will."

"Then, perhaps, if you're so clever, you'll suggest a likelier
explanation?"

"He may have won the money in a lottery," Miss Oliver suggested
brightly. "One of those Hamburg affairs--if you insist that the
money's German."

"I don't insist on anything," snapped Mrs Polsue. "I only say,
first, there's a mystery here, and you can't deny it. Secondly,
we're at war,--you'll agree to that, I hope? That being so, it's
everybody's business to take precautions and inform the authorities
of _anything_ that looks suspicious. The more it turns out to be
smoke without fire, the more obliged the man ought to be to us for
giving him the chance to clear his character."

"Well, I hope you won't start obliging _me_ in that way," Miss Oliver
was ever slow at following logic. "Because I never put a shilling
into a lottery in my life, though I've more than once been in two
minds. But in those days Germany always seemed so far off, and their
way of counting money in what they call Marks always struck me as so
unnatural. Marks was what you used to get at school--like sherbet
and such things."

"Charity Oliver--may the Lord forgive me, but sometimes I'm tempted
to think you no better than a fool!"

"The Vicar doesn't think so," responded Miss Oliver complacently.
"He called this morning to ask me if I'd add to my public duties by
allowing him to nominate me on the Relief Committee, which wants
strengthening."

"Did he say _that?_" Mrs Polsue sat bolt erect.

"Well, I won't swear to the words. . . . Let me see. No, his actual
words were that it wanted a little new blood to give it tact. I will
say that Mr Steele has a very happy way of putting things. . . .
So you really _are_ going to lay information, Mary-Martha? If you
see your duty so clear, I can't think why you troubled to consult
me."

"I shall do my duty," declared Mrs Polsue. "Without taking further
responsibility, I shall certainly put Rat-it-all on the look-out."

That same evening, a little before sunset, Nicky-Nan took a stroll
along the cliff-path towards his devastated holding, to see what
progress the military had made with their excavations. The trench,
though approaching his boundary fence, had not yet reached it.
Somewhat to his surprise he found Mr Latter there, in the very middle
of his patch, examining the turned earth to right and left.

"Hullo!" cried Nicky-Nan, unsuspecting. "_You_ caught the war-fever
too? I never met 'ee so f