went
into the house afterwards, and then I ran back to fetch Maisie's
work-basket. I saw a girl climb down the lime tree, and run away into
the bushes."

"Are you sure?"

"I could not be mistaken."

"Then this is most extremely important."

"I know it is. I can't imagine how I never remembered it before. They
may well call me 'Scatterbrains' at home! I certainly shouldn't have
done for a barrister, if I'd been a boy."

"Could you tell who it was?"

"No, I wasn't near enough. I only saw her for a moment. If I had caught
a glimpse of her face, it might have been of some use; but everybody
wears the same kind of blue skirt and white blouse at Chessington, so
it's quite impossible to recognize any particular girl when you see
nothing but her back."

"Unless you could find somebody else who happened to have seen her
too."

"No one else was there at the time."

"We must make enquiries," said Janie excitedly. "It really seems a
clue. We won't leave a stone unturned, if we can help it."

"I should be very glad to get poor Paddy out of trouble," replied
Lettice. "The slur on our house will be just the same, though,
whichever Chaddite may be the culprit. It's only moving the disgrace
from one person to another."

"We must see that the blame is put on to the right pair of shoulders,
though; it's not fair for Honor to bear it unjustly."

"Indeed it isn't. What would be the best way to begin?"

"We need a witness. I wonder if Johnson was about at the time, and
noticed anything?"

"A good idea! We'll go and find him. I believe I saw him just now,
shutting up the greenhouse."

After a rather lengthy search, the girls at last discovered the old
gardener putting away his tools in the potting shed.

"Johnson, please, we want to ask you a question," began Janie. "Were
you near St. Chad's at nine o'clock on the night before last; and did
you happen to see anyone climbing the lime tree that stands close to
the house?"

Johnson stroked his chin reflectively.

"It couldn't have been last night," he replied, after a few moments'
consideration. "I was in Dunscar then. It must 'a been the night afore
that. Aye; I did see one of you young ladies go up that lime tree. I
remember it, because she climbed that smart you'd have thought she was
a boy. In at the window she gets, and I watches her and thinks it's
well to have young limbs. It's not much climbing you'll do when you're
nigh sixty, and stiff in the joints with rheu