Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/58

Rh with that insane board ? It doesn't let you have orders to view." The young man threw his head back and laughed.

"Come!" he said, "what have you been up to? Tell me all about it;"

"Well," said Lucilla, who had slowly been recovering her wind and her sang-froid, "the first thing to tell you is that my friend has pitched head first down your treacherous back-stairs and broken her leg."

"Good Lord!" said the young man. "And you're standing here talking to me about boards!"

"I'm only just recovering from your catching hold of me like a ghost," said Lucilla. "And before we go any further, do you mind defining the situation?"

"Defining? . . ." "Yes. Are you arresting us for burglars, or"

"Oh, don't be silly!" said the young man, with a lamentable want of polish.

"Well, then," said Lucilla, coldly and carefully explanatory, "my friend has fallen down the back-stairs of this hateful house. She thinks she's broken her leg. Will you help me?"

"What do you take me for? " he said. "Where is she? Come on!"

"You won't send us to prison?" Lucilla insisted.

"Don't be so extremely silly," said the young man. ("No manners," said Lucilla to herself.) "Where is she? Come on."

So it happened that Jane in that shivery strange borderland that lies between you as you are and you as you are in mad dreams, heard footsteps coming near, and voices.

"Look out," said Lucilla, "you'll tread on her!"

"But you said she was at the bottom of the stairs."

"I heard . . . you . . . scream . . . and . . . I . . . came . . . as ... far . . . as . . . I . . . could," said Jane very carefully, not opening her eyes.

"Help me to get hold of her—that's right," said the