gathering round the Italian
woman in Anstice's mind during the last few days.

If Cherry had spoken truly--and there was no reason to think the child
was lying--then Tochatti's supposed inability to write was an error; and
once that fact were proved it should not, surely, be difficult to
unravel the mystery which had already caused so much unhappiness.

But first he must make sure.

"Tell me, Cherry"--he spoke lightly--"how did you see all this? Surely
Tochatti didn't show you what she was doing?"

"No." For a second Cherry looked abashed; then her spirit returned to
her and she spoke boldly. "It was one night when Nurse Marg'ret had
gone to bed--she was awful tired, and Tochatti said she'd sit up with
me ... and I was cross, 'cos I didn't want her, I wanted Nurse Marg'ret,"
said Cherry honestly, "so I wouldn't speak to her, though she tried ever
so hard to make me, and she thought I'd gone to sleep, and I heard her
say something in 'talian.... I 'spect it was something naughty, 'cos she
sort of hissed it, like a nasty snake once did at me when I was a teeny
baby in Injia," said Cherry lucidly, "and then she looked up to be sure
I was asleep, so I shutted my eyes ever so tight, and then she made the
wax dollie and I watched her do it." Wicked Cherry chuckled gleefully at
the remembrance.

"But the letter 'M'--how do you know she wrote that?" Anstice put the
question very quietly.

"'Cos she couldn't find nothin' to write with, so she crept into Nurse
Marg'ret's room next through mine and came back with her pen--one of
those things what has little ink-bottles inside them," said Cherry,
referring, probably, to the nurse's beloved "Swan." "And I watched her
ever so close, 'cos I wanted to see what she was going to do, and she
wrote a big 'M' on a bit of paper and pinned it into the dollie----"

"Into?" For a moment Anstice was puzzled.

"Yes, 'cos you see the dollie was all soft and squeezy," explained
Cherry obligingly, "and it hadn't got no clothes on to pin it to, so it
had to go into the soft part of the dollie."

"I see. But"--Anstice was still puzzled--"why do you say the dollie was
meant for Nurse Margaret? Mightn't it have been somebody else?"

"No--'cos when Tochatti hates anyone she makes wax dollies end sticks
pins into them," returned Cherry calmly. "I know, 'cos she once told me
about a girl she knew what wanted somebody to die, and she did that and
the person died."

"Oh, my dear little Cherry,