day his mother was out with him, and he had been running about
for some time. Mrs. Ripon was picking flowers, for she had a dinner
party that evening, and she enjoyed getting her flowers, and
arranging her vases, herself. Presently she looked round, but Tom
was missing. There were many clumps of ornamental shrubs on the
lawn, and Mrs. Ripon thought nothing of his disappearance.

"Tom," she called, "come to mamma, she wants you," and went on with
her work.

A minute or two passed.

"Where is that little pickle?" she said. "Hiding, I suppose," and
she went off in search.

Nowhere was Tom to be seen. She called loudly, and searched in the
bushes.

"He must have gone up to the house.

"Oh, here comes nurse. Nurse, have you seen Master Tom? He has just
run away," she called.

"No, ma'am, I have seen nothing of him."

"He must be about the garden then, somewhere. Look about, nurse.
Where can the child have hidden itself?"

Nurse and mother ran about, calling loudly the name of the missing
child. Five minutes later Mrs. Ripon ran into the study, where her
husband was going through his farm accounts.

"Oh, Robert," she said, "I can't find Tom!" and she burst into
tears.

"Not find Tom?" her husband said, rising in surprise. "Why, how
long have you missed him?"

"He was out in the garden with me. I was picking flowers for the
dinner table and, when I looked round, he was gone. Nurse and I
have been looking everywhere, and calling, but we cannot find him."

"Oh, he is all right," Captain Ripon said, cheerfully. "Do not
alarm yourself, little woman. He must have wandered into the
shrubbery. We shall hear him howling, directly. But I will come and
look for him."

No better success attended Captain Ripon's search than that which
his wife had met with. He looked anxious, now. The gardeners and
servants were called, and soon every place in the garden was
ransacked.

"He must have got through the gate, somehow, into the park,"
Captain Ripon said, hurrying in that direction. "He certainly is
not in the garden, or in any of the hothouses."

Some of the men had already gone in that direction. Presently
Captain Ripon met one, running back.

"I have been down to the gate, sir, and can see nothing of Master
Tom; but in the middle of the drive, just by the clump of laurels
by the gate, this boot was lying--just as if it had been put there
on purpose, to be seen."

"Nonsense!" Captain Ripon said. "What can that have