And John kept his word. Joey was fairly safe on the Morse alphabet in half an hour, and felt immensely pleased with herself. She was only too delighted that Gracie stayed away so long; she was beginning to enjoy herself for the first time that day.
John directed her to a table-drawer, where there was an electric torch and a whistle; he took the torch and she the whistle; and she went over to the window to make her first attempt at "sending" in Morse. She boggled rather over it, and had to be prompted in two or three letters; but John was encouraging, and assured her she was picking it up very quickly. Then he proceeded to reply, very slowly, with long and short flashes from the electric torch. Directly he began Joey knew of what it reminded her—the curious blue flashes she had seen from the leads on that first night she was at school.
She meant to ask John about them after he had finished his Morse sentence—just now that needed all her concentration.
"Long, short, long, short," she spelt out. "C—is that right, John? Short—long—don't tell me! I know. A—long—short—oh, that's the opposite!—don't tell me—N."
"Right—group," said John. "Ready for next word?"
He flashed, "Short, long—long—long," Joey almost shrieked in her excitement. It was a letter like that she had seen in the rainy darkness from the leads.
"J," she spelt, and then she felt she must tell John about that light without waiting for the slow, laborious spelling out of the next word. She was just going to speak, but she had to see what the next letter was, and in that instant she was seeing, Gracie spoke under the widely opened window. Gracie's voice was very clear, and every syllable came quite distinctly up to Joey at the window.
"Yes; I'm awfully annoyed about it, Eleanor, but I can't get mother to see reason. I suppose she feels she ought to be nice to this child, who is a sort of cousin; but it couldn't have hurt her to go back an hour or two earlier and leave the car free for me, at the time I want it. As it is, mother says she isn't going to send the little nuisance back till half-past six."
"What a shame! I should strike at small schoolgirl cousins who have to be kept all day, and sent back in the car."