“Certainly I have—an excellent one,” he answered. “It’s in its case at home.”
“Fancy you coming out to look for the jewels without it!” rebuked Judy. “I never heard of anything so careless. And if you meet the thief he’s simply certain to be armed to the teeth!”
“I shall defy him to his teeth—even if false!” said the Doctor stoutly.
“Precious lot of good defying would be if he had a six-shooter!” growled Jack, who looked with a lofty scorn upon all literature that did not deal with the Far West. “Why, you’re as good as a dead man if he gets the drop on you! I think each of us three ought to take a tobacco-tin and scoot—he’d never suspect any of us.”
“It’s a noble idea, but I like the feel of them in my pockets,” responded the Doctor cheerfully. “I must e’en take my chance. Do you really think any modest burglar is going to be foolhardy enough to attack four desperadoes like ourselves—to say nothing of Sandy?”
“He’d pot you from behind a tree as soon as look at you,” said Judy, with gloom. “Anyhow, Jack, you and me’ll go ahead and scout. And you bring up the rear, Miss Earle—you might walk backwards as much as you can, in case he tries to stalk us from behind!”
We obeyed. Thus might have been seen two small forms flitting through the trees, peering in every direction: halting now and then, with lifted hand, to scan a possible danger-point: then, reassured, darting off to right or left, to reappear presently, perhaps examining a hollow stump, perhaps up a tree to obtain a wider view. In the rear, I endeavoured to be as sleuth-like as possible—dutifully walking backwards whenever I fancied they glanced in my direction, wherefore I twice sat down heavily on a tussock. In my next expedition of the kind the rear will be a position I shall carefully shun. Between our two forces, Dr. Firth stalked majestically, his chest thrown out, his hands clenched over his pockets—looking rather like Papa in The Swiss Family Robinson. Sandy was the only one of the party on whom life sat lightly. He hunted rabbits with a joyous freedom that I envied greatly.
We parted where the track branched off towards The Towers. Judy and Jack were profoundly uneasy at letting Dr. Firth continue his journey alone, preferring to risk the loss of their dinner rather than let him go home unguarded. It took all our persuasion, coupled with the reminder that their mother would certainly be worried about them, to induce them to say good-bye. They beguiled the way back to The Towers with the dreariest predictions of what might be expected to happen to him and the jewels deprived of their vigilance and mine.
We were very late for dinner, but Mrs. McNab had not worried. I do not think, that day, that she was capable of worrying. She was a different woman: there was a new light in her eyes, a little colour in her cheeks; her voice had lost the hard ring that had made it so repellent. Julia reported that she had taken her food like a Christian, and that you’d hardly know her, for the spirit she had on her. “ ’Tis bein’ forced away from the owld writin’,” said Julia. “If I’d me way the divil a pen she’d see between now an’ Patrick’s Day!”
She made us sit in her room after dinner while the children told her about their day. It was nervous work, for the discovery of the jewels was naturally uppermost in their minds, and just as “all roads lead to Rome,” so every topic we chose seemed only to merge into that crowning achievement of the day. Luckily, their mother was too blissfully content to notice occasional stumbling and hesitation. She gave them ready sympathy and outward attention, but I knew that half her mind was so busy rejoicing that she did not hear half they said.