The girls were relieved as they had neither of them relished the idea of returning over that desolately lonesome road with bandits at large.
Jerry was continuing. “Mrs. Goode runs the hotel and she’s just as nice and friendly as she can be. The mothering sort. Dick, you stay here in the car, will you, while I escort the girls across the road?”
“With the greatest of pleasure!” the Eastern boy said.
Dora teased, as she permitted him to assist her out of the rumble. “You ought not to say that you’re pleased to have us leave you.”
“Not that; NEVER!” Dick assured her, then in a low voice he confided, “I’ve been wild to be in on all this, and if I’d been sent home with you girls, I—”
Dora laughingly interrupted. “You might have been in it more than any of the others.” She shuddered at the thought. “We three might have—”
“Now, who’s using her imagination?” Mary inquired. Then, after scanning the heavens, she added, “Big Brother, the Seagull has flown entirely out of sight, hasn’t it?”
“I reckon it has. Back in a minute, Dick.”
Mary and Dora were thrilled with excitement and thought all that was transpiring a high adventure, although they were a little troubled, fearing that the three boys in whom they were interested might be in danger before the night was over.
The old adobe two-story building to which Jerry led the girls was across the wide square from the post office. The large office was filled with people, most of them women of the town who had gathered there. Many had come from the lonely outskirts. They had been afraid to stay alone in their homes while their men were bandit-hunting.