on of being a very conscientious woman."

"Of course she was screening some one else," said Vera. "A remarkable
feature of the affair is the extraordinary number of quite respectable
people who have involved themselves in its meshes by trying to shield
others. You would be really astonished if you knew some of the names of
the individuals mixed up in it, and I don't suppose a tithe of them know
who the original culprits were; and now I've got you entangled in the
mess by letting you into the secret of the cottage."

"You most certainly have not entangled me," said Mrs. Bebberly Cumble
indignantly. "I have no intention of shielding anybody. The police must
know about it at once; a theft is a theft, whoever is involved. If
respectable people choose to turn themselves into receivers and disposers
of stolen goods, well, they've ceased to be respectable, that's all. I
shall telephone immediately--"

"Oh, aunt," said Vera reproachfully, "it would break the poor Canon's
heart if Cuthbert were to be involved in a scandal of this sort. You
know it would."

"Cuthbert involved! How can you say such things when you know how much
we all think of him?"

"Of course I know you think a lot of him, and that he's engaged to marry
Beatrice, and that it will be a frightfully good match, and that he's
your ideal of what a son-in-law ought to be. All the same, it was
Cuthbert's idea to stow the things away in the cottage, and it was his
motor that brought them. He was only doing it to help his friend
Pegginson, you know--the Quaker man, who is always agitating for a
smaller Navy. I forget how he got involved in it. I warned you that
there were lots of quite respectable people mixed up in it, didn't I?
That's what I meant when I said it would be impossible for old Betsy to
leave the cottage; the things take up a good bit of room, and she
couldn't go carrying them about with her other goods and chattels without
attracting notice. Of course if she were to fall ill and die it would be
equally unfortunate. Her mother lived to be over ninety, she tells me,
so with due care and an absence of worry she ought to last for another
dozen years at least. By that time perhaps some other arrangements will
have been made for disposing of the wretched things."

"I shall speak to Cuthbert about it--after the wedding," said Mrs.
Bebberly Cumble.

"The wedding isn't till next year," said Vera, in recounting the story to
her best girl frien