"Of course not," rejoined Gerald, "and I, for one, am not going to stand being punished when I don't deserve it."
Dina, did not respond; she was thinking intently.
Gerald went on. "Let's run away for the whole day, and don't come home till we've given him a jolly good fright."
"We'd only get punished worse when we got back," said Dina.
"Yes, I didn't think of that," admitted Gerald.
There was a pause of a few seconds, then Geraldine's quaint little face lighted up.
"Have you any money, Gerry," she asked, her eyes full of a new purpose.
"Only half-a-crown besides what's in the twins' box," replied the boy.
Now the twins' box was an old money-box, given them when they were quite tiny children. Their nurse taught them to save their pennies and put them into the slot in the lid. And later on, when relatives or friends, or on rare occasions their father, gave them a Christmas or birthday tip, these coins, too, were duly put, from force of habit, into the faithful old box. So, year after year, the money was dropped in and was forgotten.
"I meant to put this half-crown in the other day when mother sent it for our birthday," said Gerald, "but I changed my clothes in a hurry, and left it in my jacket pocket."