he crumpled rose-leaf--the snake
in the paradise--the anything else you like that spoils my enjoyment!"

"Rather mixed similes," laughed Lorraine. "But never mind! We'll forget
him if you like. He certainly didn't look at all attractive in my
opinion."

Morland pulled a face and shook a fist in the direction in which his
officer had disappeared, then declared himself better and ready to jog
along.

They found their special property--the cave--still uninvaded. No
visitors had yet happened to come across it. The table and seats and the
little cupboard at the end were just exactly as they had left them last
time. They collected some driftwood, lighted a fire on the rocks below,
and boiled their kettle. It was delightful to have a picnic again in the
grotto. As they sat chatting afterwards, Morland pulled from his pocket
the leather case which Captain Blake had dropped on the path. He turned
it over thoughtfully.

"I've a score or two to settle with the owner of this," he remarked.
"I'm not going to let him have it back too easily. I vote we just give
him a scare about it. Let him think he's lost it altogether."

"Is it anything important, I wonder?" asked Claudia.

"The more important the better--serve him right for losing it. I
say--I'm going to stow it away here in the cupboard. It'll be quite
safe, but he won't know that, and I hope he'll be in a jolly state of
mind about it. We'll give him a fortnight to get excited in, then you
girls can come and fetch it, make it into a parcel, and leave it at the
'George', and ask them to send it on to him at the camp."

"It would really serve him right," sympathised Claudia; "only I don't
quite know----"

"I _do_ know!" chuckled Morland. "It's the best rag I've ever had the
chance of playing on him, and you bet I'll take it."

"Suppose he finds out?" suggested Lorraine.

"He won't find out. How could he? You girls will just leave the parcel
at the 'George', and say someone who picked it up had handed it over to
you, and will they please forward it to the officer who was staying
there. Nothing could be simpler."

"Are those the papers that send Morland to the war?" asked Landry
suddenly.

"Don't you worry your head about them," answered Claudia soothingly.
"They're nothing to do with you, Landry."

"I don't want Morland to fight!" persisted the boy. "Morland shan't go
to the war!"

"I'll be off some day, old sport!" laughed Morland.

"To-morrow?"

"No, no, not