"You be off!" said the Squire roughly, as soon as he saw Patient.
"Why, Father!" interposed Lucy, "she has only been helping us to move these things. You told us to make haste."
Lucy was unconsciously proving a useful ally.
"Wow!" came in a little smothered bark from somewhere, and Venus waddled from under the valance and the dresses overhanging it.
"Go down, Veny!" said Celia, adding apologetically, "she will get in the way."
She felt a terrible secret fear lest Venus should prove a more able searcher than any other of the party.
"I'll carry her out of the way,"—and suiting the action to the word, Lucy caught up the little dog and shut her outside.
A close examination was made of the room. Charley got into the closet, and held his candle up.
"Nothing there, thanks to the young ladies," said Captain Wallace, laughing, as he looked in.
"No—he'd be a clever fellow who could hide there," added the Squire, in blissful ignorance.