"I'll go along," volunteered Mrs. Brandon. "As Ted says, the dog would have stood guard if any one were trying to get in." There was no use in further arguing, for Ted was already close on Nero's heels, following him to the store whence he was leading. Mrs. Brandon may have been timid, but small Ted's confidence in his dog was very fortifying, and she, too, fell in with the small midnight procession. Nancy did not remain upstairs, neither did Miss Manners, for somehow it always does seem safer to "stick together" in that sort of trouble. No one spoke as they followed the dog. With great dignity he led them on, until, upon reaching the store, he made a pounce over to the corner near the chimney. "Oh," screamed Nancy. "It's that old chimney--" "It's something else," exclaimed Ted. "Just look here! A 'busted' water pipe. That's what it is! Look--at--the--flood!" They all looked, and saw, issuing from a pipe that was connected near the fireplace, a very positive and very menacing stream of water. "Oh, my! Our things!" groaned Nancy. "I've got to turn the water off." "But where? How?" asked Mrs. Brandon in confusion, fully realizing the damage water could do. "I know," replied Nancy, in her best business-like manner. "I was 'monkeying' with it the other day. It won't take me a jiffy," and while the others patted the intelligent Nero for his alarm, Nancy flew to the kitchen, got a wrench from Ted's tool chest in the little corner closet, and then with one sure, swift turn, reversed the handle on the water pipe that led from the boiler to the pipes from the cellar. "It's off," yelled Ted. "That's all right, Nan, it's stopped." "Why, daughter," exclaimed Mrs. Brandon, still breathless, "how did you know how to do--that?" "Because--she's a good plumber," declared Ted. "Hurrah! Nan! Let's start a plumbing shop! That's something you--haven't tried yet." "Ted!" said Nancy sharply. "I don't like being made fun of. Anybody ought to know how to turn off a water pipe. We all know how to turn off the gas, don't we?" "Ted didn't mean to be rude, dear," Mrs. Brandon assured the injured one, "but we were so surprised." "And Nancy does seem to have such a talent for business," ventured Miss Manners. "I tell you, dear," and she gathered her robe around her as she followed the others out of the store, "it is something to be proud of. Any of us can be just housekeepers, but it takes a different sort of ability to be--the man of the house," she said, which was an unusual figure of speech for prim Miss Manners to make use of. "She can't be that," objected Ted. "Very well, then," said Nancy. "Let's see you mop up that floor, Ted," she challenged. "That's a plumber's job, too," she pointed out. But it was Mrs. Brandon who found the mop and Ted who used it. Nancy felt perhaps, that the executive part, in turning off the water, was enough for her to have done. She was hurt, unwillingly, at Ted's joking remark.