44. ' Make-Believe

“Then we should get some of the
treasure ?”

It was the Visitor’s turn to be doubtful.
“Some of it, I suppose,” he answered.
“At.any rate, we should have the fun of
finding it.” .

Doris hesitated, deliberating. ‘“ That
would be nice,” she admitted. ‘Should we
get so much as a pound?”

“ At least that,” said the Visitor.

“Then I think Ill come. Ellen’s
mother is very poor, and she wants
to buy a mangle. But she’s a pound
short in her money, and in these hard
times you can’t get trust—not like you
used to when Ellen’s mother was young.
There’s so many rogues about that
even honest folk must pay cash. “Ellen’s
mother told me. I could give her the
pound.”

The Visitor groaned within himself,
foreseeing that he would be altogether out
of favour if the expedition ended fruitlessly.
Yet there was nothing for it but to go