She wanted to have a
private conversation with Dent, and she could not while Bob was
present. But the boy's plan was not completed.

As he stood idly by the step-ladder, on the top of which was Dent
washing away at the windows, with the pail of warm water beside him,
Bob appeared to be toying with a bit of string.

"I don't s'pose you have any doughnuts left, Susan?" he ventured
rather wistfully.

Now Susan bad not forgiven Bob for a little joke he had played on
her some time before, so at his hint, to show her displeasure, she
turned her back and did not answer. This was Just what Bob wanted.

Looking up to see that Dent was not observing him, he passed one end
of the string about the step-ladder. Tying it securely, he fastened
the other end to Susan's apron strings in such a manner that it
would not pull off.

"I'll wait for you out in the barn," he said to Dent when it became
evident that Susan was not going to take the hint and get the
doughnuts. In fact, Bob, much as he liked them, would have been
disappointed if she had gone in for some. He wanted to get out of
the way before a certain thing happened.

He strolled off, but instead of going to the barn he hid around the
corner of the house. Susan and Dent conversed for several minutes
longer, the man meanwhile busy at the windows. Then the cook,
hearing her mistress calling her, started for the house in a hurry.

The result was disastrous. As she started off the string tied to
the ladder and her apron tightened. As Susan was a woman of heavy
weight, it did not take much effort on her part to pull over the
ladder, together with Dent and the pail of water.

Dent came down to the ground, fortunately landing on his feet like a
cat. The pail of water described a graceful curve and splashed on
both Susan and the man. The cook, whose feet became tangled up in
the falling ladder, slipped and fell, knocking Dent down, and there
they were in a heap, both soaking wet.

And that was Bob's "joke." Hidden around the corner of the house,
he laughed so he almost betrayed his position.

"Oh, that's too funny!" he whispered. "It was like clowns in a
circus!"

CHAPTER X

OFF ON THE TRIP

For a few seconds both the cook and the hired man, whose feet Susan
had knocked from under him, did not move. The suddenness of it all
was too much for them. Then Dent arose after a struggle.

"Did you do that on purpose?" he asked Susan, an angry look coming