By this time Hanny had come two-thirds awake. She saw Vevi sitting beside her, hay sticking in her mussed hair. “Listen!” Vevi whispered. The rain had ceased and Hanny no longer could hear the whistle of the wind around the corners of the barn. How long had she slept? Hanny sat up, rubbing her eyes. Only then did she hear a strange murmuring sound from the lower floor of the barn. “What is that?” she whispered. “Someone is down there,” Vevi answered, very low. “When I woke up, I heard two people talking.” “Maybe it is Peter come home.” “I don’t think so Hanny. Besides, there are two people.” Their curiosity aroused, the two girls crept to the edge of the hay loft. Peering down they saw a man and a woman standing in the doorway of the barn. “It is Mrs. Mattox and her husband Joseph,” Hanny whispered. “But why are they here? They refuse me permission to walk on their property.” Mrs. Mattox was cleaning mud from her shoes. “We should not stand here,” her husband said. “Peter Van Der Lann may return at any moment, or his little girl.” “Let them,” said the wife. “At any rate, it was your idea to visit his fields to see what the stubborn Dutchman is raising. Now that you have looked under the box are you satisfied?” “The tulip is superior to anything that we can enter in the show.” “I don’t agree,” Mrs. Mattox replied. “Our own flower the cherry-rose candy stick tulip is its equal. We will win the prize, Joseph.” “Don’t count on it,” Mr. Mattox said gloomily. “We won’t need to win the blue ribbon to have a profitable business. We have valuable customers. Mrs. Gabriel--” “How many times must I ask you not to mention her name?” Mr. Mattox broke in angrily. “I wish I had never seen her--she may yet be the cause of me going to jail.” “Jail?” his wife echoed. “Joseph, I fail to understand you. When Mrs. Gabriel first came to talk to you, why you said we would make a mint of money. Didn’t she give you a large order of bulbs to be imported from Holland?” “Yes, and I wish she hadn’t! Don’t forget that woman went first to Peter Van Der Lann with her proposition. He must suspect what is going on. If he should turn me in we both might be jailed.” In the hayloft, Hanny and Vevi caught nearly all of the conversation. But they did not understand why Mr. Mattox was so angry at his wife for mentioning Mrs. Gabriel’s name. Hanny made up her mind she would tell her Uncle Peter all about it when he came home. “The rain has stopped,” she heard Mr. Mattox say. “We can go now.” Never guessing that anyone had listened to their talk, the couple left the barn. By the time Vevi and Hanny had slid down from the loft, they were nowhere in sight. _Chapter 11_ THE MAN IN GRAY When Peter Van Der Lann drove into the farm yard twenty minutes later, Hanny and Vevi ran to meet him. “I came as fast as I could,” the farmer said. “Is everything all right?”