ake it into the garden and see if there is anything in it
about----"

"About the cricket at the Park," put in Noel quickly.

"Well, you needn't have snapped me up so quickly," grumbled Jack to his
brother, but in so low a tone that neither Mrs. Danvers nor Hilary heard
what he said.

"Well, if there is anything about the cricket I haven't come to it yet,"
said Hilary, beginning to enjoy the possession of the paper now that it
was desired by some one else. "There is a lot about a big fancy fair that
Sir Richard and Lady Strangways are going to have at Wrexley, and about
the Regatta, and the dividends that the pier expects to get this
half-year from the roller skating, and the new play at the theatre, and
the usual lists of people staying at the hotels and boarding-houses. Who
on earth ever reads them through, I wonder? But oh, I say!" she exclaimed
suddenly, as turning over a page her eyes lighted on a column, half of
which was taken up with big headlines that occupied the middle of the
sheet. "I say, what do you think! There has been another burglary. That
makes the third within the last three weeks. Colonel Baker's house was
broken into last night, and all his silver plate was stolen, beside a
most valuable old bronze Etruscan vase, two cases of family miniatures,
and a collection of gold and silver coins. It----"

She was interrupted by a startled exclamation from Jack. "You don't mean
to say that that is in the paper already!" he ejaculated.

"Why, did you know about it before, then?" said Hilary, eyeing her two
brothers in surprise. "When did you hear about it? Have you seen Tommy
this morning?"

"No, we have not seen Tommy to-day, and how could we have heard about
it?" said Noel promptly. "What Jack meant to say was, has there really
been another burglary already?"

Seabourne had certainly been unfortunate in the matter of burglaries of
late. There had been three within as many weeks. One had taken place at
Walker's, the principal jewellers in the High Street; another at the
Grand Hotel, where a popular London dancer, Cora Anatolia by name, had
been robbed of all her jewellery; and now this one of which Hilary had
just read, when Colonel Baker's house, Chesham Lodge, had been broken
into. And in each case the thieves had got clear away.

Naturally enough the police considered that all these burglaries had been
perpetrated by the same gang; but in that they were wrong, for Master
Tommy Baker, aided by his t