"Shall we go there now?" asked Violet as they closed the door softly behind them and started down the hall.
"We might as well," answered Billie, with a sigh. "The sooner I get it over with, the better I'll feel. But oh, that hundred dollars!"
"Never mind, we'll get it if we have to steal it," said Laura firmly, as they came out into the flower-sweet air.
"That would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire," remarked
Violet, at which the girls had to laugh.
As they swung out through the gate they met Mr. Heegan coming in, and he smiled at them from under his bushy brows.
"Did you get what you were after comin' for?" he asked them.
"Yes. And something we didn't come for," answered Billie, while the color flooded her face and she felt like a criminal. She smiled a wry little smile and displayed the newspaper package.
"Meanin'—" Mr. Heegan began, puzzled.
"I—I broke a statue that was on the bookcase," explained Billie. "We were skylarking—"
"And many's the time I've done the same in my day," said Mr. Heegan, with a nod, looking not nearly as shocked as the girls thought he would. "And sure, what are you made young for, if it wasn't that you was meant to be skylarkin' all the time?"