it were mine."

As Lindsay supposed, Miss Frazer was not aware that she had left two of
her pupils behind at Monkend, and imagined that the missing pair must
have walked home in front of the others. Their absence had only just
been discovered when they arrived to explain the cause. The teacher was
hardly so tender with them as Monica, and they received more scolding
than sympathy.

"Though it wasn't such a very dreadful crime to go into the barn," said
Lindsay afterwards to her companion in misfortune. "Miss Frazer needn't
say we are the two who are always in mischief, because it might have
happened just as easily to any of the others. I saw Beryl and Effie peep
into the cowhouse as they passed, though they didn't climb up a ladder.
Wasn't Monica nice? I believe the old farmer would have been cross with
us if she hadn't been there. He evidently knows her very well. So do all
the people in the village. She seems to know each man, woman, and child
there, and to be a favourite with everybody."

CHAPTER V

An Unexpected Development

Lindsay and Cicely had by no means forgotten either their quest for the
treasure or their curiosity about the lantern chamber. In spite of
several small efforts, nothing fresh had occurred to elucidate matters,
and they were almost beginning to despair of ever making any further
progress, when quite unexpectedly something important happened.

One afternoon, as they were sending tennis balls to each other along the
terrace, they heard a voice calling to them from overhead. They looked
up, and saw Merle Hammond, a second-form girl, leaning out of one of the
upper windows of the house and beckoning to them violently.

"Lindsay and Cicely, is that you?" she cried. "Come up here; I've made
such a discovery!"

"Where are you?" asked Cicely, for the old Manor had so many windows, it
was impossible to identify any particular one from the outside.

"In a room up a funny winding staircase, on the top landing. It's
empty, but there's a big kind of lamp hanging from the ceiling. Oh,
you'll never guess what I've seen!"

"The lantern chamber!" gasped both the girls, and, dropping their
rackets, they raced into the house in a state of the wildest excitement.

Were they actually on the brink of solving the mystery? How had Merle
found it out? It was good of her to call to them. Had she accidentally
come across the hiding-place? or was it some other secret still?

The answer to all these qu