"Mattina had no rag to make a sail; she said to ask Mamma...." "And then?" "I asked Mamma, and she said, 'I have no rag, go away,' and then I put the paper in my own self. It is mine." "Where did you find the paper?" "On the floor." "But where on the floor." "Down on the floor." Then the youngest aunt said:-- "Come and show me where, Bebeko, and Babba will get the 'loukoumi.'" Bebeko scrambled down and took hold of her hand, and led her, all the others following, into his parents' bedroom. Then, pointing to a spot at the foot of the chest of drawers, he said triumphantly:-- "There." His mother looked very vexed. "Those children!" she cried. "Whatever they see, they take. All this fuss we have had for nothing!" "Go upstairs, now," said her husband, "and tell that poor girl that you have found the money. She was half mad with fright when you told her you would send her to prison." "It does not do her any harm," said Mattina's mistress, "if she did not do it this time, it will be a lesson for her if she ever feels inclined to steal in the future. However, she may as well come down and take the children to bed," and she took a lighted candle, and went upstairs to unlock the door. In a moment the others heard an astounded voice exclaiming:-- "Bah! She is not here!" "Not there! Nonsense!" cried her husband; and they all ran up and peered into the little dark room. But it was quite true, Mattina was not there. They looked all round, but there was only the tumbled mattress on the floor, a red cotton coverlet hanging on a nail in the wall over it, a straw chair, a pitcher of water in a tin basin, and not a single cupboard, nook, or corner in which anyone could hide. "The girl must have crept down quietly while we were talking, and run away to her uncle's," said the master. "But the door was locked," objected his wife. "Impossible." "But it was, I tell you." "You meant to lock it but you did not." "I locked it and double locked it." "You were in a passion at the moment, and you did not know what you were doing." "Since I tell you I turned the key twice with my hand," screamed his wife, getting very red. "Do I eat straw? I locked it and I locked it well. Do you not understand Greek? Shall I say it in Chinese?" Her husband strode into the little room and, taking the lighted candle, lifted it high above his head. "You women have no logic! Look!" turning to the others, "can the girl have climbed through the window?" It was a tiny barred window over their heads, looking out upon a courtyard far below. They all laughed. "No, certainly!" "Well, then, she must have got through the door! Come downstairs now, there is no use in staying up here. In the morning I will go to her uncle's." Then as they left the room he turned to his wife who was still protesting violently that she had locked the door; she would lay her head that she had. "Now enough words, wife! Perhaps you think the girl passed through the wall?" IX