He spoke to the bare doorstep. But it was Eliza, dishevelled, breathless, her hair coming down, her collar crooked, her dress twisted and disordered, who suddenly held out a hand a hand that they could see; and in the hand, plainly visible in the moonlight, the dark circle of the magic ring. "Alf a mo!" said Eliza's gentleman friend next morning. He was waiting for her when she opened the door with pail and hearthstone in her hand. "Sorry you couldn't come out yesterday." "So'm I." Eliza swept the wet flannel along the top step. "What did you do?" "I 'ad a bit of a headache," said the gentleman friend. "I laid down most of the afternoon. What were you up to?" "Oh, nothing pertickler," said Eliza. "Then it was all a dream, she said, when he was gone; "but it'll be a lesson to me not to meddle with anybody's old ring again in a hurry." "So they didn't tell 'er about me behaving like I did," said he as he went "sun, I suppose like our Army in India. I hope I ain't going to be liable to it, that's all!" CHAPTER VI Johnson was the hero of the hour. It was he who had tracked the burglars, laid his plans, and recovered the lost silver. He had not thrown the stone public opinion decided that Mabel and her aunt must have been mistaken in supposing that there was a stone at all. But he did not deny the warning letter. It was Gerald who went out after breakfast to buy the newspaper, and who read aloud to the others the two columns of fiction which were the Liddlesby Observer's report of the facts. As he read every mouth opened wider and wider, and when he ceased with "this gifted fellow-townsman with detective instincts which out-rival those of Messrs. Lecoq and Holmes, and whose promotion is now assured," there was quite a blank silence. "Well," said Jimmy, breaking it, "he doesn't stick it on neither, does he?" "I feel," said Kathleen, "as if it was our fault as if it was us had told all these whoppers; because if it hadn't been for you they couldn't have, Jerry. How could he say all that?" "Well," said Gerald, trying to be fair, "you know, after all, the chap had to say something. I'm glad I " He stopped abruptly. "You're glad you what?" "No matter," said he, with an air of putting away affairs of state. "Now, what are we going to do today? The faithful Mabel approaches; she will want her ring. And you and Jimmy want it too. Oh, I know. Mademoiselle hasn't had any attention paid to her for more days than our hero likes to confess." "I wish you wouldn't always call yourself 'our hero', said Jimmy; "you aren't mine, anyhow." "You're both of you mine," said Kathleen hastily. "Good little girl." Gerald smiled annoyingly. "Keep baby brother in a good temper till Nursie comes back." "You're not going out without us?" Kathleen asked in haste. "I haste away, 'Tis market day," sang Gerald, "And in the market there Buy roses for my fair. If you want to come too, get your boots on, and look slippy about it."