arin' after me."

"You showed good nerve, Jane, I'll say that," Mary declared with open
admiration.

"Now if it had been me, I'd 'a' just given the whole thing away. I ain't
no good at thinkin' quick."

"Well, we ain't got to think about it any more, thank goodness," Jane
exclaimed, rising from the grass and laying a hand on the bag. "Let's put
an end to the whole thing now and go home. Take a holt of the other end,
and we'll flop it in."

"Wait!" Eliza protested, seized by a sudden idea.

"Well."

"You don't s'pose there'll be any danger 'bout the cows drinkin' here, do
you?" Eliza inquired anxiously. "They do drink here, you know, and in the
summer, when the water's low, they often wade right in. If they was
to----"

She stopped.

"I never thought of that," Jane said in a discouraged tone. "Oh, my land,
what are we going to do with it?"

She let the bag sink to the ground and, straightening herself up,
confronted her sisters. "We've simply got to get it off our hands before
Martin gets back."

"Oh, yes, yes!" pleaded Mary, affrighted. "Do something with it, Jane, no
matter what. I never could stand it to have it carted back to the house
and hidden there. 'Tain't safe. Besides, in these days of German spies,
'twould be an awful thing to be found on us. S'pose the house was to be
searched. We never could make the police believe how we came to have it.
They might take us and shut us all up in prison--Martin and all."

Her voice shook with terror.

"I guess they wouldn't go arrestin' us, Mary," declared Jane soothingly.
"Still, I agree with you that it's just as well for us to be clear of
such a thing; let me think."

While she stood meditating her two sisters watched her with perturbed
faces.

"Ellen Webster's cows don't come up to this end of the pasture much, do
they?" she remarked at last.

"No. Leastways I've never seen 'em here," replied Mary.

"Then why don't we sink the bag just across the wall?"

"On her land?" gasped Eliza.

"It wouldn't do any harm," argued Jane. "She never comes up here, nor her
cows nor horses either. We'll climb right over and dump the thing in.
That'll settle Martin's ever finding it, an' everythin'."

"But s'pose----" Eliza objected once more.

"Oh, 'Liza, we can't stay here s'posin' all day!" Jane declared
decisively. "We got to put this bag somewheres, an' there ain't any spot
that ain't got some out about it. We must take a chance on the best one we
can find.