"I don't care! It means something, I know it does," declared Patty.
"We'll work it out yet. I wish the boys were home."

"They'll soon be here," said Mrs. Cromarty. "I can't help thinking that
it does mean something--Marmaduke was very fond of roses, and it would be
just like him to plant a rosebush over his buried treasure."

"That's it," cried Patty. "Now, where is there a rosebush growing, and
one of the angry griffins near it?"

"There probably are some in the rose garden," said Mrs. Cromarty. "I
don't remember any, though."

"Come on, Mabel," said Patty, "let's go and look. I can't wait another
minute!"

Away flew the two girls, and for the next hour they hovered about the
rosebushes with more energy than is often shown by the busiest of bees.

"I wish old Uncle Marmaduke had been less of a poet," said Mabel, as they
sat down a moment to rest, "and more of a--a----"

"More straightforward," suggested Patty. "If he'd only written a few
words of plain prose, and left it with his lawyer, all this trouble
needn't have been."

"Well, I suppose he did intend to make it plain before he died, but he
went off so suddenly. Oh, here are the boys."

Sinclair and Bob came bounding down toward the rose garden, followed more
sedately by their mother and grandmother.

"Not a sign of a griffin a-sniffin' of a rose," said Patty, disconsolately.

"Oh, you haven't looked all round yet," said Bob. "It's such fun to have
something to look for besides fir trees and beds, I'm going to make a
close search."

"Of course," said Sinclair, "the same rose bush wouldn't be here now that
was here thirty or forty years ago."

"But it would have been renewed," said Mrs. Cromarty. "We've always tried
to keep the flowers as nearly as possible the same."

"Then here goes to interview every griffin on the place," declared Bob.
"Jolly of old uncle to mark the spot with a rosebush and a griffin.
That's what I call decent of him. And you're a wonder, Patty, to find the
old paper."

"Oh, that's nothing," said Patty. "I just followed your orders about the
books. If you'd kept at it yourself, you'd have found the same book."

"I s'pose so. But I'm glad you helped the good work along. Oh, dear! no
rosebush seems to be near a griffin; and the griffins seem positively
afraid of the rosebushes." And try as they would, no angry griffin could
they find, with a rosebush near it. Griffins there were in plenty; both
angry and grinning. Also were t