Billy grinned. “Dance is off—that is, Trevelyan is dancing somewhere, I guess, but all I get is a chance to pay the piper. You see, it was this way—well, I’ll have to begin with this morning.”
“Wait,” commanded Babbie, crossing to Babe’s window and giving the B’s familiar trill. “Come down, all three of you,” she called, when Babe’s head appeared between the curtains. “Mr. Benson has had a real adventure, and we’re on the edge of it ourselves.”
“You’re the causes of the final catastrophe,” accused Billy smilingly, as Babbie came back to him. “If you’d made the proper connections with us this afternoon, Trevelyan couldn’t have pulled off his grand dénouement. Where were you, anyhow?”
“Right where we belonged,” said Babbie firmly. “You begin with this morning, and we’ll fill in our part when the time comes.”
CHAPTER XV
A NOISY PARISIAN GHOST
“Makes me feel like the greenest variety of green freshman,” said Billy, when he had shaken hands all around, “but still I do think he managed awfully well, and that he’d have taken in almost anybody with his smooth stories. Of course I haven’t traveled much, but still——”
“Do go ahead and tell us about his taking your money,” begged Babbie impatiently, “and then we can discuss him to our hearts’ content.”
Billy nodded assent. “Well,” he began, “you all know about our coming over to Paris together. Naturally, as I can’t speak French, Trevelyan chose the hotel—one he knew about on the Rue de Rivoli—and our rooms opened together.” Billy chuckled. “I thought of that when I gave him the money. Made me feel extra sure about getting it back.”
“Do go straight along,” commanded Babbie. “If you don’t you’ll never get to the robbery part.”
“Oh, it wasn’t a robbery,” laughed Billy. “It was something much smoother. I’ll get to it in a minute. You know already about our going sightseeing yesterday and then coming here. Well, when we got home there was a note from Trevelyan’s missing sister.” Billy paused. “Come to think of it, I didn’t see that note. But if I had, it might have been faked just the same. Anyhow Trevelyan said there was a note from his sister to say that the countess was prostrated by the heat, and they’d had to hurry home right after lunch. That sounded perfectly reasonable. It was a beastly hot day, and of course if the countess was sick, somebody had to go home with her. The sister said also that she was beginning to be in a hurry to get into her own house, and Trevelyan said that if I didn’t mind he guessed we’d better do a little shopping this morning. It seems that his sister had ordered different things for the house put aside for his approval, and he was to go to the shops and look at them and have them sent out.” Billy paused reflectively. “Sounds reasonable enough, doesn’t it?”