he who hatched the lark, but we
helped him a little in the narrating of the fell plot, because he has
yet to learn how to tell a story straight from the beginning.

When he had done, and we had done, Albert's uncle said, "Well, it amused
you; and you'll be glad to learn that it amused your friends the
Antiquities."

"Didn't they think they were Roman?" Daisy said; "they did in _The Daisy
Chain_."

"Not in the least," said Albert's uncle; "but the Treasurer and
Secretary were charmed by your ingenious preparations for their
reception."

"We didn't want them to be disappointed," said Dora.

"They weren't," said Albert's uncle. "Steady on with those plums, H. O.
A little way beyond the treasure you had prepared for them they found
two specimens of _real_ Roman pottery which sent every man-jack of them
home thanking his stars he had been born a happy little Antiquary
child."

"Those were _our_ jugs," said Alice, "and we really _have_ sold the
Antiquities." She unfolded the tale about our getting the jugs and
burying them in the moonlight, and the mound; and the others listened
with deeply respectful interest. "We really have done it this time,
haven't we?" she added in tones of well-deserved triumph.

But Oswald had noticed a queer look about Albert's uncle from almost the
beginning of Alice's recital; and he now had the sensation of something
being up, which has on other occasions frozen his noble blood. The
silence of Albert's uncle now froze it yet more Arcticly.

"Haven't we?" repeated Alice, unconscious of what her sensitive
brother's delicate feelings had ahead got hold of. "We have done it this
time, haven't we?"

"Since you ask me thus pointedly," answered Albert's uncle at last, "I
cannot but confess that I think you have indeed done it. Those pots on
the top of the library cupboard _are_ Roman pottery. The amphorae which
you hid in the mound are probably--I can't say for certain,
mind--priceless. They are the property of the owner of this house. You
have taken them out and buried them. The President of the Maidstone
Antiquarian Society has taken them away in his bag. Now what are you
going to do?"

Alice and I did not know what to say, or where to look. The others added
to our pained position by some ungenerous murmurs about our not being
so jolly clever as we thought ourselves.

There was a very far from pleasing silence. Then Oswald got up. He said:

"Alice, come here a sec., I want to speak to