"Now then, Peter!" cried the bird, hopping down on the gravel; at which Tod laughed. The Squire got up in a rage, and shut the doors with a bang. "If you can't be serious for a few moments, you had better say so. I can tell you this is likely to turn out no laughing business." Tod turned his back to the glass-doors, and left the magpie to its devices. "Whoever it was, contrived to slip round here from the front, during my temporary absence; possibly without ill intention: the sight of the note lying open might have proved too strong a temptation for him." "Him!" put in Tod, critically. "It might have been a woman." "You might be a jackass: and often are one," said the pater. And it struck us both, from the affable retort, that his suspicions were pointing to some particular person of the male gender. "This morning, after breakfast, I was here, writing a letter," he went on. "While sealing it, Thomas called me away in a hurry, and I was absent the best part of an hour. When I got back, my ring had disappeared." "Your ring, sir!" cried Tod. "Yes, my ring, sir," mocked the pater; for he thought we were taking up the matter lightly, and it nettled him. "I left it on the seal, expecting to find it there when I returned. Not so. The ring had gone, and the letter lay on the ground. We have got a thief about the house, boys--a thief--within or without. Just the same sort of thief, as it seems to me, that you had at school." Tod suddenly leaned forward, his elbow on his knee, his whole interest aroused. Some unpleasant doubt had struck him, as was evident by the flush upon his face. "Of course, anybody that might be about, back or front, could find their way down here if they pleased," he slowly said. "Tramps get in sometimes." "Rarely, without being noticed. Who did you boys see about the place that afternoon--tramp or gentleman? Come! You were at the house, Johnny: you bolted into it, head foremost, saying you had come from the Dyke." "I never saw a soul but Sanker: he was on the bench on the lawn, reading. I said so at the time, sir." "Ah! yes; Sanker was there reading," quietly assented the Squire. "What were you hastening home for, Johnny?" As if that mattered, or could have had anything to do with it! He had a knack of asking unpleasant questions; and I looked at Tod. "Hugh got his blouse torn, and Johnny came in to get another," acknowledged Tod, readily. The fact was, Hugh's clothes that afternoon had come to uncommon grief. Hannah had made one of her usual rows over it, and afterwards shown the things to Mrs. Todhetley. "Well, and now for to-day," resumed the pater. "Where have you all been?" Where had we not? In the three-cornered paddock; with Monk in the pine-house; away in the rick-yard; once to the hay-field; at the rabbit-hutches; round at the stables; oh, everywhere. "You two, and Sanker?"