“Whoever it was,” she said, “must have got out this way.”

The girls exchanged a long glance of uneasy speculation.  In the dim light of the remaining lamp the room seemed filled with shadows.  Billie drew the heavy curtains across the casement.  Those at the other window were already drawn.

“Come along, Nancy-Bell,” she exclaimed.  “Thieves don’t blow out lights and then come back and relight them.  It would be extremely unprofessional if they did and very reckless besides.  It’s certain to be one of those timid little persons in a kimono.  We had better be getting back to the drawing-room or Papa will be wondering what has become of us.”

Hardly had they closed the door after them, when a figure, wrapped from head to foot in a long brown garment something like a cape, emerged from behind the other curtains.  Whoever it was, whether man or woman, it was impossible to judge, opened the door, peeped cautiously into the passage and, finding it quite empty, marched boldly out.  In another moment the intruder had disappeared into the garden.

As the girls passed along the hall they paused to notice the picturesque group of servants gathered near the door.  There was a smile on every face, not a smile of ridicule, but of courteous enjoyment.

“Is there any rude person in the length and breadth of Japan?” thought Billie, while Nancy once more counted heads and then shook her own thoughtfully.

“I don’t understand,” she pondered, “but Billie is usually right, so I’ll just cease to worry.”

CHAPTER VI.

Cherry blossoms.

A few hours of brilliant sunshine and all the dampness had been sucked up from the earth; the air was warmed and dried and the mists rolled back from the garden, revealing a fairy-land too exquisite to be real.

Something especially wonderful had happened that morning.  The faces of the little maids had been filled with a joyous expectancy as they hurried from room to room on their household duties.  A mysterious smile hovered on the lips of Komatsu when he appeared to receive his orders.  Even old O’Haru was secretly immensely pleased about something, but they all had evidently agreed among themselves to keep the great news secret until the psychological moment had arrived when the ladies of the house and Mr. Campbell had assembled on the piazza just before breakfast.

When this occurred word was swiftly and silently conveyed over the household and all persons belonging to the domestic staff instantly gathered in the hall and doorway.

“Why, what on earth is the matter with them?” Miss Campbell asked uneasily.  “Will you please look:  the entire household collected in the front hall.”

Mr. Campbell was as much at a loss as his cousin.

“They look as if they were going to play a joke on us,” observed Billie, “Did you ever see anything so guileless and simple-hearted as they are?”