"He'll think you're out somewhere with Mrs. Quale probably, won't he?" answered Chet. "And I'm almost certain he won't call you up till evening, probably, because you might be out an' he'd only be wasting time an' money."
But another thought had suddenly occurred to Patricia, who, truth to tell, did not feel at all easy about this expedition, nor about what her father would think of it. A solution of one side of its difficulties had all at once leaped into her mind.
"How would it do, Chester, if we take Mrs. Quale's Delia along with us?"
"What?" exclaimed Chet, in such obvious dismay that Patricia could not resist a laugh at his expense. "Gee whiz! you'd block the whole game with that white elephant on our hands!"
"Now, be sensible, Chester!" she urged. "It's perfectly plain to me that I've either got to take her, or else not go myself. Otherwise Father would not allow it. We can have her with us, and yet not tell her all about our plans. You know, Mrs. Quale won't be back until evening, so Delia hasn't a blessed thing to do to-day. I'll ask her if she'd like to go off on a little picnic with me this morning a ways out of town where we may pick up Virginie. She'll be delighted to have the outing, that I know!"
The explanation cleared the air for Chet. "All right, I'm game if you are!" he declared. "If you go back and get her and bring her over here, I'll be round with Ted and the jit in next to no time."
Twenty minutes later he appeared in a battered jitney, sitting on the front seat with a sheepish-looking, red-haired young fellow, who bowed and grinned inarticulately as Chet introduced him as his brother Ted. Patricia, accompanied by an obviously delighted Delia and a well-filled lunch basket, clambered into the rear seat, and in another instant they were off on their adventurous mission.
CHAPTER XII
THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN SHUTTERS
It was a short and breathless ride out to Hanford, through a part of the country quite unfamiliar to Patricia, as it was off the regular trolley and railroad lines. They passed through the little town at a breakneck speed, purposely, as Chet explained. It was such a tiny place and so out of the world that every passing vehicle was apt to be an object of interest to the inhabitants and he didn't want their car to be specially noticed and commented upon. Twice Delia protested strongly against the pace, but Patricia pretended not to hear her, and they sped on.
Outside the town limits they slowed down and proceeded at a more leisurely pace, and presently turned into a rough little apology for a road leading through the woods. Under a dense mass of overhanging boughs they stopped, securely screened from the road.