Almost imperiously this time the hand beckoned again. There seemed a suppressed urgency about it. She decided to throw caution to the winds and go down to the linden tree. As she stepped from the porch she shivered with excitement. It was all so thrilling! She would keep the girls spellbound with a recital of this tomorrow. She walked swiftly across the lawn. Now that she had decided what to do she wanted to hurry before caution changed her mind. She parted the low hanging branches and stepped into the shadow beyond.
“Did I scare you?”
Gale almost laughed aloud. It was Stubby, Brent Stockton’s mechanic.
“You did!” she declared. “What do you want? How did you know where I lived?”
“It was easy to discover that,” he said brushing her question aside. “You have to take me to Brent. Where is he?”
“He is——” Gale stopped herself. She remembered how firmly Brent had said the mechanic was not under any circumstances to communicate with him. “Why do you want to see him?” she asked. “He said you shouldn’t.”
“I’ve got to see him,” Stubby said firmly. “Something has gone wrong with the plane and he is the only one who can fix it. He knows his engine backwards.”
“But——” Gale hesitated, torn between Brent’s wishes and this new emergency. If something really were wrong with the engine he would want to see the mechanic, wouldn’t he?
“Where is he?” Stubby persisted.
“On the island,” she said slowly. “In our clubhouse.”