CHAPTER VI
A NEW SORT OF A PARTY
For some days after this meeting mysterious bundles were brought into the Gordon home. To pass Billy, or Danny, or some of the other boys, with a knobby package whose contents were well kept from view by thick paper and a well-knotted string, was such fun. Jimmy offered to carry one for Nan one afternoon when she was coming from Leigh’s, but Nan said that it was “fragile” and that she could trust it to no one. “Of course, he wanted to feel of it and see if he could tell what it was.”
Whether the boys had a real club room or not they did not know. Nor did they know how long the Black Wizards had been in existence. “Curiosity killed the cat,” was all that Jimmy would say when Nan asked him where the Wizards met, after informing him first, that the S. P.’s were planning to have all their meetings at Jean’s, their business meetings, at least. The girls carefully noted all the boys that wore the snake pin, and put their names down. This was to make the number of girls fairly even, when they gave their party of celebration.
Although there were no other children at Judge Gordon’s beside the lively Jean herself, the club room was kept locked and it leaked out among the boys that the judge was having a number of keys made, “I’d like to get into their club room,” said Danny Pierce to Billy, “and see what they have there. What can girls do? If any of those girls lose a key, O boy!”
Billy Baxter took great delight in repeating Danny’s last sentence to Jean, who passed it on to the rest of the girls, creating quite a stir, as Billy had intended. “Would they dare?” asked Molly, in horror.
“No,” said Jean, “but they might climb up and peep in. I’d better keep the curtains together, though we’ll have to have the windows on the balcony open part of the time.”
“Unless they’re human flies, they can’t climb up,” said Leigh, looking out of the front window.
“There’s that oak tree,” Jean reminded her. “Wouldn’t it be funny if they planned to do it, and then we invited them?”
“Yes, but we are not sure that we’ll let any one into the inner sanctum.”
Every possible moment of the week was spent either on the attic floor itself or in sewing draperies or annexing ornaments in the various homes of the S. P.’s. It was not until Friday afternoon that the committee visited Miss Haynes, screwing up their courage to do something that turned out very pleasantly, as things dreaded often do.