CHAPTER X
AT DAWN
“How do you mean—it might be the best thing to get acquainted with her?” demanded Phyllis, indignantly.
“Why, if we could do so in some way that wasn’t like forcing ourselves on her, it might lead to a good many things—solving our mystery mainly. And then,—who knows?—she might be pleasant when you come to know her better.”
“No chance!” declared Phyllis, and dismissed that subject. “Well, Aunt Sally didn’t do much toward clearing up things, did she?” she went on. “I was in hopes she’d be able to give us a good many more ideas. One thing’s certain though. That girl evidently came here in the car that rainy night, but—Look here! Something strange has just occurred to me—Aunt Sally didn’t say which rainy night, and there have been two in the past ten days. I judge that the girl must have been with her for at least a couple of weeks, for the hotel closed up more than two weeks ago.”
“I’ve been thinking of that, too,” replied Leslie. “And, do you know, I’m almost certain Aunt Sally must have meant the last one, because she only said ‘rainy’ night. If she’d meant that other, wouldn’t she have said ‘the night of the hard storm,’ or something like that? Because it really was unusual, and if this Miss Ramsay had gone out that night, I believe Aunt Sally would have been considerably more shocked and would have said so. What do you make of it?”
“The only thing I can make out of it is that she didn’t go out that first night. But if she didn’t visit Curlew’s Nest that night, then who in the world did?”
This certainly was a poser, and neither of the two girls could find an adequate conjecture that would answer.