If they watch close enough, they will probably find a boy with a missing toe joint among the number." "What a good idea," said Geoffrey.

"I will telegraph to the lawyers at once.

I certainly believe that you have got the clue." And as it turned out afterwards Beatrice had got it; her suppositions were right in almost every particular.

The boy, who proved to be the son of a pedlar who had recently come into the town, was found wading, and by a clever trick, which need not be detailed, frightened into telling the truth, as he had previously frightened himself into holding his tongue.

He had even, as Beatrice conjectured, taken off his boots to creep up to the window, and as he ran away in his fright, had dropped them into a ditch full of water.