“Well,” said Mary, “there’s one great difficulty: Thomas Barnes would never take anything from our house. You see, we once had his son for a gardener, and father had to send him away because of something he did; but though it was altogether his son’s fault, Thomas Barnes has never spoken to father since, or even looked at him. But he’s very old and poorly, and very lonely, and it’s most important he should have a new hand-truck, because all his living depends on it; but it’s frightfully important that he shouldn’t know who gave it to him.”
“Wouldn’t he guess?” Mr. Verney said.
“Not if nobody knew.”
“Oh, I see: no one is to know. That makes it much more fun.”
“But how are we to do it?” Mary asked. “That’s why I want you to help. Of course, we can post most of the money, but we can’t post a truck. If Thomas Barnes knew, he’d send it back directly.”
“Well,” said Mr. Verney, after thinking for some time, “there’s only one way: we shall have to be anti-burglars.”
“Anti-burglars!” cried Mary. “What’s that?”
“Well, a burglar is some one who breaks into a house and takes things away; an anti-burglar is some one who breaks into a house and leaves things there. Just the opposite, you see.”
“But suppose we are caught?”
“That would be funny. I don’t know what the punishment for anti-burgling is. I think perhaps the owner of the house ought to be punished for being so foolish as to interrupt. But tell me more about Thomas Barnes.”