CHAPTER V
TELL US ABOUT THE HACIENDA
“What did you think?” Laura inquired afterwards when the girls were all settled in a hotel close to the border for the night. “That the walls of that inner office would just cave in when Mr. MacKenzie started bellowing.”
“Why, Laura Polk, how disrespectfully you talk!” Bess exclaimed from her place in front of the dressing table where she was brushing her hair. “And Mr. MacKenzie is our host too. If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t be down here now. At this minute we’d probably be on the shores of a lake near Tillbury.”
“Oh, Bess, you know I’m not one bit disrespectful, really,” Laura retorted. “I like Mr. MacKenzie real well and you know I do. I’d give anything in the world to be able to roar the way he does.” There was genuine longing in her voice as she spoke. “Just imagine,” she continued, “how handy that roar would have come in the night we routed the ghost. I just think,” she continued to play with the idea of making use of Adair MacKenzie’s roar, “how handy it would come in, if we were to meet Linda Riggs.
“Couldn’t we manage,” she was lying prone on the bed, and, as this new idea came to her, she cupped her chin in her hands and looked off into space, “to have your cousin around sometime when Linda Riggs was present. I’d love to have him analyze her the way he did us today. Such fun!” Laura’s eyes danced merrily at the thought.
“And then I’d like to have her open her mouth to protest,” Laura continued, “and have him roar at her. Oh, I’d give a million dollars, a trillion dollars,” she amended generously, “to hear that roar.”
“You and me too,” Bess joined in. “By the way, have any of you heard anything about her lately.”
“Not I,” Nan answered, “and I must say the less I hear about her and the less I see of her, the better. There was a rumor, you know, at school that she was going to be allowed to come back this fall.”
“I know it,” Bess somehow always managed to hear all the rumors, “and I can’t for the life of me understand why Dr. Prescott would ever let her reenter. Certainly, she’s no credit to Lakeview Hall, or to any school for that matter. If I were a principal I wouldn’t let her in my school. In fact, if I got the chance at all, I’d just slam the door right in her face.”