"We don't allow strangers in the barn, and if you don't go quietly at
once, I must send somebody to turn you out."

Mrs. Higgs kept her eyes fixed upon him with her usual blank stare while
he said this in a very loud and decided tone. When he had finished she
suddenly blew out the light with so much unnecessary force that Max felt
something like a gust of wind upon his face.

"Turn me out!" and she laughed harshly. "Turn me out! Send for the
police to do it, if you like."

Max went out of the barn, listening to her cackling laugh, and not
feeling comfortable until he had found his way into the open air. He at
once gave orders to the stablemen and gardeners to search the barn and
to turn out the strangers they might find there.

But though they hunted in every corner, they found no one, and Max was
only too glad to come to the conclusion that Mrs. Higgs had taken his
advice, and got away with as little delay as possible.

This incident, however, following so closely on the heels of his
experiences at the wharf, took away all the zest with which Max should
have entered into the programme which, by Mr. Wedmore's special wish,
had been prepared for that evening; and while Doreen and Queenie and
Mildred Appleby and two young nephews of Mr. Wedmore's chattered and
laughed, and made dinner a very lively affair, Max was quiet and what
his cousins called "grumpy," and threatened to be a wet blanket on the
evening's entertainment.

"Going to have all the servants in to dance Sir Roger!" cried he, in