Billie Bradley turned cold all over. To have brought Polly Haddon here—to have practically promised her a fortune—and then to find—nothing!
“Billie! They’re gone!” said a voice at her elbow, and she turned sharply to find Laura and Vi peering inquisitively over her shoulder.
“I know they’re gone,” she cried, almost sobbing in her rage and disappointment “Oh, girls, what, can we do? We can’t tell Mrs. Haddon——”
“What’s this you can’t tell me?” asked Polly Haddon herself, and Billie looked at the woman miserably.
“The model,” she said, her voice almost inaudible. “It was here yesterday, and now it’s gone.”
“Gone!” cried Miss Walters sharply. “How can that be? Is it possible that somebody else is in the habit of visiting this tower?”
But Mrs. Haddon pushed her aside.
“Do you mean that the model is gone—again—after bringing me here?” she cried wildly. “Oh, you could not be so cruel, you could not!” The last word caught in a sob, and Miss Walters put an arm about her compassionately.
“Listen to me a moment,” she said, in a gentle voice of authority. “If the girls are certain that the machinery and the blueprints were here as late as yesterday——”
“Oh, we are, we are!” cried Billie eagerly.