“You say ‘she,’—how do you know that it isn’t ‘he’?”
“I don’t know it, I just think it.”
Nell asked nothing more but sat on a box by the low window, to watch like the sister of Bluebeard’s wife. Jannet tried to poke the key, which was on the outside, and force it out, but with no success. Then she shook the door and called. “The trouble is,” said she, “if Paulina hears a racket in the attic, she will think it the ghost, and Hepsy and Vittoria sleep over in the new part. But there is no use in calling or going into hysterics over it. If the one who locked us in is here, very naturally she wants us to stay.” Jannet thought of burglars, but did not mention that theory. It was bad enough for Nell as it was. She had heard the family car drive off some time before.
Jannet worked at the key, trying to force it out. She found a bit of wire and she used the smaller keys; but when one became wedged in so tightly that she had difficulty in getting it out again, she gave it up.
Nell did her best to be cheerful, but Jannet could see that it was an effort. She took Nell’s place at the window and they ate what cookies and fudge were left and drank lemonade with less than their customary flow of conversation. It was, indeed, a gloomy prospect, that of spending the night in the attic.
CHAPTER XVI
A STRANGE NIGHT
The girls had one sharp disappointment. They heard a few sounds below and called. Presently they saw a man walking from the back of the house and carrying two pails. Jannet called, and Nell, looking out over Jannet’s shoulder, called also, almost in a panic for fear that they would not be heard.
“It’s the man bringing the milk for morning,” Jannet explained. “I had forgotten him. O Mr. Hoppel! Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo!”
Nell added to the pathos by shrieking “Help! Help!” She increased the fervor of her cries as the man kept right on, not even turning. Jannet learned afterwards that Mr. Hoppel was “as deaf as a post,” but they did not know that at this time. Jannet had not yet brought herself to the point of crying “help,” and felt that she was giving the enemy opportunity to rejoice over her by calling at all. But Nell thought that it was no time for pride.
“Suppose there’s a fire,” Nell suggested.