Katherine laughed at her fears. “I was only wondering if we hadn’t better take the path through the orchard. If we go down by the dwelling-houses we might meet him, of course, and it would be awkward getting rid of him if he has an ordinary amount of curiosity.”
“But that path is spooky dark,” objected Betty.
“Not so dark as the street behind the campus,” said Katherine decidedly, “and that’s the only alternative. Come on.”
When they had almost reached the back limit of the campus Katherine halted suddenly. Betty clutched her in terror. “Do you see any one?” she whispered. Katherine put an arm around her frightened little comrade. “Not a person,” she said reassuringly, “not even the ghost of my grandmother. I was just wondering, Betty, if you’d care to go ahead down to the landing and call, while I waited up by the road. Eleanor is such a proud thing; she’ll hate dreadfully to be caught in this fix, and I know she’d rather have you come to find her than me or both of us. But perhaps you’d rather not go ahead. It is pretty dark down there.”
Betty lifted her face from Katherine’s shoulder and looked at the black darkness that was the road and the river bank, and below it to the pond that glistened here and there where the starlight fell on its cloak of mist.
“Of course,” said Katherine after a moment’s silence, “we can keep together just as well as not, as far as I am concerned. I only thought that perhaps, since this was your plan and you are so fond of Eleanor–oh well, I just thought you might like to have the fun of rescuing her,” finished Katherine desperately.
“Do you mean for me to go ahead and call, and if Eleanor answers not to say anything to her about your having come?”
“Yes.”
“Then how would you get home?”