This speech gave the fun-makers a feeling of dejection. Most of them did not know how clear Dr. Prescott’s sense of justice was. It looked as though Nan Sherwood was in for a lot of trouble. And she had given them such a delightful supper!
It so troubled their minds that even the timid ones thought no more of “the black dog” as they filed out of the boathouse. Nan locked the door, and she and Mrs. Cupp came in the rear as the whole party scuttled up the long flight of steps to the brow of the bluff. Mrs. Cupp walked slowly and leaned upon Nan’s arm.
“Don’t you know who that was out there in the bushes, Nancy?” the school matron asked.
“No, Mrs. Cupp,” declared Nan. “Only I know it couldn’t be a ghost.”
“How about Grace Mason’s brother?”
“Walter?” cried Nan, in surprise.
“Yes. He helped you get those things over from Ricolletti’s, didn’t he?”
“Ye—es,” admitted Nan. She feared that the admission might get Walter into trouble.
“It seems to me like a boy’s trick,” Mrs. Cupp said reflectively. “I should have stopped to see who it was at the time. But I was afraid. My sister and I are in trouble enough as it stands, and I was nervous, I suppose,” she added, more to herself than to Nan.
“I’m very sure, Mrs. Cupp, that Walter would not frighten anybody.”