Tricksy looked solemnly up in his face.
'Well, aren't you going to shake hands, Tricksy?' said the Sheriff.
'No,' said Tricksy deliberately.
The Sheriff's expression altered.
'And why not, Miss Tricksy, if I might inquire?' he said.
Tricksy met his grim smile with a solemn stare of disapproval.
'Because you let a great friend of ours be put in prison when he didn't deserve it,' she replied. 'That was why I sent back the big box of chocolates that you sent me by post. Mother did not know that it had come. We can't be friends until you've owned yourself in the wrong. We've all joined a Compact to get our friend back again and to show that it wasn't he who did it. I've got it with me,' and Tricksy began to fumble in her pocket.
The smile was beginning to twitch at the corners of the Sheriff's lips again when he was addressed by one of the officers. The little scene had passed unobserved by all save Marjorie, as the captain suggested that, the weather being fine and time at their disposal, the Heroic should take their visitors on a tour round Inchkerra.
'Certainly, certainly,' said the Sheriff at haphazard, and Tricksy slipped away.
'In the meanwhile I think lunch is ready,' said Captain Redwood, and each of the officers took a lady downstairs, Tricksy falling to the share of the youngest.