CHAPTER XVIII
Return
Both Mr. and Mrs. Gay looked up disconsolately as the green car approached. Suddenly their expressions of listlessness changed to incredulity—then to rapture. Mary Louise was home!
In another second the girl had flown up the steps and was hugging both parents at once. Mrs. Gay could only gasp in her happiness. It was Mr. Gay who asked his daughter whether she was unhurt and unharmed.
“I’m fine!” returned Mary Louise joyfully. “And, oh, so happy!”
“Darling!” murmured her mother, her voice choked with emotion.
“Now praise these wonderful boys,” insisted the girl. “My rescuers.”
Max and Norman tried to look modest and to wave aside their accomplishment with a gesture. But Mr. Gay seized their hands in a fervor of gratitude.
“I can’t find words to tell you what it means to us!” he said. “You two boys have succeeded where four professional detectives failed. It’s—it’s marvelous.”
“Oh, it wasn’t anything at all, except persistence on our part,” explained Max. “The real credit goes to Mary Lou. It was a swell idea she had.”
“What idea?” demanded Mr. Gay.