“What do you think of it, chum?” asked Joy, as they rapidly retraced¹ their steps.  
“Hard to say,” replied Clif, briefly². “Perhaps a plot to rob the house.”
 
“Valuable pearls, eh?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“We may be mistaken after all,” persisted the lanky³ plebe. “Limbs have a habit of dropping from trees, you know. We would feel rather foolish if we aroused the house, and found only a cat or something like that. Miss Windom would laugh.”
 
“I’ll take the risk of that. I’d take any risk rather than see——”
 
“See the pearls stolen,” interrupted Joy, with an internal chuckle⁴.
 
“Confound the pearls.”
 
“Oh, I meant girl. Excuse me.”
 
By this time the villa⁵ was reached. The extensive grounds were separated from the street by a stone wall ten feet in height and surmounted⁶ by an ornamental⁷ iron railing.
 
Clif halted near one end of the wall and announced that he would try to enter there.
 
“No use arousing the lodge-keeper,” he added. “There may be nothing in it after all, and I don’t want to raise an alarm without proof. You can stay here and I’ll take a peep through the grounds on the quiet.”
 
Joy protested, but Clif was firm.
 
“Well, it won’t be long until I follow you,” muttered the former as he gave his friend a “boost” to the top of the wall. “You are altogether too fond of getting into danger. I’ll have to look after you, sonny.”
 
Clif found it an easy matter to drop into the grounds. Once inside he crouched⁸ close to the wall and took his bearings.
 
The night had assumed that depth of blackness usual before the rise of a full moon. The villa grounds presented one smudge of darkness with no alternating patches of light and shade. A cool breeze came from the direction of the river, bringing occasional bursts of noise and commotion⁹ from the central portion of the city.
 
Clif moved away from the wall, stepping carefully and with hands outstretched.
 
He had not covered a dozen feet when he plumped squarely into a depressed¹⁰ flower bed, and sprawled¹¹ headlong, creating what seemed to him a prodigious¹² clatter¹³.
 
He lay quiet for a brief period, then not hearing any sounds, rose to his feet and once more moved in the general direction of the house.
 
He knew that somewhere in the blackness in front was the tree, but of its exact location he was ignorant.
 
Suddenly a twinkling light appeared through the gloom.
 
It gleamed for a moment, then vanished.
 
“Guess they have gone to bed,” muttered Clif.
 
The thought gave him confidence, and he proceeded with less caution. The cadet had no desire to be discovered prowling about the Windom grounds. Explanations would be awkward, especially if the robber up the tree proved to be some marauding cat or restless fowl¹⁵.
 
Clif was not so positive in his belief now. The simple fact that the limb had been snapped from the tree was no longer a convincing evidence that something underhand was in progress, and he proceeded in a half-hearted manner, almost decided¹⁶ to turn back.
 
Presently his feet touched gravel¹⁷, and he knew that he had gained the path leading to the gate.
 
He paused and glanced about, at the same time listening intently. The only sounds came from Nature’s voice in the chirping¹⁸ of night insects and the distant murmuring of the city.
 
“Everything seems all right here,” muttered Clif. “I guess I was mistaken after all. I think I will——”
 
He ceased speaking and glanced upward, attracted by a rustling¹⁹ among the leaves of a tree under which he was standing²⁰.
 
Before he could move or cry out, a heavy object dropped swiftly upon him, and he sprawled headlong upon the path unconscious!
 
Out in the street Joy paced up and down impatiently in the shadows of the trees.
 
As the minutes passed without sign or sound of Clif, the lanky plebe became uneasy, and he reproached himself for permitting his friend to make the venture alone.
 
“There was no sense in it, anyway,” he muttered. “I could have gone along just as well as not. If he don’t come out in three seconds, I’ll follow.”
 
Joy’s “three seconds” soon elapsed, and the plebe made good his word by boldly scaling the wall. This he did by propping²¹ a piece of wood against the brick barrier, thus gaining the ironwork at the top.
 
Dropping lightly upon the soft earth ............