“Why didn’t you tell us about it as soon as you hit on that great idea, Benjie?” It was Tom who asked the question.
“Why, then I saw the fishing-smack, and wanted to go after the thieves.”
“But afterwards?” said Tom. “Don’t tell me you’d forgotten about it when we stopped at the camp.”
Ben looked a trifle embarrassed. “Why, the fact is,” he replied, “I thought I’d like to spring it at a dramatic moment. I had an idea that Miss Boothby would ask Sir Peter again to show us the Cotterell silver plate—she wanted to tease him about it—and when she had him up a tree would be the right time for me to speak out and tell what I’d discovered.”
“That’s one on you, Adelaide,” laughed Joseph Hastings. “Ben saw how you love to ask awkward questions. And he likes dramatic things as much as I do. He sprung it at just the right moment.”
Tuckerman stood up and walked to the door that opened into the hall. From there he looked down the length of the room, at the table gleaming with silver, at the many candles, at the gaily-clad company. “Yes,” he said, “I think this is worthy of Sir Peter. I’m glad that Cotterell Hall has held high festival once more.”
“Sir Peter was a dear,” said Miss Lawson. “I’ve liked him ever since I saw that picture of him in the drawing-room. And it’s a wonderful house, Mr. Tuckerman. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to live here?”
“I can’t very well,” Tuckerman answered, with a shake of his head. “My home’s in the middle West. I’m not like my Uncle Christopher and his ancestors; I can’t live on an island in solitary grandeur. I’m too fond of people.”
“Why don’t you turn it into a show-place?” suggested Milly Hallett. “That’s getting to be quite the fashionable thing to do with colonial houses.”
“We’ve talked about that,” said Tuckerman. His eyes roved over the fine room; and after a minute he shook his head. “Cotterell Hall a museum? No, I couldn’t do that. But I’ll tell you what I would like to do. I’d like to come here every summer, and have Tom and Ben and David camp out with me, and have Joseph Hastings bring his house-parties over here and spend a week as my guests.”