Crow went on, she told the whole story of the brooch, with scrupulous accuracy, adding one after the other the appearances of Pamela in places where she should not have been at such hours. She went on, without interruption, through the very strange story of Adrian’s vision at four in the morning, and the even stranger relation of the condition in which the yawl and the dinghy were found. Finally there was the discovery of the handkerchief on board the yawl, and _this_ latest affair of the picnic at Champles Creek and Pamela’s amazing behaviour, followed so quickly by Badger’s accusation. Crow was very deliberate; she did not forget the episode of Timothy Batt even, bringing the whole relation up to the present moment, as it were. Then she ceased to speak. Miss Anne was leaning her cheek on her hand, and her elbow on the arm of the chair; she did not look at Christobel, but very intently out at the lawn and flowers. "What do _you_ think, Crow?" she presently asked. "Have you any interpretation of your own?" Christobel shook her head rather despondently; then she said: "Anyway, I’m absolutely sure Pamela hasn’t done anything dishonourable. I don’t understand what’s happening, but I do know Pam, and I’ve sometimes thought she might be aiming at some--well--some rather cranky sort of noble deed----" Crow flushed and looked at her companion in a deprecating manner. "She’s simply wild about the Girl Guide business; she’s only waiting till she gets to school to be one. She reads it up, and soaks it in, and she’s awfully set on doing a good deed every day, and helping people whatever it costs. Don’t you see how it might lead to--to things, perhaps? One can’t tell how, exactly." "She might be shielding somebody?" suggested Miss Lasarge. "Yes; if there was anybody to shield. Besides," added Christobel in a more matter-of-fact tone, "a lot of it is sheer muddle--the Badger business, I mean, _that’s_ sinful nonsense." Miss Anne laughed; the fierceness in Crow’s way of saying "sinful nonsense" pleased her very much. After that they talked it all over quietly, and the upshot was that one thing especially seemed to puzzle Miss Lasarge, namely the surprising vision Adrian saw at four o’clock in the morning. "He could hardly have been mistaken in Hughie," she said. "Or in Pam," added Crow. To that Miss Anne made no reply. When Christobel had taken her leave, greatly comforted, though nothing had happened so far to lift the burden, Miss Lasarge looked at the clock; it was half-past five. She hesitated, then made up her mind--and a very firm mind too--because though Miss Anne was small and pale she had a great soul in that small body, and she realized that she must help innocent folk who were suffering through no fault of their own.