"Certainly not!" cried Ricky. "You're bound for our guest-room. Now keep quiet. We'll be there soon."
"Ah ain't a-goin'," he declared mutinously.
"Don't be silly," Ricky scolded him; "we're taking you. Does Val have to come and hold you down?"
"Ah can't!" His eyes flickered from Val's face to hers. There was something more than independence behind that firm refusal. "Ah ain't a-goin' theah."
"Why not?"
He seemed to shrink from her. "It ain't fitten," he murmured.
"How perfectly silly," laughed Ricky. But Val thought that he understood.
"Because of the secret you know?" he asked quietly.
The pallor beneath Jeems' heavy tan vanished in a flush of slow-burning red. "Ah reckon so," he muttered, but he met Val's eyes squarely.
"Let's leave all explanations until later," Val suggested.