“What an adventure!” she exclaimed. “But do you know what we did?”
“What?” murmured Terry.
“We left the precious apples.”
“For all I care they can stay there!” Sim had lost all interest. “I’ll never forget how that poor young fellow looked! I only wish that old man hadn’t chased us away. Perhaps we could have found out what Tom meant by that black thing he talked about.”
“I’d never have the courage to try!” murmured Terry.
“Do you know, girls,” burst out Arden, “I think we’ve stumbled on something important! You remember what Henry, our dear old chaplain, was muttering about the day we passed him. Something about coming out of the orchard and some sort of a promise. And the old taxi-man, too, warned us, in a way. Certainly that orchard holds a real mystery in its dark leafiness.” Arden smiled a little smugly. A sort of cat and canary smile, as Sim remarked when she got up off the bed to switch on a light.
She and Terry both were very thoughtful after what Arden had said. Perhaps Arden was right. There was certainly something more than merely queer about the orchard, it was getting weird and uncanny.
“Do you think those sophs could have known?” asked Terry.
“I don’t,” was Sim’s opinion. “They’d never have sent us there if they had known what was going to happen.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” spoke Arden. “Those sophs——”