ast night, and returned on a motor bicycle at eight
o'clock this morning. These facts would fit in with the supposition that
he was at Giant's Tor Point at dawn. What we want you to do is to watch
the house, and identify him if he comes out. Now of course you
understand that it wouldn't do for a young lady and a detective to sit
on the doorstep waiting for him. At the first sight of us he'd escape by
the back way. We want to catch him off his guard. My idea is this. Have
you any notion of gardening?"

"A little," said Lorraine, surprised.

"You could rake about, at any rate, and pull up a few weeds? Well,
there's a small public park right in front of the house in Spring
Terrace. If you don't mind putting on a land worker's costume that I've
borrowed for you, we'll employ you for the day on a job of gardening in
the park. You can keep one eye on the weeds, and the other on the front
door of 27 Spring Terrace. I shall be near you, bedding out fuchsias.
You agree to take on the job? Then may I ask you to step into this other
room and put on your land costume? There's no time to be lost. We don't
want to miss the fellow. I've a man selling newspapers and watching the
house, but he's no use as a witness."

This was indeed an excitement. Lorraine felt thrills as she hurried into
the corduroys, leggings, and smock that had been placed ready for her.
They were an indifferent fit, but in the circumstances that did not
matter. The hat she thought decidedly becoming. On her return to the
office she found that Detective Scott had also accomplished a quick
change. He was now arrayed in a shabby suit of clothes, and carried a
parcel of bedding-out plants.

He smiled satisfaction at her get-up, and handed her a rake and a
basket.

"Good luck to you!" said Uncle Barton. "I shall be somewhere about in
the park, not far from you; but I'd better not show up too much. These
fellows soon get their suspicions aroused if they see people hanging
round."

It was certainly a new experience for Lorraine to walk through the
streets of St. Cyr in smock and corduroys, but the townspeople were so
well used to land workers that nobody took any particular notice of her.
The park was close at hand, and here the detective, setting down his
parcel of fuchsias, showed her a patch of border next to the railings,
and instructed her to weed and rake it.

"No. 27 is the house with the green blinds and the plant in the window,"
he whispered. "I've seen