“I found one of your gloves in the bushes by those steps that lead down from the hut.”
“O, Donald! To think that you should find it! I tossed it there on purpose, but knew that the men would take it away if they found it. I was terribly stupid and dazed by my fall, but I had sense enough to think of that. I dropped a handkerchief, too, in another place, but it did not occur to me while I was in the woods. I was just thinking about finding my way out.”
“We didn’t find the handkerchief. They must have seen it and picked it up. We got them just as they were rowing off.”
“The hydroplane did not get there in time, then Captain Holley gave orders for it to go after them. They were removing bombs and things, chemicals and everything.”
“Holley! Was he the fellow that brought you here?”
“Yes. But if he hadn’t been there they would have killed me, I guess. One of the men said, ‘She has seen too much. Throw her in the lake!’”
Donald clenched his fist. “The scoundrel! He is in jail by this time.”
“Did they get Captain Holley?”
“No. He and that ‘scientific farmer’ of Greycliff’s got away. We really had no proof that any one at White Wings was concerned in this till one of the two fellows we arrested said something by mistake. I suppose they thought that the whole affair was discovered and did not take any chances. Some of the neighbors on the farms around here have been suspicious of these people, not in any definite way, though. You ought to have heard all the talk last night and this morning. Several of us were detailed to help look for you. We were to arrest Holley, or Von Holle.”
Betty rapidly outlined what had happened the night before, while Donald possessed himself of one of her hands and held it firmly, living through the events of the night before with Betty. This was a little distracting, but Betty was so thankful for Donald’s protection that it only seemed natural, nor did she have any doubts as to Donald’s state of mind toward her. She even told him word for word of the strange proposal, but was not quite prepared for the way in which Donald took it. Placing her hand back upon her lap, Donald sprang to his feet and walked across the floor and back.