Colonel Meredith addressed himself to the young woman with the old face.
"Do you believe in fairies?" he asked.
She only looked pathetic and confused.
"Miss Darling, here," he went on, "is a fairy. She left her wand at home, but if she wants to she can make people's wishes come true. Now suppose you and your friends talk things over and decide upon some sensible wishes to have granted. Of course, it's no use wishing you hadn't robbed a train; but you could wish that the money would be returned, and that the police could be induced to stop looking for you, and that some one could come along and offer you an honest way of making a living. So you talk it over a while and then tell us what you'd like."
"Aren't you going to give us up?" asked one of the men.
"Not if you've any sense at all."
"Then I guess there's no use us talking things over. And if the young lady is a fairy, we'd be obliged if she'd get busy along the lines you've just laid down."
All eyes were turned on Maud. And she looked appealingly from Colonel Meredith to Mr. Jonstone and back again.
"What ought I to say? What ought I to promise? Can the money be returned? Can the police be called off? And if I only had some work to give them, but over at The Camp——"