Oh, you men are pitiful creatures, after all!" "You wouldn't have been so mighty brave, cook, if Miss Penfold and me hadn't been in front of you." "A lot of use you were!" the cook retorted.

"Six feet one of flesh, and no heart in it! Why, I would have knocked him down with a broom if I had been within reach of him." "Yes, that we would, cook," the under-housemaid said.

"I had got my poker ready, and I would have given it them nicely if I could have got within reach.

Miss Penfold was just as cool as if she had been eating her breakfast, and so was we all except John." John had by this time fastened up the shutter again, and feeling that his persecutors were too many for him he slunk off at once to his room; and the others, beginning to feel that their garments were scarcely fitted for the cold night air postponed their discussion of the affair until the following morning.

The next morning after breakfast the servants were called into the dining-room, and Miss Penfold interrogated them closely as to whether any of them had seen strange men about, or had been questioned by any one they knew as to valuables at the Hall.
"If it had not been for Anna," she said, when she had finished without eliciting any information, "the house would have been robbed, and not any of us would have been any the wiser.