Aunt Elinor got on the line long enough to hear my voice. She sounded rather shaky when she said, “I feel better after hearing your voice, Leona dear.”
“I’ll see you in the morning, Auntie. Don’t worry.” And that was the end of that.
And this was the end of this. I’d been gone much more than an hour and my General was having forty fits by this time.
—2—
Several hours elapsed and my little adventure ceased to be interesting; even though I talked to Auntie by phone again it didn’t make me feel any brighter. Somehow or other, I felt damned pessimistic. I wished I had kept my bright idea to myself, instead of getting into this nerve-racking mess. Leon should have been there by this time, but he wasn’t, and no one knew where he was. Auntie said he left before three o’clock and had chains on the car, and he surely should be able to make it in six hours, even in a snowstorm.
Auntie was on the verge of hysterics, I guess. “What can you do? What can you do?” she kept asking.
“Why, I can’t do anything unless and until he gets here,” I told her. “What do you expect me to do, go out hunting for him?” It struck me that probably he had headed in the opposite direction. I suppose I really shouldn’t say such rotten things about my brother, but I just couldn’t help thinking things, knowing him as I did.
And then Auntie said something that gave me more to worry about. “Leon couldn’t find Esky anywhere,” she declared weakly. “We haven’t seen him since last night.”
I supposed the poor pup stayed out all night and would probably be down with distemper when I got home. Of course, no one would think of looking for him!
Auntie was enough to give anyone the willies when she got excited. “But, Leona, you must do something! What if Leon has an accident and can’t get there this evening? What will you do?”