t a bit."

"Doesn't it belong to your father, then?"

"No. It's somebody else's, you see."

"Then you can't have it pulled down?"

"Rather not! Of course not!" exclaimed several indignant voices at once.

Miss Lake perceived for the first time that it held more than ordinary
importance in their mind.

"Tell me about it," she said. "What is its history, and who used to live
in it?"

There came another pause. The children looked into each others' faces.
They gazed at the blue sky overhead; then they stared at the dusty road
at their feet. But no one volunteered an answer. Miss Lake, they felt,
was approaching the subject in an offensive manner.

"Why are you all so mysterious about it?" she went on. "It's only a
tumble-down old place, and must be very draughty to live in, even for a
gamekeeper."

Silence.

"Come, children, don't you hear me? I'm asking you a question."

A couple of startled birds flew out of the ivy with a great whirring of
wings. This was followed by a faint sound of rumbling, that seemed to
come from the interior of the house. Outside all was still, and the hot
sunshine lay over everything. The sound was repeated. The children
looked at each other with large, expectant eyes. Something in the house
was moving--was coming nearer.

"Have you _all_ lost your tongues?" asked the governess impatiently.

"But you see," Nixie said at length, "somebody _does_ live in it now."

"And who is he?"

"I didn't say it was a _man_."

"Whoever it is--tell me about the person," persisted Miss Lake.

"There's really nothing to tell," replied the child, without looking up.

"Oh, but there must be something," declared the logical young governess,
"or you wouldn't object so much to its being pulled down."

Nixie looked puzzled, but Jimbo came to the rescue at once.

"But _you_ wouldn't understand if we did tell you," he said, in a slow,
respectful voice. His tone held a touch of that indescribable scorn
heard sometimes in a child's tone--the utter contempt for the stupid
grown-up creature. Miss Lake noticed, and felt annoyed. She recognised
that she was not getting on well with the children, and it piqued her.
She remembered the Colonel's words about "knocking the nonsense out" of
James' head, and she saw that her first opportunity, in fact her first
real test, was at hand.

"And why, pray, should I not understand?" she asked, with some
sharpness. "Is the mystery so _very_ great?"

For some reason