thing funny about that whole place," declared Beryl,
half-an-hour later as they went back down the lane. "I was doing some
thinking while you were talking."

"She's a dear old lady, Beryl. I feel sorry for her."

"Oh, yes, dear enough. _I_ thought she was stand-offish. But you don't
think for a moment she belongs 'round here, in the same town with that
old cheese down at the store?"

Robin admitted that everything about her House of Rushing Waters was
very different from the Forgotten Village.

"Wasn't that Brina just like a witch with her parrot nose and sharp
eyes?"

But Beryl had no patience just now with Robin's beloved fairy lore. Two
little lines wrinkled her brow.

"There's something queer about that place or my name isn't Beryl Lynch.
And I like to know what's what. Wouldn't it be fun to find out what it
is? Whether she's hiding there on account of something or someone's
keeping her a prisoner? Maybe--" Beryl lowered her voice, "maybe she's
crazy."

"Oh, Beryl, she didn't act a bit crazy. Just very sad. She was nice. I
thought the room was lovely, too--and the lunch and that darling dog."
Robin had thoroughly enjoyed the simple hospitality and meant to defend
it.

"Of course the room was nice," Beryl felt that she showed much patience
with Robin's obtuseness, "but didn't you see anything _different_ in
that room? Books and magazines! Country people don't sit and read
magazines and knit on rose wool in the middle of the afternoon! Robin,
_that_ woman's a lady! And you notice she didn't tell us who she was.
And a woman with her talking some foreign jibberish."

"Beryl, you're wonderful to notice all these things. I'd never have
noticed half of them."

Beryl tossed her head with pride. "Nothing much escapes _me_," she
boasted. "And I think it was a good thing we didn't tell her just who
_we_ were. But let's not let a soul know about our finding this place
until we unravel the mystery."

Robin hesitated. "She was so nice to us and it's really none of our
business why she's there or who she is--" she argued so staunchly that
Beryl put in hastily: "Well, let's just have it a secret because
secrets are such fun." And to that Robin agreed gladly, for secrets
_are_ fun and are always a strengthening bond in true friendship.

"I won't tell a soul!" she promised.

They found Williams waiting for them at the store, worried at their
disappearance and annoyed at the delay. He had walked many miles in
payment