everal people they met, and they were people she did
not know, touched their hats to Patsy, and Patsy pulled off his cap
each time, but said nothing. At last, while they were waiting outside
a shop for Lull, a tall man came down the street. As he passed the car
he started, looked at Patsy, and then with a bow took off his hat, and
walked on.

"Who's that, Patsy?" Jane asked.

"He's just a man I'm acquainted with," Patsy answered, and would say no
more.

A few days later something happened that made Jane still more
suspicious. They were having dinner, when Lull said: "Which of ye has
touched Mick's black coat and hat?"

They all denied having seen them since the day of the funeral, except
Patsy, who did not speak.

"Well, that's the quare thing," said Lull, "for I've hunted the length
and breadth of the house, an' can't lay my han' on them at all."

Again they declared they had not seen them. This time Patsy spoke with
the others, but Jane noticed that he put his hand on the back of a
chair as he spoke. After dinner she told Mick. "It was Patsy tuk yer
black coat an' hat," she said.

"An' how do ye know that?" Mick asked.

"Didn't I see him touch wood when he said he niver seen it?" she said.
"I wonder what he's done with it, though," she added. The more she
thought about it the more bewildered she grew. But of one thing she
was sure: that if she could find out where he went, and what he did on
those long days away from home, she would have a key to the other
mystery. So she set herself to find out. The only thing to do was to
follow him some day; but Patsy seemed to know what was in her mind, for
he guarded his departures so carefully that each time it was not until
he had got a good start of her that she discovered he was gone.

One morning at breakfast Jane saw by the look on Patsy's face that he
meant to be off that day, and she made up her mind that this time he
should not slip through her fingers.

Patsy got up from the table with a yawn. "Who's seen the wee babby
rabbits?" he said. No one had.

"Well, first there gets the pick," he said, and they flew to the
hutches. But when they got there no baby rabbits were to be seen, and,
in a fury of disappointment, Jane realised that Patsy had got the
better of her again. She was so angry that she slapped Fly and
Honeybird for daring to laugh at the joke, and their cries brought Lull
out into the yard. Lull dried their tears on her apron, scold