“Then I shan’t need any fancy clothes—like dance dresses?” Jane’s tone held a faint note of disappointment. She loved outdoor sports, but she was equally fond of parties.
“You better take a couple along,” replied the other girl. “Across the river from Shady Nook there’s a big modern hotel where we often go for dinners and dances. Everybody wears their best clothes there. But most of the time we eat at Flicks’ Inn. It’s just a bigger bungalow, where they have a dining room for the Shady Nook people and a few boarders. Very nice and informal.”
Jane jumped up and started down the steps, across the lawn that separated the Gays’ house from the Pattersons’.
“I must go tell Mother all about it,” she explained, “and begin to get my clothing ready. What time do we start?”
“Seven o’clock tomorrow morning. Rain or shine.”
Left alone, Mary Louise opened the screen door and went into her own house. Her father, with his suitcase on the floor beside him, was saying good-bye to her mother and to his young son Joseph, whom everybody called “Freckles.”
Mr. Gay put his hand upon his daughter’s shoulder and said to his wife:
“I am counting on Mary Louise to take care of you, dear. After the way she mastered that situation at Dark Cedars, I feel that she is capable of almost anything. Far above and beyond most girls of sixteen!”
“She is!” agreed Mrs. Gay proudly. “But I am not expecting any trouble at Shady Nook. I’m more worried about what may happen to you before you catch those criminals!”
“I’ll be all right,” her husband assured her. “Wire for me if you need me—and I’ll come back by airplane.”