Marjorie's eyes encountered those of the guests, and she looked at Allan and Reggie.

'Are you going to let them know about it?' she asked. 'Might as well, you know; for they are sure to hear of it before long.'

Allan put his hands in his pockets and reflected; then he consulted Reggie with a look, after which he turned to Hamish. 'Perhaps we might as well tell them,' he said, and the others consented.

'Well, Graham major and Graham minor,' he began, to the boys who were waiting expectantly; 'we are very much bothered about a friend of ours;' and he told them about the robbery of the post-office and Neil's flight, while the boys listened with wide-open mouths, throwing themselves about and uttering exclamations of interest.

'You say that you are quite sure he couldn't have taken the letters?'

asked Harry, drawing himself into an upright position on the heather.

'Perfectly certain,' replied Allan. 'He would no more have done it than you or I. No one who knows him would believe such a thing of Neil.'

'Oh!' interposed Tricksy, in a shocked tone, 'I think Dr. MacGregor believed it.'

Hamish became very red and Marjorie's lips tightened.

'And he's so awfully, awfully jolly,' pursued Harry.

'One of the very jolliest people we know,' answered Marjorie. 'Father doesn't really believe it of him. He did everything for us, and was up to all kinds of inventions. We don't seem to have any fun at all without him.'

'It's a most extraordinary story,' said Harry, jerking himself into a fresh att.i.tude; and both the new boys sat and pondered.

'What do you say to letting them both join the Compact?' suggested Reggie.

Marjorie's eyes said yes; and Hamish, whom Allan consulted with a look, gave a nod.

'What's that; a Compact?' inquired Harry eagerly.

'It's an agreement that we've all made,' said Allan, 'that we'll back Neil up, and show that he didn't commit the robbery.'

'Hooray, what fun,' said Harry; 'I'm game.'

'You might let Gerald join too,' cried Tricksy from where she sat beside her new friend; 'he's quite the right sort, and he only wants to learn a thing or two to be equal to any of us.'

Gerald wriggled, and blushed to the roots of his golden hair.

'Well, then, you must do all you can to help us,' said Allan, 'and see whether you can find out who really did it.'

'All right,' said Harry; 'I'll help you to catch the thief.'

'And you must sign an agreement like the rest of us, and you can each have a copy to carry about with you always, as we do. See, this is the princ.i.p.al copy, that I have to take care of.'

'You can write it out now, with Allan's new fountain pen,' cried Tricksy; 'this flat stone will do for a desk, and I've got some pieces of paper that I've been carrying in my pocket in case we might find any new people to join our Compact;' and she produced with great gravity some crumpled sheets of note-paper, much soiled at the edges.

'All right,' said Allan, 'this is the agreement; "We hereby promise never to rest until we show that Neil is innocent and have him brought home again."'

Reggie held the papers down to keep them from blowing away, while Allan made out fresh copies of the agreement; then all the doc.u.ments received the signature of Harry, who wrote his name with much ceremony and handed the pen to Gerald.

'What an awful lark,' said Harry, who had clambered on to the boulder and sat swinging his legs; 'it will be fine fun tracking the thief.'

Allan began to whistle.

'We haven't found much to track yet,' he said; 'neither have the police, who have been at it nearly three weeks. The less you talk about it the better, except among ourselves, for it isn't a game, this.'

'Come along,' said Marjorie, springing up, as Harry looked somewhat crestfallen, 'we've dawdled long enough; let's run down the side of the hill, and then we shan't take long to get to the cliffs.'

'All right,' said Harry briskly, 'let's go to the Smugglers' Caves; oh, I say, what a jolly island this is!'

All started to run down the steep descent, bounding from one tuft of heather to the other, their speed increasing as they neared the bottom.

Allan, Marjorie, and Reggie reached level ground at about the same time; then they turned to look at Harry and Gerald, who arrived next, looking somewhat shaken, and Hamish, who had stopped to help Tricksy.

'Not far now to the caves,' said Marjorie encouragingly. 'Do you see that headland, stretching far out into the sea? They are on the side farthest away from us. Tired, Tricksy?'

'Not at all,' protested the child, stepping alone and trying to hide a little roll in her gait, although her small face was beginning to look pale.

Reggie glanced at her approvingly as Tricksy toiled along beside Hamish, hoping that no one observed that she was hanging on to big hand.

'Oh, what a height from the ground,' said Gerald in an awed tone of voice, as the moor ended abruptly and they found themselves gazing down from the crest of what seemed a sheer precipice, with long lines of breakers falling upon the strip of sand at the foot. 'What a disturbance the birds are making, and what strange noises there are.'

'It's the waves echoing among the rocks,' said Marjorie. 'You must come here some stormy day when the tide is up; the caves get flooded and the noise is just like thunder.'

'If you'll come a little further along,' said Allan, 'there's a break in the cliffs where we can get down pretty easily. The tide is out, so we have lots of time.'

'Can we really climb down there,' said Harry, as they came to where a chasm opened in the line of cliff, with rough steps and ledges of rock standing out in the riven walls. Not a bird was to be seen in the gloomy creva.s.se; although the skuas and black-backed gulls were flying about and clamouring before the face of the cliff.

'Come along,' said Allan on the first step. 'Are you a good climber, Harry?'

'Pretty fair,' replied Harry, with a rather wild look in his eyes.

Gerald said nothing, but swung himself down with a serious countenance.

'If any one wants help, just sing out,' cried Allan, descending by the rocky steps. 'Don't look down, and you'll be all right.'

'Take my hand, Gerald,' said Tricksy graciously to Gerald, who hesitated at a perilous-looking gap.

Gerald flushed pink, and pretended not to have heard the offer of a.s.sistance; and the two strangers braced themselves to their unaccustomed feat.

The way led round the chasm and downward, sometimes approaching the face of the cliff, where the inquisitive eyes and red bills of the puffins peered out of the crevices, and whole rows of auks and kittiwakes were thrown into violent agitation by the sight of the intruders; and sometimes leading back to the dark interior of the chasm. The place was full of echoes; the hollow boom of the breakers, the swirling of water round half-submerged rocks, the hoa.r.s.e cries of the gulls and the shrill scream of the smaller sea-birds joining in an uproar which made the air tremble. Many a time, during the descent, it cost the new-comers an effort to avoid being overcome by dizziness.

At last Allan reached the last ledge, and swung himself to the ground; Reggie and Marjorie followed; Tricksy came last, and the Grahams dropped down with an air of relief.

'Well done for you,' said Allan approvingly; 'it's your first climb of the kind, and you haven't shown an atom of funk.'

Gerald's cheeks became a little redder, and Harry bore himself with greater self-consciousness.

'Only Hamish now,' said Allan, looking up at the cliff; 'how cautiously the old fellow is coming down; he has the steadiest head of the lot of us although he is so slow.'

'"Sleepy Hamish,"' remarked Harry to Gerald in an aside, repeating a nickname which he had heard Allan use. Low as the words were spoken, Marjorie heard them, and turned upon the boy like a flash.