When the time came for us to return home, Alan Faulkner and I soon distanced aunt's sober horse. It was growing late as we approached "Gay Bowers." We were spinning down the road at the back of the house, when a man suddenly dropped from the boundary wall of the kitchen garden into the lane just in front of my machine, and startled me so that I almost fell off. Trees overhung the road at that point, and the light was so dim that I could perceive only that the man wore a white straw hat ere he disappeared, running rapidly beneath the trees.
"Whoever is he?" I asked, turning to Mr. Faulkner. "What can it mean?"
"That I will soon find out," he said. "You will not mind my leaving you, Miss Nan, as we are just at home."
And, scarce waiting for my permission, he was off at such speed that there was little doubt of his overtaking the stranger, however fast he might run.
When the wagonette party drove up they found me standing alone within the garden.
"Only think, auntie," I said. "We saw a man jump down from your garden wall, and run off in the most suspicious way. Mr. Faulkner is chasing him under the idea that he was there for no lawful purpose. Do you think he can be a burglar?"
"A burglar in this peaceful countryside! Impossible, Miss Nan!" exclaimed the Colonel; "but I hope Mr. Faulkner will catch him, for, depend on it, he was up to no good."
"Most likely he was after my fruit," said aunt.
As she spoke my eyes fell on Agneta, and I was startled to see how pale and fearful she looked. Aunt's eyes had followed the direction of mine, and she was equally struck by Agneta's look.
"Don't talk so lightly of burglars, Nan," she said. "You have quite frightened your cousin. Do not be alarmed, dear; you need fear no such visitation at 'Gay Bowers.'"