"Aren't you? I suppose it's nothing to scare every pheasant in the wood. Oh dear no!" "What nonsense! It was only one," exclaimed Rona, standing up against the bullying tone. "You're making the most unnecessary fuss. What right have you to stop us?" "More right than you've got to be here. I won't have anybody in these woods, schoolgirls or no schoolgirls, so just you get back the way you came, or----" "That will do, Jordan," said a voice behind him. The keeper started, turned, and touched his cap obsequiously. "Beg pardon, my lord, but the trespassing that goes on here gets past bearing, and wants putting a stop to." "Very well, I'll settle it myself," and Lord Glyncraig--for it was he--readjusted his glasses and stared reprovingly at the three delinquents. "Ah! girls from The Woodlands--evidently out of bounds. I shall have to report you to your headmistress, I'm afraid. Your names, please." "Winnie Fowler," "Hattie Goodwin," murmured two subdued voices. Rona did not answer at all. She kept her head down and her eyes fixed on the ground. "It's--it's surely not the same girl who did me such a service this morning on the marsh? Then I must repeat my thanks. Now, look here, you've been up to some mischief, all three of you. Get back to school as quick as you can, and I'll say nothing about it! There! Off you go!" Without another word the sinners pelted along through the wood, never pausing till they reached the railing and climbed over on to the high road. Here, on free ground, they felt at liberty to express their indignation. "He's a nasty, horrid old thing to turn us out!" panted Hattie. "How he looked at you, Rona!" said Winnie. "He stared and stared and stared!" "Wondering where he'd seen me before, I suppose. I expect the green stains on my coat reminded him. I got them hauling up his precious dog." "It wasn't with him in the wood." "Oh, it's sitting by the fire drinking linseed tea! It looked a pampered brute." "We shall have to scoot to keep clear of Teddie." "All right. Scooterons-nous. Thank goodness, there's the hedge of The Woodlands! We'll slip in through the little side gate." The three certainly merited discovery for their misdeeds, but on this occasion they evaded justice; for, as luck would have it, they reached the house just a moment or two before the rest of the school, and Miss Teddington, who was in a hurry to pack her boxes of snowdrops, concluded that they must have been in front with Ulyth and Lizzie, and did not stop to remember that she had left them tying Winnie's shoelace by the roadside. It was seldom that such a palpable lapse escaped her keen eye and even keener comprehension; so they might thank their fortunate stars for their escape. Hattie and Winnie made great capital out of the adventure, and recounted all the details, much exaggerated, to a thrilled audience in IV B.