“Your motive in retiring so early is commendable, but of no particular benefit to Rob and me. The Polydores, like the poor, we always have with us.”
“I saw that every one of them except Ptolemy was in bed at eight o’clock last night and the night before,” said Silvia. “You don’t mean to tell me––”
“Yes, I do mean,” laughed Beth. “Not Ptolemy, though. He has become too dignified to spy on us, but last night as we sat here on the settee, we heard a suppressed 257 sneeze, and Rob pulled Emerald from underneath.”
“How in the world did he ever squeeze under there?” I asked, gazing at the slight space between the floor and settee.
“He did look a little flattened, as if he had been put in a letter press,” said Rob. “I gave him a dime to go to bed and stay there. Beth and I had just resumed our 258 conversation when a still, small voice said: ‘I’ll go to bed for a dime, too.’ I then hauled Demetrius from behind the davenport.”
“And the night before,” said Beth, “when we were sitting on the porch, Pythagoras rolled off the roof, where he had been listening to us, and came down into the vines.”
“Now I’ll stop that,” I declared. “I’ll tie them in their beds and lock the doors and windows.”
“No,” refused Rob. “I’d like to try to circumvent them by their own weapons of wits. I have a little plan which I don’t dare whisper to you lest their long-range ears get in their work. We are just about to start for a walk.”