Page:The Story of the Treasure Seekers.djvu/189

Rh wasting our time, not trying to rescue the old gentleman in deadly peril. Come&mdash;buck up! Do let's do something!"

It was dinner-time, and Pincher was going round getting the bits off the plates. There were plenty because it was cold-mutton day. And Alice said&mdash;

"It's only fair to try Oswald's way&mdash;he has tried all the things the others thought of. Why couldn't we rescue Lord Tottenham?"

Lord Tottenham is the old gentleman who walks over the Heath every day in a paper collar at three o'clock&mdash;and when he gets halfway, if there is no one about, he changes his collar and throws the dirty one into the furze-bushes.

Dicky said, "Lord Tottenham's all right&mdash;but where's the deadly peril?"

And we couldn't think of any. There are no highwaymen on Blackheath now, I am sorry to say. And though Oswald said half of us could be highwaymen and the other half rescue party, Dora kept on saying it would be wrong to be a highwayman&mdash;and so we had to give that up.

Then Alice said, "What about Pincher?"

And we all saw at once that it could be done.