“Then Milt and I suggested that if the trip fell through, or the girls failed to earn their cars, that we should get the money. And you agreed.”
Again the old lady nodded, coldly.
“So the idea must have come to one of us to make that trip fail, and we let McDaniel and Cryton into the scheme, got all our details from Auntie, and proceeded to do everything in our power to keep the girls from winning.”
“But we won in the end!” retorted Marjorie, defiantly. “At least, we would have, if you hadn’t lied!”
“And just what was this plan of action?” asked Miss Vaughn, turning not to her nephews, but to McDaniel instead.
“What we wanted to do,” explained the latter, “was to delay the girls so they wouldn’t get here on time, or else in some way to trick them into accepting assistance from us. In other words, we meant to accomplish our plan without doing any harm to the girls, if possible.”
“That was kind of you,” remarked Lily, sarcastically.
“So we scattered the tacks that made the punctures, obtained an invitation for ourselves from Tom Melville at Lima and put forth every effort to make ourselves so interesting that you girls would forget all about time and stay over.”
“You tried to work that little stunt in Chicago, too, didn’t you?” asked Marjorie, shrewdly. “And when you sent us out on that muddy road, you weren’t surprised when we got stuck, were you?”
“No,” answered Cryton; “the thing that surprised us was your persistence. Would you believe it, Miss Vaughn, these girls not only turned us down, but a farmer with horses as well! Just because he was a man!”