"I don't believe a word of your story; but I am willing to be sure before I do anything."

"What are you going to do?"

"I shall take care of you; you will know what I mean when I have proved the case."

"You ought to have told Mrs. Green where you put the cat, for the poor creature would have starved to death before I let her out."

"We shall see. Mr. Grant told me to take care of you if you did not behave yourself while the family were away. I will go up and ask Mrs.

Green about this matter, and if I find you have not told me the truth,--and I don't believe you have,--I shall take care of you."

"When shall I see you again?" asked f.a.n.n.y, with the most brazen impudence.

"You will see me sooner than you will want to see me, if you have been doing wrong."

"But I shall not be here when you come back. We are going right up to school now."

"I can find you, wherever you are," replied the constable, confidently, as he walked away towards the mansion.

f.a.n.n.y was entirely relieved of all her fears; she was even jubilant over her success in cheating her persecutor. Her conscience did not trouble her now. She readily comprehended the details of the plan by which she was to be detected, if she attempted to steal from the library. Of course, the constable would soon find out that she had not told the truth, and that Mrs. Green knew nothing about the cat in the drawer.

After the announcement that the family were to be absent a week, had been made, it was observed that f.a.n.n.y was in unusually good spirits.

Miss f.a.n.n.y had detected her in the act of looking through one of the library windows, while her father was paying a bill in the room. Mr.

Grant, wealthy as he was, had always been very methodical in his business affairs. He kept a sum of money in a drawer for household expenses, to which Mrs. Green and his daughters had access. When anything was paid out by any member of the family, the amount was put down on a paper in the drawer. After the advent of f.a.n.n.y Jane, and after she had been detected in some small pilfering, the key of this drawer was concealed as we have described.

Miss f.a.n.n.y at once suspected the motive of her wayward charge, and told her father of the fact, on the day before the departure of the family for Hudson. Mr. Grant, more desirous of reforming the wicked girl than of anything else, consulted Mr. Long. Mrs. Green was told where she might find money for the payment of the household bills, and admonished to be very careful in concealing the keys; but nothing was said to her about the cat and the commandment. If f.a.n.n.y did attempt to steal, the case was to be managed by the constable, who had been instructed to take her to his own house, and keep her in close subjection until the return of the family.

The cat belonged to Mr. Long, who was confident that the animal, when released by the act of the thief, would run home, when her presence would inform him of the culprit's deed. The cat--true to her domestic instinct--had run home; but the constable had not immediately seen her.

As soon as he discovered the tell-tale p.u.s.s.y, he hastened over to Woodville, expecting to find f.a.n.n.y penitently studying the commandment, which was the moral of Mr. Grant's stratagem; but before he reached the house he saw two girls on the pier, and recognized f.a.n.n.y as one of them.

Willing to be entirely fair, and deeming it possible that Mr. Grant's plan had failed, he went up to the house to consult Mrs. Green, while f.a.n.n.y rushed down the pier to join her companion in mischief.

CHAPTER IV.

f.a.n.n.y THE SKIPPER.

"What did he want of you, Fan?" asked Kate Magner, with a curiosity not unmixed with anxiety, as her leader in mischief joined her at the foot of the pier.

"O, never mind that," exclaimed f.a.n.n.y, in reply. "We have no time to talk about it now."

"But what did he say?" demanded Kate, who thought her present action ought to be governed in some measure by the words of the constable.

"He didn't say much; it is all right now. Come, jump into the boat. We haven't a moment to lose."

"I want to know what he said before I get any deeper into the mud,"

persisted Kate; but we are compelled to acknowledge that her scruples were mere worldly prudence, and were not called forth by the upbraidings of an awakened conscience.

"You can't back out now, Kate. I made it all right with Mr. Long,"

replied f.a.n.n.y, with energy, as she drew the skiff up to the steps, ready for her more timid companion to embark. "Now, get in, and don't waste another instant in talking about nothing."

"You are keeping everything to yourself. If you don't tell me what Mr.

Long wanted of you, I won't get into the boat. Was it about the money you _found_?" asked Kate.

"No; he didn't say a word about that. He only asked me why I was not at school."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him the teacher sent us down to get some green branches to put over the clock, for we were to have visitors at school this afternoon."

"Did he believe you?"

Kate laughed; she appreciated what she regarded as the joke of a clever deception; the wickedness of the act did not disturb her.

"Of course he believed me--why shouldn't he? He has gone up to ask Mrs.

Green if I went to school."

"But he will find out all about it."

"No, he won't; besides, if he does, we shall be a mile off when he gets back here again."

"Didn't he say a word about the money you found?"

"Not a word, Kate. Now, jump in, or we shall certainly get caught. We shall have time enough to talk about these things when we get away from the pier."

Kate was satisfied, and stepped into the skiff. All her fears related to the money in the possession of her friend, which, she was almost certain, had been stolen. She was moralist enough to understand that even if the money had been found on the floor, as f.a.n.n.y represented, it was just as much stolen as though it had been taken from Mr. Grant's pocket-book. Kate had not engaged in this theft, and she was not willing to bear any of the blame on account of it. If the crime had already been discovered, she did not wish to expose herself to the peril of helping to spend the money. According to f.a.n.n.y's statement, nothing had been found out, and she got into the skiff.

f.a.n.n.y had been among the boats a great deal during her residence at Woodville, and rowing and sailing were suited to her masculine taste.

She was a girl of quick parts; her faculty of imitation was highly developed, and generally what she had seen done she could do herself.

She could row cross-handed very well, and she had no difficulty in pulling the skiff out to the Greyhound's moorings. Kate stepped on board of the sail-boat, and f.a.n.n.y, fastening the painter of the skiff at the stern, began to bustle around with as much confidence as though she had been a skipper ever since she left her cradle.

She had often sailed in the Greyhound with Ben and others, and she knew precisely what was to be done in order to get the boat under way. She understood how to move the tiller in order to make the craft go in a given direction, and had an indistinct idea of beating and tacking; but she was very far from being competent to manage a sailboat.

The stops were removed from the sails, under the direction of the adventurous f.a.n.n.y, and the foresail hoisted. It was a more difficult matter to cast off the moorings, but their united strength accomplished the feat, and the Greyhound, released from the bonds which held her, immediately drifted to the sh.o.r.e, for her unskilful skipper had not trimmed the foresail so that it would draw.

"I thought you knew how to manage a boat," said Kate, contemptuously.

"So I do," replied f.a.n.n.y, as she gathered up the fore-sheet, and trimmed the sail.

"What are you doing in here, then?"

"I only came in here to get a fair start," added the skipper, not at all disconcerted by the mishap.

"Folks don't generally run the boat ash.o.r.e before they start," sneered Kate, who certainly had no confidence in the seamanship of the feminine skipper.

"That's the way they do it!" exclaimed f.a.n.n.y, triumphantly, as the sail began to draw, and the boat moved off from the sh.o.r.e. "Now, we are all right. That's just the way I meant to make her go."