“Oh, everything, of course. It’ll be all in the papers to-morrow—trust Mike O’Malley for that! But it can’t worry our folks now, because it’s all over.”
Ralph and Jim arrived at the same time, and almost fell over each other in their wild rush to the girls.
“Where have you been, Linda?” Ralph demanded, as if he were a father speaking to a disobedient child. “Bert Keen’s and Tom Hulbert’s planes both came back ages ago. What made the ‘Ladybug’ so slow?”
“We were rescuing Helen,” she replied, with a nod towards the girl beside her. “And being rescued ourselves!”
“Rescued! Linda, why don’t you let me go with you when you’re planning something dangerous, instead of always taking another girl?”
“I didn’t know it was going to be dangerous, Ralph,” she apologized. “But I’ll tell you all about it when we get home, because Aunt Emily will want to hear it, too.”
And recount it she did to every last detail, even including the improvised ghost in the tower, to the consternation of Ralph and her Aunt Emily, when, fifteen minutes later, they were seated on the porch of the Carltons’ summer home.
“It’s a miracle that you came out alive!” exclaimed Miss Carlton, incredulously, when Linda had finished the story. “If Mike O’Malley and that brother of his hadn’t just happened along——”
“They didn’t happen along, Aunt Emily,” Linda insisted. “Mike had promised to help us!”
“Why is it that some outsider like O’Malley or Ted Mackay always has to be the one to protect you,” muttered Ralph, “when I’d be only too glad——”