“Now if you had your straw cuffs you’d look just as you used to—”
“At the shop, eh?” finished Harris, when Lyddy caught herself up quick in the middle of this audible comment.
“Ye-es.”
“So you did notice me a bit when you were working around the little kitchen of that flat?” chuckled the young man.
“Well!” gasped Lyddy. “I couldn’t very well help remembering how you looked the night of the fire when you came sliding across to our window on that plank. That was so ridiculous!”
“Just so,” responded Harris, calmly. “Now, please be still, young ladies and–watch the professor!”
And for an hour the girls did actually manage to keep as still as mice. Their friend certainly was absorbed in the work before him. He tested one sample of water after another, and finally went back and did the work all over upon one particular bottle that he had brought down from Spink’s hiding place among the rocks.
“Just as I thought,” he declared, with a satisfied smile. “And just as father suspected. Prepared to be surprised–pleasantly. Your Aunt Jane must be warned not to sell Hillcrest at any price–just yet.”
“Oh, why not?” cried ’Phemie.
“Because I believe there is a valuable mineral spring on it. This is a sample of it here. Mineral waters with such medicinal properties as this contains can be put on the market at an enormous profit for the owner of the spring.