“Reckon you won’t need the old lady now that the young ’un’s come to hold your hand and make a fuss over you,” Mrs. Bybee grumbled jealously.
“What’s that? What’s that?” Winfield Bybee, who had come over from the carnival grounds in a service car, demanded from the doorway. “Been flirting with my wife, young man? Reckon I’ll have to put the gloves on with you when that crippled wing of yours is O. K. Well, Sally, old Pop has done you another good turn.”
Sally paled and reached instinctively for David’s left hand. “Oh! You mean—Mrs. Barr, the lady who was talking to you?”
“Nothing else but!” Bybee nodded, smiling at her. “She tried to make me admit you was Sally Ford and I acted innocent as a new-born lamb. Told her you’d been with us since we left New York.”
“Why is she so interested in Sally, Mr. Bybee?” David asked quietly.
“She ’lowed a carnival wasn’t no place for a pure young girl,” Bybee chuckled. “She said they was anxious over at the orphanage to get Sally back, away from her life of sin, and that pers’n’ly she took a powerful interest in unfortunate girls and was determined to see Sally safe back in the Home if ‘Princess Lalla’ was Sally Ford. I lied like a gentleman for you, child. Told her she was a nice little dame and all that, but clear off her base in this instance. Reckon I put it across all right, for she shut up and beat it pretty soon.”
“I think she’s wonderful,” Sally surprised them all by speaking up almost sharply. “She’s just trying to be kind. She doesn’t know how awful an orphans’ home can be.”
“Come along, Mother. Let’s give these two kids a chance. But you mustn’t stay long, Sally. Tomorrow’s Saturday, and you oughta be enough of a trouper by now to know what that means. We head South Saturday night, riding all day Sunday.”
“Out of the state?” Sally and David cried in unison.
“Yep. Out of the state. You kids’ll be safe then. The police ain’t going to bother about extradition for a couple of juvenile delinquents. So long, Dave boy. Don’t let this little Jane keep you awake too late.”