m, where I can see the road
both ways up to the house."

"Shan't we get tired of always looking at the same spot?" objected
Christine.

"I have thought of a plan for that, Chris. When either of us want a
change, just shout out, 'Sister Ann, sister Ann, do you see anybody
coming?'"

"I see," nodded Christine, "everybody will only think we are playing a
game."

"Then," pursued Ridgwell, full of inspiration, "if Lal isn't looming in
sight anywhere, the other will shout out, 'Not a sail in the offing,'
then we change over rooms."

"Anyway Lal couldn't sail, could he?" queried Christine.

"You don't know how he might come," whispered Ridgwell. "He might even
come in a motor car, and anyway it's only so that other people shan't
understand."

"It seems to me," remarked Christine logically, "that people won't
understand him anyway, and less when they see him than when they don't."

"It's an anxious time, isn't it, Chris?"

"Very," assented Christine, "and anyhow we shall have to drop Cookie a
hint, because you see her window in the kitchen looks over a part of
the garden that we can't see from the drawing-room."

"Of course," mused Ridgwell, "the weak spot about Cookie is that she
gets shocks so quickly."

"She's sure to get one to-day," commenced Christine hopefully, "when
Lal comes."

"Very well then, we'll give her a sort of hint," suggested Ridgwell.

Now Cookie, beloved of the children, to say nothing of the household
generally, was a fat person, with very red cheeks, and very
good-humoured rolling green eyes that somehow always looked as if they
had been originally intended for gooseberries, which had boiled and
bubbled during her many cooking operations and had never been permitted
to simmer.

"What do you children want in the kitchen?" commenced Cookie. "Master
Ridgie, you know quite well that your birthday cake ain't to be ready
till tea-time."

"But, Cookie dear," commenced Ridgwell insinuatingly.

Cookie dear continued the mystic rights over which she presided as high
priestess, her vermilion red hands and arms continued to splash about
in a very big basin, where she contrived to throw up little waves of
very white flour as if she were about to take a morning dip in it, yet
hesitated before taking the plunge. These mysterious rites having been
accomplished and the flour having as it were received a final blessing
from Cookie's hands, Cookie commenced to beat up eggs.

"I know you've come w