he might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse
the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will. He made several
suggestions about the manner of her escape.

When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about
purchasing her outfit. They bought a short serge skirt, two linen
shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals,
stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress. They carried the parcels
home on their bicycles. When she saw them on their arrival Mrs.
Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.

That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for
throwing the searchers off the scent. It was:

[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones captioned "We are avenged. A
Desparate Socialist"]

He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.

They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping
Knoll. The last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so
that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom
Cobb's donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.

In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had
encamped with them. This year she had not cared for the effort; and
she had also felt that ten days' holiday out of the strenuous
atmosphere which spread itself round the Twins, would be restful and
pleasant. She was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to
encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll. Not only were they of approved
readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were
as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea
isle. She was somewhat surprised by the Terror's readiness to take as
many blankets as she suggested. In other years he had been disposed to
grumble at the number she thought necessary.

The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they
lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite. Then they began
to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they
brought them up, in their proper caves. With a break of an hour for a
bath this occupied them till tea-time. After tea they bathed again and
then set about collecting fuel from the wood. They were too tired to
spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in
their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs. They
were up betimes, bathing.

This day was far less strenuous than the