“No, except the conclusion I drew about the person’s coming on a stormy night. Do you realize this?—there’s quite a big chance that they—or rather, she!—will come again on the next stormy night—perhaps!”
“Well, if that’s the case,” exclaimed Phyllis, “I’ve drawn a little conclusion of my own. The next stormy night I’m going to spend at your bungalow—and we’re going to keep awake all night!”
CHAPTER VII
A NEW DEVELOPMENT
But the weather remained quite clear for several nights after this. And meantime other things happened that gave a new twist to the girls’ conjectures.
Two mornings after the events of the last chapter, Phyllis appeared at Rest Haven with a mysterious wrapped parcel in her hand. Answering Leslie’s curious glance, she whispered:
“I want you to take this thing and keep it here and hide it. It’s ‘The Dragon’s Secret.’ I don’t feel safe a minute with it around our place since Ted’s performance the other day. You know, he boasted he’d find out our secret, and he will certainly make every effort to, or I don’t know him. Whether he’ll succeed or not depends upon how clever we are in spoiling his plans. If he found this, though, we might as well not try to keep the rest from him. I discovered him snooping around my room rather suspiciously yesterday. This was locked up in my trunk, and he said he was only hunting for fudge! But anyhow, you’d better keep it now, if you can think of some safe place to hide it.”
“I’m sure I don’t know where to put it!” sighed Leslie, rather worried by the responsibility. “Aunt Marcia and I shared one big trunk because it didn’t seem worth while to bring two, when one needs so few things here. So of course I couldn’t put it in there, and the lock of my suitcase is broken. There isn’t a bureau-drawer with a key in the whole bungalow—so what am I going to do?”