"Oh, maybe it's that queer lame boy," suggested Ted.
"Don't let him get away until you talk to him," cautioned Mother Martin. "I'd like to know who he is."
"Whoever is there doesn't seem to be going to run away," remarked the Curlytops' father. "They're stamping the snow off their feet as if they intended to come in."
"Oh, I wonder if it could be them?" said Mrs. Martin questioningly.
"Who, Mother? Who do you think it is?" asked Jan, but her mother did not answer. She stood in the hall while her husband went to the door. Outside could be heard the voices of people talking.
Then the door was opened by Mr. Martin, letting in a cloud of snowflakes and a blast of cold air that made the Curlytops shiver in the warm house.
"Well, here we are!" cried a jolly voice.
"Sort of a surprise!" some one else added; a woman's voice Jan decided. The other was a man's.
"Well, how in the world did you get here at this time of night?" asked Daddy Martin in surprise. "Come right in out of the storm. We're glad to see you! Come in and get warm. It's quite a storm, isn't it?"
"Yes. And it's going to be worse," the man's voice said. "It's going to be a regular blizzard, I imagine."