"Rupert ran away and hid under the tank," continued Kathleen, with a broad smile on her face. "The clergyman was staying with us, and he went to fish him out. Rupert saw him coming, and cried out, 'I say, Mr. Wilson, is father after you, too?' You should have heard them laugh. Of course Rupert didn't get his caning, so father's den is still the jolliest place in the house."
"And so will ours be," was the general shout as they filed upstairs behind mother.
The sunshine seemed gone out of the room when they left it. I tried to go on with my reading, but I found myself listening for any sound from the tower room. It was too far away, however, for me to hear anything but the loud bang of the door at the bottom of the little staircase, so I was obliged to go back to my book with a sigh. It was not likely strong, healthy, rackety children would want poor sickly little me.
"Bo! Twopence for your thoughts, Edric. Oh, did I hurt you? I didn't know you would be really frightened. What's the matter?"
"It's nothing," I said, hastily, trying to breathe quietly again, and smiling at Rupert. "You see I am so used to being alone that a sudden noise makes me jump."
"I'm sorry," said Rupert, sitting on the edge of my sofa, and swinging his legs so violently that he almost made my teeth chatter.
"What pretty hair you've got, Edric. It is all wavy like mother's, and just the same colour. You'd have made a splendid girl. There, now, I've hurt you again, and I didn't mean to either. You'll be a big man and a clever one some day, I expect; anyway, no one can call you carrots as they do me. Halloa, Kathleen, what do you want?"
"Let's carry Edric upstairs," said Kathleen; "he can tell us where to find things;" and, before I could say yes or no, they had taken me in their arms, so carefully, so tenderly, that after the first moment I was quite happy.
"There, captain," said Jack, as they pulled the long chair into the middle of the room. "Now we want your orders. This is our castle, but what is a castle without fortifications? You might as well have a plum pudding without any plums! We've got to barricade this place, so that the enemy can't get in unless we wish it."
"But if they can't get in, we can't get out," I said, hastily.