CHAPTER XII
THE ALEXANDRA SAILS AWAY
Next morning Pen was late, for her, in getting down-stairs, and her father was before her. He had already been out-of-doors and had heard the startling news. He was pale with excitement, and his expression presented a comical mixture of elation and outraged parental authority.
"What is this?" he cried. "Counsell is caught? And caught by you!"
"That pleases you, doesn't it?" said Pen, in a quiet way very aggravating to an excited man.
"Pleases me?" he cried. "My daughter starting out at night on such an errand! Wandering around the woods with a gun! Pleases me!" He ended on a more human note. "You might have told me when you came in, instead of letting me learn it from strangers!"
"I was all in," said Pen simply. "I couldn't face the added excitement even of telling you."
"Um! Humph! Ha!" he snorted. "What will become of your reputation?"
"Mr. Riever didn't seemed to think it had suffered," Pen murmured slyly.
"Ha! ... Well, of course he wouldn't say so! ... I sha'n't be able to sleep quietly for thinking what might have happened!"