The sole plan of action they could think of after this last disappointment was to keep a watch upon Scott. If he had really concealed a portion of the treasure in the garden, he would probably go to look at it occasionally, to make sure of its safety. At Cicely's urgent request they had already made a careful examination, with a trowel, of the bank where Scott had been digging when they surprised him in the dark. It was fruitless work, however; nothing was there. "I told you beforehand they wouldn't be so foolish," said Lindsay. "I thought they might have dropped a piece of money, or an ear-ring perhaps, in their hurry--just something to show us what had actually been here," said Cicely, grubbing about in the loose soil. "Trust Scott and Mrs. Wilson! They're an uncommonly clever couple. You may be sure they'd take care not to leave even a sixpence behind them." "I've heard that criminals can't keep away from a place where they've buried anything," continued Cicely. "They always haunt the spot." "Then we must notice where Scott goes most frequently," replied Lindsay. For the present, Scott seemed to be particularly attracted to the cucumber frames. "He's there constantly," said Cicely. "Far oftener than is necessary, I'm sure," agreed Lindsay. "It might be a likely place, too," added Cicely meditatively. Several small incidents seemed to confirm their surmises. "He was so cross last night when Marjorie Butler sent her ball over the hedge into the kitchen-garden, and went to fetch it," said Lindsay. "Yes, he said she might have broken the glass in one of the frames; but I don't suppose that was the real reason. She may have gone near him just when he was putting something back." "I heard Miss Russell asking him when the cucumbers would be ready, and he answered in a great hurry: 'Not for ever so long yet'. And then he said it was 'best not to be lifting the frames, and disturbing them more than needful'." "He was evidently afraid she was going to ask to see them." The idea that silver cups, jewels, or spade-guineas might be lying hidden under the glossy leaves of the cucumber plants began to obtain possession of the girls' minds. "If we could only manage to look while he's out of the way," suggested Cicely eagerly. Scott's close attention to his duties was most annoying. There really appeared to be something in Cicely's theory of criminals haunting a particular spot. He seemed never absent from the kitchen-garden, at any rate when they were in its vicinity. They could hear him mowing the lawn during lesson hours, but when recreation arrived, and they ran out hopefully to reconnoitre, he would be weeding the strawberries, or gathering peas within a few feet of his cherished hotbeds. "There's only one way for it," said Lindsay. "We shall have to make a plot. You must hide near the kitchen-garden, and I'll do something to take him off; then, while he's gone, you must rush to the frames and open them."