"Well, as I've just said, I'm an American. We crossed the herring-pond just before the war started, and we've been stuck in this old country ever since. Before you all came to the Grange we rented the place for a year, and a time we had of it, too, with rats and bats, and burst pipes, and no central heating or electric light! Mother went almost crazy! Well, last Easter, when I was staying at the seaside, I met Raymonde, and we chummed no end. She told me that her school was moving in here, and I bet her a big box of Broad Street pop-corns I'd turn up some time in the house and astonish the girls. I only bargained that she wasn't to let any of them know beforehand of my existence. Well, I guess I kept my word. I joined in a game of hide-and-seek one dark afternoon, and I reckon I passed off as a first-class ghost. Didn't I chuckle, just! You wonder how I got in without anybody seeing me? Why, I'd discovered the secret passage that leads, from a sliding panel in the attic, right under the moat into a cave inside the wood." "Joyce Ferrers' passage!" exclaimed the girls. "The very same. I rode over on my bicycle--we're staying only eight miles away--left it inside the cave, lighted my lamp, and strolled up to the attic as easily as you please. There was the whole school tearing around like mad, so I scuttled round too, and scared you just some! It was so prime, I guessed I'd try it on again. That was yesterday week. I'd luck enough to catch Raymonde, and she was a sport that day too. We changed clothes, and I came downstairs here and did her practising for her, while she explored the secret passage and did a little shopping on her own account in the village." "Then it was you, and not Raymonde, whom we saw sitting at the piano!" exclaimed Veronica. Violet nodded. "Exactly so! I guessed I was going to be found out, and daren't turn my head when you spoke." "Did you see the notes put into the drawer?" enquired Miss Beasley. "No, but I saw them afterwards, lying just on the top of some other papers. I locked the drawer before I left the room, and put the bunch of keys inside the pocket of Raymonde's dress, which I had on. I meant to tell her about it, but I forgot. She was in such a hurry when she came back, and said she'd be late for prep., so we each scrambled into our own clothes, and she tore off downstairs, and I went home." "This, unfortunately, does not bring us any nearer to the solution of the puzzle--what has become of the notes?" said Miss Beasley. "Raymonde couldn't have spent them in the village, when she had gone out before they were put there!" ventured Veronica. "And I certainly didn't abscond with them!" declared Violet. "Though I really believe Ray thinks so. Confess you do, old sport!" Raymonde blushed crimson. "I thought you'd taken them for a joke," she said in a low voice. "Is that why you refused to explain?" interposed the Principal quickly. "You were afraid of getting your friend into trouble?"