off to see much, whatever may be
their curiosity."

Lucy held her hands over her eyes, gazing attentively from beneath them.
"I feel convinced of it now," she presently said. "There is some one,
and it looks like a man, standing behind the trunk, as if hiding
himself. His head is pushed out on this side, certainly, as though he
were watching these windows. I have seen the head move twice."

Lionel placed his hands in the same position, and took a long gaze. "I
do think you are right, Lucy!" he suddenly exclaimed. "I saw something
move then. What business has any one to plant himself there?"

He stepped impulsively out as he spoke--the windows opened to the
ground--crossed the terrace, descended the steps, and turned on the
lawn, to the left hand. A minute, and he was up at the tree.

But he gained no satisfaction. The spreading tree, with its imposing
trunk--which trunk was nearly as thick as a man's body--stood all
solitary on the smooth grass, no living thing being near it.

"We must have been mistaken, after all," thought Lionel.

Nevertheless, he stood under the tree, and cast his keen glances around.
Nothing could he see; nothing but what ought to be there. The wide lawn,
the sweet flowers closed to the night, the remoter parts where the trees
were thick, all stood cold and still in the white moonlight. But of
human disturber there was none.

Lionel went back again, plucking a white geranium blossom and a sprig
of sweet verbena on his way. Lucy was sitting alone, as he had left her.

"It was a false alarm," he whispered. "Nothing's there, except the
tree."

"It was not a false alarm," she answered. "I saw him move away as you
went on to the lawn. He drew back towards the thicket."

"Are you sure?" questioned Lionel, his tone betraying that he doubted
whether she was not mistaken.

"Oh, yes, I am sure," said Lucy. "Do you know what my old nurse used to
tell me when I was a child?" she asked, lifting her face to his. "She
said I had the Indian sight, because I could see so far and so
distinctly. Some of the Indians have the gift greatly, you know. I am
quite certain that I saw the object--and it looked like the figure of a
man--go swiftly away from the tree across the grass. I could not see him
to the end of the lawn, but he must have gone into the plantation. I
dare say he saw you coming towards him."

Lionel smiled. "I wish I had caught the spy. He should have answered to
me for being there. Do you l