“Then let’s leave, Daddy. I’m ‘rarin’ to go’—because—well—because I have another reason now besides wanting to find Elsie!”
“You suspect somebody definitely?” he inquired.
“Yes. But don’t ask me whom—yet. Just let’s go.”
Still holding on to Elsie’s calico dress, Mary Louise led the way out of the house and around to the back yard of Dark Cedars. Here they found William complacently working in the garden, as if nothing had ever happened to disturb the peace at Miss Grant’s home. He looked up and smiled at Mary Louise.
“Elsie didn’t come back, did she, William?” asked the girl.
The old man shook his head. “Nope,” he replied.
“Any more chickens stolen?”
“Nope.”
“Well, we’re off to hunt Elsie—my father and I,” explained Mary Louise. “And, by the way, William, Miss Grant wants you to stop in to see her at the hospital.”
“I’ll do that,” agreed the man. “And good luck to ye!”