CHAPTER IX
OUT OF TUNE
With a murmured “excuse me,” Ruth arose from where she had been sitting near Luke, and started into the house.
“Maybe it’s the police telephoning they have captured the two men!” cried Agnes, who was as much given to looking for excitement, on certain occasions, as was Sammy Pinkney.
“It couldn’t be,” commented Luke. “The police didn’t know the men were wanted. And, as a matter of fact, I don’t see that we can make any charges against them.”
“Didn’t they break into your cellar?” asked Hal, who had not heard all the particulars, or else had forgotten some of them.
“No, they didn’t break in,” remarked Agnes. “In fact, they went there on invitation, you might say.”
“Invitation!” cried Nally. “You don’t mean to say you invited them in?”
“I believe that’s what it is called in law,” went on Agnes. She had an idea she was going to study law some day. “Ruth saw the men going into our cellar and she did not forbid them. In fact, she actually told them to enter—at least, a lawyer would call it that. It’s a sort of invitation by inference where you don’t forbid a person to enter.”
“Well, I never would have let them go in if I hadn’t thought they were from the water department,” said Ruth, who had come back to the porch in time to hear the latter part of this talk.
“Which they weren’t,” remarked Neale. “I found out that much!”