But, somehow, Dorothy could not forget the face that she had caught sight of, and she felt instinctively that the prowler was not a neighbor “taking a short cut,” for he need not have stepped on the porch in that case.
So when school matters were settled, and the boys had returned from their ride in the Fire Bird to hear the account of the little adventure, and to take extra precautions in locking up the big house, Dorothy whispered to Ned and Nat her suspicion--that the man who peeked in at the windows might be one of the bad gypsies, and that he might know something about the stolen pigeons.
“We ought to set a trap for the rascal,” Ned whispered in answer to his cousin’s suspicions, “he may be coming back for the rest of the birds. I wish I had told John to keep his ears open while his eyes were shut, but it’s too late to do that now,” and then, with every assurance of safety, and the promise to be up at the slightest alarm, Ned and Nat said good-night to their cousin, and Dorothy’s fears were soon forgotten in the sleep that comes to healthy girls after the pleasant exercise of a lingering summer’s day.
Ned and Nat, too, soon fell into sound sleep, for their evening ride left in its tracks the pleasant flavor of most persuasive drowsiness, in spite of the promises made to Dorothy that they would be “on the lookout” all night, and no intruder should come around the Cedars without the two youths of the estate being aware of the intrusion.
But alas for such promises! Did boys ever sleep so soundly? And even Dorothy, though usually one apt to awake at small sounds, “hugged her pillow” with a mighty “grip,” because, of course, when a girl insists upon keeping awake just as long as she can keep her eyes propped open, when the “props” do slip away, sleep comes with a “thud.”
So it was that Tavia, she who made a practice of covering up her head and getting to sleep in order to avoid trouble (when she heard it coming)--Tavia it was who heard something very like a step on the side porch, just after midnight.
Some one has said that it is easier to keep burglars out than to chase them out: this infers, of course, that it may be wiser to give a false alarm than to take the opposite course. But true to her principles Tavia covered up her head, and told herself that it would be very foolish to arouse the household just because she heard a strange sound.