The Happy Adventurers

it E

and-butter, stews, and solid puddings, to Martha's delicious scones and unlimited strawberries and cream-was enough to make any thirteen-year-old schoolboy radiantly cheerful. There was plenty to do at Chauncery, too; a first-class tennis-court and an aunt who

here, you bet your best Sunday bonnet. London is like a baker's oven. You look very fit, Grannie, and Jerry says Aunt Mary is too young to be my aunt; I believe he is spoo

k gave her a brotherly peck, and Jerry looked at her commiseratingly. It was rather difficu

hut up in the house too much. It's time we came and hauled you out. I'll tell you wha

Dick. You might tumble her out in the exuberance of your sp

seems to have been eating his fat head off; he played no end of jinks coming along just now. I'll take h

hours' journey from town. "And the best way to fight measles is to feed you up," she said, leading the way to th

rted on a round of visits to the stable, tennis-court, tool-shed, and other haunts dear to the heart of

want to go for that drive this afternoon you must certainl

in her lap and her thoughts by

ravagant promises from the boys of the amazing benefits she was to derive from her outing with them. Long John had got over his first fine r

f honeysuckle swept his cap on to the floor of the trap, where he let it lie u

s choice, a

has fall

round-in a

sex by t

stance they saw the sea gleaming somewhat greyly under a brief spell of sunshine. A

iamonds," said Dick, le

e reins to fall loosely

ide of the road and beg

from the gold-di

rolling. "What do you thi

ith a shake of his head, "blue magic

chical phenomena. I've heard of things just as queer. Awfully funny

she passed it on to me. We do, sometimes. Mother says all twins do. An

ion as Dick. "I saw the blooming parr

have sounded impossible to those children, or at any rate to Papa and Mamma. If Alice in Wonderland could have seen forty years ahead she would have found it quite easy to believe six impossible things before breakfast. There's submarines for one, and flying, and wireless, especially telephones, an

ose things might have seemed very wonderful and almost imposs

done it," s

id not appear to be an a

d looking at the boys with solemn eyes, "of a thing called Ein

no one could understand it except the chap himself and not always

e and there I found bits. I took some notes," Mollie drew a penny notebook from her pocket. "One man says that, if the world travelled as fast as light, there would be no Time. A

do things in or where would you be? You'd have to swallow all the m

n eye upon her brother, "can see that, if the velocity of light has a given value with reference to the fixed

said Dick. "

ent from things measured east and west. We travelled north and sout

you tried to move north and south both at the sam

ideas of space and ti

with him if we stand

Next. H

just as well be a football. What I think is that if two un-understandable things are

I don't think myself that there's any use trying to understand thin

rry, who had been listening

ohn chewing and twitching, and the trees waving their branches, and you shaking your head as if it were a dinner-bell, which is about what it is-it's all

don't understand it yet," she s

silent. Anothe

ch other through specs, with white hair and no teeth worth mentioning. I'll have an ear-trumpet, and Mollie wil

xperiences had merely been a repetition of the first-Hugh had appeared and, like the gentleman who dealt in Relativity, they were Here and they were There. "It has taught us

Campbells were, and how they got mixed up with your lot. They must

of her discovery; it was a little secret between her and a certain photograph that smiled down at her f

ose I ever will, now. I don't think we'll go back, not at present anyway. The show's over for this time. In fact I don't want to go; I'm too jolly well pleased to be where I am. Gee-up, you lazy brute,"-this to L

ts. A large box, containing a peculiarly delicious make of sponge cake, was set on Mollie's lap, and a blue paper bag of sifted sugar was entrusted to Jerry's special care by a misguided grocer. Dick had a golf-club ne

th cheerful and approving swiftness. A drizzle of rain fell, "Just enough to save us the trouble of washing for tea," Dic

she hasn't played since I sprained my ankle. I wish I could come too. I wonder if I could hop round with my stick and loo

up with," Dick said. "We'll plan some picnics till you are better, and expl

hedge, whilst its owner squatted beside it and tinkered at its mechanism-tinkered in vain apparently, fo

id we've got no tools here, but there is a smithy about a mile farther on

leave her. I am much afraid she's gone altogether phut for the time being, and will have to be

"That's our place. It's about half a

dismayed; "I understood that it was occupied by Mrs. and Miss Gordon,

nt they've got us, owin

grandch

t Mrs. and Miss Gordo

ou," Dick was answering

n our way home, and I am sure it

l leave my machine lying derelict by the roadside, and I fear that your hospitality cannot be extended to the old bus, I thought perhaps

e are you?" she asked. "Is it a wound? I am lame too-only a sp

wound healed long ago, but it has left rather a crocky foot behind. I could manag

d look after Mollie, Jerry and I will push the bik

eyebrows. "You are very trusting, young man. Supposing I run away

ost frightfully badly, and Father says I might as well ask him to give

t wouldn't always do, you know," and the stranger gave his head a warning shake

the other will watch the bike; but we'll be as right as rain-and we'd better hurry up." Dick left

my name for Mr.-Simps

-Hugh Ca

e. If the stranger had

have produced more eff

open. "What's the matt

e name, and it really d

card." He put his han

ssly. "No-please don't mind-it's qui

ampbell, standing stock stil

king at the boys for help, but in vain, "I-you-so y

, but it was years and years ago, and he was ever so much younger th

ok too young!" repeated Major Campbell in pardona

et home to tea, and then Aunt Mary will send out a search party, and we'll look pretty asinine. Long John's getting baity, he'll bolt in

John gave his head an impatient toss, and set off with the determination t

ago". She stole a look at her companion as he sat opposite her, his eyes fixed on the road ahead and his thoughts obviously elsewhere. Hugh the inventor had not passed even thirteen years without gathering various little mementoes of his inventions in the shape of scars here and there, and these had not escaped the sharp observation of Mollie, the Girl Guide. There had been a tiny gap in his left eyebrow, the result of inventing a new patt

ked abruptly, forgetting for the momen

Mollie? For I was thinking of Dublin at that very moment. Yes, I have been there. Indeed, it was there that I first met Miss Gordon, at a ball at Dublin Castle.

excitement, "that is, no-not exactly--" she felt v

in was a very different place in those days, and we had what you youngsters would call the time of our lives. It was a long time ago-long, long ago." He sighed, and his thoughts evidently wandered away

vaguely. She felt sure, too, that it was he who had given Aunt Mary the green diamond long ago, though why he had never married her was past Mollie's power of understanding. Grown-up people did-and left undone-the most incomprehensible things. In the meantime she felt that she would like to give her aunt some sort of warning of the surprise in store, otherwise Aunt Mary might be too much su

b the hill which led

d a little, and he drop

s looking about him wit

thought-and the

l have tea ready," and, putting her hands to her mouth, she gave a long, shrill "cooo-eeeee!" "Now,"

did indeed think of Australia, but she also thought, naturally enough, that the children were in difficulties and needed her help. So, a few minutes lat

something is wrong, and when she sees no boys an

claimed Major Campbell. "She do

of genius scintillating through her brain. "Jump out and

ght limp) up the hill "Before you could say Jack Robinson," Mollie quoted, as she took the reins and tactfully directed Long John's attention to an ext

boys say? I believe Aunt Mary has forgotten all about us-there they go! Up the hill without ever once looking at me. I suppose I may fo

it again, for she and Major Campbell were waiting at the gate whe

thing to catch their eyes was Mollie at an upstairs window, an

flags repeated emphatically. "Look-out. Wi

d that old chap! Get out! His hair is whiter than Father's. Aunt Mary has got the hard

jolly decent-looking chap, and white hair means nothing nowadays. And after you're forty I don't see that it matters what age yo

ss that edged the drive. They stole round the house like thieves, and found their way up t

really very difficult to keep pace with a Time that behaved so erratically-"Something Aunt Mary told me about havi

here was a romance connecting him with Aunt Mary. "You girls are so jolly sentimental," he said impatiently. "Why should Aunt Mary want to go and get engaged to a chap old enough

ook romantic, "I thought so first go-off, as s

w it's a fairly imbecile one," Dick interrupted s

e no pretence at hiding her serviceable blue knickers, from which emerged a pair of useful girl-guidish legs, suitably clad in black merino stockings and lace-up shoes. Her bobbed hair was for the mome

a few things-what the blood was, and

in jam," Mollie added, "and if

rry remarked, "we saw it

, it was consoling to know that the wisher-washer might include an aeroplane. "Perhaps he'll take us up one of these days if we behave nicely about Aunt Polly-wol

t, than it did when her aunt merely happened to be out. As soon as tea was over the boys went off to visit the puppies again; Grannie, still inclined to be silent and absent-minded, sat down to her knitting; and Mollie, feeling somehow more lonely than she had done before the boys came, wandered into the deserted morning-room. She picked up a book she had been interested in yesterday, but it had lost its flavour and she soon laid it down and went over to the window, where she stood looking out at the wet garden. It was raining in earnest now,

re she had flung it down when she ran out to meet Mollie. The jig-saw puzzle was tidied away, and the sofa cushions sat in a prim row on the sofa, with nothing about them to sh

rid of me to be moping round because dear Aunt Mary is happy, especially as it is the very thing I was keen on yesterday. I feel as if I lived in the middle of one of Hugh's shadow-clocks," she sighed as she went slowly upstairs, "w

May I come in?" and then Aunt Mary herself appeared. And such a radiant and smiling Aunt Mary that all M

your very best this evening. I have a most astonishing piece of news for you-why do you laugh, you

the green diamond ring yesterday-why, you have got it on! It is lovely, isn't it? I think it is just as beautiful-" Mollie sto

ten years since I got it, and if you had asked me yesterday I should have said it would perhaps be another ten before I could wear it like this, but all sorts of wo

at school before I got measles, and we learnt something about people in love, I can tell you!" Mollie nodded her head wisely. "I am not rom

ld Hugh is really old, because he happens to have rather white hair. It is the heart that counts, and his blessed old heart is as young as

lasses. Mollie was not sure whether a twinkle she thought she saw belonged to the eyes or to the glasses. "I could almost believe that he remembers the Time-travellers," she

elves. "You have all my sympathy. I should detest myself if I were you. But you have h

g married myself if my wife came in an aeroplane and took me for a jolly goo

loon, and I played at the game of chucking out, and got a fright which I am conv

together. (Now perhaps the mystery

t, Mollie found herself on the point of correcting him upon one or two points. He told it well, bett

question, would not matter now. Unfortunately it was also, as Mollie expressed it to herself "so short ago" that she could remember Prue's words only too plainly: "You must not ask questions however much you want to." It is true that she had broken

the blood that

at was merely--" Major Campbe

" said dear Aunt Mary,

make a fortune with a native dye factory-vegetable dyes, you know. But it never came to anyt

think of it, what else could it have been? They were annoyed at themselves for not thinking of

me into it? But there is still the stone, if you would like

e-the identical stone

s ago. After all, the

ough Time and Space as it lay in Dick's hand. An

Campb

t 4th

d O'Ro

ordon.

t in silence

erfully, "if you wrote 'Wife of the Aboves' under

of the aboves would be

, smoothing the back o

her he gave a gentle tu

retty br

ren" (Jerry looked up with a startled glance), "and their wonderful grandchild" (Jerry's eyes were round with dismay. Farewell, Romance!), "and Grizzel and Jack and their children, for Grizzel would never have met Jack if Prue hadn't married Desmond. And there's me, for if you hadn't got tangled up with the O'Rourkes we should probab

of Grizzel and all the pies she loves to have her fingers in-all those people on their fruit farm for instance, mostly people who have been down on t

t Mary said, taking the stone into her

eek for the stone-thrower. She would have pursued this interesting line of thought had not someone at that moment trod upon her well foot, and someone else pinched an arm hard. These delic

't such a bribe as all that comes to. You have to remember that she mi

tly been misunderstood-or had he understood and come t

ary is a jolly good old sport! You don't know her

HEY WERE-OH, HOW MOLLI

of embarrassment under so much scrutiny. He took off his eye-glasses, but immediately replaced

gh? Take off those absu

anded as the c

answered. "I thought perhaps I wasn't seeing you pr

hing. She's the colour of a ripe red currant. I t

s fresh and sweet, but the lingering twilight was darkened by clouds and the garden was veiled in a ghostly white mist. Mollie had been listening to talk of times old

to sleep with," Mollie begged. "I

memorial service-I'm glad he didn't live to see the war. He was such a softhearted, confiding old chap, and never could be induced to see the black spots in poor human nature-he was always

uely over the piano for a few mi

the stil

's chain ha

ry brings

days ar

the silvery tinkle of Prue's musical-b

She leaned forward, wondering why they lingered there so silently. It was not easy to see in the on-coming darkness-surely there were three figures, and two of the

*

linging to one arm, and Hugh in the backg

Prue," she said eagerl

ould onl

say good-bye, Mollie. Your Time-travelling is over for this

erself whether it was the Time or the children that she had l

ll meet again-Time-travellers often do. I think that's why-that's why--

shot an arrow into the air'; Mamma sings that an

ravel, and stood in the sh

d a song i

earth I kno

sight so swi

ollow the fli

afterwards

e arrow st

g from begi

, in the hear

t's something like casting your bread upon the waters, though I never could understand why they chose br

erving the interior of the room with curious eyes.

ere were two Hughs! "He is a Time-traveller," she answered softly, "but he has travel

ned forward and gazed more intently at the white-

oo-

from far away, muffled,

said Prue. "We must g

e, go

*

Mary had risen and was coming towards

ary. I am here loo

aned out and peered into the dark. "How dark it is-I can't see-I

e are you, Moll

go and meet them, Aunt Mary; it's only

week, whether I ever learn to understand Time-travelling or not. I mean to learn ever so much about Australia and our other colonies, and about the immigrant ships Prue talked of. I am glad she is a Guider and that I am a Guide." She looked back to the lighted window, through which she could see Aunt Mary and Major Campbell standing together, then forward into the misty d

here,

E