He vouchsafed no further information, and began to sip his tea, but Lady Jane was trembling with anger. “Do you mean to say that they were actually out on the moor--off the road? Where was Raddles? You can’t mean to say that he let those two----” Lady Jane was unable to express her feelings. “Oh, yes. As soon as I got home I went to see about it, for I supposed you wouldn’t be pleased. They had locked the poor devil up in the storeroom of the garage, and he couldn’t get out. It’s really time something was done.” “But didn’t you try to stop them?” asked Lady Jane. “Why didn’t you get in and bring them home yourself?” “They bolted as soon as they saw us,” answered Claude, “and a pony sixteen years old is no match for a new motor. When I last saw them they were going round Thorley’s at about twenty-five miles an hour.” “How long ago was that?” asked Lady Jane, for to tell the truth her anger was mingled with some anxiety. “About three o’clock,” answered Claude. Colonel Follitt rose. “We had better go and look for them at once,” he said gravely. But at that moment the subjects of his uneasiness walked in together, pink and white, smoothed and neat, and smiling innocently in a way that would have done credit to a dachshund that had just eaten all the cake on the table when nobody was looking. They were a pretty pair, about fourteen and fifteen, the one fair, the other dark, with a fresh complexion. In the dead [Illustration: “In dead silence they stood quietly.”] silence they stood quietly beside the tea-table, apparently waiting for their mother to fill their cups. “Do you mind telling us where you’ve been?” she inquired, in a tone that boded no good. The two girls looked at each other and then looked at her. “We’ve been on the moor,” they said together, with a sweet smile. “So I gathered from what Claude has just told us.” Lady Jane looked from Gwendolen to Evelyn, and then at Gwendolen again. She had always found it hard to face the air of mild innocence they put on after doing something particularly outrageous. “Oh, well, since Claude has told you all about it, of course you know. I hope you don’t mind very much.” “Raddles says the motor’s all right, and that it’s a very good test, because if it will stand that it will stand anything.” This reassuring statement was vouchsafed by Evelyn, who was the elder sister and the fair one, and, if anything, the calmer of the two. Both had the sweetest possible way of speaking, and seemed quite surprised that their doings should not be thought quite normal. “It was awfully low-down of you to go and tell, all the same,” Gwendolen observed, smiling at Claude. “I thought it rather natural,” he answered, “as it seemed quite probable that you had broken your necks.” “You deserved to, I must say,” said Lady Jane tartly, “though I’m glad you didn’t. I shall send you both to a boarding-school to-morrow.”