by A. M. Williamson and C. N. Williamson

“ So, he had known of my activities, and had misunderstood my interest in Terry. Brighteners, alas, are being misunderstood!
“I'd forgotten,” I said primly, “that the women of the Scarlett family inherit the title if there's no son. That would account for a lot! So you don't think my theory of what's going on at Dun Moat is too melodramatic?”
“My experience is,” said Jim, “that nothing is ever quite so melodramatic as real life. I believe this Cecil girl must be a legitimate daughter of the chap who died in Australia. ”

“ I would be nice to her, and try to get myself invited often to Dun Moat. I would wander in the garden, where I must be seen by the Scarletts, and, as their presence in the “suite of the garden court” was no secret from me, it seemed that there would be no indiscretion in visiting Lady Scarlett. Once in that wing, it would go hard if I didn't get a peep at all its occupants!
I knew that the Scarletts kept up communication with the outer world, so far as getting food was concerned, through the old servant woman, whose name was Hedwig Kram. ”

“ But what beats me is this: why did the fly walk into the spider web? If the girl had comm sense, she must have seen she wouldn't be a welcome visitor, coming to turn her uncle out of home and title for himself and son! Yet you say she brought presents for the kid.”
“I wonder,” I thought aloud, “if she could have meant to suggest some friendly compromise? Maybe she'd heard a lot from her father about the wonderful old place. Grandmother said that Cecil Scarlett was so poor he lived in Australia like a laborer, although his father died while he was there and he inherited the title. ”

“ It doesn't matter, though. Plenty of light comes from the garden side.”
“Where was Cecil before you went to live in the wing?” I asked. “Was she in the house?”
“Oh, she'd been in that wing for weeks before father and I moved in,” said the boy. “Mother slept there at night. And Cecil could look out as much as she liked, because there was no one about except us and Krammie. Krammie doesn't count! She's the same as the family, because she's so old she nursed mother when mother was a baby. Seems funny she could have been a baby, doesn't it? But Krammie loves her better than any one, except me. ”

“ Suppose your mother has looked in your room! She'll know from Kram that the ladies are motoring, so she may come out to speak with Kram and ask for you. Squeeze into this clump of lilac bushes at the end of the terrace! Trust me to make everything right and come back soon.”
The picture of his mother on the warpath turned Bertie to a jelly. He was in the lilac bushes almost before I'd finished, and I hurried off, ostensibly to seek Kram. I did not, however, seek far or in any direction where she was likely to be. Presently I returned and in my turn plunged into the bushes. ”

“ Mother says she's in a decline.”
“Oughtn't she to see a doctor?” I wondered.
“Mother thinks a doctor'd be no good. Besides, I don't expect she'd let one see her, anyhow. I told you she won't let any one in.”
“Why does your mother give Cecil a room whose window looks over the moat, if it's so important she should hide?” I persisted.
“All the rooms in that wing where we live are like that,” Bertie explained. “They've windows on the little court inside and windows outside, on the moat. But the outside window in Cecil's room is nailed shut now, so she couldn't open it if she tried. ”

“ Now, the likeness of the name and the boy's babblings made me suspect the plot of an old-fashioned melodrama.
“Oh, I guessed about her hair and eyes, because you said she was so pretty, and dark eyes and auburn hair are the prettiest of all,” I assured him gayly. 'I'm great at guessing things. I can guess like magic! ”

“ And those old panes set in lead are thick as thick! I don't believe you could smash one unless you had a hammer. Father says you couldn't. I mean, he says Cecil couldn't. And since the day mother scolded Cecil for looking out, the curtian's nailed down. ”