, I'm
going to ask to leave the bike at the windmill here, then will you walk
up the hill with me?"

"It's nearly school time!" demurred Lorraine.

"Hang school for once! I tell you I _must_ talk to you. I'm in the most
awful mess I've ever got into in my life. Is it true what Claudia
telegraphed? Is that pocket book really gone from the grotto?"

He spoke rapidly, catching his breath. Lorraine felt that, as in the
case of yesterday, school must yield to weightier matters. She could not
desert Morland now for the sake of a botany class. His business was
urgent.

"Leave your bike then, and I'll come," she consented.

So they walked up the hill together towards Windy Howe, and he poured
out his story.

"It seems there were most important papers in that pocket case," he
confided. "The captain's kicked up an awful shindy at losing them. He's
inquired and advertised, and put it into the hands of the police. At
first I was like Brer Rabbit, I just 'lay low and said nuffin', and
chuckled to think I was leading him such a dance. Then one of the chaps
told me he'd heard that a coast-guard at Porthkeverne had seen a Tommy
picking something up on the road. I can tell you that made me sit up.
I'd forgotten we were close to that wretched coast-guard station. I
twigged in a flash that I was in the greatest danger of discovery. Blake
would remember passing me on the moor. I stood aside and saluted. There
was no other Tommy near. Lorraine, if they fix this on to me I shall be
court-martialled! I tell you I simply can't face it!"

It seemed indeed the most desperate problem with which they had ever
dealt. Unless the case were found, ruin stared Morland in the face.
Captain Blake, strictest of martinets, would not be likely to overlook
so grave an offence.

"How did you manage to come over here to-day?" asked Lorraine.

"Pitched it strong about urgent business and got a few extra hours off,
borrowed a motor-bike and pelted here for all I was worth. I felt I
didn't care whether I broke my neck or not."

"Oh, Morland!"

"Well, I tell you I didn't! I rode part of the way at sixty miles an
hour, and I whizzed down that long hill to St. Cyr simply like a
hurricane. Look here, I don't want to show up at home for fear Dad or
Violet ask questions. What's to be done?"

"Wait at the bottom of the orchard and I'll run up to the house and
fetch Claudia. She's at home to-day nursing Landry, who's in bed."

"You mascot! The very thing