"I know we did."
"Whom do you want to bring here?" enquired Claudia suspiciously.
"Oh, n.o.body in particular. Only Madame Bertier was asking me one day if there were any caves along the coast. I thought she"d like to see this one."
"You"re not to bring that Russian woman here! I don"t like her. I hope you did not tell her about it?"
"Of course not!"
"Honest Injun?"
"Crystal clear I didn"t!"
"It"s _our_ secret, and _n.o.body_ is to know," said Claudia, still ruffled. "Let us all take a sort of oath!"
"Right oh! _I_ shan"t break it!" agreed Lorraine emphatically.
"Will you swear, Morland?" urged Claudia.
"Who"s going to tell?" asked Morland huffily. "What a fuss you girls make about nothing. The cave might be full of diamonds instead of only sh.e.l.ls!"
"Only sh.e.l.ls, indeed!" Claudia"s tone was belligerent.
"I wish you"d both help me to collect some sh.e.l.ls," put in Lorraine, trying to patch up peace. "I want some more desperately badly for the museum."
A duty which Lorraine had undertaken during the holidays was the arrangement of the school museum. She was the curator, but during term time she was so fully occupied that she had never been able to sort and label the specimens which the girls had brought to her. The whole collection had been so far stored away in boxes. Now, however, Miss Kingsley had set apart special premises for the museum. There was an unused room at The Gables that in the days of former tenants had been occupied by the coachman. It adjoined the house, but was approached by an outside staircase from the yard. It had been filled with lumber, but Miss Kingsley had had this cleared away, the floor had been scrubbed, and some old desks moved in to serve as cases for the specimens.
Miss Kingsley and Miss Janet had gone away for Easter, and the servants were also taking a much-needed rest. The Gables therefore was shut up for the holidays, though the charwoman, who lived in a cottage close by, went in to scrub and clean. Before leaving, Miss Kingsley had given Lorraine the key of the museum, so that she might enter it when she wished, quite independently of going to the house.
Lorraine spent very happy mornings there--sometimes alone, sometimes with Claudia to help her. With the aid of natural history books from the school library, she identified and labelled the specimens to the best of her ability. It was a quiet kind of work that appealed to her. She felt that the room was going to be a tremendous acquisition to the school.
All sorts of treasures could find a home on the walls, secure from the meddlesome fingers of juniors. She intended to keep it as a sort of sanctum for the monitresses, and had visions of holding committee meetings there, and bringing tea in thermos flasks.
One morning she had arranged to spend a little time at the museum and to meet Claudia, who had promised to come and help her. The trysting-place was the old windmill, and Lorraine stood there waiting. Claudia was late--the Castleton family were always late for everything--and Lorraine walked impatiently up and down the road. Footsteps coming round the corner made her turn expectantly. To her surprise, the new-comer was not her friend, but her uncle, Mr. Barton Forrester.
"Why, Uncle!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing up here? I thought you were so busy at the office?"
"So I am; and I ought to be at work now. This is what comes of being a special constable! There"s a pretty to-do to-day! The telephone wires have been cut, and the job is to discover _where_!"
"The telephone wires cut!" echoed Lorraine. "But who has cut them?"
"Some spy, I suppose. One has constantly to be on the lookout for treachery, especially in a place like this. If we could only find out where the leakage is! There, Lorraine, I can"t stay. I"ve got to see Mr.
Jermyn immediately."
Uncle Barton--busy, energetic little man that he was--waved his hand to his niece and hurried away up the road, just as Claudia, also in a hurry, turned the corner. Lorraine cut short her apologies with the news about the telephone wires.
"It means," she explained, "that, until they find the place and can mend it, Porthkeverne"s cut off by telephone from all other places. You may depend upon it, as Uncle says, there"s some treachery at the bottom of this. Isn"t it horrible to think that there may be spies in the town, ready to betray one"s country?"
"Dreadful!" shuddered Claudia. "They ought to intern everyone who"s the least bit under suspicion."
The two girls walked rapidly to The Gables, and went into the school-yard and up the outside staircase. Lorraine had the key in her pocket, and unlocked the museum. Directly she entered, she noticed that the room was not as she had left it. Some of the desks and boxes had certainly been moved. She remembered exactly how she had placed them yesterday. Her first thought was that Mrs. Jones, the charwoman, must have been in to clean; but that was clearly impossible, for she herself had the key. Who could have intruded into the sanctum, and for what reason? She discussed it with Claudia. It gave them both a most uncanny feeling to think that someone had been able to enter. The Gables was practically shut up. Had a burglar been picking the locks during Miss Kingsley"s absence? There seemed to be nothing in the museum likely to excite the cupidity of even an amateur thief; the specimens, though interesting to the school, were of no monetary value. Lorraine"s glance went slowly round the room, and took in the desks and boxes, the walls, on which she had pinned natural history prints, and finally wandered up to the ceiling. Ah, here was a clue at last! The trap-door in the corner had certainly been moved--it did not now quite fit down. There was about an inch of light to be seen round its edge. A horrible idea suggested itself to the girls. _Suppose somebody was in hiding up there!_
The bare notion blanched their cheeks. With one accord they fled from the room, locked the door on the outside, and scurried down the steps.
In the yard they paused. What was to be done next? They did not feel capable of tackling a possible burglar unaided, yet it seemed rather weak to run away.
"Let"s fetch Morland!" said Claudia.
The suggestion seemed a good one. Lorraine was only too content to throw herself upon masculine aid. They walked at double speed to Windy Howe, and hauled Morland from the piano. He stopped in the middle of a Brahms sonata, and offered at once to go back with them to the school.
"You see, Miss Kingsley and everybody"s away, and there"s only the charwoman about," explained Lorraine. "I know she"d be worse scared than ourselves if we told her."
"Right-o! I"ll go and investigate," agreed Morland, rather pleased to show his courage before the girls.
So they all three went back to the museum, and here Morland placed desks and boxes together, and mounted on them so as to reach the trap-door, through which he wriggled. The girls held the pile steady, and watched his long legs disappear through the opening.
"It leads on to the roof!" he shouted. "I"ll climb up and explore. I"m in a sort of garret with a ladder in the corner."
To the waiting girls it seemed a very long time before Morland returned.
At last, however, they heard his footsteps overhead, and he called to them to hold the erection while he came down. It was with a sense of relief that they saw his boots issue through the trap-door. They had had an idea that he might have disappeared for ever.
"Well?"
"Did you see anybody?"
Morland shook his head. He was dusting his sleeves, and trying to rub the dirt off his hands.
"I didn"t catch a burglar, but I"ve made a discovery," he said slowly.
"What?"
The girls were half-frightened, half-thrilled.
"I"ve been on the roof. Did you know the telephone wires run over the school?"
"I never noticed."
"Well, they do. And what"s more, they"ve been cut!"
"Great Scott!"
"Whoever did it has been very clever. It was a unique spot to get at them, and impossible to be seen from the road."
"I must tell Uncle Barton _at once_!" gasped Lorraine breathlessly.
"It"s exactly what he was wanting to find out!"
"We"d better ask Mrs. Jones if anybody has been hanging about the place," suggested Claudia.
The charwoman, on being interviewed, a.s.sured them that n.o.body had been to the school. There was only one key to the museum, so it could not have been entered in their absence.
"Did you leave the window open?" asked Morland of Lorraine.