However, her reason for
coming, Nan conceived, was a very serious one. This was no
foolish escapade.
By showing her light now and then she managed to follow the dark
lane without stepping off into any of the deep puddles which lay
beside the path. She came, finally, to the spot where Rafe had
met her and Tom with his lantern that evening. Here stood the
great tree with a big hollow in it, Margaret Llewellen's
favorite playhouse.
For a moment Nan hesitated. The place looked so dark and there
might be something alive in the hollow.
But she plucked up courage and flashed her lamp into it. The
white ray played about the floor of the hollow. The other
Llewellen children dared not come here, for Margaret punished
them if they disturbed anything belonging to her.
What Nan was looking for was not in sight. She stepped inside,
and raised the torch. The rotting wood had been neatly scooped
out, and where the aperture grew smaller at the top a wide shelf
had been made by the ingenious Margaret. Nan had never been in
this hide-out before.
"It must be here! It must be here!" she kept telling herself,
and stood on her tiptoes to feel along the shelf, which was above
her head.
Nan discovered nothing at first.
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