“Where is Henry?”

The cook was behind me, and she said:

“He is coming. He has to walk around because it aches so.”

Then Henry’s friend said, in a queer voice:

“Now, Miss Bab, there is nothing to be afraid of, unless you make a noise. If you do there will be trouble and that at once. We three are going to have a little talk.”

Ye gods! I tremble even to remember his words, for he said:

“What we want is simple enough. We want to-night’s Password at the Mill. Don’t scream.

I dropped the hot water bottle, because there is no use pretending one is not scared at such a time. One is. But of course I would not tell them the Password, and the cook said:

“Be careful, Miss Bab. We are not playing. We are in terrable ernest.”

She did not sound like a cook at all, and she looked diferent, being very white and with to red spots on her cheeks.