“I’m afraid he did, honey,” Miss Imogene said, shaking her head disconsolately so that her curls quivered delicately. “Poor Larry! He’ll have to go back to that place of torture, and he won’t last long from the looks of him.”
“But we must do something,” Dorothea insisted vehemently. “There must be something we can do. We must think. Why didn’t Mr. Tracy take him at once instead of going back to his own room? Perhaps he’s giving us a chance to get the poor fellow away.”
Miss Imogene shook her head.
“No, he wouldn’t do that, my dear,” she answered. “But he knows that a man who can’t cross the hall without the help of two females to keep him from falling, isn’t going to run far.”
“Then let us warn Mr. Stanchfield and he can go out on the roof again and hide,” Dorothea suggested. “It’s been searched, you know.”
“They would find him,” Miss Imogene said. “No, there is only one thing we can do. I’m going to appeal to Val himself to parole the lad in my care until he is stronger. I’ll promise to turn him over some time. That’s our best chance now.”
She did not wait to consider the matter further but ran into the hall and knocked at Tracy’s door. Dorothea, watching, saw her stand a moment listening, then knock again and, receiving no response, open the door and look into the room. Then she hurried back.
“He’s not there, honey,” she whispered. “In that second we were talking he must have gone to lay an information.”
“Perhaps Lieutenant Tracy wasn’t there at all,” Dorothea whispered, hopefully. “It might have been a breath of air that closed the door, mightn’t it?”
“That’s possible,” Miss Imogene agreed, and paused a moment in deep thought. “At any rate, honey, we must act as if no one knew what we had been doing. I shall make it my business to find out if Val does know. Come, we must go down now. I’ve no doubt we’ve been missed already, so I shall say we’ve been having a little talk together. Don’t lose your courage, dear. After all we’re not sure Val saw us. Come!”