A couple of startled birds flew out of the ivy with a great whirring of wings. This was followed by a faint sound of rumbling, that seemed to come from the interior of the house. Outside all was still, and the hot sunshine lay over everything. The sound was repeated. The children looked at each other with large, expectant eyes. Something in the house was moving--was coming nearer. "Have you _all_ lost your tongues?" asked the governess impatiently. "But you see," Nixie said at length, "somebody _does_ live in it now." "And who is he?" "I didn't say it was a _man_." "Whoever it is--tell me about the person," persisted Miss Lake. "There's really nothing to tell," replied the child, without looking up. "Oh, but there must be something," declared the logical young governess, "or you wouldn't object so much to its being pulled down." Nixie looked puzzled, but Jimbo came to the rescue at once. "But _you_ wouldn't understand if we did tell you," he said, in a slow, respectful voice. His tone held a touch of that indescribable scorn heard sometimes in a child's tone--the utter contempt for the stupid grown-up creature. Miss Lake noticed, and felt annoyed. She recognised that she was not getting on well with the children, and it piqued her. She remembered the Colonel's words about "knocking the nonsense out" of James' head, and she saw that her first opportunity, in fact her first real test, was at hand. "And why, pray, should I not understand?" she asked, with some sharpness. "Is the mystery so _very_ great?" For some reason the duty of spokesman now devolved unmistakably upon Jimbo; and very seriously too, he accepted the task, standing with his feet firmly planted in the road and his hands in his trousers' pockets. "You see, Miss Lake," he began gravely, "we know such a lot of Things in there, that they might not like us to tell you about them. They don't know you yet. If they did it might be different. But--but--you see, it isn't." This was rather crushing to the aspiring educator, and the Colonel's instructions gained additional point in the light of the boy's explanation. "Fiddlesticks!" she laughed, "there's probably nothing at all in there, except rats and cobwebs. 'Things,' indeed!" "I knew you wouldn't understand," said Jimbo coolly, with no sign of being offended. "How could you?" He glanced at his sisters, gaining so much support from their enigmatical faces that he added, for their especial benefit, "How could she?" "The gard'ner said so too," chimed in a younger sister, with a vague notion that their precious Empty House was being robbed of its glory. "Yes; but, James, dear, I do understand perfectly," continued Miss Lake more gently, and wisely ignoring the reference to the authority of the kitchen-garden. "Only, you see, I cannot really encourage you in such nonsense----" "It isn't nonsense," interrupted Jimbo, with heat.