sort of a solution ready which nobody else had thought of. And while,
still searching over and over the entire ground, he kept watch of the
arriving cars, he saw his wife suddenly appear. He went to meet her.

"What is it?" she said, the instant her eye met his.

"I think it's all right, dear," he told her, as quietly as he could, "but
somehow we can't find Tony. He disappeared during five minutes when I was
in the house--too short a time for him to have got very far away, but--we
can't find him. Do you think he may be hiding? Does he ever hide himself
so effectually as that?"

The bright colour in her face had slipped out of it on the instant, for he
could not keep the anxiety out of his voice. But she said no word of
reproach, nor did she lose command of herself in any way.

"How long has he been gone?" she asked, going straight toward the house,
Anthony close behind her.

"I think--I am afraid--nearly two hours. I will tell you what happened. It
is possible something I said is responsible for all this, though I don't
know."

She was going swiftly about the house, as he told her the story of his
attempt to teach the boy a lesson, and she was listening closely to every
word as she examined for herself each nook and corner. She disclosed
several possible hiding places of which Anthony had not thought,
explaining that Tony knew them all and sometimes betook himself to them in
the course of various games. The two came out upon the porch, and Juliet
stood still, thinking.

"You have done everything to intercept him, if he should really have--got
far away?"

"Everything I can think of, except start out myself. I am ready to do
that, if you think best."

"Not until I have gone over the neighbourhood myself. I don't believe he
is far away--I believe he is near. He may have heard every call you and
the children have made, and wouldn't answer. If by any chance his pride
has been a little hurt, he is very likely to do this sort of thing.
Wait--have you looked--I wonder if the children know----"

She was off without stopping to explain, through the garden and down the
old willow-bordered path by the brook. Anthony followed. "I've been down
here a dozen times," he called. "The brook is too shallow to hurt him, and
he's certainly not anywhere on it within a mile. The children have been
all over the ground."

But Juliet did not pause. She ran along the path for some distance, then
turned abruptly at a point where an ab