“No, I can’t.” Mrs. Landry smiled understandingly. “But why should a policewoman come here for this child?”
“We’re going to find out very soon,” declared Arden.
The dessert was eaten in record time, and then, after a whispered conference, it was decided that Mrs. Landry should first interview the caller alone and, if necessary, call in the girls.
“Though, if she wants us to help her catch poor Melissa, what shall we do?” whispered Terry.
“We won’t tell her a thing,” decided Sim. “Why should we make more trouble for the poor child?”
“Even if she took Dimitri’s pin?” suggested Arden.
“We don’t know that she took it—we don’t even know, for sure, that it is his pin,” said Terry while her mother went out on the porch. “We couldn’t prove it in court.”
“I suppose not,” agreed Arden. “Though I, myself, believe it is his. Now, be careful,” she warned. “Don’t let on that we know anything about Melissa, or have just seen her, unless we have to.”
The others agreed to this. They could hear the murmuring talk between Mrs. Landry and the caller. Presently Terry’s mother came into the dining room, where the girls were still sitting, to say:
“It isn’t anything to worry about. Good news, rather than bad.”