James was added to the list of proscribed persons they carried
+in their retentive minds.
+
+It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him
+for the affront he had put on them.  Scorching, in his feverish,
+Central African way, along the road to Rowington in a very powerful
+motor-car, he looked well beyond their reach.  But Fortune favors the
+industrious who watch their chances; and one evening Erebus came
+bicycling swiftly up to the cats' home, and cried:
+
+"As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old
+Glazebrook's water!"
+
+The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his
+hands, for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market.
+
+"Are you sure?" he said calmly.  "It's a long way from the ridge to the
+stream."
+
+"Not for my eyes!" said Erebus with some measure of impatience in her
+tone.  "I'm quite sure that it was Sir James; and I'm quite sure that
+it was old Glazebrook's meadow.  Lend me your handkerchief."
+
+The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a
+less pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a
+perfect content.  She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with
+her interesting news.
+
+"I wish I'd seen him too," said the Terror thoughtfully.
+
+"It's quite enough for me to have seen him!" said Erebus with some heat.
+
+"It would be better if we'd both seen him," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"It's such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no notice of
+our letter!" said Erebus indignantly.
+
+"Yes, it is," said the Terror.
+
+She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor
+at considerable length.  The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be
+listening to her.  In truth he was considering what advantage might be
+drawn from Sir James' transgression.
+
+At last he said: "The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him
+poaching."
+
+Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result
+that two evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream,
+stretched at full length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of
+the wood at Sir James Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream
+below.
+
+"He'll soon be at the boundary fence," said the Terror in a hushed
+voice of quiet satisfaction.
+
+"If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!" said Erebus
+who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience.
+
+"It's on the other side of it they're rising," said the Terror in a
+calmly hopeful tone.
+
+Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast
+after vain cast.  He was a big game hunter; he had given but little
+time and pains to this milder sport; and he came to the fence at which
+his water ceased and that of Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket
+still empty of trout.  He looked longingly at his neighbor's water; as
+the Terror had said, the trout in it were rising freely.  Then the
+watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back.
+
+"He's not going to poach, after all!" cried Erebus in a tone of acute
+disappointment.
+
+"Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all?
+Long Ridge is a good way off," said the Terror looking across to it.
+
+"I did.  I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook's meadow," said
+Erebus firmly.
+
+"It's very disappointing," said the Terror, frowning at the disobliging
+fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: "Well, it can't be
+helped; we've got to go on watching him every evening till he does.  If
+he's poached once, he'll poach again."
+
+"Look!" said Erebus, gripping his arm.
+
+Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary
+fence.  He stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning
+the little valley down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter's
+eyes.  It is to be feared that he had been too long used to the
+high-handed methods that prevail in the ends of the earth where big
+game dwell, to have a proper sense of the sanctity of his neighbor's
+fish.  Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of the practise of netting
+his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a London restaurant.
+Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman to give
+them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end.
+
+But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since
+Glazebrook farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the
+Morgans and the Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty
+years.  Assuredly the farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught
+him poaching.
+
+Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human
+beings; and as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper
+in the wood.  Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of
+view, regard poaching with abhorrence.  But he would perceive that his
+master was doing a real kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them
+that chance of making a sportsman-like end.  At any rate the keeper
+would hold his tongue.
+
+Sir James climbed through the gap.
+
+The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a
+tone of triumph: "Well, he's gone and done it now."
+
+"Yes, we've got him all right," said the Terror in a tone of calm
+thankfulness.
+
+Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir
+James caught three good fish.
+
+He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a
+figure coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away.
+
+"Look!  There's old Glazebrook!  He'll catch him!  Won't it be fun?"
+she cried, wriggling in her joy.
+
+The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said:
+"Yes: it would be fun.  There'd be no end of a row.  But it wouldn't be
+any use to us.  I'm going to warn him."
+
+With that he sent a clear cry of "Cave!" ringing down the stream.
+
+In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land.
+
+The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly
+and noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road.
+
+As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: "We'll
+teach him not to answer our letters."
+
+He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road,
+took their bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and
+lifted them over the gate.  They reached home in time for dinner.
+
+During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the
+time since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had
+been for a bicycle ride.  She did not press him to be more particular
+in his account of their doings, though from Erebus' air of subdued
+excitement and expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise
+was in hand; she had no desire to put any strain on the Terror's
+uncommon power of polite evasion.
+
+She was not at all surprised when, at nine o'clock, she went out into
+the garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they
+were not within hearing.  She told herself that she would be lucky if
+she got them to bed by ten.  But she would have been surprised, indeed,
+had she seen them, half an hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in
+a condition of exemplary tidiness, dressed in their Sunday best.
+
+They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats' home quietly, mounted,
+rode quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house,
+and then slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool
+and tidy.  They timed their arrival with such nicety that as they
+dismounted before the door of Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the
+content inspired by an excellent dinner, was settling himself
+comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room.
+
+They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not
+only assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it
+would prevail.  A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his
+fish with the usual strictness, _can not_ allow himself to be
+prosecuted for poaching.
+
+The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at
+the coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important
+business," said the Terror with a truly businesslike air.
+
+Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth;
+and since he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted
+Sir James to keep him on at the Grange after her return to
+Cassel-Nassau.  He had made the acquaintance of the Twins during the
+last days of her stay, after the camp had been broken up, and had
+formed a high opinion of their ability and their manners.  Moreover, of
+a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield
+whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church.
+
+None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful
+tone: "It's very late, Master Terror.  You can't expect Sir James to
+see people at this hour."
+
+"I know it's late; but the business is important--very important," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+Mawley hesitated.  His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous
+of obliging her children.  Then he said:
+
+"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll tell Sir James that you're here."
+
+"Thank you," said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great
+hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round
+them at the arms and armor with appreciative eyes.
+
+Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master
+and Miss Dangerfield wished to see him on business.
+
+"Oh?  They're the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to
+fish.  But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little
+devils in the county, so I took no notice of their letter," said Sir
+James.
+
+"Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell
+you so.  But it's my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of
+mischief is put down to them which they never do.  And after all
+they're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behave
+like ordinary children," said Mawley in the tone and manner of a
+persuasive diplomat.
+
+"Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish," said Sir James.
+"There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of
+noisy children won't make those easier to catch.  But I may as well
+tell them so myself; so you may bring them here."
+
+Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room.  They
+entered it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of
+themselves, and greeted Sir James politely.
+
+He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his
+steward had somehow given him the impression that they were thick,
+red-faced and robustious.  He felt that these pleasant-looking young
+gentlefolk could never have really earned their unfortunate reputation.
+There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him
+than they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large
+arched nose, the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the
+small clipped mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of
+the Terror, pleased them.  He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet.
+
+"Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me about?"
+he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use.
+
+"We saw you in Glazebrook's meadow this afternoon--poaching," said the
+Terror in a gentle, almost deprecatory tone.
+
+Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of
+discomfort.  He had not connected this visit with his transgression.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in a sterner voice.
+
+"Oh?  Then it was one of you who called 'Cave!' from the wood?" said
+Sir James.
+
+"Yes; we didn't want old Glazebrook to catch you," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh--er--thanks," said Sir James in a tone of discomfort.
+
+"That wouldn't have been any use to us," said the Terror.
+
+"Of use to you?" said Sir James.
+
+"Yes; if he'd caught you, there wouldn't be any reason why we should
+fish your water," said the Terror.
+
+Sir James looked puzzled:
+
+"But is there any reason now?" he said.
+
+"Yes.  You see, you were poaching," said the Terror in a very gentle
+explanatory voice.
+
+"And you caught three fish," said Erebus in something of the manner of
+a chorus in an Athenian tragedy.
+
+Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished
+enlightenment:
+
+"Well, I'm--hanged if it isn't blackmail!" he cried.
+
+"Blackmail?" said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation.  "Why,
+that's what the Scotch reavers used to do!  I never knew exactly what
+it was."
+
+"And we're doing it.  That is nice," said Erebus, almost preening
+herself.
+
+"But this is disgraceful!  If you'd been village children--but
+gentlefolk!" cried Sir James with considerable heat.
+
+"Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed," said the
+Terror in a tone of sweet reason.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a kind of stealing," said
+Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her mother's fur stole.
+
+"Poaching's a misdemeanor; blackmailing's a felony," said Sir James
+loftily.
+
+The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction:
+"Poaching's worse."
+
+Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
+very angry eyes.  The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air.  Their
+appearance no longer pleased him.
+
+"It's your own fault entirely," said the Terror coldly.  "If you'd been
+civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't have
+bothered about you.  But you didn't take any notice of it--"
+
+"And it was beastly cheek," said Erebus.
+
+"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing.  So we kept an eye
+on you and caught you poaching," said the Terror.
+
+"Without any excuse for it.  You've plenty of fishing of your own,"
+said Erebus severely.
+
+"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneak
+to the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
+
+The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't going
+to do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish your
+water at all.  We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
+the police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll get
+prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook.  That's what we came to say."
+
+"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
+write to you," said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
+
+On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
+find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
+night, and left the room.
+
+Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
+expressed his feelings without difficulty.  Then he began to laugh.  It
+was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
+been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
+rankled.  He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of
+Africa, by much more ferocious creatures.  But after sleeping on the
+matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased
+it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield
+children were allowed to fish his water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AND AN APOLOGY
+
+The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
+triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
+fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's
+faint appetite.
+
+She had grown stronger during the summer.  She was not, indeed,
+definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak.  But, a woman of
+spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness
+of her life in the country.  It was sapping her strength and energy; in
+it she would grow old long before her time.  The Twins had been used to
+find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings;
+and the change troubled them.  Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for
+her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the
+trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her.  But she
+made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the
+springs of her being.
+
+Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound
+of the Twins on the bank of the stream.  To his pleased surprise he
+neither saw nor heard them.  For the most part they fished in the early
+morning and brought their catch home to tempt their mother's appetite
+at breakfast.  But if they did fish in the evening, one or the other
+acted as scout, watching Sir James' movements; and they kept out of his
+sight.  They had gained their end; and their natural delicacy assured
+them that the sight of them could not be pleasant to Sir James.  As the
+Terror phrased it:
+
+"He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there's no point in
+rubbing it in."
+
+Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them.  Erebus was
+playing a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare
+Sir James' feelings.  Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was
+impracticable, since Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them.
+
+He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it
+snapped the gut and was gone.
+
+"Evidently you're no so good at fishing as blackmailing," said Sir
+James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him
+still rankled in his heart.
+
+"I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!" said Erebus with some heat;
+and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder.
+
+Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself
+looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep
+brown eyes of a very pretty woman.]
+
+He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene
+of the struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his
+eyes from it; and she had watched it from behind him.
+
+"This is Sir James Morgan, mother," said the Terror quickly.
+
+Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully:
+"It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish."
+
+"Oh--ah--yes--n-n-not at all," stammered Sir James, blushing faintly.
+
+He was unused to women and found her presence confusing.
+
+"Oh, but it was," said Mrs. Dangerfield.  "And I'm seeing that they
+don't take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for they told me that,
+thanks to Mr. Glazebrook's netting his part of it, there are none too
+many fish in the stream."
+
+"It's very good of you.  B-b-but I don't mind how many they catch,"
+said Sir James.
+
+He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished
+to remove himself swiftly from her disturbing presence.  Yet he did not
+wish to; he found her voice as charming as her eyes.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: "You would, if I let them
+catch as many as they'd like to."
+
+"Are they as good fishermen as that?" said Sir James.
+
+"Well, they've been fishing ever since they could handle a rod.  They
+are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every
+spring.  So I limit them to three fish a day," said Mrs. Dangerfield;
+and there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him.
+
+"It's very good of you," said Sir James.  He hesitated, shuffled his
+feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at Mrs.
+Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: "I should like to
+stay and see how they do it.  I might pick up a wrinkle or two."
+
+"Of course.  Why, it's your stream," she said.
+
+He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to
+the fishing.  Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air
+of fragility made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness.  His
+first discomfort sternly vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest
+desire to remain in her presence.  He not only stayed with them till
+the Twins had caught their three fish, but he walked nearly to Colet
+House with them, and at last bade them good-by with an air of the
+deepest reluctance.  It can hardly be doubted that he had been smitten
+by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as we more
+gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight.
+
+As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not
+received the social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth.  If,
+instead of staying firmly at home, he had been moving about among them,
+he would have met Mrs. Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate
+condition of meeting her often.  It did not for a moment enter his mind
+that if he had met her stiffly in a drawing-room he might easily have
+failed to fall in love with her at all.  He cudgeled his brains to find
+some way of meeting her again and meeting her often.  He was to meet
+her quite soon without any effort on his part.
+
+It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had
+been smitten by that emotional _coup de foudre_, for she was walking
+with a much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks.
+
+After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she
+said in a really cheerful tone:
+
+"I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the
+exciting life he had in Africa."
+
+"Rather!", said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice.
+
+She had not missed Sir James' sentence about the superiority of Erebus'
+blackmailing to her fishing.  But she knew the Twins far too well to
+ask them for an explanation of it before him.  None the less it clung
+to her mind.
+
+At supper therefore she said: "What did Sir James mean by calling you a
+blackmailer, Erebus?"
+
+The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the
+explanation; and he said suavely:
+
+"Oh, it was about the fishing."
+
+"How--about the fishing?" said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly.
+
+"Well, he didn't want to give us leave.  In fact he never answered our
+letter asking for it," said the Terror.
+
+"And of course we couldn't stand that; and we had to make him," said
+Erebus sternly.
+
+"Make him?  How did you make him?" said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+The Terror told her.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised
+and annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that
+her offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger.  She felt chiefly
+annoyed by the fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to
+blackmail should be Sir James.
+
+"Then you did blackmail him," she said in a tone of dismay.
+
+"He seemed to think that we were--like the Douglases used to," said the
+Terror in an amiable tone.
+
+"But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong--very wrong,
+indeed," said Mrs. Dangerfield.
+
+"Well, he _did_ seem to think so," said the Terror.  "But we thought he
+was prejudiced; and we didn't take much notice of him."
+
+"And we couldn't possibly let him take no notice of our letter, Mum--it
+was such a polite letter--and not take it out of him," said Erebus.
+
+"And it hasn't done any harm, you know.  We wanted those trout ever so
+much more than he did," said the Terror.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as
+she pondered how to deal with the affair.  She was still chiefly
+annoyed that Sir James should have been the victim.  The Twins gazed at
+her with a sympathetic gravity which by no means meant that they were
+burdened by a sense of wrong-doing.  They were merely sorry that she
+was annoyed.
+
+"Well, there's nothing for it: you'll have to apologize to Sir
+James--both of you," she said at last.
+
+"Apologize to him!  But he never answered our letter!" cried Erebus.
+
+The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it,
+opened it again and said in a soothing tone: "All right, Mum; we'll
+apologize."
+
+"I'll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins
+would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel
+Sir James to invite them to continue to fish.
+
+There had been some such intention in the Terror's mind, for his face
+fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real
+apology.  But he said amiably: "All right; just as you like, Mum."
+
+Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her
+breath.  After supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the
+Terror bitterly for not refusing firmly.
+
+The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path
+across the fields, to the Grange.  Surprise and extreme pleasure were
+mingled with the respect with which Mawley ushered them into the
+drawing-room; and he almost ran to apprise Sir James of their coming.
+
+Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would
+find Mrs. Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching
+her children fish.  His night's rest had trebled his interest in her
+and his desire to see more, a great deal more, of her.  The appeal to
+him of her frail and delicate beauty was stronger than ever.
+
+At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless
+enough air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been
+dead seven years, that she had a very small income, and was hard put to
+it to make both ends meet.  His compassion had been deeply stirred; she
+was so plainly a creature who deserved the smoothest path in life.  He
+wished that he could now, at once, see his way to help her to that
+smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that way as soon as he
+possibly could.
+
+When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could
+scarcely believe his joyful ears.  He had to put a constraint on
+himself to walk to its door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley's
+eyes, and not dash to it at full speed.  He entered the room with his
+eyes shining very brightly.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily.  She was
+looking grave and ill at ease.
+
+"I've come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James," she said as
+they shook hands.  "I find that these children have been blackmailing
+you; and I've brought them to apologize.  I--I'm exceedingly distressed
+about it."
+
+"Oh, there's no need to be--no need at all.  It was rather a joke," Sir
+James protested quickly.
+
+"But blackmailing isn't a joke--though of course they didn't realize
+what a serious thing it is--"
+
+"It was the Douglases doing it," broke in the Terror in an explanatory
+tone.
+
+"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield severely.
+
+"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you.  They had me in a cleft stick,"
+protested Sir James.
+
+"Well then you ought to have come straight to me," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.
+
+"Oh, but really--a little fishing--what is a little fishing?  I
+couldn't come bothering you about a thing like that," protested Sir
+James.
+
+"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that," said Mrs.
+Dangerfield.  "Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going to
+apologize."
+
+She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice:
+
+"I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James."
+
+The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very
+stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
+
+"Oh, not at all--not at all--don't mention it.  Besides, I owe you an
+apology for not answering your letter," said Sir James in all the
+discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due.  Then he
+heaved a sigh of relief and added: "Well, that's all right.  And now I
+hope you'll do all the fishing you want to."
+
+"Certainly not; I can't allow them to fish your water any more," said
+Mrs. Dangerfield sternly.
+
+"Oh, but really," said Sir James with a harried air.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand.
+
+"But you'll have some tea--after that hot walk!" cried Sir James.
+
+"No, thank you, I must be getting home," said Mrs. Dangerfield firmly.
+
+Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up.
+
+He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out.  As Erebus
+passed out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him.  She was
+desirous that he should not overrate her apology.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS
+
+Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap
+from the horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it.  He came down
+the steps, along the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the
+park, talking to Mrs. Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the
+gardens of the Grange after his last five years of big game shooting
+about the world.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for
+companionship.  But she could not drive him from her side on his own
+land.  They walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead.  When Sir James and
+Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, the Twins were out of sight.
+Mere politeness demanded that he should walk the rest of the way with
+her.
+
+When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James,
+the Terror said:
+
+"Well, he was quite decent about it.  It made him much more
+uncomfortable than we were.  I suppose it was because we're more used
+to Mum."
+
+"What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?" said the
+unappeased Erebus.
+
+"Oh, well; he didn't mean to.  It was an accident, you know," said the
+Terror.
+
+His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer
+intimacy with Sir James.
+
+"Accident!  People shouldn't have accidents like that!" said Erebus in
+a tone of bitter scorn.
+
+When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James
+diplomatically fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty,
+their grace and their intelligence.  The diplomacy was not natural (he
+was no diplomat) but accidental: the Twins were the only subject he
+could at the moment think of.  He could not have found a quicker way to
+Mrs. Dangerfield's approval.  She had been disposed to dislike him for
+having been blackmailed by them; his praise of them softened her heart.
+Discussing them, they came right to the gate of Colet House; and it was
+only natural that she should invite him to tea.  He accepted with
+alacrity.  At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her.
+
+He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to
+see more of her.  With a natural simplicity he used his skill in
+woodcraft to compass his end, and availed himself of the covert
+afforded by the common to watch Colet House.  Thanks to this simple
+device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. Dangerfield, somewhere in
+the first half-mile of her afternoon walk.
+
+They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness;
+and he found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he
+had ever wanted anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in
+his enthusiastic youth, to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right.  He had
+been making arrangements for another shooting expedition; but he
+perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it was his immediate duty to
+settle down in life, provide the Hall with a mistress, and do his duty
+by his estate and his neighbors.
+
+He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his
+instinct and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that
+to bring Mrs. Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the
+land of romance was the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed
+of.  But he had a stout heart, the hunter's pertinacity, and a burning
+resolve to succeed.
+
+He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be
+useful friends in the matter.  But did they chance on him walking with
+their mother, or at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily
+aloof.  He must abate their hostility.
+
+He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were
+starting one afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully,
+stopped and said: "I'm awfully sorry I gave you away the other day.
+But I never saw your mother till I'd done it."
+
+"Don't mention it," said the Terror with cold graciousness.
+
+"So you ought to be," said Erebus.
+
+"It's a pity you should lose your fishing.  If I'd known how good you
+both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your letter,"
+said Sir James hypocritically.  "But I was misinformed about you."
+
+"It's worse that mother should lose the trout.  She does hate butcher's
+meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat properly," said
+Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone.
+
+"It's like that, is it?" said Sir James quickly; and an expression of
+deep concern filled his face.
+
+"Yes, and she did eat those trout," said Erebus plaintively.
+
+Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched
+him with little hope in their faces.  Of a sudden his brow grew smooth;
+and he said:
+
+"Look here: you mayn't fish my water; but there's no reason why you
+shouldn't fish Glazebrook's.  _I_ think that a man who nets his water
+loses all rights."
+
+"Yes, he does," said the Terror firmly.
+
+"Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe
+enough; and I'll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined.  I
+want to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook--he's not a sportsman."
+
+The Terror's face had brightened; but he said: "But how should we
+account for the fish we took home?"
+
+"You can reckon them presents from me.  They would be--practically--if
+I'm going to pay the fines," said Sir James.
+
+The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing
+tenderly with exactitude which appealed to them.  The Terror himself
+could not have been more tender with it.
+
+"That's a ripping idea!" said Erebus in a tone of the warmest approval.
+
+The peace was thus concluded.
+
+Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win
+their good will.  He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of
+chocolate.  If he chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he
+would carry them off, bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with
+sumptuous teas at the Grange; and at Colet House he entertained them
+with stories of the African forest which thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even
+more than they thrilled them.  But he won their hearts most by his
+sympathy with them in the matter of their mother's appetite, and by
+joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her.
+
+Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of
+taking the short cut to her heart by praising them.  He laid himself
+out to be useful to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for
+himself as large as possible a place in her life.  She was not long
+discovering that he was in love with her; and the discovery came as a
+very pleasant shock.  None of the neighbors, much less Captain Baster,
+who, during her stay at Colet House, had asked her to marry them, had
+attracted her so strongly as did Sir James.  Even as her delicacy made
+the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his vigorous
+robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy.
+
+But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the
+keener for having so few chances of plying their active tongues.  When
+no less than four ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James
+and Mrs. Dangerfield walking together along the lanes, those tongues
+began to wag.
+
+Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
+London, one morning met the Twins in the village.  They greeted her
+politely and made to escape.  But she was in the mood, her most
+constant mood, to babble.  She stopped them, and with a knowing air,
+and even more offensive smile, said:
+
+"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
+soon in Little Deeping, are we?"
+
+Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
+them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
+said:
+
+"Are we?"
+
+"I should have thought you would have known all about it," she said
+with a cackling little giggle.  "Mind you tell me as soon as you're
+told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother."
+
+"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
+and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
+her own.
+
+"Oh, nothing--nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
+sternness.  "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother--But
+there--there's probably nothing in it--the Morgans always were
+rovers--one foot at sea and one on shore--I dare say he'll be in the
+middle of Africa before the week is out.  Good morning--good morning."
+
+With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
+the grocer's shop.
+
+The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning.  Then Erebus
+said: "Silly old idiot!"
+
+The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning.  At last he broke out:
+"This won't do!  We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
+And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
+cheerful for her."
+
+"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said?  It
+would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a
+panic.
+
+The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
+
+"_Do_ you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus.
+
+"I dare say there is.  Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's
+always very civil to us--people aren't generally," said the Terror.
+
+"Oh, but we must stop it!  We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Why must we?"
+
+"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried
+Erebus fiercely.
+
+"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum," said the Terror.  "She
+does have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never going
+anywhere.  And, after all, we shouldn't mind Sir James when we got used
+to him."
+
+"But we should!  And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"
+
+"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher--at all," said the Terror.
+
+"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus.
+
+"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it," said the
+Terror firmly.  "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made up
+their minds.  But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant by
+saying that the Morgans were rovers."
+
+Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
+utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop.  Then she said in a tone of considerable
+relief:
+
+"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marrying
+Mum."
+
+"Yes, that's what she did mean," growled the Terror.  "And she'll go
+about telling everybody that he's only fooling."
+
+"But I don't think he is.  I don't think he would," said Erebus quickly.
+
+"No more do I," said the Terror.
+
+They walked nearly fifty yards in silence.  Then the Terror's face
+cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:
+
+"I know the thing to do!  I'll go and ask him his intentions.  That's
+what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut--you know:
+that fellow from Rowington--was fooling about with Miss Hawley."
+
+"All right, we'll go and ask him," said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.
+
+"No, no, you can't go.  I must go alone," said the Terror quickly.
+"It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do--people said so
+about Miss Hawley--and I'm the only man of the family about.  If Uncle
+Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do
+it."
+
+Erebus burst into bitter complaint.  She alleged that the restrictions
+which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
+to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
+everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
+successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
+which he performed alone.
+
+"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do," said the
+Terror with very cold severity.  "You know what Mrs. Morton said about
+Miss Hawley and the Cut--that the men of the family did it."
+
+"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus.
+
+"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it.  So it's no
+use you're making a fuss," said the Terror in a tone of finality.
+
+Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir
+James would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone,
+early in the afternoon.
+
+He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him
+straight to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over
+his after-lunch coffee.  Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was
+beginning to learn that the Terror was quite good company, in the
+country, and poured him out a cup of coffee.
+
+The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple
+matter of this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his
+usual diplomacy, said with firm directness: "I've come to ask your
+intentions, sir."
+
+"My intentions?" said Sir James, not taking him.
+
+"Yes.  You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that
+you're only fooling," said the Terror.
+
+"The deuce they are!" cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and angry
+comprehension.
+
+"Yes.  So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions," said
+the Terror firmly.
+
+"Of course--of course," said Sir James.
+
+He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled.
+Then he added gravely: "My intentions are not only extremely serious
+but they're extremely immediate.  I'd marry your mother to-morrow if
+she'd let me."
+
+"That's all right," said the Terror with a faint sigh of relief.  "Of
+course I knew you were all right.  Only, it was the thing to do, with
+these silly old idiots talking."
+
+"Quite so--quite so," said Sir James.
+
+There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly
+drinking his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been
+suffering badly from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the
+Terror's serenity was soothing.
+
+Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: "Do
+you think your mother would marry me?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; women are so funny," said the Terror
+with a sage air.
+
+Sir James pulled at his mustache.  Then the compulsion to have some
+one's opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy's, came
+on him strongly; and he said:
+
+"I wish I knew what to do.  As it is we're very good friends; and if I
+asked her to marry me, I might spoil that."
+
+The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: "I
+don't think you would.  Mum's very sensible, though she is so pretty."
+
+Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: "I'll
+risk it!"
+
+He rang the bell and ordered his car.  He talked to the Terror jerkily
+and somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his
+perturbation with considerable interest.  It seemed to him very curious
+in a hard-bitten hunter of big game.  They started and in the two level
+miles to Little Deeping Sir James changed his car's speeds nine times.
+
+As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air
+of detachment: "I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed."
+
+He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for
+her.
+
+"If I only could!" said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt.
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he
+entered the drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a
+thrill half of pleasure, half of apprehension, why he had come.
+
+At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of
+him; but with what was left of it he blurted out desperately:
+
+"Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!"
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly.
+
+"Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!"
+
+Mrs. Dangerfield's face was one flush; and she cried: "B-b-but it's out
+of the question.  I--I'm old enough to be your mother!"
+
+"Now how?--I'm three years and seven months older than you," said Sir
+James, taken aback.
+
+"I shall be an old woman while you're still quite young!" she protested.
+
+"You won't ever be old!  You're not the kind!" cried Sir James with
+some heat; and then with sudden understanding: "If that's your only
+reason, why, that settles it!"
+
+With that he picked her up and kissed her four times.
+
+When he set her down and held her at arm's length, gazing at her with
+devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: "Oh, James, you are--ever
+so much more--impetuous--than I thought.  You gave me--no time."
+
+"Thank goodness, I took the Terror's tip!" said Sir James.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson
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