‘But isn’t it all right?’ cried Barbara, looking distressed. ‘Peter said it was to save her from an awful fate––’
‘That’s all very well,’ returned Kit; ‘but the game isn’t worth it, and that’s what I told them. You see, the Doctor’s coming after tea to-day, to fetch Jill and take her over the new infirmary he’s so keen about, because Jill is nuts on nursing and all that, don’t you know. Well, Peter overheard them talking about it yesterday and Auntie Anna said at breakfast that she’d come home from her drive in time to go too, if she could. But we all knew that she wouldn’t get back in time, most likely; and besides, the Doctor meant business from the look of him, Peter said, so he’d be dead certain to come early enough to go off with Jill alone. Trust him! That was jolly dangerous, you see, because the chap is going away to-morrow, and it’s their last chance of being together.’
‘Why is that dangerous?’ asked Barbara, trying hard to follow his bewildering tale.
‘Oh, well, if he’s ever going to ask her to marry him, or any of that rot, he must be going to do it to-day,’ explained Kit, with a certain contempt in his voice. ‘Anyhow, what we’ve been trying to do all the holidays is to save Jill from the Doctor; so naturally we were rather upset when Peter brought us the news. But I said I’d have nothing to do with locking any one up, ’specially Jill; so they said I could make myself scarce, and I did.’
‘Oh, Kit!’ exclaimed Barbara, opening her eyes, ‘do you think Jill is in that horrible dark barn all this time?’
Kit sprang to his feet and made for the door. ‘I’ll go and see if I can find those idiots,’ he said, but an exclamation from the sofa made him look back. Babs was clapping her hands wildly, and her face had suddenly reddened with excitement.
‘It’s all right, Kit. It’s beautiful,’ she was crying joyfully. ‘Don’t stop them, Kit; don’t help her to escape, whatever you do. Leave her alone till the prince comes. Don’t you see he’ll be able to break the spell at last!’
Kit did not see at all. Indeed, he looked rather alarmed, and came back into the room. ‘Look here, Babe, you’re not going to get excited again, or anything like that, are you?’ he asked her, nervously.
Barbara set his mind at rest by laughing merrily. ‘You silly old Kit, of course I’m not!’ she said. ‘I never felt so jolly in my life!’
Christopher sped away, reassured, and Barbara lay back on her cushions and waited impatiently for the sound of the Doctor’s gig. She did not have to wait long, and she waved her hand gaily in answer to the flourish of his whip with which he greeted her as he drove up to the door.