he other, and holding
them behind him, bade Adele choose.

"Right!" she said, and Hal put forth his right hand and gave her a
paper on which was written "Girls."

"All right," went on the master of ceremonies. "Now you girls must
hide. We'll give you fifteen minutes to tuck yourselves away, and then
we're all coming to look for you. As soon as any man finds any girl,
he brings her back here to the hall to wait for the others. Now,
there's no stipulation, except that you must not go out of the house.
Scoot! and remember, in fifteen minutes we'll be after you!"

The six girls ran away and made for various parts of the house. The
two Misses Crosby, who had come as dinner guests, looked a little
surprised at this unusual game, and Patty said to them, kindly: "You
don't mind, do you? You know, you needn't really go with the man who
finds you, if you don't want to."

"Oh, we don't mind," said the elder Miss Crosby. "I think it's
fun,--only if I should draw that dignified Mr. Van Reypen I'd be
scared to death!"

"Oh, he isn't so awfully dignified," laughed Patty. "That's just his
manner at first. When you know him better, he's as jolly as anything.
But hurry up, girls, the minutes are flying."

The girls scampered away, some running to the attic, others going into
wardrobes or behind sofas, and Patty ran to her own room.

Then she bethought herself that that was one of the most likely places
they would look for her, and she was seized with an ambition to baffle
the seekers. With a half-formed plan in her mind, she slipped out of a
side door of her own room that opened on a small passage leading to
the nursery. In the nursery, she found the baby asleep in her crib,
and the Fraeulein lying down on a couch with a slumber-robe thrown
over her, though she was not asleep.

Like a flash, Patty's plan formed itself. She whispered to the
Fraeulein, and with a quick understanding the good-natured German girl
took off her rather voluminous frilled cap, with its long muslin
streamers, and put it on Patty's head. Then Patty lay down on the couch,
with her face toward the wall, and deep buried in the pillows. Fraeulein
tucked the slumber-robe over her, and then herself disappeared down into
the kitchen quarters.

The search was rather a long one, for the house was large, and the
girls had chosen difficult hiding-places.

The two Crosby girls were found first, because not knowing the house
well, they had simply gone into hall cl