I went to the tool-house again, and even looked under and into things. Still no trace!
"They must be indoors!" I said.
Nanny looked at me wildly. The last few weeks had told on her, and I regret to say that she was not the woman she had been.
"They went out at two," she reiterated, slowly and firmly. "And they've not come back into this house again, or I should have seen them."
"But—they must be somewhere!" I exclaimed, growing alarmed.
"I'm sure they're old enough to look after themselves. I've got plenty to do without . . ."
"Come, come, Nanny! Don't lose your temper!"
"Lose my temper!" she cried, suddenly bursting the dams which had been holding back the accumulated floods of weeks of storm and tempest. "If you'd had to put up with half what I have, you'd pack up your things and go this very minute."
"But why didn't you tell me of this before?"
She snorted.