Mary Louise shrugged her shoulders.
“They don’t like her, Mother—and consequently she doesn’t trust them.”
“Do you like her?” inquired Mrs. Gay.
“No, I don’t. But in a way I feel sorry for her.”
Mary Louise followed her mother into the dining room and for the next fifteen minutes gave herself up to the enjoyment of the lovely lunch of dainty sandwiches and refreshing iced tea which her mother had so carefully prepared. It was not until she had finished that she began her story of the robbery at Dark Cedars and of her own and Jane’s part in the partial recovery of the money. She made no mention, however, of the bandit who had tried to hold them up, or of the queer disturbances at night at Dark Cedars. She concluded with the old lady’s request that they—Mary Louise and Jane—stay with Elsie and watch her.
Mrs. Gay looked a little doubtful.
“I don’t know, dear,” she said. “Something might happen. Still, if Mrs. Patterson is willing to let Jane go, I suppose I will say yes.”
Fifteen minutes later Mary Louise whistled for her chum and put the proposition up to her.
Jane shivered.
“I’m not going to stay in that spooky old place!” she protested. “Not after what happened there last night.”