e had to offer.

"The water's halfway down the rock already," she said. "In another hour
we may be able to reach the shore, if only the mist would clear."

"My foot still hurts," said Muriel. "I don't believe I shall be able to
limp a step."

"Perhaps a boat will come to find us, now the tide's not so high. I'm
sure Miss Lincoln would send somebody to look."

"You don't think she would go home without us, then?"

"Oh, no! I'm quite certain she wouldn't. Someone would miss us, and then
she would ask who had seen us last."

"Do you think Kitty and Maud and Vera would tell? Perhaps they'd be
ashamed of having left us."

"They'd be obliged to tell. I expect if it hadn't been for the fog we
should have been found before. If you leant your head against me, could
you go to sleep?"

"No, not with the water still so near," said Muriel, shuddering. "I must
just sit still, and wait, and wait, and wait."

Half an hour more passed; the girls were too weary to care to talk, but
at last Muriel spoke again.

"Patty," she said, suddenly, "I want to tell you a secret. It's
something I ought to have told long ago, only I didn't dare. That Caesar
translation belonged to me."

"I thought it did," said Patty, calmly.

"You thought so! Oh, Patty! How did you know?"

"Because I saw you slip it into your desk that afternoon I came so
unexpectedly into the schoolroom. I recognized the green cover the
moment Miss Harper held it up."

"And yet you never said anything about it?"

"No."

"Not to anybody? Not even to Enid?"

"No, not even to Enid. I wasn't certain, and if I had been I wouldn't
have told."

"I've been wretched about it!" said Muriel. "I never intended you to
get blamed, but I daren't confess it was mine."

"Who gave you the book?" asked Patty.

"Horace. He used it himself once, and those were his initials in it, H.
P. for Horace Pearson; and of course everyone believed it meant Patty
Hirst, because the two letters were interlaced, and could be read either
way."

"I'm sorry it was Horace's. I thought better of him," groaned Patty.

"I'm afraid we're neither of us as conscientious as you," said Muriel.
"I used to prepare my Latin with it. I don't know how I could be so
silly as to leave it lying about."

"Perhaps it's as well you did," said Patty, gravely, "or it might never
have been found out."

"I'm dreadfully sorry now," said Muriel. "I wouldn't do it again. I'm so
glad Miss Harper burnt it. It was m