“We’d report you if you didn’t,” replied a good-natured woman with gray hair. “These girls must get home as quickly as possible. It’s not safe for them to be out on a lonely road like this at night.”
“Oh, thank you so much!” exclaimed Mary Louise, smiling radiantly at the kind woman. “It’s so good of you to help us out.”
The door closed; the girls waved good-bye to the attendant, and the bus started. Mary Louise gazed dismally at her watch.
“Even now we’ll be an hour late,” she remarked. “We promised our mothers we’d be home by half-past nine!”
“Girls your age shouldn’t go lonely places after dark,” observed the motherly woman. “Let this be a lesson to you!”
“Oh, it will be, we assure you!” Jane told her. “One experience like this is enough for us.”
The bus rumbled on for twenty minutes or so and finally deposited the girls in Riverside, half a block from their homes.
“Still have the money?” whispered Jane, as they ran the short distance to their gates.
“Yes, I can feel the wad here. I was so afraid somebody in the bus would notice it. But having Silky in my lap helped.”
“It seems we have company,” remarked Jane, recognizing a familiar roadster parked in front of their houses.