“I don’t know, but we are going to keep our ears and eyes open,” Kent told him. “If anything does happen, we want to be on the job. Well, let’s get back in the living room.”
They found all the young people gathered around the fire, and Coach Jordan and Bill Jefferson were taking off their hats and coats. “We put the horses in the barn,” the coach explained. Then he rubbed his hands and held them close to the fire. “After being out there, this heat feels good.”
Kent and the twins looked around the room. “Anybody seen Barry?” Kent asked.
Everyone looked around, and then one by one they shook their heads. “He brought that pail in and then left the kitchen,” Charlie announced.
“He came in here and took his hat and coat,” one of the girls remarked. “Then he went out into that hall toward the front door.”
The twins exchanged troubled glances, and Kent glanced involuntarily at Pearl, who looked suddenly alarmed. “Too bad Pearl knows anything about this place,” Kent thought. But he spoke carelessly: “Oh, well, he’ll be right back. Let’s have some of those marshmallows. What happened to those black ones?”
“Fell in the fire,” Jennie Morrison explained. “But they’ll taste just as good as the others. They are just like some people, rough outside and sweet inside!”
“Jennie is becoming quite a philosopher,” laughed Mrs. Jordan. “Tell us some more!”
The girl laughed. “I can toast marshmallows better than I can give you philosophy,” she said.
The talking went on in a good-natured way, but not all of them were joining in it. The three mystery hunters were quiet, and Pearl frequently looked at Mac, and she was plainly uneasy. Finally Mac leaned over to Tim.