"All's well," she answered, her heart beating fast.
"There are no skulking thieves about to rob us of our gains?"
"No, sir," returned Nora, cringingly.
"She actually acts as if she were afraid of us," laughed Angeline, who with fierce burned cork eyebrows and mustache looked quite terrible.
"Guard our cave well; there are plunderers about," charged Annie. "Come, comrades, we must to the chase."
"Let no one so much as put a foot across the sill, my honest Ayesha," said Angeline. "We can trust you with our treasures but no one else. If so much as a dog approaches, drive him out." And they clattered off again.
Nora listened till they were out of hearing, then she lifted the coat and drew forth the box.
She could not resist popping one very fat chocolate into her mouth; it would never be missed. It tasted very good. She wished that it were her birthday and that some one had brought her such a box of candy. She shook the box a little and some of the pieces being disarranged the lid would not shut down tightly. Nora could not set aside the opportunity which this gave her. One tall and toothsome piece of candy seemed to be the specially annoying one which prevented the lid from fitting. She would eat that and even then the box would look full.
But just as she had slipped it into her mouth a voice from somewhere above her—it sounded in mid-air—said mockingly, "Honest Ayesha!"
Overcome with fright, Nora dropped the box on the bed and the contents rolled out.