Page:The Yellow Book - 13.djvu/273

Rh "By Jove! But that is ripping!"

Annie was not the only member of the family who was puzzled and distressed by Kit's mysterious devotion to the barn loft. Judy had found it impossible to look with full favour upon his, to her, unaccountable devotion to his present associates. It had never been her plan to insist upon any confidence from him until he chose to give it. But for the first time this negative mode of procedure seemed about to fail.

And so, on the morning of a certain May day, observing his impatience to bolt his breakfast and be off to the barn for an interval before school, she determined to follow and to learn as much as she might without positive eavesdropping. When she entered the barn she heard no sound but Annie's familiar whinney. Above in the loft everything seemed quiet. She began to wonder if Kit could be alone, when a heavy sound like the quick falling of an inert body reached her. Kit, mastering a difficult turn, had thrown little Wilson forcibly to the floor. This was followed by shrill yells of approval, and Judy found herself hearing fragments of speech never intended for delicate ears, and of such a nature that for an instant she stood transfixed with angry indignation. Then, without pausing to consider any result but the desirable one of being rid of the young barbarians overhead, she went swiftly to the foot of the stairs, where, in sterner tones than he had ever heard from her, she called him:

"Kit!"

There was no mistaking the meaning in that call. To every boy who had been guilty of an oath or any other contraband expression it meant that she had heard him, and that in her judgment Kit was responsible.

And Kit himself was so bewildered with the surprise of her being there, that for one swift moment he felt almost like a culprit. Rh