grew shrill
again with excitement. Nibbler hopped out of the basket and her joy
became intense.

For a moment, as though bewildered by the space, the sunshine, and the
breeze, the great rabbit sat and stared about him; then suddenly old
instincts came crowding back upon his rabbit brain, He saw furze and
bracken, and rabbits' burrows all about him, he felt the turf under his
feet, and life calling to him--and he followed the call!

When, a little later, the rest of the party arrived, they found three
forlorn kittens tumbling helplessly over each other, and squealing loudly
with fright, while in the distance two little blue-clad figures dashed
desperately from one clump of bracken to another, and with tears running
down their faces, shouting frantically "Nibbler, Nibbler, oh darling, do
come here, you will be killed if you stay out here all night; Nibbler,
Nibbler!"

It did not take the family long to grasp what had happened. "They will
break their hearts if they lose him," cried Faith, almost as distracted as
the children. "We shall never get them to go home and leave him behind.
They will stay all night searching for him."

"I will go and help them," said Keith at once. "What colour is he?"

"White and tan, nothing uncommon, but we all love him."

Audrey felt very cross. "One can always count on those children to spoil
every plan we make," she muttered to herself vexedly; "they deserve to be
whipped and sent home to bed, tiresome little torments!"

All of the party but herself had hurried away to join in the search, and
she was left standing alone by the baskets.

"Well, there is no need for me to go fagging round too, and someone ought
to stay by the things, or they might be stolen. One never knows if there
are tramps about."

She seated herself comfortably on the grass with her back against a basket
and waited. It never occurred to her to unpack the baskets and begin to
arrange the tea-table, nor to take up the frightened kittens and try to
stop their cries. She just sat there revelling in the sunshine and the
breeze, and the scent of the furze-blossom. It was so beautiful that she
almost forgot everything unpleasant or worrying. In the distance she
caught sight of a man on horseback galloping across the moor, and began to
weave a story of bearers of secret tidings, plots and enemies, in which
the distant horseman was the hero and she the heroine, and she had just
reached, in her own mind, a villa