“We may be very thankful it didn’t wipe out Forest Lodge, as well,” said Aunt Emma, coming from the kitchen at that moment and bearing a huge tray laden with johnnycake. “We might be huddled in the boats now, wondering what to do next, instead of sitting snug and safe in here——”
“Eyeing the most delicious platter of cornbread ever evolved by a cook,” finished Jessie, gayly.
“I vote we do something more than eye it,” cried Fol. “Come on, fellows, let’s get next to that cornbread!”
There were chicken croquets besides and a steaming dish of boiled potatoes and a bowl of peaches for dessert.
After dinner, seated cozily about the grate fire, the girls could no longer restrain their curiosity.
“If you keep us waiting another minute to tell us what you did down at that swamp, I am quite certain I shall explode,” said Amy, decidedly.
“We have seen quite enough wreckage to-day without your starting something,” declared Burd. There were signs of impatience on the girls’ part at this speech, so he asked quickly: “What is it you would like to know, fair ones?”
“Oh, Burd, you are exasperating!” cried Jessie, impatiently, adding, as she turned to Darry: “Aren’t you ever going to tell us about those awful people who captured you, Darry, and all the rest of it? You must know how eager we are to know what really happened.”
“It is a pretty long story, and not all of it is exactly pleasant,” returned Darry, gravely, his gaze fixed steadily on the leaping flames in the fireplace. “You must have thought my actions for the past week or two rather—er—curious.”
The girls exchanged glances and Amy said dryly:
“You don’t know the half of it, Darry.”
“You remember Link Mullen up at college, don’t you, Burd?” Darry asked with apparent irrelevance. “The dark one with the eyebrow moustache—friend of Monty Reid?”
“Link—of course I remember Link,” returned Burd, his gaze introspective. “Sporty guy, rather too fond of hitting the high spots?”
Darry nodded. His expression was still unusually grave. The girls listened silently not daring to interrupt him lest he retire once more into that baffling shell of reticence which had puzzled them so long.
“That is Link all right,” he said. “Kindhearted, you know, and a good fellow, the life of a party and all that. But his sister worried about him, tried to cut him off too much conviviality, midnight parties and such things.”
“His sister!” exclaimed Jessie. “Oh, Darry, then that tall girl was——”
“Link Mullen’s sister,” agreed Darry.
“But how did she come to be in New Melford and, later, in Gibbonsville?” cried Amy, and Darry gestured impatiently.
“Give me time. I was coming to that,” he protested. “Link and his sister—their parents are dead, and they live with their guardian, who is in South America at present—had a quarrel, and the girl ran away from home, declaring that if Link intended to ruin himself she did not intend to stay around and watch him do it.”
“Must have been a bird of a quarrel,” murmured Burd, appreciatively. “Go ahead, old man, what happened next?”
“The girl kept her word and slipped away the next day, taking only a grip with her and leaving no word as to her destination.”
“But where do you come in, Darry?” asked Jessie, softly.
“Right about here,” returned the boy, smiling at her. “Link was pretty much cut up, and he came to me and asked me to help him find his sister. Of course I said I would, but I hadn’t the least idea in the world how I was going to do it.”
“You knew her by sight, then, did you?” asked Amy.
“Link had brought her up to one or two of the college affairs,” replied Darry. “He was mighty proud and fond of her.”
“But not proud or fond enough to reform for her sweet sake,” remarked Amy dryly.
“I imagine this has been a lesson to him. He told me that if he was ever lucky enough to get Eileen back he would never do another thing to cross her as long as he lived. He was afraid she might be tempted to do something desperate, you see.”
“I guess he was right. If you could call passing counterfeit five-dollar bills desperate,” remarked Amy, and Darry took her up quickly.
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CHAPTER XXII THE ESCAPE
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