ome days they had been discussing the adventure--not, it scarcely
needs to be said, in their parents' hearing. But they had once or twice
consulted with Aunt Vazzy, who understood children, and had a sense
(denied to most grown-ups) of what was really interesting; and to-day,
at dinner-time, Aunt Vazzy had allowed that no time could well be more
propitious than this evening, when the hours of twilight and of low
water almost exactly coincided. But in private she warned Annet very
earnestly to look well after the two younger ones, and see to it that
they did not risk their necks--a caution seldom given to Island
children, who grow up sure-footed as young goats.

Annet had promised. The main difficulty would be to give the slip to
Jan, who usually pulled across from Saaron in good time to fetch them
home, and smoked a pipe by the shore while waiting for school to be
dismissed. It would take them a good forty minutes to reach Piper's
Hole and return. If they gave Jan the slip and delayed him so long, he
would undoubtedly lose his temper, and probably report them. After
discussing this, they decided to take Jan into the plot. "Maybe," said
Annet, "he'll come along, too. I almost think he will if we put it to
him all of a sudden, for he's mighty curious about mermaids; but if we
give him time to think it over he'll feel ashamed, and say it's all
children's whiddles, and back out--I know Jan. So we must wait till
school is over and then coax him to come."

Annet did not know that her father, having an appointment with the Lord
Proprietor at North Inniscaw Farm, designed himself to call at the
school on his way back, and row the children home. Had she guessed this
it would have prevented the adventure, which, in fact, it furthered;
for, coming out of school and hurrying down to the shore to catch Jan
and wheedle him, she found the boat moored there empty. Jan, no doubt,
had taken a stroll up to the Lord Proprietor's garden, to have a chat
with Old Abe. They had caught him napping; and now, if they kept him
waiting, he could not grumble.

So off the three children set for Piper's Hole; Annet and Linnet with
long strides, Matthew Henry trotting to keep up with them. Arrived at
the cliff's edge, they deployed with great caution--that no noise might
scare the mermaids from coming forth--and searched for a nook where,
themselves hidden, they could command a view of the cove at their feet.

Linnet, searching to the westward, foun